Any Monster Hunter players here? =)

Rhys and I are big into MH. I downloaded MHX on my Japanese 3ds on Saturday, got to actually sit down and play some yesterday. Still early in the game, but cool to see Yumiko village again (and Pokke I guess, but I have more fond memories of Portable 3rd than Freedom Unite, sacrilegious as that will sound to some).

Thinking of picking up Hunting Horn, although playing in Japanese will add an extra hurdle to learning the songs. I've been trying out Bushido style HH, but thinking of switching to Aerial - the openings created by mounting might help give me opportunities to get off harder songs - some of them are tricky to do in combat because I want to use a different note's move to re-position, etc.

I'll definitely still be playing Hammer & Gunlance, probably some Insect Glaive, but planning to stay away from Heavy Bowgun this time, which is my other main, because determining ammo types in the heat of combat is too tricky in Japanese. If there's a solid pierce or normal bowgun I might make a set for that later in the game, since then I'll only have one main shot type and I can read which level of shot is which.

I really like the concept of the different Hunting Styles, but in practice the demo showed me I'm too used to how my weapons play, so using non-guild styles is too hard to adapt to - for Hammer I'd have to give up either the big swing of the triple-pound or the highest charge level, depending on style. I'm willing to give Aerial Gunlance another shot at some point because jumping around with a bomstick is cool in theory, but loosing the slam is harsh. For the most part, sticking with Guild is the clearly best option for weapons I'm familiar with, which is why I'm taking up HH as a new weapon to learn in a new style.