Hey all, I know this is a very broad question, but I figured maybe I could find what I'm looking for here.

I have zero experience with the Monster Hunter series whatsoever apart from reading some articles and maybe seeing some quick looks. However, the concept of a longer term, single\multiplayer rpg for PS4 really appeals to me right now. The series is notorious for being difficult too get into and obtuse, so I guess I'm wondering if this game is actually what I'm looking for? The stuff I'm reading online mostly talks about how it is different from other games in the series, but as an outsider I'm still not really sure what the game is. Any opinions from those in the beta or those with experience with the series that could maybe point to how this game is for newcomers\what to expect?

Thanks! And sorry again for how general the question is!

I've been wondering the same thing myself. Also have zero experience with the series. I wouldn't mind something Souls-y that is more focused on precise, challenging combat instead of story, but I don't know if that's exactly what this is. Looking forward to seeing what folks have to say.

They've been getting better about making it easier to get into, and there are plenty if resources available to help you. I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you've ever played a Souls game you just have to accept that there is going to be a similar learning curve. You will have to put in some time to really understand certain mechanics, but the payoff is rewarding.

The Monster Hunter cycle is all about preparation and payoff. If you put in some extra time preparing for a hunt you will have a better chance of beating tougher monsters. As you beat tougher monsters ideally you feel accomplished and earn crafting materials to make better gear with. Then you repeat with even tougher monsters, or you go back and fight previous monsters to feel just how far you've progressed. If that sounds appealing to you in a single player or multi player environment, go for it.

I've only played Monster Hunter Tri (Wii) and Monster Hunter 3 ultimate. So I'm DEFINITELY a newbie. My perspective might be useful for other newbies.

After on-and-off play for a few years, I'm still trying to figure out how to even play the game successfully. It's not that the loop of the game is particularly complex... but the menus, controls, and systems are extremely obtuse. Even after a few years I have trouble remembering buttons (and whole systems) whenever I get back into the game.

The maps are awful, inventory management is a chore, with its grids and boxes and pouches and chests. These annoying quirks of the UI seem more a product of accumulated habit than anything. That I continue to play despite these issues, and despite making any meaningful chips into the loop of the game, is a testament to the engaging nature of the "puzzle box" that is Monster Hunter, though I'm assured by experts that the actual progression loop, once you find it, is also compelling.

Combat frequently feels impotent. One of the hallmarks of the series if the inability to (meaningfully) lock on to your enemies. You have to adjust your character so they're facing the right enemy, and you will frequently miss. For me, this makes combat a little too twitchy for my tastes. I'm very curious about MHW, and the sacrifices and improvements it makes to a series I've always wanted to enjoy.

There is a free beta going on right now that you can simply download from the PS store. I suggest giving it a try to get the basic idea, although it is missing key features, like the crafting.

From what I've seen of the game so far, it definitely seems like the most beginner friendly it has ever been, so if you're interested now is the time. It will have a learning curve no matter what though, so you'll have to be willing to invest that time to learn its intricacies.

I also have zero experience in regards to the Monster Hunter series. I will be checking out the beta that's going on this week. I think you should do that. Just download it form the Playstation store on your PS4. I figure this is going to be the best way to test it out to see if its something I would like and I'm guessing it'll be that way for a lot of people.

Well, I'm definitely a veteran. Been playing since the 2nd generation of games (Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP), five games in total, over 1,000 hours between all of them. So I guess I'll give this question a shot, see if I can communicate what the game is all about and why you might or might not like it. Apologies if it's a bit all over the place.

These days the constant starting comparison you see is to Dark Souls. It's actually not a great comparison in a lot of ways, particularly since Monster Hunter has never had much of a story, nor is it an exploration/lore game. Here's what the two have in common, and why they get compared so often: they're both tough 3rd-person action games with a high skill ceiling, and they both have complex, deliberately paced (read: slow) combat. Not molasses or anything, but this isn't a super-fast twitchy action game. Part of this is that for some of the slower weapons, when you commit to a hit, you can't just cancel out of the animation super quickly if you discover you've made a mistake. That makes combat more tactical, because you can't just heedlessly attack a monster and then expect to be able to dodge a big hit from it when you're locked into an offensive animation. You have to actually look for openings and fight intelligently, or you're going to get worked.

