I never played a Monster Hunter game until the third one. It is a very tedious and boring process to get into but once you start sinking hours in, it becomes really addictive, especially if you have friends to hunt with. I haven't played all of the games in the series so I can't argue against whether they copy and paste the formula, but it's always seemed like a very niche title to me. It really comes down to taste but I found that if you put enough time in, the game can feel very rewarding.

I first saw Monster Hunter for the PS2 when I was very young. I saw it and laughed at my friends for playing it. I tried it and exclaimed that I could surpass them easily. Very adamant on proving that the game sucks and that I could destroy them at it I found myself for the first time challenged in a way I did not expect. At some point along the way I became obsessed and we all bought PS2's with network adapters.

The game play is why people love it. If you begin in anyway mediocre at the controls, you will watch yourself evolve into an unstoppable god that can dodge/block nearly one hit ko's with ease. It is a similar feeling I got from the souls series. The hit boxes are broken, there is no denying that but saying the game is broken is a stretch. I feel for being so different from any experience it nailed the game play perfectly.

I would suggest playing unite. I love the older Monster Hunters far more than the new ones. They really put the pressure on you with the overly powerful rush tactics than can punish the majority of your life bar (SS2 Rajang anyone?). The monsters in the new one seem to be more dodge/time sinking oriented, but in the old ones, they rush you.

As for the praise, anytime a game can take hundreds of hours of your life away with your friends playing with you, deserves praise. I stayed on Skype with my military friend across the country for 24 hours straight while we Xlink kai'd. The feeling I get when my brother and best friend are laughing when a monster trips over and over again while we commit utter destruction onto its body is an indescribable feeling.

I... totally agree with you, but i kind of understand some of it.

Monster hunter is very immersive. The ambience, the life of a hunter are definitly something that i see as a plus... but at some point you need to grind and grind some more for mats and it gets boring. I also think that in MH specifically there are way too many items and the complexity of the crafting system doesnt do it any favors.

This in general goes for all of these hunting games. I keep trying to get into them, i sometimes have fun, but it always reaches a point where i stop playing because the time investment versus fun just isnt holding up.
I have played soul sacrifice and while fun at the start, it became grindy. Monster hunter i get the appeal. I got freedom unite and didntmove past rank 2 before selling, i got 3 ultimate on the Wii U and i think i'm still on rank 1, i got Ragnarok odyssey ace and i stopped at rank 4, i got God eater burst whose story, characters and gameplay i quite liked but the crafting became dull and missions repetitive, i got Freedom wars and i'm still on rank 1. Toukiden was actually the only one that seemed more pleasing to me without going overboard on the grinding and crafting systems, but i only played the demo.

Quite honestly when buying Freedom wars, i thought this would be the last chance i give this genre... sometimes i think i should give toukiden a proper chance, but i totally agree Wright. I have given this genre too many chances and it really isnt lack of trying to like it. I hope we go back to traditional RPG's being popular because i'm getting tired of all this tedious grinding.
I still want to give FW more of a chance and i might cave in for Toukiden and God eater 2. But if i dont get enjoyment out of that, i'm through with the genre. Its just not for me. The games could so easily be fixed for western audiences if they cut on the grindiness though.

On the genre's defense, I've only played Monster Hunter. That being said, it definitively wasn't for me. Obviously I prefer traditional JRPGs, even if they feature the somewhat archaic now random encounters and heavy-grinding as well, because for some reason that isn't that tedious for me. Monster Hunter is.

Well, depending on the grind, the difference is that every moment of grind on a traditional RPG nets you something that gets you closer to your goal (XP or growth points or new spells). In hunting games you get nothing from killing additional monsters except more clutter on your inventory to manage. Also... drop rates.

It got better once they updated the hit detection in the Wii version, before that, it wasn't as good IMO, anything they released after Tri with the same game play style were like updates and revisions, and I put it that way because the PSP games don't play the same.

The PSP games are awesome!!!

I like Freedom Wars because it isn't grindy. You won't have to replay missions or farm anything until after you beat the game. It also plays a lot more like a standard JRPG versus the hub -> arena style of MH and Ragnarok Odyssey.

The first monster hunter I played was on wii, I was really excited for it because it was popular in japan and I play mostly japanese games so this game had to be awesome right? Then I played it and was likje wtf is this everything seemed wrong in the game, I think it was the demo first so I blamed it on a broken demo. Then I got the  whole game and realised Holy shit the demo was not broken. But to myself I kept playing even though it seemed like everything was off with the game, then when I finally put some hours into it yes hours and I went online I literally could not believe how my opinion changed from when I first played the game I understand why everything seemed broken and how actually incredible the gameplay was.

This is probably the only game I ever did a complete 180 on ever. MH4 is probably my most anticipated game for years now, the game IS that addicting, but you need to put some time into it and play online or else you will only come to the same conclusion you  got.

I don't know how many hours of my life were wasted on Monster Hunter Tri, but I can say something for certain: no matter how many chances I gave it, I always came disappointed.