Monster Hunter 4 on 3DS, Japan exclusive with new climbing and mounting mechanics. Insect Glaive and ability to attack monsters from the air. Revolutionary for the franchise.
Your verdict
Category
Action RPG4 players12+
Co-op
Description
A hunter travels by caravan to explore new regions and uncover the origin of a mysterious blight affecting monsters and humans alike. Published by Capcom, released in Japan in September 2013. Climbing monsters to attack weak points, numerous weapons and armour to forge, online co-operation for up to four. Japan exclusive.
Monster Hunter 4 review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
This entry redraws its terrain vertically. Layered cliffs, narrow ledges, stacked ruins, climbable scree: handholds and overhangs are visible everywhere, and reading a zone now means judging what you can climb before even looking at what lives there. The creatures follow the same logic, with flanks and backs treated as surfaces you can stand on.
The caravan theme runs as a thread through the whole game. Plucked strings, hand drums and a travelling flute make up a road music that follows the convoy from one region to the next, and the instrumentation takes on colour according to the land reached, drier towards the deserts, deeper towards the cold valleys. You find the same melody everywhere, never quite in the same language.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"Pleasant"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Climbing onto monsters, exploiting vertical terrain and chaining assaults with newfound dynamism reinvigorates the hunt while keeping the gripping hunt-and-craft loop. Forging the ideal weapon and setting your sights on tougher prey sends you back out. The learning curve stays steep, but this regained mobility and the satisfaction of mastery hold a tenacious grip.
Difficulty
"Difficult"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Travelling from caravan to caravan to explore new regions opens a hunt paced by verticality and leaps. Forging your arsenal, unravelling the mystery of a blight and chaining quests holds you for hundreds of hours. That ever-renewed hunting loop, the series' own, guarantees a lifespan hunters savour.
The Taiwanese edition of Monster Hunter 4, in Japanese language with local markings, is a rare regional variant with a print well below the JP pressing. Collector focus on Taiwan-specific packaging and on its place in Asian MH collections aiming to document every available physical variant.
Memorable bosses
This iteration shakes up the hunt by adding verticality: you climb, leap from ledges and haul yourself onto monsters' backs to ride them before bringing them down. The shadowy Gore Magala, carrier of a destabilizing virus, embodies this renewal. Reading the terrain as much as the beast enriches already tactical fights, yielding none of the house difficulty.
Better with friends
Heading vertical, this four-player hunt has you climbing, leaping and mounting monsters to bring them down as a group. Cooperation takes on an acrobatic flavor: coordinating a mount to pin the beast while the others strike delivers a unique collective thrill. The system needs some adjusting to, but the rush of dominating a colossus together richly rewards every prepared hunt.
Is Monster Hunter 4 still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2013 in Japan on 3DS, Capcom's project marks a turning point for the hunting series by introducing verticality, with jumps and mounting of large monsters to unbalance them. The hunt, built on observation, preparation and the mastery of weapons with distinct handling, keeps its demanding and rewarding depth. The cooperative multiplayer, the heart of the experience, binds hunters against colossal prey. The austere interface and the steep learning curve put off newcomers. An excellent hunting game, recommended for fans of technical combat and of demanding cooperation.
