Monster Hunter Cross X [3DS] review

[kryss]

So it begins again: the hunt, the armour, the weapons, and the questing for those rare drops. Take Monster Hunter 4, all the previous villages in the series, spice the variety of the fighting styles up, add a small sprinkling of new monsters and you've got MHX.

What's new?
- The fighting styles: Guild, Striker, Aerial, and Bushido. Each gives different moves to attack or dodge, and the aerial gives a cooler jump effect also.
- The weapon upgrade system is also, there is a primary ingredient needed for an upgrade, then enough ore to fulfil the order can be selected from what you have. Less higher value ore is necessary than lower value, but either will still work. There is a level system as well which I've not looked into but seems to add a new twist on the upgrade system.

Otherwise it's business as usual it seems. Trying not to play too much before my exams.

Enjoy some game shots:

[fuse]

Intrigued to see how you get on with this, but have learned my lesson and will wait for a localised version so I at least have some hope of playing with local peeps. Early videos had this looking like Devil May Cry, but I get the impression that was just a very well-cut trailer... I take it fighting styles do still make a pretty big difference though?

[kryss]

So the weapon upgrade system is a good improvement, the higher the weapon level, the more of it's branches can be seen - so you're able to do almost the same as looking at online guides to branches. I got my starter charge ax to level 3 yesterday and it showed me I could go off in a poison direction with the right upgrade materials.
I made almost a full Geneplos set last night, will probably use that for the immediate future while swapping out stronger parts as and when I can make them. You know, the usual starting style.

And I don't think the styles make a big difference, at least from the demo I couldn't see any. Try the demo!

[kryss]

In the Tetsukabra armour now, and up to 5* village quests. Took on the lightning wyvern Raizeks twice and now have the charge ax made from it, basically for Tigrex fighting I think.
Thinking about which armour set to go for next, and about a change to using a bow for a while.

[kryss]

Finished the last main village quest, and just beat the low rank guild urgent - now HR4! A whole new world of pain has just opened up for me

[kryss]

Finally went online and did some guild quests with real people. After my initial connection issues (fixed with a router reboot) I'm happy to say it works great and people seem as nice as usual. Hit HR5 and will now be spending a few hours farming ore and armour spheres on the volcano levels.