New Monster Hunter 4 Screenshots -- New Weapon, Parkour Hunting, New Monster

New Weapon: "Operating Insect Rod"

This weapon involves commanding a "hunting insect" to get power ups from other monsters.

To use this new hunting companion, you mark a target monster. Release the insect, and it will head out to the monster and suck up its energy. Call the insect back, and you'll be able to use its bounty to strengthen your character.

The "energy" the insect sucks up is called "EX" (or possibly EXE). The property it strengthens is indicated by its color. White increases your speed. Red increases your attack strength. Green increases your vitality. Orange increases your defensive strength.

The hunting insects are capable of jumping, so they may be able to reach areas that aren't accessible by you.

Famitsu and Andriasang

Hunting Insect in action (screenshots): [spoiler]

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Unlike Tri, MH4 will have all previous weapon classes available: Great Sword, Long Sword, Sword and Shield, Dual Sword, Hammer, Hunting Horn, Lance, Gun Lance, Light & Heavy Bowgun, and Bow. The Switch Axe from Tri also returns.

Parkour Hunting

Previously shown in the second trailer, you can now attack in mid-air. Attacking while climbing cliffs, parkour, jumping on monsters, aerial attacks, and a destructible environment are a huge part of MH4. You will have two felyne companions with you (they're optional) and they will also climb walls and team up for group attacks.

Screenshots: [spoiler]

[/spoiler]

New Monster: Goa Magara

Not much is known about this one, but it has a major role in the story. I assume it's MH4's flagship monster. I love it's design -- very intimidating and gives off an Elder Dragon vibe.

Environment:

Concept Art:

More Screenshots Here

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So now that we know a bit more about MH4, what do you guys think about it?

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I think it looks amazing. It does look worse graphically compared to MH3G, but that's because of fewer loading screens and larger environments. I absolutely love how MH4 will include every weapon class. I hate how incomplete MH3 felt because Capcom decided to exclude Dual Swords, Hunting Horn, Gun Lance, and Bow (it wasn't because they didn't work underwater -- MH3G disproved this).

Here's hoping for localization! :D

Looks amazing! I so hope it gets localized.

so are we able to jump on our own or is it only auto jumping off ledges?

It looks like auto-jumping. They haven't shown manual jumping in the trailers and the hunter is always jumping off ledges or cliffs.

I don't think so. The last big MH petition was for Portable 3rd (Operation Cherry Blossom) and I think most people gave up on hope.

Many fans have been asking Capcom about localization, but they keep giving us vague statements about expecting some MH news "verrryyy soon." They've been saying the same thing for months. :|

Capcom's been pretty disappointing lately, and they used to be my favorite developer outside of Nintendo and Square Soft.

Is it confirmed to be offline only? That'll severely limit the game's appeal to me...

Here's hoping for localization! :D

ANIMEguy10034

I think it looks amazing. It does look worse graphically compared to MH3G, but that's because of fewer loading screens and larger environments.ANIMEguy10034

Capcom's been pretty disappointing lately, and they used to be my favorite developer outside of Nintendo and Square Soft.

Is it confirmed to be offline only? That'll severely limit the game's appeal to me...

Pixel-Perfect

3DS games always look worst in screens than they do in motion. It actually looks like it will look better than Tri in some instances. Its great they brought all the weapons back, but the Long Sword is the only weapon for me. I also wonder if they fixed how broken the Lance was in Tri. Sepewrath

I agree, and MH4 is still in development, but I'm somewhat disappointed on those textures, and I'm kind of used to large amount of loading screens after playing Tri. :P I'm confident that MH4 would look better than Tri, but I'm not so sure how it'll compare with MH3G. MH3G looks amazing due to the traditional Area > Loading Screen > Area thing the games have been known for. I wonder how it'll look like in 3D. *___*

I also wonder how great Gun Lances are compared to Lances. ;)

No Switch Axe? :( That was my favorite weapon.

I'm unbelievably excited for this game. No loading screens means that I can't just run away and fix myself up though. I'll actually need to earn my wins. :P

I have never played a monster hunter game this will be my first:D

No Switch Axe? :( That was my favorite weapon.

nintendofreak_2

Oops. I thought I put swaxe into that list. :oops:

Here are some switch axe screens: