"It’s not for everybody." Of all the properties in Capcom’s arsenal, none can be described so accurately with that phrase as Monster Hunter. It’s seen its share of Western releases since the PlayStation 2 era, but neither it nor the genre it popularized has really caught on as it has in the East. It isn’t hard to see why: this is a notoriously inaccessible series that is demonstrably less concerned with growing its fanbase as it is with catering to those who are already a part of it. Bizarrely, most of its highest-profile installments were released exclusively for Nintendo hardware, which has, from a technical standpoint, been consistently behind the times for three console generations. With the release of Monster Hunter: World, Capcom’s long-running niche staple finally goes next-gen. The leap forward in audio/visual fidelity is inescapable, but those who have stuck by the series for all these years are sure to notice a number of tangible quality-of-life improvements that, while ostensibly small, stack up to make Monster Hunter: World the best game in the series by quite a long shot.

It’s been ages since a Monster Hunter game has looked "current," but that’s exactly what Monster Hunter: World achieves. This is one of the best-looking games Capcom has ever produced, and while it’s not without fault, it’s a frequent pleasure to behold. The first thing you’ll notice is the environment design. From the Ancient Forest to the Coral Highlands and beyond, each contained hunting ground constitutes a biome with a very clear aesthetic and design direction, lending some real weight to this game’s subtitle, "World." In all the ways that matter, this feels like a living, breathing world that could very well go on living and breathing even when you’re not playing. The flora and fauna coexist both peacefully and not-so-peacefully; this is a world that is as messy as it is beautiful.

Justifiably, the largest portion of Capcom’s creative capital has been invested in monster design. And with every other visual element, the new hardware makes all the difference. Every monster, from the Jagras to the Barroth, looks far superior here than on Wii, WiiU, and 3DS. The attention to detail is expanded several times over, to the point where you’re often tempted to simply watch these magnificent beasts live out their daily routine instead of ending their lives so you can wear and wield parts of their corpses. Monsters often fit into a specific archetype, though a hefty percentage of the larger beasts are some variant on dinosaurs and wyverns. That being said, they continue to surprise well into the game’s practically indefinite runtime. I still remember the first time I was on the receiving end of the blowfish-bat-dragon Paolumu’s body slam. I was equal parts infuriated at the stun it inflicted and in total admiration at the level of the animation work involved in the deliverance of my latest and greatest agony. To make a long story short, I would expect that Monster Hunter: World’s core gameplay is as fun to watch as it is to experience firsthand. Perhaps not so much during the time spent in town, where numerous labyrinthine menus full of random data and information packets cause information overload that threatens to undermine all that splendor.

Monster Hunter: World’s sound design is a bit of a mixed bag. The soundtrack is generally majestic orchestral fare, but it’s a little too bombastic for its own good, putting it at odds with the pleasing, naturalistic tone to both the visuals and the game’s primary themes. Sometimes, it just plain gets in the way and wears out its welcome; by the end of my first weekend with the game, I had grown sick to death of the music that plays in Astera. Considering that this is the central hub of the game proper, this is not good. Voice acting is fairly typical JRPG stuff, which means it’s generally not good but not particularly offensive. It’s just there. All the effort is saved for the monsters, who sound every bit as terrifying as they look.

Every Monster Hunter game takes place in a time and place that is, for lack of better words, confused. Technology borders on steampunk, but humanity still chooses to live by tooth, fang, and claw. Yes, they mine the earth for precious metals, but most of their comforts, creature and otherwise, are crafted exclusively from the living elements of the natural world. And, of course, prehistoric-style wildlife roams the land, doing what it does best. Monster Hunter: World casts you as a member of the Fifth Fleet, en route to the New World. The voyage comes to a calamitous end when the ship runs afoul of a legendary Elder Dragon, Zorah Magdoros. What is this scourge’s purpose, and what threat does it pose? Well, that’s a question that doesn’t have an easy answer. But lucky for everyone, you’re a top tier hunter, well-capable of getting to the bottom of this mystery.

