Sometimes, as a gamer, when you sit down to play a video game you don’t quite feel like playing a game with a long enticing story. You don’t want to sit through a long drawn out plot, nor do you want to play a platformer or puzzle game. You just want to play something where you can fight something powerful, and can be awarded for doing so. You could even play it with friends if you wanted to. This is where Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate comes in. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is a game in the long running series known simply as Monster Hunter. As the name implies, your goal in this game will be to hunt monsters, either by killing them in combat or by capturing them with traps after weakening them. To do this how ever, you need some form of weapon; something to take down these massive monsters you will be tangoing with. Luckily for you, there are 14 different weapon types you can choose from. However, some weapons are more effective than others depending on the situation. As stated before, there are 14 weapons you can choose from, each with their own more powerful iterations and upgrades.

You have the Great Sword, meant to be a slow but powerful weapon, the Long Sword that as the name implies is a lengthy sword with great reach. You have the Sword and Shield combo, which is used as a fast hitting quick weapon with a shield to block you from some attacks, the Dual Blades which are even faster than the Sword and Shield but you have no opportunity to block with them. The hammer, meant to be used to deal heavy attacks to the enemy and stun them. The Hunting Horn used both as a weapon and a way to buff your teammates. The Lance, which allows you to have good reach with a large shield and be tanky. The Gunlance, which is similar to the Lance except you shoot shellings rather than attack directly with the Lance. The Charge Blade, which can switch between a Sword and Shield and an Axe with long reach, the Insect Glaive which uses a bug called the Kinsect to gather buffs off of monster to power yourself up with and also allows the player to vault into the air to more easily get a mount on a monster, which all weapons can do but they need a cliff or something to vault off of to do so. Then you have the 3 ranged weapons, the light and heavy Bowgun, which are similar in attack style which consists of shooting a monster with bullets, but one is lighter and more mobile, while the other does more damage. And finally, you have the bow, which is a mobile ranged weapon that does not require ammo, but used coatings on its arrows to do special effects. Depending on which weapon you choose will change how you function in combat and in gameplay in general. Some weapons such as the Hunting Horn and Bowguns are better used in multiplayer due to their supportive attributes. The main focus of combat is to deal as much damage as possible without sustaining much yourself, and there are many strategies depending on what monster you are fighting and what weapon you have equipped. As a matter of fact, each weapon usually has an extensive guide online on how to use it effectively and you will usually want to look at that before heading into combat. Once your mission has started you either need to take down the monster, capture it, or repel it in certain situations. If you faint 3 times, you will fail the mission and have to start over from the beginning. Once a monster is defeated, you will get some parts of it that you can use to craft new weapons and armor to make yourself stronger. For the most part MH4U is a smooth playing game, with minor hiccups along the way. From time to time things will happen however that will sour your experience. Things such as a monster riding a wall, infinite combos, and quickly attacking monsters can ruin your day. Thankfully however, this doesn’t occur too often, with these problems only appearing twice each for me personally over the 65 hours I have sunk into this game so far. However, you do need to keep in mind that this is a game with a very steep learning curve, and you will have a hard time if you don’t know how to play correctly. There is a lot more to the game than I have stated, but to go into more depth would take a very long time, as each weapon themselves can be written up into a review because of how complex they are. All in all, MH4U is a fun, but somewhat repetitive game. It has its flaws, but the good outweighs the bad. You will find yourself having fun for hours on end slaying monsters on your quest to become the very best monster hunter yourself. Good luck, and have fun!