Ever since we first went hands on with Monster Hunter: World we’ve been waxing lyrical about the title, and our collective enthusiasm has only grown with subsequent betas. It’s no surprise, then, that the first review of the game is particularly high: 39/40 to be precise. But yes, there’s the caveat: this comes courtesy of Japanese magazine Famitsu.
While it’s obviously reassuring to see such a high score awarded, the legendary publication has a – how shall we put this? – sketchy reputation at best. There’s no reason to be concerned, of course, but it would be disingenuous of us to recommend you put all of your faith in the game into a Famitsu score.
The review itself is very complimentary, however. It mentions that it takes about 50-60 hours to reach the ending, and obviously there’s plenty to keep you coming back beyond that. Interestingly, it says that the story is “strong”, and it also praises various quality of life improvements that have been implemented into the series for the first time.
Essentially, it sounds like there’s ample reason to be excited. We’re going to have lots more on Monster Hunter: World later in the month, so if you’re looking forward to the game, please be excited for that. In the meantime, do let us know if you’ve pre-ordered the title in the comments section below.
[source ryokutya2089.com, via gematsu.com, resetera.com]
Comments 48
Clearly, the game will be good. Beta response is good, the MH format is adored and this game would appear to be said format on crack. I guess the only way it's going to let people down is if they dumb certain things down too much and upset the hardcore fanbase. As for me I won't be around day one as my gaming schedule is pretty crammed and I'm trying to complete games before buying new ones this year. Still, it's on the list!
Ready for this game.
Don't even post this. Famitsu is trash
I often wonder if Nintendo Life throws out as many 10s as they do in order to try and catch up to Famitsu.
@RedMageLanakyn I laughed.
@RedMageLanakyn well in contrast to famitsu i have not heard of any developer being asked by NL about their "review budget". have you?
Famitsu.......HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHAH.
Thought the game will be Epic.
@RedMageLanakyn SHOTS FIRED
Never, ever pre-order; trusting the promises of marketers is foolish, I think. Those quality-of-life improvements do sound great though. Looking forward to the review details proper for sure.
MH isn't a game you play for the story but if it has a good one that is one hell of a nice bonus.
I put my Pre-Order in about 20 mins into the beta.
@manu0 I wouldn't know, i stopped visiting their site awhile ago when their writing turned to clickbait, the articles looked like they were rushed and not proofread/checked for consistency, and they started withholding reviews for developers to "fix" released games that were broken. And I've never read anything from or about Famitsu, just know their reputation for handing out high scores on everything.
Just hope monster variety is gigantic
I fail to see what makes Famitsu bad compared to other reviewers or even yourselves?
@RedMageLanakyn they're not just "handing out high scores". they let you pay for them. that's why they ask developers about their "budget for reviews". they gave sonic forces a 35/40 = 8.8... (and btw: famitsu seems to have been the only publication that even had a review copy for sonic forces before launch)
Wait and see...
@manu0 Ah, well that's no good. Guess I'll make sure to continue steering clear of them.
@viciousarcanum Famitsu used to be held in the highest regard. Grabbing a 40/40 in the 1990s was only obtained by the very best games. Ocarina of time, Soul Calibur, Vagrant Story (all the very best games at the time) I bought both SC and VS due to the scores (they were frequently quoted in UK gaming magazines) and was delighted with both games, the writing was amazing, the coverage was best in class and everyone looked to famitsu as a guide on what to buy. About 10 years ago they awarded some really dodgy perfect scores. Final fantasy 13-2 immediately springs to mind (as it wasnt perfect at all imo and I was there day 1), Kid Icarus (we all love that dont we?) MGS Peace Walkers perfect score has some weird backstory with the boss of the mag having colluded with Konami, he was in an advert for them and loads of weird stuff. Their reputation got dragged through the mud and rightly so. Its not just suspect perfect scores, the crazy high 39s list of dodgy games is even worse.
That said they seem to have a better reputation in recent times so hopefully the scores for Monster Hunter can be taken at face value.
@themcnoisy giving sonic forces an 8.8 a couple of months ago seems to disagree
@get2sammyb @RedMageLanakyn Funny that,especially when you consider Push Square has handed out thirteen 10/10's just to PS4 games.The PS3 received 7 which isn't so much but then Push Square wasn't around for much of the PS3's life.
Nintendolife 10/10's
Switch - 5 (4 retail & 1 Eshop)
Wii U - 4 (3 retail & 1 Eshop)
3DS - 7 (6 retail (2 being the same Pokemon game & 2 being Zelda 64 remasters) & 1 Eshop)
PS3/4 = 20 perfect scores
Switch/Wii U/3DS = 16 perfect scores
@manu0 8.8? How does that even work its a whole number from 0-40.
@OorWullie In our defence a few of those older 10/10s are from before Sammy was editor.
Just want to make it clear that we categorically do not think Killzone 3 is a 10/10 game.
@OorWullie What's more, should also point out that three of those 10s are for The Witcher 3 and its two expansions.
And all of those are objectively the best entertainment ever made, so...
@themcnoisy 35/40 = 8.75/10 =~ 8.8/10
@OorWullie It was a joke tbh, but considering the switch hasn't been out a year and has already surpassed wiiu and almost caught up with the 3DS, a 7 year old system, in 10/10s....oh wait, it's still just a joke
I'm gonna wait until the end of the year when they re release the better version. Can NEVER trust Capcom when they "say" they "won't re release the same game twice" because I see a re release of SFV, and there hasn't been a single time they haven't doubled down on a MH game.
Besides I'm gonna wait for the version with all of the content in one package which will be the pc version, and of course ps4 and xbox one will get another re release.
