The first thing I noticed when starting Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was how insanely gorgeous it is. The environments are huge and colorful, with interesting lighting effects that I really didn’t think the 3DS was capable of, but I was clearly wrong in my assumption.

Gameplay is just as tight as always, and while I was only able to use the transforming Switch Axe during my time with the game, I had a blast making it swap forms, watching bursts of steam shooting out of it as it changed.  Monster Hunter 3 looked and played great on 3DS, but MH4 looks even better.

However, the core gameplay hasn’t really changed. You’ll have two AI companions following you into the field when adventuring alone, helping you fight and gather resources to make even better equipment to advance through the games story.

The story is said to be playing a much bigger role in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate than ever before, but since the demo was set within a quest, I was not able to exit the level to return to whatever town it was started from.  Here’s hoping time goes by quickly, because I LOVE hunting monsters, and have gotten kind of tired of the series around the time of Monster Hunter 3 and Freedom Unite.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is set to release in early 2015.