where I marked this as completed: after beating thunder serpent narwa. I'm past chameleos at the point of writing this review, and I'll absolutely be continuing on from here
+the big focus here from my perspective is improving the speed of quests, and by all means the developers succeeded here. your new palamute companions significantly increase travel speed, and between-round tasks like sharpening and eating can be performed while riding them. I like this change quite a bit, it keeps everything moving along at a brisk pace when in an actual hunt
+maps are now designed with a dual philosophy in mind: streamlining hunts while also encouraging exploration. the maps here are much like the segmented maps from older titles (with sandy plains and flooded forest being lifted straight out of 3rd gen), with the intermediary sections where barriers used to be now being fully traversable. while you'll stick to the normal pathways on a hunt, when exploring or gathering the maps reveal a density to their design that isn't anywhere near as overwhelming as mhw
+I'm really glad they brought back the feudal japanese designs from portable 3rd here... in fact, this game is a bit of a reimagining of portable 3rd in a way. the returning monster selection is dominated by monsters featured in that game, and like I mentioned maps from that game reappear here as well. it's a nice set of designs to return to, esp since that game is over a decade old by this point
+the other returning monster selection is mainly those who appeared in mhw and mhwi, some of which have become significantly more interesting or dangerous (tobi-kadachi for example). other monsters like basarios, khezu, and mizutsune are perfect additions, esp mizutsune who afaik was a new addition to yukumo village in generations.... its so fun to fight here
+finally the new monsters are excellent fights, each and every one. it seems like this team likes fights that use lots of interesting projectile patterns or other unusual attacks, like magnamalo's exploding mist and spinning piledriver. without question these are some of the most dynamic and interesting fights I've played in the series thus far
+being able to use the village quests to progress in hunter rank is a sorely needed change, esp with the return of separate village and hub quests. the license tests are a smart way to allow solo hunters to skip low rank, and that final license test with magnamalo, zinogre, and rathalos was extremely satisfying to conquer
+multiplayer overall has become very easy with this game thanks to join requests and public/private lobbies. being able to start a quest with join requests enabled is certainly less clunky then immediately plopping down an SOS request once the quest starts
+the farm stuff is still pretty sparse like it was in mhw, but they brought back palico expeditions which is a neat little addition. it's nice to pick up random parts for monsters this way without having to grind
+I much prefer the dango canteen and the spiribirds here to the canteen in mhw. I'd much rather get a flat +50 health/stam increase rather than selecting ingredients, and being able to explore a bit to up stats further is a nice way to encourage not running from point A to point B. you also retain your stat buffs after carting, which is much appreciated
+performance on switch is astounding to say the least. the last new title I played on switch was age of calamity, which had noticable framerate issues, and xenoblade chronicles DE wasn't exactly a technical showpiece either. this game runs at a smooth framerate with gorgeous graphics that, while definitely not "next gen", are still a worthy showcase for the switch's ability
+I haven't dived into any weapons beyond LS and GL here but the switchable abilities are quite nice here. the wirebug abilites are well-designed and I feel pushed to learn their strengths, and there are other "switch skills" unlocked in high rank as well
-because hunts have been sped up, I feel like there's some classic mh bits that I see extremely rarely now, such as monsters sleeping or limping away. part of this is because your palico lets you know when you can capture a bit before any indicator actually pops up, but there's still been hunts where I didn't capture and the death seemed to come out of nowhere
-rampage quests are solid overall (I prefer them to the older artillery fights) but they are not balanced for single player in the slightest... I solo'd a fair bit of high rank but I did not even bother trying for the mandatory rampages
-the control in this game is very clunky at points, as if the game is dropping inputs. I obv don't know the exact cause but it's almost like the input buffer is not active during certain times. this is esp annoying for me as a GL player, as if I begin holding the guard button too early after using an item or getting hit, I'll have to unpress and rehold to get it to actually take. I notice this a lot with dismounting the palamutes as well, and oh my god does it happen a lot with the radial menu.
-minor thing but as far as I can tell the game doesn't indicate when a monster is a gold, silver, or mini crown anymore. it lets you know if you've encountered a largest or smallest monster, but there's no way to see after a hunt if it was a particular crown unless you check your hunter's notes afterwards
-traversal is pretty janky at times with the wirebugs. wallrunning is stiff (sort of to be expected), and I would much rather the game let the character drop once the stamina runs out rather than automatically jumping. not an issue during the hunts tho, just when exploring
-the apex monsters are neat but you have to play rather far into the game to actually unlock their solo quests, especially for ratholos/diablos/zinogre which don't unlock until after valstrax, which itself isn't unlocked until HR 100
couldn't resist picking this up after playing world and oh my god have I been unable to stop playing it. this to me is a properly modernized monster hunter, with the hunts themselves streamlined significantly and extra care taken to include new and interesting combat mechanics. there's an argument to be made that the series has been made somewhat soulless with these changes to the formula, but personally I think they've more than made up for it with the sheer variety of interesting combos, builds, monsters, and mechanics here. there's also been a steady stream of content (thankfully I started after a nice amount of content had already been added) so I'm sure I'll stay with this game quite some time, if only to mow through hunts with friends.
