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Your best average Lance user.
Your best average Lance user.
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This is definitely the best Monster Hunter in the franchise, its not my favorite, but undeniably the best.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate has very few shortcomings, some of them are related to small quality of life things, most related to gathering, which was improved on Generations, and since these are things that exist on the franchise until that point, is not worth that much pointing out.
The story is well built, I didn’t find myself wanting to skip dialogue, and it ties in with the game’s progression extremely well, speaking of which…
MH4U’s progression is absolutely the best compared to every other MH title I played, all of them coming after this one. Starting with few tutorial quests to teach you not to die, a few small monsters, and all large monsters from there onwards, with the frenzied mechanic eventually introduced to keep the monster fights fresh. Hub quests not staying behind due to a good variety of Subspecies like Brute Tigrex and Stygian Zinogre, and topping on G Rank with even more cool Subspecies like Shrouded Nerscylla and Desert Seltas Queen, and progressively harder challenges even after the final Elder Dragon quest.
Monsters are incredibly aggressive, but have a reasonable amount of health to pair with the weapons overall high damage, making single player quests very short and forgiving, and Hub quests quite solo-friendly, a good challange for 2-3 players, and generally easy with a full party.
Endgame quests peaking due to incredibly high damage output from the monsters, but since their health is kept at a fixed amount independent of player count, solo damage is still high, just asking of you a lot of knowledge and preparation for the target, and on full party, though they will certainly deal sufficient damage faster, the game will ask the same knowledge from the hunters on a higher regard since failing the quest can be easier with multiple people carting.
This is something good that’s completely ignored in the New World with its adjustable difficulty based on player count, and counteracted in certain quests on Generations where monsters have massive health pools. Monster Hunter 4 manages to still have difficult quests on a full party without health scaling, preventing late game challenges from feeling like damage sponges, something that MHGU G Rank Hyper monsters and a lot of Iceborne content fails to achieve.
This constant variety and incresingly higher difficulty, with some possible walls but nothing that spikes the difficulty in an unreasonable manner, makes this game an absolute pleasure to play through, none of the subsequent Monster Hunter games reached this level of finesse with its progression.
Weapons are also handled exceptionally well, due to the added verticallity to maps, weapons have aerial attacks that build up to the mounting minigame that, although it may feel a bit overpowered at times, with the Insect Glaive being overwhelmingly good at that, it is a very short minigame, that does get difficult to perform on certain monsters, and gives a great reward for executing it successfully in the form of the monster being toppled, and some breathing time for your party members for them to disengage and recover before dishing out damage. Letting Gravios not play is always the correct option, and mounting makes it easier.
Equipment progression is very visible on weapons, since they will visually evolve after a couple upgrade stages, and even morph completely for some Subspecies, giving quite a tangible reward for repeatedly hunting the same monsters. The only setback in terms of equipment is having a Kinsect bound to a single Insect Glaive, making it a obscenely expensive weapon if you’re planning to have multiple Glaives, since you’ll have to level a Kinsect from scratch every single time.
Material gathering gets progressively easier because of the existence of item multiplication through the Wycoon and Maximeld, and the former’s points shop for certain items. The game will not require unreasonable amounts of materials from start to end… except for Earth Crystals for Worn and Rusted weapons, 100~120 for each is VERY unreasonable.
Expeditions are a miss feature for me, it isn’t bad, it is pretty well made, and is the tool to unlock certain monsters on G Rank, plus is useful for gathering certain materials, such as Kinsect upgrade items, but it wasn’t for me, much like MHW expeditions failed to catch me. The strongest gear in the game is locked on the highest level quests of this feature, but since I do not care for them, I simply ignored its existence for a long time, and the game does not enforce you to interact with it and lets you easily progress without it, which is great.
Aside from gathering problems and general lack of QoL features introduced in MHGU, the only major problem MH4U has is… the fact that it is abandoned on the 3DS. A rerelease on modern platforms with MHGU QoL changes would easily make this THE ULTIMATE MONSTER HUNTER game. Please Capcom, free MH4U from the 3DS.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate gets really close to be quite the perfect video game, it is almost unreal the job Capcom made with this one, and, as is already proven, reaching its highs is getting to be an extremely difficult task for the games released after. The team missed really hard with Worldborne despite its success, I pray for Wilds to deliver a modern experience that matches MH4U's greatness.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate has very few shortcomings, some of them are related to small quality of life things, most related to gathering, which was improved on Generations, and since these are things that exist on the franchise until that point, is not worth that much pointing out.