Can't trust Famitsu too much, the same goes to sites like Polygon, Kotaku, Gamespot, Eurogamer and the list goes on.
Anyway, Famitsu is not the worst problem of the gaming media, far from that.
That is cool. But the Beta sold it for me already.
@OorWullie 🙄
Don't forget this game is an abomination and not true to the series and Capcom has been paid by greedy Sony to steal this game from the no-profit organization that is Nintendo! HUH!
Will most probably get it and SFV AE is amazing, can't stop playing it...Capcom is on a roll.
@manu0 Ahhh ok. You have taken the official score and exchanged it for your own metric, going even further and rounding up. That makes sense :/
Tbf that review stinks a bit, they all mention the avatar maker. I didnt even know that was a thing.
Looks fantastic but since Famitsu is basically a joke this generation, I'll still keep my expectations low.
Also, speaking of famitsu, they also reviewed this week Seven Deadly Sins, and needless to say the score is worrisome, gaining a 29 on Famitsu. Sure, Demon's Souls got a scoe 29 as well, but then again so did Kamen Rider Climax Fighters, and that game is pretty trash.
No doubt they want to keep a strong relationship with Capcom and of course everyone has their own personal bias which will come into play but hopefully this is a fair reflection of the game, we will find out soon.
More interested at this point in the words than the score for this game anyway, a high number alone doesn't guarantee it's a game I will love.
Correct me if I'm wrong but don't MH games generally get really high scores on Famitsu anyways?
I got over the MHWorld hype after the first beta. It plays great but just wasn't as exciting for me as before, think I'm over the MH series for a while. Looking forward to the pushsquare and dtoid reviews.
@Sensechat Just had to take the bait, eh?
... remember all reviews are subjective... for example, Eurogamer used to be THE place for reviews, but whatever's happened to them recently, they've gone right down the pan... you always have to take reviews with a pinch of salt and tally it with your own likes / dislikes in a game... nowadays there are more demos, betas, trials, etc. than ever, so more often than not you can try before you buy, making reviews even less important than they once were...
I feel bad for preferring the combat in MH4U to the beta but I've played well over 1000 hours of that but unless World has the same levels of G-Rank I'm just going to wait for XX to come to the West on Switch.
@themcnoisy um what? 35/40 is EXACTLY the same as 8.75/10. it's not my own metric. it's called math. and I rounded it (correctly) to one decimal digit as I've never seen any publication give an "out of 10"-score with two decimals. but fine..we can also be conservative and round it to 8.7/10. it's still a score that shows how corrupt famitsu is, especially when you take into account that they were the only publication with a review copy before launch.
@JoeBlogs - I think you're 100% right! Great way of thinking about reviews! (I've loved games that have been SLATED by reviewers) but for some reason I still get annoyed when reviewers mark games down unfairly or are critical for the sake of being 'different'... :/
@manu0 "giving sonic forces an 8.8 a couple of months ago seems to disagree"
Thats what you initially wrote. Regardless how youve evidenced it since. How the hell would I know you exchanged the 40 score paradigm for a best out of ten and then rounded up? Who would assume that other than you? I thought you meant the 4 reviewers scored the game 2.2 each as an example. Or 2/2/2/2.8. Hopefully you can understand why I questioned the post.
Other than that 9/9/9/8 is a bit of a high score for an apparently average game (I havent played it so cant comment).
@Sensechat Yeah, it was a joke, the sites are affiliated and pick on each other occasionally. Take a pill, sir.
50-60 hours story is nice
Day one patch will include Poogies!
@themcnoisy not wanna sound harsh, but I honestly understood the conversion from /40 to /10 right away.
Anyway, I’m glad MHW is shaping up to what seems to be a great game indeed. I don’t have a system to play it on anymore, but I’m happy with the changes the series seems to be going through, as it started being quite stale.
@clvr Thats because your clvr. Lol. Yeah I see it now, obviously after writing a relatively large post about famitsus scoring history and being met with an 8.8 I was like ayyyy?
Regardless sorry @manu0 went a bit ott there bro. Ive reread your posts and sorry for being snarky in my last comment.
@themcnoisy ahahahahahahahahah that actually made me laugh out loud 😂
To be fair, though, it should be read as “clover”; I’m not so crass and arrogant as to call myself “clever” lol
In fact I added “Clover.” as my signature and profile description, so that people don’t mistake me for some self-righteous know-it-all d*ck (though I’ll admit I can be sometimes, even though I try to avoid that lol).
I’ve been using it for sooooo many years and actually noticed the “clever” misconception only a couple years ago, but then again, shame on me for choosing a misunderstandable nick 😂
@Tsurii Well professional reviews are meant to be more than just opinion. If you read a review of FFVII it should be more than "RPGs are for geeks and Cloud looks gay,” or "I love that guy's sword and tifa is hot!!!" You'd expect it to steer away from pure opinion like "I hate sci-fi" when talking about Mass Effect. Instead it'd focus on describing the features of the game and how well they're implemented, like how save points are too sparse so you have to play for hours at a time. Or how shotgun ammo is too rare for the shotgun to be a viable weapon choice, so it's inclusion is near pointless, presumably unintentionally. Things like that. And comparisons to benchmark games in the genre or its own series.
You get a certain level of subjectivity but that's usually minimised by the giving examples. Plus, avoiding vague language that only conveys your reaction, not what you're reacting to. Compare "This game is a mess and I hate it" to "frequent bugs plague the game making for a frustrating experience". The former is the kind of review you get in Steam.
I don’t want to hunt monsters. Monsters are my friends. Why can’t we all just get along?
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