+the big focus here from my perspective is improving the speed of quests, and by all means the developers succeeded here. your new palamute companions significantly increase travel speed, and between-round tasks like sharpening and eating can be performed while riding them. I like this change quite a bit, it keeps everything moving along at a brisk pace when in an actual hunt
+maps are now designed with a dual philosophy in mind: streamlining hunts while also encouraging exploration. the maps here are much like the segmented maps from older titles (with sandy plains and flooded forest being lifted straight out of 3rd gen), with the intermediary sections where barriers used to be now being fully traversable. while you'll stick to the normal pathways on a hunt, when exploring or gathering the maps reveal a density to their design that isn't anywhere near as overwhelming as mhw
+I'm really glad they brought back the feudal japanese designs from portable 3rd here... in fact, this game is a bit of a reimagining of portable 3rd in a way. the returning monster selection is dominated by monsters featured in that game, and like I mentioned maps from that game reappear here as well. it's a nice set of designs to return to, esp since that game is over a decade old by this point
+the other returning monster selection is mainly those who appeared in mhw and mhwi, some of which have become significantly more interesting or dangerous (tobi-kadachi for example). other monsters like basarios, khezu, and mizutsune are perfect additions, esp mizutsune who afaik was a new addition to yukumo village in generations.... its so fun to fight here
+finally the new monsters are excellent fights, each and every one. it seems like this team likes fights that use lots of interesting projectile patterns or other unusual attacks, like magnamalo's exploding mist and spinning piledriver. without question these are some of the most dynamic and interesting fights I've played in the series thus far
+being able to use the village quests to progress in hunter rank is a sorely needed change, esp with the return of separate village and hub quests. the license tests are a smart way to allow solo hunters to skip low rank, and that final license test with magnamalo, zinogre, and rathalos was extremely satisfying to conquer
+multiplayer overall has become very easy with this game thanks to join requests and public/private lobbies. being able to start a quest with join requests enabled is certainly less clunky then immediately plopping down an SOS request once the quest starts
+the farm stuff is still pretty sparse like it was in mhw, but they brought back palico expeditions which is a neat little addition. it's nice to pick up random parts for monsters this way without having to grind
+I much prefer the dango canteen and the spiribirds here to the canteen in mhw. I'd much rather get a flat +50 health/stam increase rather than selecting ingredients, and being able to explore a bit to up stats further is a nice way to encourage not running from point A to point B. you also retain your stat buffs after carting, which is much appreciated
+performance on switch is astounding to say the least. the last new title I played on switch was age of calamity, which had noticable framerate issues, and xenoblade chronicles DE wasn't exactly a technical showpiece either. this game runs at a smooth framerate with gorgeous graphics that, while definitely not "next gen", are still a worthy showcase for the switch's ability
+I haven't dived into any weapons beyond LS and GL here but the switchable abilities are quite nice here. the wirebug abilites are well-designed and I feel pushed to learn their strengths, and there are other "switch skills" unlocked in high rank as well
-because hunts have been sped up, I feel like there's some classic mh bits that I see extremely rarely now, such as monsters sleeping or limping away. part of this is because your palico lets you know when you can capture a bit before any indicator actually pops up, but there's still been hunts where I didn't capture and the death seemed to come out of nowhere
-rampage quests are solid overall (I prefer them to the older artillery fights) but they are not balanced for single player in the slightest... I solo'd a fair bit of high rank but I did not even bother trying for the mandatory rampages
-the control in this game is very clunky at points, as if the game is dropping inputs. I obv don't know the exact cause but it's almost like the input buffer is not active during certain times. this is esp annoying for me as a GL player, as if I begin holding the guard button too early after using an item or getting hit, I'll have to unpress and rehold to get it to actually take. I notice this a lot with dismounting the palamutes as well, and oh my god does it happen a lot with the radial menu.
-minor thing but as far as I can tell the game doesn't indicate when a monster is a gold, silver, or mini crown anymore. it lets you know if you've encountered a largest or smallest monster, but there's no way to see after a hunt if it was a particular crown unless you check your hunter's notes afterwards
-traversal is pretty janky at times with the wirebugs. wallrunning is stiff (sort of to be expected), and I would much rather the game let the character drop once the stamina runs out rather than automatically jumping. not an issue during the hunts tho, just when exploring
-the apex monsters are neat but you have to play rather far into the game to actually unlock their solo quests, especially for ratholos/diablos/zinogre which don't unlock until after valstrax, which itself isn't unlocked until HR 100
couldn't resist picking this up after playing world and oh my god have I been unable to stop playing it. this to me is a properly modernized monster hunter, with the hunts themselves streamlined significantly and extra care taken to include new and interesting combat mechanics. there's an argument to be made that the series has been made somewhat soulless with these changes to the formula, but personally I think they've more than made up for it with the sheer variety of interesting combos, builds, monsters, and mechanics here. there's also been a steady stream of content (thankfully I started after a nice amount of content had already been added) so I'm sure I'll stay with this game quite some time, if only to mow through hunts with friends.