I really really wanted to like this game but by the end of the story I was feeling incredibly tired of it all and just wanted it to be over. There's so many little issues with this game that drag it down and the only thing holding it up is the fact it's incredibly cute and has excellent aesthetic both visually and audibly. I have a lot of harsh things to say, but it should be noted I have this much to say because I did have positive feelings towards the experience for the most part, so I do recommend giving it a try if you love monster hunter and have A LOT of patience.

- The story is kinda weak honestly. It is very much an anime for young boys where friendship triumphs over all, the best friend turns into an angsty rival, and the villains are comically evil to the point its annoying. I think the general writing and most characters are fine, but the overall story points feel childish without merit.
- The game has a strong narrative focus on the bonds you form with your monsters, but gameplay encourages you to treat them as disposable given the system of egg hatching and channeling where you essenetially re-roll until you get a good monster, and then use up other monsters to make them stronger. It almost felt like playing a gacha game.
- While travelling the world there are various obstacles that require specific monsters to overcome e.g. you need a monster that can Jump to cross a gap, or a monster that can Swim to cross a river. It's extremely similar to Pokemon's Hidden Machine moves, except in this case, you cannot teach a monster how to swim, it must simply be a monster that can innately swim. This means your party composition is extremely heavily influence by what utility they have rather than your enjoyment of the monster or even their combat potential. This problem is reinforced by the fact you can only carry 5 monsters (6 later), and can only change them by going back to a town.
- Simply finding monsters to obtain materials, eggs or quest clears felt extremely tedious a lot of the time. I get that the point was to have rare monsters, but this ended up dragging things out in a way that wasn't enjoyable. If you look up guides, most people recommend you obtain a specific monster that has the ability to force an encounter with a random monster which you use repeatedly until you find the monster you want. This is heavily reliant on chance, and is extremely dull.
- Your character's equipment strongly dictates how well you'll fair against enemies, so logically you should switch equipment for better elements/skills to face specific foes, but so many story important enemies are given to you by surprise and offer no chance to change equipment without reloading a save.
- Combat revolves around a scissors-paper-rock system where certain attacks trump other attacks, and the dialogue given when you lose such a match-up insists that there's a "pattern" but in most encounters it feels the enemy monster picks at random, though admittedly biased towards certain attacks depending on the monster. Regardless, it didn't feel good to play.
- The other parts of the battle system are fine, but overall lacking in enjoyable complexity.

Very good

Really fun RPG set in the Monster Hunter universe. With plenty of post-game content and the price being so low, there's no reason not to give it a try.