At its core, the Monster Hunter games are basically boss rush games. The whole loop, as you've probably heard, is to kill a big monster, use the parts you get from killing said big monster to craft better equipment that will allow you to take on a more powerful monster. Rinse, repeat. Of course, it tends to not be quite as straightforward as it sounds. Different monsters have different elemental weakness, and/or might be better fought with a different weapon than whatever your main happens to be, and/or more or less require some specialized equipment. As a new player, eventually you're going to run into a monster that's a wall, that you just can't seem to beat, that will force you to either git gud or change your strategy. There is no concept of leveling in these games. The only things that change are your equipment and your skill... which includes your knowledge of each monster's behavior and weaknesses.

Let's take a basic example. Rathalos is usually considered to be a pretty tough monster when you first encounter him. He's a big red dragon who flies around constantly while shooting fireballs at you; you're using a melee weapon and can't even figure out how to hit him while he's flying around like that. Meanwhile you're getting one-shotted by his fireballs, and just aren't sure what to do. Well, there's a couple things you could do. First, you can make sure to be using a weapon with an element that he's weak to so that you're doing the most damage you possibly can (which is this case would be lightning or dragon element). OK, go and kill some monster that will let you craft a lightning weapon from its hide. Taking too much damage? Craft armor with some better armor rating, and maybe has some good fire resistance for that fireball that's been one-shotting you. As for the flying thing, you can handle that in a couple of ways. First, you can throw flash bombs in his face when he's in the air, which will cause him to be blinded, and he'll tumble to ground where you can smack him around for a while. Seriously, you don't want to melee Rathalos without flash bombs, but as a new hunter you may not even know flash bombs exist. Or you can skip melee entirely and pick a ranged weapon (or the Insect Glaive, which is melee, but specializes in flipping around through the air). At that point Rathalos' flight doesn't matter so much. Meanwhile, you'll also need to figure out his tells; is he about to swoop down and poison you with his claws, or shoot a fireball? The animations will tell you if you know what to look for.

In short, it's a game about preparation and knowing your enemy, having the right equipment and right knowledge to get the job done. The monsters all behave very differently, so strategies that work for one might not work for another, but there are always multiple viable approaches. A lot of that comes down to the game's 14 weapons, which are so different that switching from one to another can feel like switching to an entirely different game. Fighting a monster with the Bow feels nothing like fighting the same monster with a Hammer. The Dual Blades are nothing like the Greatsword. Hell, even the Lance and Gunlance aren't nearly as alike as you might think they are. When you get bored with one weapon, go pick up another one; suddenly you have to approach each monster in an entirely new way, adding tremendously to its replayability. Honestly, all the weapons and monsters are just ridiculously well-designed; many developers have tried to imitate this series (see God Eater, Toukiden, Dauntless), but none has come close to dethroning the king of this hill, and for my money it's mostly because the weapon and monster designs are just a cut above.

It should also be said that the multiplayer in this game is amazing. There's no competitive multiplayer of any kind, it's all cooperative. But it's probably my favorite online coop game ever. There's nothing better than taking down a super-tough monster that's been kicking your ass with a group of your buddies. The game can surely be enjoyed solo as well, but if you can play it with friends, it's even better.

So, is Monster Hunter for you? Well, the biggest question is going to be whether you like the core combat, which is tough and complex. Next would be whether you enjoy progressing your character; I for one am easily drawn in by the urge to get better stuff in games. There's always some shiny new weapon or piece of armor to covet. Next question is whether you've got some friends willing to take the plunge with you, as that will add to the enjoyment. Last, if you feel like you need deep story or exploration to hold your attention, then this probably isn't the game for you.

Anyway, hopefully this helps someone, although I'm honestly not sure if I've done a great job of explaining the appeal. It can be tough to convey. Best to just give the beta a whirl if you have a PS4; it runs through Sunday at 6pm. Failing that, maybe check out this video, which was itself designed to introduce new players to the game, and anyway is probably better than the wall of text I've posted here:

But I'd be happy to answer specific questions if anybody has one. I honestly think that this is the best series of games in the world that most westerners haven't yet touched. Aside from Resident Evil 4 and the Souls series, they're probably my favorite games ever, so I'm always willing to take some time to evangelize...

When I describe monster hunter to my friends I basically call it a big boy or adult diablo game.

@bonitiI'd also second this as being closer to diablo than a souls game. It is very much a loot-driven, grindy game. Where I think it gets it's appeal is by having the loot and grind be secondary to the act of playing the game. This is often the case in Western vs Eastern games in that Eastern games tend to focus more on the mechanics, the gameplay, and the moment-to-moment action over the loot, or other systems.

