An amazing and epic adventure whether playing alone or with 3 other hunters! But it's best with 3 other hunters online.
At first, its insanely boring, most people might even write it off. Which is understandable, all you do is gather commodities from the field, or from small monsters. Even after your first Great Jaggi kill, you still may not like it. But once you really get into it, especially online, It gets amazing. It's called an ARPG (action role-playing game) but instead of grinding to level up like the average RPG, you have to gring for items from monsters to get better armor and weapons. Speaking of the weapons and armor, that's one of the best parts! There are 7 weapons, the sword and shield, (a basic and quick melee weapon, that can be devastating with the right element) great sword, (a very slow but powerful weapon, it's so big, you can use it as a shield!) long sword, (a quick and agile weapon, but it doesn't have good defense) hammer, (my personal favorite. A powerful weapon that can knockout a monster, and make it exhausted) the lance (a good balance between power and defense) the bowgun (comes in 3 sizes, light, medium, and heavy. By far the most customizable weapon with a frame, barrel, and stock. But it's challenging because of it's low defense) and the newest weapon in the series, the switch axe (it can switch between axe and sword mode. In sword mode, it's slower but it has a phial, which gives it a special power). The armor is very customizable too, with head, chest, waist, arm, and leg armor, theres thousands of possibilities, plus theres armor for almost every monster! Plus theres armor for blademasters, or bowgunners.
The monsters aren't really monsters, they're more like dinosaurs, but never call them dinosaurs, calling them monsters seem much more natural. It's really cool how they act, like animals, they'll eat other animals to recover stamina, when they're exhausted, and can even get enraged and attack quicker, and more often. You can also sever most of their tails, and damage other parts too, which will give you more quest rewards.
The soundtrack is also 5* (pun intended) with beautiful themes from earlier Monster Hunter games, and epic boss fighting music, it's no pushover! Along with the great music, the graphics are stunning for Wii, they're Xbox like, even PS3, it's beautiful, especially for the Wii.
The only con i have is that the animations take awhile, like drinking a potion to recover health, or getting rid of poison, but that makes it more challenging. You have to get an opening to heal.
With all this in mind, multiply it by 4, that's how many hunters you can team up with online! Online is the real raw meat of the game. Plus there are event quests that are only up for a week or so that can get you special armor or weapons. there are even some exclusive bosses for online.
the one thing that sucks, is that barely anybody not from Japan really know about it, so spread the word! This game is way to epic and awesome to not get!