![]() ![]() ![]() Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: it’s not grinding, it’s learning Photograph: PR It can fight on the ground, or take to the skies to rain fire and dive-bomb hunters. The iconic Rathalos, a huge winged dragon that breathes fire and can poison hunters with its long tail spike, has a range of possible attacks, as well as two behaviour states (normal and enraged), and can fight in almost any environment the game has to offer. What is often mistaken for grinding in Monster Hunter – killing large monsters multiple times – is in fact a completely different design ethos. Grinding is, generally speaking, a bad mechanic, or at the least a boring one. In a role-playing game (RPG), for example, if you’re not at a high-enough level to kill a boss you’ll often circle around and kill the same enemies over and over in order to level up. Grinding is an experience familiar to any gamer, and refers to repeating the same actions in the same way multiple times in order to acquire experience points, gold, or loot. This skinner box-like compulsion mechanic is often characterised as “grinding” – but this is a woefully off-base analysis. ![]() You kill, you hope for a specific item, you get another, you try again. This is at once a minor source of frustration and the reason the system manages to pull you in so effectively. This reward loop is at the centre of everything in Monster Hunter 4U, the diabolical twist being that what you get from a monster is randomised every time. Taking down a Great Jaggi, and then seeing the claws and tough skin reworked into a snazzy chestpiece, is a simple thrill that – as the monsters get tougher and the stuff you can make from them gets better – becomes deeply rewarding in its own right. Your hunter begins in rather sad-looking basic togs, with one of each weapon type, but soon those early hunts lead to beautifully-designed (and much more effective) gear. Upon either killing or capturing one of the game’s 51 large monsters (there are also smaller species), you carve them up and use the body parts obtained to make better armour and weapons. Perhaps the appeal is somewhat subconscious we are, after all, a species of hunter-gatherers that nowadays do very little of either. Around this, there are all manner of extraneous activities that feed into and out of your hunting career, but this is basically a game built around boss fights. The core of the experience is hunting enormous monsters. ![]()
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