The story is well built, I didn’t find myself wanting to skip dialogue, and it ties in with the game’s progression extremely well, speaking of which…
MH4U’s progression is absolutely the best compared to every other MH title I played, all of them coming after this one. Starting with few tutorial quests to teach you not to die, a few small monsters, and all large monsters from there onwards, with the frenzied mechanic eventually introduced to keep the monster fights fresh. Hub quests not staying behind due to a good variety of Subspecies like Brute Tigrex and Stygian Zinogre, and topping on G Rank with even more cool Subspecies like Shrouded Nerscylla and Desert Seltas Queen, and progressively harder challenges even after the final Elder Dragon quest.
Monsters are incredibly aggressive, but have a reasonable amount of health to pair with the weapons overall high damage, making single player quests very short and forgiving, and Hub quests quite solo-friendly, a good challange for 2-3 players, and generally easy with a full party.
Endgame quests peaking due to incredibly high damage output from the monsters, but since their health is kept at a fixed amount independent of player count, solo damage is still high, just asking of you a lot of knowledge and preparation for the target, and on full party, though they will certainly deal sufficient damage faster, the game will ask the same knowledge from the hunters on a higher regard since failing the quest can be easier with multiple people carting.
This is something good that’s completely ignored in the New World with its adjustable difficulty based on player count, and counteracted in certain quests on Generations where monsters have massive health pools. Monster Hunter 4 manages to still have difficult quests on a full party without health scaling, preventing late game challenges from feeling like damage sponges, something that MHGU G Rank Hyper monsters and a lot of Iceborne content fails to achieve.
This constant variety and incresingly higher difficulty, with some possible walls but nothing that spikes the difficulty in an unreasonable manner, makes this game an absolute pleasure to play through, none of the subsequent Monster Hunter games reached this level of finesse with its progression.
Weapons are also handled exceptionally well, due to the added verticallity to maps, weapons have aerial attacks that build up to the mounting minigame that, although it may feel a bit overpowered at times, with the Insect Glaive being overwhelmingly good at that, it is a very short minigame, that does get difficult to perform on certain monsters, and gives a great reward for executing it successfully in the form of the monster being toppled, and some breathing time for your party members for them to disengage and recover before dishing out damage. Letting Gravios not play is always the correct option, and mounting makes it easier.
Equipment progression is very visible on weapons, since they will visually evolve after a couple upgrade stages, and even morph completely for some Subspecies, giving quite a tangible reward for repeatedly hunting the same monsters. The only setback in terms of equipment is having a Kinsect bound to a single Insect Glaive, making it a obscenely expensive weapon if you’re planning to have multiple Glaives, since you’ll have to level a Kinsect from scratch every single time.
Material gathering gets progressively easier because of the existence of item multiplication through the Wycoon and Maximeld, and the former’s points shop for certain items. The game will not require unreasonable amounts of materials from start to end… except for Earth Crystals for Worn and Rusted weapons, 100~120 for each is VERY unreasonable.
Expeditions are a miss feature for me, it isn’t bad, it is pretty well made, and is the tool to unlock certain monsters on G Rank, plus is useful for gathering certain materials, such as Kinsect upgrade items, but it wasn’t for me, much like MHW expeditions failed to catch me. The strongest gear in the game is locked on the highest level quests of this feature, but since I do not care for them, I simply ignored its existence for a long time, and the game does not enforce you to interact with it and lets you easily progress without it, which is great.
Aside from gathering problems and general lack of QoL features introduced in MHGU, the only major problem MH4U has is… the fact that it is abandoned on the 3DS. A rerelease on modern platforms with MHGU QoL changes would easily make this THE ULTIMATE MONSTER HUNTER game. Please Capcom, free MH4U from the 3DS.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate gets really close to be quite the perfect video game, it is almost unreal the job Capcom made with this one, and, as is already proven, reaching its highs is getting to be an extremely difficult task for the games released after. The team missed really hard with Worldborne despite its success, I pray for Wilds to deliver a modern experience that matches MH4U's greatness.
This game, despite all of its absurd flaws, is still my favorite on the franchise.
A visually solid game, very colorful, with great new designs for the main cast, and the new cast of enemies on the part of the Demons, and everything else stands at the same level of the previous game, a visually nice sequel.
The story is simple and has a nice main goal while expands some points presented in the first game, while the villain is quite forgettable, everything else makes up for it.
Unfortunately, the gameplay wasn't a simple direct upgrade. The movesets are expanded, giving more access to Wicked Weaves, which is great. The weapons behave in more unique ways, namely, Salamandra and Takemikazuchi.
But the magic meter's design got absolutely screwed, it is not a reward for performing well anymore, while it retains the previous games options for its usage, it also gives the horrendous Umbran Climax, that just gives you temporary access to a overpowered state mimicking the game's Climax Brace, it's just a worse carbon copy of DMC's Devil Trigger.
And the game's overuse of Witch Time for humanoid boss fights is annoying on Hard difficulty and absolutely frustrating on Infinite Climax, Balder somehow being the absolute exception in all cases, all Aesir/Loptr fights and Alraune's first phase are way beyond the tolerable level of frustration that comes from fighting them on Infinite Climax without the usage of items, since these bosses will just dodge and parry most of your attacks outside of Witch Time, Alraune even constantly dodging Wicked Weaves, making these fights extremely repetitive. And there are times the game can be just evil with its difficulty, Chapter 9 holding this crown.
Despite that, it is a game that made me want to get much better since I wasn't getting frustrated with silly QTEs that the first game heavily leaned upon, and this makes the main stages of Bayonetta 2 much more replayable for me, and, by consequence, my favorite game even with its questionable decisions.
It is a great game to be played once or twice on the difficulties below Infinite Climax, and the only game on the franchise that I replayed six times over the course of almost a decade.
A visually solid game, very colorful, with great new designs for the main cast, and the new cast of enemies on the part of the Demons, and everything else stands at the same level of the previous game, a visually nice sequel.
The story is simple and has a nice main goal while expands some points presented in the first game, while the villain is quite forgettable, everything else makes up for it.
Unfortunately, the gameplay wasn't a simple direct upgrade. The movesets are expanded, giving more access to Wicked Weaves, which is great. The weapons behave in more unique ways, namely, Salamandra and Takemikazuchi.
But the magic meter's design got absolutely screwed, it is not a reward for performing well anymore, while it retains the previous games options for its usage, it also gives the horrendous Umbran Climax, that just gives you temporary access to a overpowered state mimicking the game's Climax Brace, it's just a worse carbon copy of DMC's Devil Trigger.
And the game's overuse of Witch Time for humanoid boss fights is annoying on Hard difficulty and absolutely frustrating on Infinite Climax, Balder somehow being the absolute exception in all cases, all Aesir/Loptr fights and Alraune's first phase are way beyond the tolerable level of frustration that comes from fighting them on Infinite Climax without the usage of items, since these bosses will just dodge and parry most of your attacks outside of Witch Time, Alraune even constantly dodging Wicked Weaves, making these fights extremely repetitive. And there are times the game can be just evil with its difficulty, Chapter 9 holding this crown.
Despite that, it is a game that made me want to get much better since I wasn't getting frustrated with silly QTEs that the first game heavily leaned upon, and this makes the main stages of Bayonetta 2 much more replayable for me, and, by consequence, my favorite game even with its questionable decisions.
It is a great game to be played once or twice on the difficulties below Infinite Climax, and the only game on the franchise that I replayed six times over the course of almost a decade.
This review contains spoilers
After a second playthrough, free from all the initial hype, and after replaying Bayonetta 2 once again, this game has some really underwhelming traits.
The weapons are great, but the dissolution of pairs into unique singular sets, while still good by design, that coupled with the changed progression method through splitting the currencies and aquired moves between weapons made Bayonetta just feel like Devil May Cry, which isn't a bad thing from a technical point of view, but it deters the uniqueness the franchise had build for itself with the previous systems, in which you had more freedom on how you play with the weapons, and more valuable resources that were very tied to your performance, since everything was centered on Halos.
