Just curious cause I may buy it

When I played it the online was great, just make sure you have a usb keyboard to plug into the wii.

Word of warning though: This game requires a shit ton time to get anything out of it, so be prepared.

k thanks

I spent a lot of time with this recently and discovered a few things about the online service. It is still very populated and full of like minded individuals, people that just need to beef up their HR. Since there is no loot fighting, ninja-ing or grinding, questing is advantageous for everyone to participate and to do their best. The only thing you really need to do is make sure that you are stacked with potions, whetstones and be sure not to die.

Personally, I didn't have a keyboard hooked up at the time and can't use Wii Speak (it keeps the wife up), so I was at the mercy of the quick response words that are already prepared in the game. The way it seems to work online is that you go into a populated server, start your own populated city with the "Everyone Welcome". You will be in your own city by yourself for a little bit, but it seems that people are at the ready and jump into your game as soon as possible to help out. I have had a ton of people help me out online that didn't say a word. I would go up to the bulletin board, place a quest and let them help me out. The frustration comes from the quests that are exclusive due to your Hunter Rank (HR). Having higher level dudes helps, but when you are proactively looking for cities to join (which takes up more time in my opinion), you want to make sure that you are in the same HR bracket or it makes things pretty difficult.

Hope you pick it up and happy hunting.