For example, Destiny is very much a loot game; but the core of that game is a basic FPS with a million different systems around it to try and keep you coming back while you grow more powerful almost solely by acquiring gear. The Eastern example would be something like PSO2, also a very grind heavy game but with more of a focus on both A) Becoming more powerful through learning the weapons (though still mainly by getting gear) but also B) In having a wide array of weapons that all play very differently. In MH (I played a lot of tri previously and a little bit of the handhelds) there is an even greater focus on learning the weapons and their styles.

For me this is the core distinction between East/West "grind" games and why I normally prefer Eastern games (like PSO and MH). I am much more happy "grinding" away in a game where I feel that there is a skill ceiling to reach that I can work towards (and I can feel like I'm "leveling up" w/o having to constantly be getting new gear and weapons).

@sustenance: I can tell you that in the couple of games since 3U, they made a whole bunch of quality-of-life improvements to the map and inventory management. The map is no longer borderline useless, and they added some handy features to simplify dealing with your items. I feel like the menus got a little simpler too. Given how much they seem to be changing up for World, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’ll get even better.

I don't think Diablo is a good comparison at all, honestly. Not only is gameplay nothing alike, but to me one of the defining characteristics of Diablo and Diablo-likes is the massive amounts of randomized loot that is constantly dropping from enemies. Monster Hunter doesn't have any randomized stats (except occasionally on things like charms, but that's a pretty small element of the game), every weapon and piece of armor has predefined stats and skills attached to it. And the amount of unique gear in general is dramatically smaller than your average Diablo game. But because of that the grinding is a lot more focused than Diablo. You know exactly what Monsters to hunt to get the drops you need and you know exactly how much stronger you will be when you finish crafting your gear.

If we're talking about the loot gameplay loop specifically I can't think of a lot of great comparisons outside of other games that take obvious inspiration from Monster Hunter.

This is the first major attempt from Capcom to strike it rich with MH in the west. I imagine a lot of people are in OP's shoes, and whether or not people can get down with the strange complexities of MH will decide if it succeeds. I think with all the improvements made with the past few games it really has a chance. Monster Hunter can be absolutely engulfing if it gets its hooks into you. There's nothing quite like it.

@zeik: it's a loot game where you run the same thing over and over again with your friends but the game play is fun. You're getting hung up on the specifics, some people just need a reason to play like OP.

@whur: In some cases the specifics are extremely important, I wouldn't use Diablo to describe the game at all. You could be decked out in good gear and still fail at higher levels of play due to lack of mechanical skill and knowledge, which is the actual part people will bounce off of, like the gap between what is needed from a player going from low rank to high rank, then high rank to something like G rank is drastic. Where in Diablo you can just run rifts and keep grinding for gear to eventually railroad to higher plateaus you will eventually get there. In Monster Hunter you could be stuck at the same monster for a great amount of time due to the learning curve and learning its patterns, a gear set or phat legendary will not brute force challenging walls.

The beta is open right now so you can try it yourself, you dont even need psplus. Game seems real good imo.

Giving people the wrong idea of to expect from game is what leads to disappointment. It's why calling it "like Dark Souls" needs a big 'ol asterisk, because the combat may feel kinda similar, but nothing else about it is like Dark Souls. If you just want to give people a reason to play you should simply say what you just said: "It's a loot game where you run the same thing over and over again with friends, and the gameplay is fun." That's a lot more accurate than saying it's like Diablo, which brings all kinds of extra expectations that Monster Hunter will never meet.

The best comparison to Monster Hunter is probably Capcom's other franchise Dragon's Dogma, as it takes a few cues from it alongside other Capcom properties. The monster fights are less flashy though, and more about strategy. Much like how in Witcher you plan ahead for monster fights, using potions to conuteract the monster you hunt and laying out traps in battle. I've found there's quite a bit of challenge in the combat, like Dark Souls, but there also seems to be combos in the melee fighting which is pretty neat.

If combat that requires a bit of thinking and planning is your thing then the game will probably fall to your liking. I'm not a real expert on the series as Monter Hunter 4 on the 3DS is only other game I've played aside from the Beta of World.

If you are interested in Monster Hunter at all now is the best time to get into it. From what I've played of the beta the game has streamlined a lot and it has a bunch of quality of life changes. Give the beta a shot, it couldn't hurt.