From there, you settle into a persistent activity loop that can last for as long as you want it to last. You start with a meager selection of weapons and armor and strike off into the wilds with numerous objectives, primarily related to the role of hunter-gatherer. The cadre of scientists and engineers who have assumed stewardship over the New World have very clear goals, and you pursue them in order to reap tangible rewards that make you functionally better at everything.

Most major objectives involve hunting down or capturing large monsters that are causing some sort of trouble in the wrong place; whether they’re threatening human settlements or disrupting the balance of a delicate ecosystem, they simply have to go. Others simply revolve around farming materials for whatever needs your cohabitants may have. As long as the story keeps to that loop, it succeeds. When it doesn’t, it suffers. I will never forget a specific encounter built up to be a massive group effort. For all the talk and bombast coming from my allies, I was literally the only one trying to complete the objective when time came to get things done. Luckily, these moments don’t crop up too often.

You can attack the lion’s share of this veritable wealth of content either solo or with up to three friends, but once you take your game online, you’ll be brought face to face with the game’s most flagrant missteps.

Several elements of Monster Hunter can be described as "dubious," from to its anthropomorphic cat warrior pals to its scientifically and morally bankrupt insistence that well-done is the ideal way to cook a steak. But there’s really no way to be nice about this: the systems and rules that govern Monster Hunter: World’s online component reside in a quagmire of pointless, needless convolution. It feels like the developers shirked their responsibilities to capitalize on the advantages of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network and instead decided to try and apply their experience with Nintendo’s incompetent, medieval approach to online play. At first glance, the results are borderline disastrous. Who wants drop-in, drop-out cooperative play when you can waste five minutes at a time finagling with menus, passcode locks, and superfluous session setups? Once you clear this preliminary hurdle and accustom yourself to Monster Hunter: World’s regressive matchmaking systems, strange inconveniences will still crop up here and there. Arbitrary rules prevent cooperative play in the event that one or more players haven’t seen cutscenes that "introduce" new monsters. Considering the fact that nobody gives a pile of whatever the Pukei-Pukei left behind about the story in any Monster Hunter game, this is a clear-cut, justifiable strike against World. It’s equal parts inexcusable and unforgivable; Capcom is better than this.

Monster Hunter: World is less immediate in its difficulty than its predecessors, but it is no less intimidating for it. This is a dense, complicated experience that requires your full attention every step of the way. Systems of systems upon systems within systems weave a web so thick and fibrous that the investment required to make visible progress (much less a complete breakthrough) may be too much for some players – especially newcomers.

Tutorials abound, but they aren’t implemented nearly as well as they should be. As far as video games go, Monster Hunter is the assistant headmaster of the school of hard knocks, and its disposition towards instruction is alarmingly indifferent. While it’s a far cry from the trials by fire that comprised earlier games in the series, the walls of text that constitute World’s series of tutorials are haphazardly dumped on the player at determined points, suggesting the prioritization of expedience over context. As a result, you’ll be spending an inordinate time looking at your Hunter’s Notes. The sooner you come to terms with the glacial pace at which Monster Hunter: World acclimates you to its core gameplay loop, the happier you’ll be with the game as a whole.

Preparation is everything in Monster Hunter: World, and that’s a comprehensive truth. If you’re not sufficiently equipped to face the indigenous predators of the New World, the only thing in store for you is punishment. Risk and reward elements are Monster Hunter’s bread and butter, and it isn’t always willing to forgive. Your quarry is always a creature of instinct; it’s fight or flight, all the time. They have their strengths and weaknesses, and the best hunters will know how to capitalize on them through observation, research, and careful execution. Everyone else… will be mauled.

First things first, there’s a lot of downtime in Monster Hunter: World. From ten minutes in until the moment you decide to stop playing, a sizable cross-section of that time will be spent in town. Customization, shopping, quest gathering. All of these things take time, and if you don’t like to parse over statistics and dive deep into layers upon layers of menu screens, Monster Hunter: World may alienate you right off the bat. If you want to maximize your effectiveness in any given area, you’re going to have to deal with some next-level micromanagement. I don’t want to come across as someone who’s trying to convince people not to play this game, because ultimately, I’m recommending it. But it’s important to know exactly what you might be getting into should you choose to take the plunge.

