Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS) Review

Two years after the original Monster Hunter 4 in Japan and a few months after Monster Hunter 4G in Japan Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was released in North America. Unfortunately for many North American gamers, finding a copy of this game physically meant waiting even longer thanks to a strike at docks on the west coast. This review will judge the game on its own merits.

 

(Check out this blog’s review of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for a basic overview of how Monster Hunter’s gameplay works)

 

The gameplay of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, as has always generally been true for the Monster Hunter series, focuses on changes in gameplay. The main gimmick of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is the added verticality that was mostly non existent in previous Monster Hunter games. Hunters can climb much more quickly and now jump off ledges when they sprint past them. When in the air, hunters can use arial moves that allow them to mount monsters after they have been damaged enough in this way, which is barely at all in this game. Mounting monsters involves essentially a QTE section where the player mashes the attack button to make the monster fall over while not letting the monster shake them off using roars and by shaking (both of which can be defended against by holding the monster with the R or by using the correct strength Earplugs for roars). This is balanced in multiplayer by making flinching the monster cause the player to fall off of the monster, meaning that other players can’t be doing damage to the monster during a mount or the hunter that is mounting the monster will fall off and the monster won’t be knocked over. Although this verticality gimmick doesn’t particularly hurt the game thanks to it being heavily deemphasized in the endgame, it wasn’t a wise addition to the Monster Hunter series. Verticality makes the game less about fighting the monster and more about trying to lead the monster to a spot where verticality mechanics can be abused. The mostly unchanged returning monsters weren’t designed with this in mind and it shows. Overall this main gimmick of the game didn’t pan out particularly well for this game’s quality or for the future of the series but it didn’t do enough damage to hurt the game significantly.

 

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate also introduces two new weapons. Both are well designed, besides how they arguably don’t fit well with the much older returning weapons that are much more basic. One of these weapons also has a unique method of being upgraded that is much more complicated than it should be. Overall they are both good additions to the game besides one of them being a bit overpowered and the other promoting a bad playstyle that hurts the entire team in multiplayer. 

 

Monster Hunter 4 and 4 Ultimate by extension also introduce many new monsters. Some of these monsters are easily some of the best the series has to offer and should be brought to newer titles (though some of the story circumstances surrounding them may make this unfortunately unlikely). Others rely too heavily on the verticality gimmick and are not particularly interesting to fight. Thankfully the most important endgame monsters are all the best designed monsters. Overall the monster roster is easily one of the best in the series even despite many glaring omissions from the previous generation and the inclusion of too many monsters from early Monster Hunter games that are much less interesting to fight.

 

This review can go on for a very long time about all of the changes and unique gimmicks in this gimmick but it is safe to say that besides verticality they are basically all well implemented and will make this Monster Hunter game stand out for the rest of the series’ life. Guild quests and expeditions could have been used better explanations though, which is basically the story of Monster Hunter series. The much requested village quest mode improvements are more than passable and make this game have a much stronger mainstream appeal. Despite this the game’s mechanics are still nowhere near to being explained as well as they should be. Players are guaranteed to need some form of outside help to understand the game to the fullest extent. Thankfully the 3DS makes getting outside help while playing much more convenient than a home console would, but Capcom doesn’t have a good excuse for doing such a poor job at conveying their game’s mechanics.

 

The sound in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is a bit above average. There are many above average songs from the series’ past and a few good new songs too, but overall the soundtrack doesn’t stand out compared to the soundtracks of many other game series. Sound effects are about what one expects with a few amusing exceptions. Overall this obviously isn’t a major focus for the development team but it is still a more than passable attempt.

 

Technically Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate isn’t much of an evolution for its series but it is still rather impressive for a 3DS game. Basically everything aspect of the presentation is impressive for a 3DS game. The only thing that stands out as not looking particularly good is the human models and some of the geometry in some areas, which is often obviously a sacrifice made due to the size of those areas. New 3DS hardware is also supported well with enhanced textures and a higher average framerate (especially online, which is finally available solely through the 3DS). Overall Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is an extremely well crafted 3DS game that outshines even the work of some developers that are much closer to Nintendo than Capcom.

 

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was the series’ strongest attempt at a story at the time of its release. Although it is nothing spectacular it is still a passable motivating force. Some of the writing can be especially entertaining but in general skipping all of the dialogue won’t hurt the player’s experience. Overall Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate doesn’t have quite the quality of story that many argue it should but it is still a reasonable attempt and is far from a detracting force on the games overall quality.

 

In terms of value Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is without question worth it. The amount of content is astounding and replay value is extremely high. Even a beginner’s run through the base Monster Hunter 4 story would justify the game’s price, and there is obviously much more beyond that, including a second story of about the same length and quality. This is an easy contender for best Monster Hunter and 3DS game.

 

Overall the reviewer would give the game a 9.5 out of 10.

 

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