For Monster Hunter specifically, as well as other similar games like God Eater and White Knight Chronicles, the appeal is literally just big number go up from grinding. If you don’t like grinding, you probably aren’t going to enjoy these kinds of games. They can easily feel very repetitive.

The complexity and variety of the weapons, as well as the different monsters and the personalities is what I like about them. It’s basically a boss rush game with the occasional gathering session for environmental resources.

It’s not a game for everyone, and it’s kinda a running meme that everyone drops it shortly after there first time playing it, only to come back years later and get completely hooked.

If you do decide to try it, I really suggest messing around with the weapons in the training area until you find one interesting to you, and then searching up a guide for it.

The game is what others said and as for what it is it’s pretty unique series and good game. But as you said - you can’t see it’s appeal right away, maybe you are like me and this game will be just boring for you. I tried to play it on PC for more than ten or even twenty hours, with friends and alone. Just doesn’t click.

I love this style of game and still get on Phantasy Star Online and Diablo II (heavily modded) and slaughter those same monsters over and over… but I found the menu system of Monster Hunter World so frustrating that I gave up quickly. YMMV

It’s a tough and punishing game where 100 hours of grind means MAYBE the latest boss won’t KO you in a single hit.

It has 18 different weapons that each require a 20 minute tutorial from some guy on YouTube, and each requiring 20 hours to master. It’s a “the wand chooses the wizard Harry” and everyone is going to have their own favorite weapon. I myself ended up being a Charge Blade user, which is the most technical weapon in the game. Using it is like performing a Japanese Tea Ceremony whilst battling a 15 foot long alligator in a small room.

Melee weapons need sharpening mid battle, range weapons need ammo you have to craft before entering battle else you are SOL. Your stamina requires that you eat a large steak every 5 minutes or you will be constantly exhausted.

There is no twitch. Every action needs to be deliberate. A monster takes minutes of constant fire to stun or paralyze, during which time someone with a large weapon administers the tea he has been brewing. It’s called a Super Amped Elemental Discharge.

Loot is random but the part you want can only spawn when you damage the proper parts with the proper weapon.

So what makes me like this game? This kinda gameplay loop means Losing is par for the course. No “git gud” or “skills issue” kids are ever going to play this game. A skilled healer/buffer is treated as a god among men, unlike Overwatch where it’s your fault the team that spread itself all over the map got wiped out.

Tldr. Playing 100 hours of monster hunter filters the player base down to a group of Zen Monk Masochists that enjoy 2 things.

1. Spending 40 minutes taking down a 4 winged dragon that farts lightning every 10 seconds.

2. Each other’s company.

I hope this makes sense.

When the Souls games turn out to be too easy and less rewarding for skill, and you want to play with one to three friends, MH is there.

I want to say researching, preparing, tracking, and finally hunting your mark is the draw. But after playing its got a lot of RPG grind fest elements in it and a lot less mechanics that make you feel like a hunter. Its still fun, and you still do track and hunt monsters. But once the fighting begins it feels more like an action RPG to me.

Dumped down the game is about learning your weapon’s moveset and the monster’s moveset to get satisfying moments in hunts. Other reward for learning is getting numbers go up from upgrading or creating your weapons and armor.

Every weapon gives different playstyle and skills given by your equipment can enhance your specific playstyle. Of course there are meta options for armor (in terms of damage output), but other skills can offer so much utility or defensive stuff. Getting a skill that makes your self healing heal others can be a lifesaver. Defensive skills are lifesavers on harder hunts and reduce stress.

Monster Hunter World and Rise (with their expansions) have also pushed the ecology part of the game a lot further. It is really cool explore the different maps and their fauna. Realising that one map is pretty much covered by a corpse of an older game’s gigantic monster is cool. Seeing small endemic life interacting is neat. While this ecology wondering is less seen on the older games, it is still there in smaller scale.

Freedom Unite (can be considered as the 2nd game + expansion) has been the first experience for most western veterans, so it is pretty popular. First Monster Hunter is really janky, even when compared to the other older instalments of the series, and Freedom United improved a lot on pretty much everything. Monster Hunter Tri (3rd) was like a fresh start. Most things were new; like maps, monster roster (old classics as well) and under water combat. Unfortunately Tri had to cut few older weapons out in place for new ones.

I always liked the complexity of the combat. You need to observe and find weaknesses, you have various tools used to do things like trap, or pin down the monster. You actually want to switch up your gear to the appropriate monster you’re hunting because there isn’t a singular “this fucks everything up” set. The actual attacking and shit is very Dark Souls-ish even before Dark Souls existed.

I don’t know how much deeper they got in recent times; last one I played was on the Wii. But if they ever added shit like Shadow of the Colossus or Dragon’s Dogma where you can climb on large monsters to find and hit their weak point that would be amazing for MH.