I had the chance to play for about an hour last night. Killed a few monsters and tried out the Charge Blade and Insect Glaive. I think it is fantastic, runs smooth as butter, auto-ledge jumping is convenient... Charge Blade might be my weapon of choice but I just can't get myself away from Hammers. How is everyone else feeling about it? Is the hype real?

Yeah, I know, I know. It says "Beginner" but I am holding a baby at the same time.

So far, so good! I am yet to try out the online multiplayer, but I am digging the way it plays and looks. The ability to climb and jump is a welcome addition. I tried out a ranged weapon class (I forget which one exactly), and it kept making me wonder if it would be better with the C-stick on the New 3DS? I found it difficult to do the quick aim while moving with the touch screen.

I feel like the hype is real. :D

I really enjoyed the changes to movement, it feels a lot faster to get around especially since I'm used to a greatsword. Being able to jump off ledges onto monsters and attack on the way down feels really cool. Wasn't able to get the flagship monster down in the time limit, not sure if it's meant to be ultra difficult or I'm just terrible.

I tried the insect glaive first thing when I booted it up, didn't care for it at first but I think I had some control issues that I eventually sorted out (had to invert the x and y for the digital d-pad to work properly for me). Tried bow and said, "I don't know about this, maybe I won't be picking this game up." Than tried dual blades and now I can't wait for it to get released.

I've since sorted my control problems with bow, though, and its fantastic. I think it might be the strongest bow has been yet (or I played it exceptionally better than I usually do).

@brettchalupa : There is a setting in the options in game to change aim style from type 2 to type 1 (at least, it defaulted to type 2 for me) that lets you enter aim with right trigger, x to shoot, and use the normal d-pad to look around. I dunno if that was your issue or not, but thats what did the trick for getting a good ranged set-up for me. Generally using the digital d-pad to aim as a ranged character is poor because of how much stuff ends up being used on the right side of the 3ds.

I played the demo on the easiest difficulty with all the n00b friendly bells and whistles using the double sword things. It seems really cool and super in depth - so much so I dunno if I could give the time this game requires.

Also, the frame rate was surprisingly solid!

I gave the Charge Blade a shot against the 2nd quest, and it was really interesting. It seemed powerful, and I liked the ability to switch between two weapons. I did not fully understand the charging and phial aspects of it though. Can anyone explain how that works? Does it just need to be charged when the phial shots run out or something?

Also, in my anticipation for MH4U, I just bought MH3U for the 3DS to prepare!

That helped a bunch, thank you!

man that DS looks puny in your hand.

The hype is real. I'm really into just about everything about it. I think I'm really into the new weapons and I'm finding myself suddenly able to use weapons which I thought were too hard to learn in 3U, which I blame on the weapon tutorials. Haven't tried using bows or anything yet which was the real head scratcher for me previously.

One thing I did see last night about multiplayer though; those premade chat phrases aren't translated into whatever language you set. So if you're an English speaker thrown in with a French rando, unless one of you understands the others language you're pretty much screwed as far as communication goes. But then again, I doubt you'd be able to formulate a complex strategy out of "I'm laying a trap" and "I'm going to mount it".

The way I understand it, you use sword and shield to build charges, then you switch to axe to expend them, then you have to switch back to sword and shield and load a new set of phials (with R+A if I remember correctly) before you can start building charge again. Charged Blade is pretty cool cause you got the benefits of going sword and shield, but then have like a serious time, go all out attack form you can switch to when the time is right. Also the armor looks rad.

Looks like an OG 3DS, but yeah it does.

My only complaint is that I wish I could mount the monsters at will, like in Dragon's Dogma.

The insect glaive(?) was totally bonkers because you can manually jump anytime you want to, which made it a little easier to mount monsters. I can't wait for the game to come out!

It was a lot more fun than I was expecting. I LOVE the new Insect class thing, and just how the game feels more flexible.

I kind of want to buy it but I'm afraid it'll be a repeat of Monster Hunter 3, which I played for like 100 hours then just got totally bored of it and never played it again. I guess we'll see how money is, otherwise Majora's Mask takes priority.

@geraltitude: It's an original aqua 3DS and I am about 6'3". My hands are bigger than most.

I fucking love it, but can't get it on release. This is the year of 2015 and with so many amazing games coming out i gotta save my money and prioritize sadly :(

Tomorrow, I am going to hop into multiplayer. Fought a handful of times with different weapons. I bought the MH4U bundle and I don't regret it in the slightest. I might do late game shooting weapons, haven't done that before and they work great in MH4U.

Man I am so hyped for this game! I've been playing the demo for hours just fooling around with the new weapons and seeing the new stuff added to the old ones. Charge blade is insanely fun to use, I think I'm going to main it when the full game comes out.

I played some more yesterday and today, and fuuuuuuuuuck I wish money wasn't so tight so I can get this day one. The Charge Blade is the most beast thing ever, and I'm still loving the Insect Glaive.

The online is pretty great too, but the ID number thing is kind of annoying. Guessing that's just for private matches though.

Crap I missed the demo, I'll prob wait for it to come out before buying then. I haven't played a Monster Hunter since psp days