Monster Hunter Generations on 3DS with Hunting Styles and Hunter Arts. Four distinct combat styles per weapon allowing unprecedented customisation. The most flexible and accessible MH. A must.
Your verdict
Category
Action RPG4 players12+
Co-op
Description
A hunter explores four ancestral villages and faces Deviant Monsters, legendary variants of known creatures with unique behaviours. Published by Capcom, released in Europe in July 2016. Customisable fighting styles and style-specific Hunting Arts, formidable Deviant Monsters, online co-operation for up to four. Multilingual version.
Monster Hunter Generations review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
Four villages, four crafts. One is built from driftwood and fishing nets, another from dry stone and tiles, a third from stretched paper and bamboo, the last from carved ice and fur. The inhabitants, the shops, right down to the utensils laid out on the stalls follow that material each time, so that a single still shot is enough to say which land you are in.
The village themes of the older entries all return, reorchestrated. Each keeps its original melody but changes ensemble, a flute replaced by a koto, a string section reduced to a single violin, a choir added where there was none. For anyone who knows the series, crossing the four towns amounts to walking through their own history as a player, arranged by other hands.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"Pleasant"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Picking a hunting style and brand-new arts that energize the weapons sets up a track-and-craft loop where experimentation constantly rekindles the urge to head back out. Facing the series' headline monsters and forging their gear keeps you chaining quests. The content sometimes lacks structure, but this generosity and the freedom of style hold a tenacious grip.
Difficulty
"Difficult"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Roaming four ancestral villages and challenging Deviants with unique behaviours renews the hunt with every encounter. Hunting Art styles, an arsenal to forge and cooperative tracking stretch the adventure over hundreds of hours. That generosity of content and variety, true to the series, offers a longevity dear to hunters.
Monster Hunter Generations PAL marks the official end of the franchise's physical Western distribution on Nintendo handhelds, since the Ultimate follow-up moved to Switch in a hybrid format. Collector value fits that closing logic, with the added weight of this retrospective entry honouring the whole series history, a configuration not repeated since.
Memorable bosses
A celebration of the whole saga, this entry introduces hunting styles and spectacular arts that reinvent the approach to each beast. Four new flagships, from the feline Mizutsune to the thunderous Astalos, join a wealth of revisited monsters. Adapting your technique to the foe's behavior, dismantling its parts and landing your flashy moves make for a jubilant, varied hunt.
Better with friends
This four-player hunt lets everyone pick their combat style, so cooperation becomes an assembly of complementary personalities on the field. The fun springs from those varied approaches answering each other: aerial dodges, solid guards or charged strikes make for a heady team ballet. More accessible than its elders while staying rich, it invites you to chain hunts without ever tiring the group.
Is Monster Hunter Generations still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2015 in Japan then 2016 in the West on 3DS and known in Japan as Monster Hunter X, Capcom's project celebrates the series by gathering monsters and environments from many past entries. The introduction of hunting styles and hunting arts, which modulate weapon handling and offer special moves, adds an exhilarating layer of customisation to the hunt. The ability to play a feline hunter diversifies the experience. The generous content and the multiplayer bind the sessions. The austerity and the difficulty remain. An excellent hunting game, recommended for fans of technical combat and of cooperation.
