The Monster Hunter series has always been something that existed in my periphery. Those are games that share a lot of their mechanics, systems and general vibe with many of my favourite games. But they always felt out of reach; it never made sense to meet them where they are. I care a lot about game presentation, and Monster Hunter games have traditionally been locked to handheld consoles.
I don’t play Nintendo games, so the chance of me getting one of the company’s handhelds is practically zero, and I certainly wasn’t going to get one to play a monster hunting game that runs at 30fps and, well, looks like this. You can call me shallow all you want, but I demand a certain level of graphical fidelity and fluidity in the games I play. Blame growing up with PCs, I suppose.
And so, everytime a Monster Hunter game comes out, I get the same people telling me to bite the bullet and buy a used 3DS and just try out any Monster Hunter for a day. My answer was always no.