There’s no way to sugarcoat this – the combat in Monster Hunter: World sucks. It just plain sucks. For a game that’s entirely based around hitting big things with slightly smaller, sharper things you’d think that this would be a vital aspect to get right; instead, it’s frustrating. As with most people, the majority of my TPP-ARPG experience comes from the Dark Souls series. one that practically coined the term hit-box porn with its tight, responsive and accurate combat. If you swing at something and it looks like you should hit it, you’ll hit it. This isn’t the case with MH:W
Instead, MH:W expects pinpoint precision from each swing; god help you if you queue up a combo and the monster moves. Your sword feels weighty too — the great sword in particular has animations that befit its sheer size — but it still hits like a pool noodle. Couple that with the fact that your weapon feels like it has the smallest, thinnest hit-box while the monster can flail its attacks in large zones and still make contact and you’re left annoyed and dead once more. I can understand why this may be the case — balance comes to mind — but that’s no excuse for a clunky control scheme and produces thoroughly unrewarding combat overall.
but the combat sucks