-- Spoilers for the story begins here --
The Story is idiotic at best, Viola was rushed in and had no time to develop well, the villain manages to be worse than Aesir, and what in the actual hell did they do with Jeanne? Getting almost killed at the start of the game for the B2 throwback feels cheap. And getting actually killed by the end in the most unbelievably nonsensical way makes me believe the writers of this game absolutely hated Jeanne. Luka being promoted to a super powerful being felt unnecessary since Rodin already exists, and burned his role as a middle ground between a common person perspective Enzo provides, and the almighty point of view belonging to the other members of the cast. Calling past Bayonettas at the end, with their respective movesets and UI was a nice fanservice bit at the end of all things.
-- Spoilers for the story end here --
I'm nowhere near being an overly critical person with narrative, since I'm not the most perceptive individual for these things, but this game went below and beyond my lowest expectations.
The last negative points of this game is that the Homunculi aren't really as memorable as the Angels and Demons of previous games, I wish there were more verses with old enemies. The main story can be quite tedious to go through on a replay due to the many gimmicks the stages have, which I previously said to be short and tolerable, but are really a nuisance when you just want to engage with the core gameplay.
Putting the Lock-on on a obligatory trigger instead of the previous games hold really messes up with targeting and camera controls, having the option to choose either would be for the best, but that isn't the reality we live in.
On the bright side, this game is unbelievably well animated, seeing Bayonetta really dancing while holding the attack buttons instead of just keeping a almost static pose is really, really nice to watch, and elevates the power she provides to the player by literally dancing in front of the enemies without even straight up taunting.
The weapons are quite varied and fun to use, with the added bonus of having an extra attack button compared to previous games, with unique gunshots, movement and effectiveness to each of them.
The summons are a fun addition, they don't really bother with visibility since the camera readjusts to their presence, and do make nice additions to both offense and defense, a very nice substitute to the underwhelming Umbran Climax.
While I still prefer Bayonetta 2 due to the less gimmicky main story, Bayonetta 3 is a great game, a game with extreme positive and negative traits, but a pleasant experience overall.
The weapons are great, but the dissolution of pairs into unique singular sets, while still good by design, that coupled with the changed progression method through splitting the currencies and aquired moves between weapons made Bayonetta just feel like Devil May Cry, which isn't a bad thing from a technical point of view, but it deters the uniqueness the franchise had build for itself with the previous systems, in which you had more freedom on how you play with the weapons, and more valuable resources that were very tied to your performance, since everything was centered on Halos.
-- Spoilers for the story begins here --
The Story is idiotic at best, Viola was rushed in and had no time to develop well, the villain manages to be worse than Aesir, and what in the actual hell did they do with Jeanne? Getting almost killed at the start of the game for the B2 throwback feels cheap. And getting actually killed by the end in the most unbelievably nonsensical way makes me believe the writers of this game absolutely hated Jeanne. Luka being promoted to a super powerful being felt unnecessary since Rodin already exists, and burned his role as a middle ground between a common person perspective Enzo provides, and the almighty point of view belonging to the other members of the cast. Calling past Bayonettas at the end, with their respective movesets and UI was a nice fanservice bit at the end of all things.
-- Spoilers for the story end here --
I'm nowhere near being an overly critical person with narrative, since I'm not the most perceptive individual for these things, but this game went below and beyond my lowest expectations.
The last negative points of this game is that the Homunculi aren't really as memorable as the Angels and Demons of previous games, I wish there were more verses with old enemies. The main story can be quite tedious to go through on a replay due to the many gimmicks the stages have, which I previously said to be short and tolerable, but are really a nuisance when you just want to engage with the core gameplay.
Putting the Lock-on on a obligatory trigger instead of the previous games hold really messes up with targeting and camera controls, having the option to choose either would be for the best, but that isn't the reality we live in.
On the bright side, this game is unbelievably well animated, seeing Bayonetta really dancing while holding the attack buttons instead of just keeping a almost static pose is really, really nice to watch, and elevates the power she provides to the player by literally dancing in front of the enemies without even straight up taunting.
The weapons are quite varied and fun to use, with the added bonus of having an extra attack button compared to previous games, with unique gunshots, movement and effectiveness to each of them.
The summons are a fun addition, they don't really bother with visibility since the camera readjusts to their presence, and do make nice additions to both offense and defense, a very nice substitute to the underwhelming Umbran Climax.
While I still prefer Bayonetta 2 due to the less gimmicky main story, Bayonetta 3 is a great game, a game with extreme positive and negative traits, but a pleasant experience overall.