Recent reviews by Rai

CHAOS!!!

Poker but on steroids...

Light-hearted metroidvanina kind of game that involves simple RPG elements and town-building



+ The story is easy to understand and does it's objective of introducing/setting up the characters and the elements that will be used for the next game
+ Combat is above average fun and simple but felt clunky in a way that it feels cheap
+ RPG element-wise, the customization suffers a lot from early to mid game with the inclusion of drop rate increasing accessories sharing slots with combat related accessories. This is a old jrpg design element that doesn't really improve combat but downright affect customization (sometimes it affects gameplay too if such things as dash boots or equivalent accessory is present in a game)
+ In terms of difficulty, the game is casual and lacks harder challenges or difficulty options on the get-go
+ The environment is very gorgeous. The 2.5D style is well-crafted.
+ The map is easy to navigate even with its simple map design and mini-map but lacks depth of exploration compared to popular others of the same genre
+ There are a number of side content, while it is very satisfying to see the town grew from your actions, a lot of the other side content felt like it is only there to bloat the content
+ Graphical Fidelity (FPS, Detail and Resolution), the game runs well without any performance and graphical issues (RTX 4070 Laptop), The blending of the environment while the player is exploring or battling is vibrant and pristine.

+ There are a lot of epic moments especially in the later parts but the early portion, which is a chunky part, became neglected and the story felt rushed during the later parts of the game
+ The conclusion for most of the main story objectives introduced early felt underwhelming
+ Combat is very satisfying, it is easy to learn and hard to master
+ Combat involves strategy, positioning and doesn't revolve around iframe dodge/block most of the time
+ The world was gorgeously made, well populated, and feels alive with all the non party pawns / adventurers / merchants you can meet along the way
+ Random encounters in the world suffers from the lack of enemy diversity
+ Epic soundtrack, good voice acting, and diverse pawn dialogues
+ At the later parts of the story, few pawn dialogues kinda feels out of place
+ Side contents are diverse and not just go to X and kill Y
+ Different outcomes and consequence on side quests made the side quests engaging and satisfying
+ Escort quests needs some tweaking like being able to see the destination before accepting and a revision in the escort rewards
+ Performance wise, Most of the frame drops are in town and a few while exploring/in-battle. Frame drop game breaking moments never occurred during heated moments(something that will affect combo/dodging) and doesn't go as low as single digit (Predator Helios 16 Laptop)
+ Single crash occurred during prolonged gaming
+ Microtransactions do not matter and all are useless/obtainable easily at end game

Pretty solid game and would generally recommend this but for some who finds $70 very imposing with the above review (or other reviews), I would suggest wait for a sale or if an expansion is announced, wait for the package.
Capcom games usually go all out during expansion (eg. DDDA / Monster Hunter series on its G-rank/Master rank) and is something to be excited about if it is confirmed.

Doggo 10/10

Some thoughts on the game from someone who played every title since MH1 on PS2 (Except Frontier)
Pros:
- Doggo
- It's a monster hunter game
- Fun
- Easy and accessible for newcomers
- Improvement the HP scaling of monsters in multiplayer again
- Variety of playstyles introduced by the switch skills
- MH devs aren't afraid to experiment some new gameplay features(Rampage, Followers)
- Doggo with Guns

Cons:
- No Poogie
- Gammoth is Forgotten (only Fated 4 that hasn't returned yet)
- As of this review, roster of monsters feels quite few compared to old titles on their G-rank/Master-rank versions
- Elder dragons and environment interaction isn't apparent anymore

Mixed: (These are mostly because I've played the older titles)
- Fast Paced Action-centric gameplay instead of Preperation/Anticipation gameplay
- Tracking and hunting isn't apparent anymore, it's more of a boss gauntlet
- Camp has too much power, the entire item box and equipment box is there. I like QoL but I always thought this is too much. If I am to redesign this, I'll go for a limited camp box(you can set a loadout before each quest) and a limited equipment box having 1-2 spare loadout. Though this doesn't really matter unless you are chugging potions like a Jagras
- No meeeeat before the hunt

The game has evolved many times since it's debut
Monster hunter is monster hunter, as long as it's fun, it's good

Played this on Switch for a longer time

Spectacular game that recreates the feeling of the classic Megaman X series. Also, another plus for the Rougelike X Megaman platformer game done right.