A lance, a dragon three times your size, and hours spent learning every pattern. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is the hunt as ritual.

The profile draws a game of balance, with no peak. Desert island and connection place it right in the middle, the latter on a few more votes, so the most solid signal here. Fun and rediscovery stay just below, in the lower middle. And then the art style drops right to the bottom, behind almost every other game. No real dramatic tension, more an observation: a game known for its deep systems and its hunting loop, but whose criteria of emotion and aesthetics don't capture the essential. Its greatness lies elsewhere, in mastery and repetition, not in what these questions measure. All on few duels, to take as a first reading.

Against the big hunting action-RPGs, the genre it largely defined, it carries the weight of a 3DS version with a dated look.

So, who's it for? For you if you love earning progress through sweat, taking apart a monster after twenty tries. Much less if you want a visual punch or an instant crush.