I love me the Monster Huntering. I’d place it as one of my favorite game franchises/ridiculous time sinks. Top ten, easily.

It is such a timesink, though, that you spend so much time hunting the same monsters over and over again to craft weapons and armor (the repetition is something I enjoy; learning a monster’s tells and growing stronger against it), that when you face the same monsters from game to game, it can get a little… I’m not sure which word I’m looking for here… not dull, or boring, but… routine?

I know that sounds odd as I just said I enjoy the grind of the game. But at the same time, the Royal Ludroth has lost all of its mystery by the five millionth time you’ve had to hunt one at the beginning of a new game, for your one-star hunt requirements.

I don’t mind it in enough of a way that I’d actually wish it was changed… it does help provide the Monster Hunter world some level of continuity from game to game, when everything else such as your region and home base changes. And they do add some new “signature” monsters to each game to mix things up, or pallette-swap an old beastie and call it something else. Like it used to do poison attacks, but now it spits lightning! Whoa!

It’s just hard not to notice in a game series where 200+ hours played per iteration are an average, and wish that somehow there was a way for each new version of Monster Hunter to recognize perhaps I don’t need to have food bonuses or the Guild Counter explained to me in depth.