I've never played it.. and have this xbox one x just sitting here.. and nothing good is coming out for a bit! (darn shame the PC release is so far away.. 30fps makes me so sad.)

so i'm going to try my hand at this monster thingy :)

I'm sure i'm echoing a lot of what people are saying about the game, but as someone who has spent thousands and thousands of hours in monster hunter games since the PS2 era, Monster Hunter World is the best starting point since 3 ultimate. Almost all of the inconvenient randomness of the game has been eliminated (you can pick up specific bugs and plants and such instead of relying on randomness), the weapons all FEEL fantastic and flow much better than any other game in the series; the graphics are outstanding and the improvement to throwable items (being put into the slinger) is an improvement that i didn't even know that I wanted.

The drop-in and drop-out multiplayer is a great addition; the ability to roam the maps after the hunt is over allows you to collect supplies way faster; the addition of automatically crafting items on the go (while seemingly getting rid of the archaic crafting failure system) is just SO smooth; and just every single part of the game that felt old has been stripped away. The weapons still control nearly the same but the added moves allow for a flow that wasn't in previous games. The damage numbers allow for experimentation with weapons and elements in a way that literally required hacks in the older games; and just everything about the game has been streamlined in such a fantastic way to not degrade the core experience but to enhance it, instead.

Now, as a HUGE fan of the older games in the series (Hell, my streaming career has been built on these games) I'm not saying that the older games are BAD, just that they relied a lot on the core framework of a 2004-era PS2 game and the amount of patches and band-aids to help alleviate the troubles those systems caused has finally gotten to a point where the devs have thrown their hands up and went FINE, TO HELL WITH IT, WE'RE STARTING FROM THE GROUND UP.

Everything in MHWorld has been touched and improved. Literally everything. Past failures have even been improved upon; for instance in 3rd generation they attempted to add 3D movement into the game by putting underwater combat in the game, and it was.. not well received. In 4th generation they added verticality to the maps; the maps were multi-layered and allowed for hunters to attack from the air. This was a lot more well-received, so now the maps in MHWorld are a lot more vertical which gives both the monsters and the players a lot more of an opportunity to attack from above- and below.

The skill system was the BIG overhaul. In previous games (aside from the very first one, that's a complicated topic that I don't even feel like delving into) each piece of armor was given a few skills, with a point value for each. You had to make combinations of gear in order to get to at least 10 points in a skill in order for it to "activate", and until then the only thing a piece of armor did was give a higher defense value. Each armor also had a negative value to certain skills as well, which sometimes led to a balancing act to outfit your hunter with a set of skills that played well with your weapons. It wasn't a terrible system, in fact it allowed for a LOT of customization with gear; people could min-max their gear and wear some really interesting-looking armor sets to take on specific monsters. But MHWorld changed that, by assigning each piece of gear a skill, and having multiple instances of that skill increase the power of that skill up to a maximum value, and this basically means that every single piece of armor has value, even if you haven't made a full set of gear. This places more emphasis on experimentation, and especially in low-rank, allows you to equip more of the gear you want instead of the stat you want.

Among a lot of other changes, Monster Hunter World is the best possible place for a new monster hunter fan to start playing. If you decide to grab it, feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions about the game. I'm sure I can get you started on the right foot =)

So after watching UPF and seeing MHW i was interested and tried the Beta, did the first three hunts successfully and had a pretty good time and now im thinking about buying this. My only prior experience was with the 3ds one for maybe 5-8 hours and fell of pretty quick, but that was more due to the 3ds than the game i think. So i have a couple quick questions for people who would know.

how many times do you generally hunt a monster to get its full armor and/or weapons and is that something people actually do?

How easy is it to maintain multiple high level weapon types, and would i need to.

is it possible to solo with the heavy bowgun.

Thanks in advance for help.

@rodin: If it's an armor set with skills that match well with your weapon (or if you like the looks) then yes one wouuld generally hunt the monster until they get the full set. It depends on the crafting requirements. Some of the easier ones can take 3-5, and the tougher ones can get into the double digits depending on how the drop percentages favor you. It's easy enough to maintain 1 to 3 weapon types in my experience. If you're wanting every weapon within a specific type then you may want to cut that down to a primary and secondary weapon only. If you're playing really hardcore then you can have as many weapons as you want because you'll be hunting a ton. It's possible to solo with any weapon. Some are just harder than others.

I'm curious myself, and I'm wondering if there's much change in the flow of the game over the 50 hours I'm told it'll take. Questions:

- Is it just go to your base, equip stuff, and fight a monster?

- Do the monsters change much, or are they all just semi-large things that bite at you sometimes?

- I'm worried that I'll just be upgrading my stuff, but the actual tactics and gameplay will stay relatively similar for 50 hours. Is it just the UPF segment for that long?

