Recent reviews by PhennaMYA

EDIT: Having reached the end of the available content in the game, this game feels even more unfinished than MH Rise was at launch. It's just, way too easy to blow through fights in this game, and the drop rates on most items are so generous that you quickly run out of reasons to fight monsters. Even the most difficult monsters available in the game are at best comparable to moderately difficult fights in previous titles. The lack of variety in monsters and the general increase in power level of player equipment means the feeling of progression stops really quickly, and fights are much faster than previous games as well. Tempered monsters are just refights of existing monsters, and it's not uncommon to see 2-4 copies of the same monster in an area at one time. I would recommend not picking up the game until they release a DLC for G/Master rank, or there's been at least a year of updates for the game, as the game feels both extremely unfinished and short, in progression and in new fights.

Original Review Follows
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A great game buried under miles of technical issues and a 20-hour tutorial in the form of a mostly single-player story in a cooperative multiplayer game.

You need to have a pretty impressive computer or a high tolerance for janky graphical and technical issues, in addition to a willingness to get over how muted and flavorless the art direction feels at times. The experience of using menus and coordinating parties is also somehow even more confusing and complicated than previous MH titles, which is bizarre given that MH Rise/Sunbreak was a positive step in simplifying menus and lobbies. The map and navigating it is also confusing due to the sheer scale of the map and the dozens and dozens of icons littering it.

If you have the patience to run the gamut of AAA-nonsense in the form of repeated and prolonged sequences of walking while characters talk, cutscenes, and the game not really opening up to you fully until the story is complete, then it's one of the best monhun games ever released. The combat is an improvement over previous games. The story is a step forward even if I think it shouldn't be the focus of the early game, and the ability to walk freely between areas while not questing is a first for the series.

The positive recommendation assumes that you liked and played monhun world, which this functions as a direct sequel to, or that you are new to the series and are willing to let the massive technical issues slide. If the technical issues are resolved by the devs or fan-patched by mods, then the recommendation becomes a complete one, as the story is less of an obstacle once the initial wave of activity from the release dies down and more players can play at their own pace.

I have never been more blown away by a game quite like this. It brings back so many things that feel like they've been missing from games for ages. It's still very obviously a work in progress, with numerous dead ends, but the gameplay and combat are so good that I just keep making new characters. It's a great social game too, with wonderful music and chill vibes for grinding or chatting with friends, and the character creation is surprisingly flexible for how simple it is. It's a testament to the attention to detail and effort put into designing an excellent game. This game clearly comes from a place of experience and passion.

I really and truly hope that this game and its dev have the opportunity for a long and healthy life, and that it can inspire others to make something this fun and expressive.

it's like castlevania but smol and with very neat combat.

it's excellent and extremely intuitive for sprites and small-scale art. really easy to work with, though a little awkward for some niche things. excels at animation

Can't recommend this until the co op is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ working. If your excuse is that you're busy working on infinite, then drop infinite.

collect cute demon waifus and read their cute dialogue and look at their cute art. short, pretty easy game. slightly janky setup but easily played with a keyboard. i want more of the cute girls please support this game and it's cute girls, buy the artbook.

Don't waste your time on this rollercoaster, play a game that respects your time.

this game is exhausting, this game is emotional, this game will rip you apart and leave you to put yourself back together. i don't fully understand this game, but any game that can provide such a visceral experience while also being fun to play deserves to be seen and played by everyone.

Played this game on:
i5 6600k (16GB RAM)
RX 480 8GB
an SSD

@1080p 50-60fps

THE GOOD:
Game runs well enough once volumetric settings are turned off
Game looks pretty enough to justify running "well enough"
Much faster pace than previous monster hunter games, even considering the massive introductory sequence of cutscenes and tutorial. Most "filler" missions between giant monster hunts are relegated to optional quests you can do while your friends are complete story quests.
Controls are much smoother and more "action game" than previous monhun games, makes sequences like XL elder dragons much more fun to fight.
Scout fly system is an improvement over paintballing. Convenient, simple to work with, and doesn't completely trivialize tracking the monster (you still have to do the initial tracking to find the monster the first few times). I can understand how some people might feel scout flies cheapen the experience but I'd rather not try to track monsters over maps as large as MHW's when i could barely find them in time in older games.
As a gunlance player the new combat system feels a bit simplified but also much more intuitive. A list of commands and combos would still be appreciated tho.
Very user friendly upgrading system that refunds your materials if you don't want the weapon and would rather put those materials into a different weapon tree.
Huge amounts of quality of life changes compared to previous games, like being able to accept new quests on an expedition, fast travel, or being able to eat while away from the home city.
Tutorials having mini videos in them is also quite great.

THE GREAT:
EXPLOSIONS
BIG MONSTERS
MEOWSCULAR CHEF
STUPID FRIENDS
ARM WRESTLING
SSD LOAD TIMES
very capcom
there's a reason i've played this nearly 12 hours on day one.

THE BAD:
Even if the huge intro sequence is shorter than previous games slog of slow early quests, it's still a huge intro sequence that's far too hand-holdy and "cinematic" for my tastes.
The game still runs comparatively like ♥♥♥♥ on lower specced PCs, especially from a few years ago, and is riddled with minor bugs.
The online system isn't really any less clunky than previous monhun games and prone to frequent disconnects, presumably due to high load on day one.
Navigating the maps can get a bit disorienting due to their size and verticality, meaning sometimes a new player can get kinda lost and miss out on the hunt.
The glowing green scoutfly effect on objects isn't pretty and kinda creates an "OOH SHINY" mentality where it's easy to get distracted by random unimportant objects in the enviornment. I don't need to have every latchberry, slashberry, and needleberry bush highlighted when I'm not wielding a bowgun.
The slinger feels kinda underutilized in gameplay for how frequently the hunter uses it in cutscenes.
The characters and story are as mediocre and forgettable as any other monhun game, with a few exceptions like the chef.
A lot of systems in the game are explained through text boxes and help windows very early and not really introduced naturally or organically, so it's disorienting and hard to place what some of these systems are if you don't recognize similar systems from previous games.
A lot of graphics settings are unclear as to what they do and the lack of an FPS counter makes filtering out the graphics settings you like much more trial and error than it needs to be.

THE TERRIBLE:
HANDLER GIRL A ♥♥♥♥
the amount of IT support requests i'm getting from people i built PCs for because of this game
a lot of the character faces are kinda really pushing into uncanny valley, especially in the character creation at the start.
CAN'T PLAY A PALICO
HATE HANDLER GIRL.

TLDR:
this game is like if you took lost planet 2 and then made it melee combat, that's what it feels like and it's glorious. if you haven't played lost planet 2 the ♥♥♥♥ are you doing.

THISSSSSSSS.

Hour and a half setting up my PS3 controller with it.
Thirty minutes learning the controls.

SO MUCH FUN. Bombastic and crazy and animu, but fun.