You hunt down giant monsters using one of several weapon types, and a grappling Wirebug lets you dash through the air, dodge sharp attacks, or ride smaller monsters into a fight. Preparing gear and studying a monster's patterns before a hunt matters as much as the fight itself. Hunts can run long and demand real attention, so it suits players willing to learn a weapon's timing rather than jump straight into action.
Gameplay video
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Screenshots & review notes
Overall
Capcom finally cracked how to make hunting feel fast without losing weight, and the result might be the most immediately fun entry the series has produced.
Moment to moment
The Wirebug transforms traversal and combat alike, letting you vault across arenas and mount monsters mid-fight, all while the weapon variety keeps builds feeling distinct.
Art and atmosphere
It runs impressively well handheld for how much is happening on screen, with a Japanese countryside setting that's colorful without sacrificing atmosphere.
Worth your time?
A great jumping-on point for series newcomers thanks to smoother mobility. Endgame grinding for gear will demand serious hours from anyone chasing the toughest hunts.
Frames captured from the gameplay video above; notes are our own take on the game.
What it's like to play
You control a hunter armed with one of over a dozen very different weapon types, from a giant greatsword you swing in slow, heavy arcs to a bow that lets you kite around at range, and the first thing you learn is the wirebug, a grappling hook style tool that lets you zip through the air, dodge out of danger, or vault onto a monster's back mid-fight. Early quests send you into a village to accept a job, then out into a wide connected map on foot or riding a doglike companion called a palamute, tracking paw prints and scratch marks until you find the monster you are hunting. Combat is a matter of learning a creature's telegraphed attacks, dodging or blocking at the right moment, and chipping away at specific body parts, which can be broken off or damaged to weaken the monster and yield better crafting materials.
The overall loop is straightforward: hunt a monster, carve its body for materials, use those materials to craft stronger weapons and armor, then take on a tougher monster with your new gear, and a single hunt usually runs somewhere between ten and twenty minutes once you know what you are doing. As you progress the monsters get faster, hit harder, and gain new attacks, and occasional tower-defense style missions called Rampage quests task you with defending a fortress from waves of monsters using placed traps and gadgets instead of a straight one-on-one fight. Playing with up to three other hunters online makes fights noticeably faster and more chaotic, and swapping between weapon types essentially gives you a different game to learn each time you pick up something new.
The amount the tutorials do not fully explain is real, and expect to spend your first several hours only half understanding your own toolkit before it clicks. The Rampage missions are a divisive change of pace that some hunters skip whenever the story allows it. Even with that learning curve, this runs remarkably smoothly on the system and rewards the time you put into it with some of the most satisfying monster fights available on Switch.