- Does the challenge escalate via your skill, or does the difficulty just come from having the right equipment?

I don't mean to sound mean and dismissive, what I've seen looks awesome but I'm not sure if the full game will be for me.

@csl316: UPF showed the "basic" approach to most fights, but misses where the strategy comes in. For example, the demo doesn't really deal with preparing for the fight, because it hands you all the potions/ammo you'll need to be successful. The game in-between each of your large fights, is going into those same maps and gather supplies to craft your own potions and tools. So while you will be doing a lot of monster hunts, and the game has been streamlined so the gathering can be done while you hunt, this will be where you spend a decent amount of your time.

You get some of the materials from weapons and armor from monsters, but several of the materials have to be harvested, either in your in house "farm" or mined while exploring each region. There are also tools to craft/upgrade to make this harvesting more lucrative/faster.

The demo does an excellent job of showcasing the combat and excitement of a good hunt, but doesn't give you the time to explore the world/gather materials and learn how to craft.

1. Sometimes. There are other side missions that you have to do to progress the main missions, and you'll typically need to do other things to restock your supplies that you need to craft items to use against monsters. The primary focus is getting ready to go out on the big hunt and then actually going out on the big hunt. The getting ready part is the part that will involve more than just hunting a big monster.

2. They all differ quite a bit. They won't always just bite at you. Some have poison gases, some can dive into the ground, some can fire breath lasers, some can discharge electricity, some drop explosive parts from their body, etc. They won't all just be clawing and biting at you, but they do generally all have some physical contacting moves since they are all intended to be natural creatures.

3. Each individual weapon type usually has an optimal way of playing it. Meaning a combo chain or two that will deal the most amount of damage. The tactics will change from monster to monster because not every weapon can always perform their ideal moves against every monster as easily, but your ideal moves will always be your ideal moves if you can pull them off. A lance user would have to take a different approach against a highly mobile and ranged monster than they would against an aggressive slower monster for example. This is why people usually use more than one weapon throughout the game for varieties sake, and so they can cover their weaknesses if they come up against a monster that is brutally strong against a specific weapon strategy. If a lance user comes up against a creature that is always jumping out of their range right after an attack then the lance user's strategy of countering a hit and then dealing out their high damaging three hit combo becomes less effective. They would have to find a plan to keep in range of the enemy other than the usual slowly creeping around with a shield out.

4. Equipment makes it easier, but monsters get attacks that are tougher to dodge, longer combo chains, etc. Better armor will help you survive a hit or two, but the game comes down to not getting hit. Your armor generally won't help with your dodging skills aside from a few evasion focused skills. So knowing monster movements and attack patterns is still on you.

@gaminggumper: @mezza: That's all good info. I'm more interested now.

I think this is the absolute best one to get into the series with. It's the first one with any real attempt at tutorials, and they seem to be doing a good job with it.

I've only played MH4U on the 3DS and only used the Insect Glaive because that's the only one I knew how to use. I could've looked up videos and found another one I liked, but I didn't want to. Like you said, it was all too obtuse. With the beta for this game, though, I've naturally tried out other weapons and picked them up pretty fast without needing to watch tutorial videos or look up a wiki. The game is just way better at introducing you to a weapon and letting you naturally figure out how best to use it.

With the exception of the horn. Had to video that one,

I really did not like the lack of feedback for combat effectiveness. I want to know if I was stronger than last time, I want to know if my move does more damage than the other ones and more importantly: I want to see that. I understand the game intentionally obscures that, but I don't like being the weak-link or the master-dps-machine literally feels the same. It doesn't feel very engaging to me as a result. I'm just whaling on something until it goes down.

@zevvion: World fixes that issue. There are damage numbers that change color based on if you're hitting a weak point or not; or if you're doing the correct elemental weakness; there are critical hit indicators showing that you've either hit a weak spot on the monster or your weapon's "affinity" (it's critical strike rate, effectively) is causing it to crit; and in the case of ranged weapons, the bow's reticle indicates whether or not you're within the "critical distance" to deal maximum damage to the monster. To be fair, the critical hit indicators have always been in the game but in World they're way more obvious.

Just want to add to this that I think its reputation that it's so tough to get into is overblown. The series obfuscates some important stuff (probably 50% less so in World) and there's a lot to learn... but I think it should be emphasized you don't need to know everything or even much beyond movement and camera work to start playing. When I started playing Monster Hunter I didn't know about all sorts of things that I would consider vital now. Like eating before every hunt. And so I did most things wrong. And it was fine. I could play the game and have fun with it up to a certain point.