Monster Hunter’s combat is polarizing. Where some see rigidity and inflexibility, others see depth and precision. It’s a difficult thing to describe until you’ve actually played it, and an even more difficult thing to evaluate. I’m not a longtime veteran of the series (I don’t have nearly enough time on my hands); I played and reviewed both the Wii and Wii U incarnations of Monster Hunter Tri, so I may not even be the best candidate to relate to. Imagine a FromSoftware action RPG, only faster and a smidge more forgiving. Once you commit to an attack, there’s usually no way to make aiming adjustments; the animation must finish before you can follow up. That being said, you can cancel out of most actions by dodging, which rectifies at least one longstanding complaint I’ve had with the series. You can lock on to targets, but if they move after you begin your attempt, you stand a good chance at completely missing. Furthermore, combat is often a lengthy affair, which in turn inescapably exacerbates any issues you may personally have.

By "lengthy" I generally mean usually over ten minutes. You’ll start by unleashing attacks as you see fit, making adjustments as you go. Then you’ll see it change its tactics and flee. Pursue and engage again with another lengthy series of onslaughts and evasive maneuvers, and you may wonder the same. Keep going at it, and eventually, you’ll see it start to limp. Corner it, and the beast will get desperate and even more dangerous. Eventually, it will fall and you can reap the rewards of the struggle. Endurance and persistence trump instant gratification by a mile in Monster Hunter: World, and that’s likely why it hasn’t caught on as well in the West as Capcom might have hoped. But every time you sever a tail or break a horn is a triumphant thrill, and finally landing that killing blow is like exhaling a breath held for several minutes. It’s something else.

In previous Monster Hunter games, it was occasionally difficult to tell whether or not a weapon or attack pattern was particularly effective. The only feedback you got was maybe a brief bloody slash effect. But considering the time investment required to kill even a single monster, that might not be enough. Monster Hunter: World introduces damage numbers, which prove a long overdue and necessary educational concession. Purists may cry foul, but they can change it to be as obtuse and feedback-averse as they want.

Monster Hunter: World introduces scoutflies, which double as both a world-building mechanic and a much-welcome waypoint system. By investigating tracks left behind by monsters, your scoutflies are able to pick up on their general location and ultimately lead you to them. This cuts down on unnecessary wandering, but it comes with additional benefits. They’re capable of highlighting materials in the environment and displaying them in a special feed, so you can focus on what you need as opposed to items that will simply take up space in your pouch.

If you have the patience to stick with Monster Hunter: World’s most trying elements, you’re in for some serious rewards. Carving parts off each kill gives you resources, which can either be used in crafting or the forging of new weaponry and armor. Better equipment means better odds in a stand-up fight, and before too long, you’ll be able to more easily dispatch monsters that may have given you problems in the past. More importantly, it’ll help your chances against the game’s more challenging and impressive encounters.

It goes without saying that much of Monster Hunter: World is either poorly-explained or not explained at all. This is a long-running issue with the series as a whole, but there’s a double edge to this. Most of the systems that make up the immensely complicated machine underneath the surface exist in the sole service of players who want to dig deep. They’re not required for the base level challenges offered by the core experience. But since Monster Hunter: World is a game whose payout is amazingly proportionate with player investment, I would argue that the self-education required to get the most out of the game is ultimately worthwhile. The same will surely not be true for everyone.

I won’t presume to speak for the legions of Monster Hunter fans who know what they do and don’t want. Whether Monster Hunter: World speaks to them or puts them off is not for me to say. What I can say, however, is that I’m satisfied with the time I’ve spent thus far and look forward to spending even more with it. No, Monster Hunter: World is not for everybody. But it's closer than it's ever been.