I got the demo today and I have to say that it's quite unapologetic.  Even the easiest mission will kick you when you're down, break your fingers, nose and ribcage, and castrate you so that you feel inadequate as a man.

It's fun but damn.. this game is the antithesis to casual.  I'm enjoying it though like the masochist this demo has made me.  I wanna beat that Jaggi in under 8 minutes now.  I see why the series is so popular in Japan.

Too bad there aren't any of them here =(

The whole essense of the series is in learning the game in the hardest way possible, then slowly reaping the fruits of your struggles. You start of weak and clueless, you end up mighty with a huge Sword, amazing armor (made by the very monsters you slew) with the Monster Hunter world in your fingers.

The first monster is pretty easy. The second one is proving tricky, but mostly because I don't know the controls yet. The difficulty of the game seems slightly over-blown to me. Pay attention to what you are doing, and avoid the nasty attacks.

the demo is pretty badass. I just need to get used to the controls. I cant wait for april.

This is tough. I still haven't beaten the first monster, and I don't even know if it has a life bar to tell me if I'm close. Also I found I don't like the swords. Either they are too slow or using the shield sucks.

But I won't give up.

I'm enjoying the demo, but I gotta know...
Is this an MMO? Or what?
How does online play into this?

Mannn, I want to play it =(

I'm going to crack it open right now, actually.

In fact, watch this space...

@Mint. Imagine Phantasy Star Online. It's not an MMO in the traditional sense, here you just meet with people in a hub world and agree to go out on a mission, do it, and come back. You can't randomly encounter people on the same mission or something, and it's not an open world

Thought it was boring, like all monster hunter games.