And that point was a very scary monster that killed me easily if I tried to be aggressive and would time out on me if I wouldn't be aggressive. I didn't know what to do. And I looked online to see what I was doing wrong. That's how I learned some things like eating before every hunt. And not being afraid to try a different weapon. And this went well... up to a point. And so it repeated. I became better and so did the people I came across online and much more so than any other game it felt like I was growing up in this game. I learned about all sorts of things that I never knew were part of the game like breaking parts and attack types and taking ingredients with you to combine in the field, weapon uses, relative attack power and...

Well. You don't need to know right now. Because you're just starting off. So no need to be intimidated. That would be my advice. Don't worry about knowing everything. Sure you'll be overwhelmed but it's OK. Just let it happen. The depth that seems intimidating is not a cliff, it's more like a hillside and it is a big part of what gives Monster Hunter its longevity. And as you grow more experienced you'll look back at this period fondly. And if you're like me you'll even ask for more :P

@marzz4967: I have played the beta and found the feedback to be non-existent. I believe you, which means I just missed the things you listed off (I didn't see any damage numbers for instance), but that also means it's just not enough for me.

@zevvion: The damage numbers were turned on by default, but could be turned off. Perhaps you or someone else had accidentally turned them off?

Also, marzz's explanations are great, but those elements are what indicate "how much of your potential damage output you are actually putting out". For example, if you use a bowgun and shoot a standard bullet at a monster's legs from very far away, you may see a small-ish gray number "3." However, if you shoot the same bullet from a closer distance (where your crosshairs change shape to indicate optimal distance) at its face, you might get a much higher number like "15," along with a slight shake of the screen and tiny pause (a "hit stop" as they're called) to convey the impact that the bullet had. Yes, the difference is often that stark. You repeat the process with different targets and different ammo types, and you can figure out exactly where and how to hit for maximum damage. Imagine unloading all 60 of your standard Lv.3 shells precisely on the head! The monster would be dead much quicker than if you were just randomly shooting (A similar process can of course be applied to melee weapons). When you land a huge hit with high damage output on a soft spot of the monster, the hit stop and other effects gets increasingly more pronounced. Landing a fully charged swing of a Greatsword on the monster's weak spot will have the screen shake violently and the entire game world pausing for a third of a second to appreciate the absolute brutality that just transpired. It's a good feeling yo.

As for what I feel like you're actually asking, the feedback about how hurt the monster is, there are tells for that too. Learning these tells is a big part of what makes you feel more experienced as a hunter actually. I'll skip over the limping animation that the monsters do when they are near death, because it should be pretty obvious. One easy one is how many parts of the monster you have broken. Each breakable part of the monster, like the horns or tail, have a set amount of health allocated to them, which you would deplete to break/cut off. So if you start attacking a monster while not necessarily focusing on the tail, but the tail gets lopped off anyways after a short amount of time, you know that you're wrecking that monster. Conversely, if all you're attacking is the tail and it's taking a loooong time, you know you're in for a bad time. A more subtle clue is how often the monster gets flinched from your attacks. There's a whole system about flinch resistance values and flinch damage depletion over time, but... we won't get into that here (that's speed runner territory). Essentially, if it looks like you're hitting a monster over and over but it's not flinching at all, you might not be doing too well in terms of damage.

With the part breaks, the flinches, the hit stops, the impact sounds, particle effects (and previously some bleeding effects), etc., Monster Hunter is actually REALLY good at giving you "feedback" about your weapon and monster, and not in the boring way like a health bar (which is why some veterans were opposed to the addition of damage numbers in World). However, it's something that you have to naturally absorb as you play... If you're unsure about the game, I suggest waiting a little bit after launch to see what some of the more experienced players put up on videos and streams or renting it from a friend. It's a weird and tough game to get it to "click" with you, but once it does, it'll never let go. Happy Hunting!

I'm thinking about it. The one thing I take from the footage I see is how much planning goes into a hunt. On the one hand, I'm into the idea of that but maybe not the commitment.

FWIW the "ramp" on necessary preparation is actually pretty gentle. In "low rank" hunts, the blue supply box at mission start will typically give you all the items you'll need, i.e. items for health and stamina restoration, as well as, say, antidotes for quests in which your target might poison you. By the time you get to "high rank" hunts in which those items aren't always given to you right away, you'll already have a good grasp of what you'll need to bring with you; it'll just be second nature. So the prep really isn't as onerous as it might sound.

Good to know, although I'm always going to have a hurdle going in blind.