I played Pillars of Eternity + Avowed more for the plot than the mechanics (slightly). Both are dialogue heavy games, where choice matters and you want to be involved.

Monster Hunter Wilds is not that type of game, you are there to attack big monsters and the story itself is more of a blur than much else. For some odd reason, the game has 2 types of cutscenes, one where you can skip ahead on the text, and another that’s locked to the entirety I always play with subtitles, too much experience with key words missed in some elvish language or something. So reading during a cutscene is instinctive and miles faster than any voice actor can deliver. Some games it’s super worth watching the nuance (Mass Effect 2 is a real highlight), others not so much. Monster Hunter Wilds is far from a bad game in that sense, but the story is superfluous and the lines given to the actors right up there with the best Monster B-movie. I get it, the whole point is exposition, so they need to tell much more than they show. I will say it’s interesting for your character to have spoken lines!

You can gather than I have the majority of the main line stuff done by this point. I’m into a multi-option quest in Chapter 5, with an HR of 30+. By my math of MH games, I should have 1 or 2 steps left after this, which would them put me in the farming stage.

I had it last post, and will say it again here, MH Wilds is mechanically a superior game to its predecessors in every regard. Combat, movement, interactions, crafting, monsters, environments, sound, art, group play… you name it, it’s done better here. The Seikret mount negates almost all of the in-world friction points from prior games and I absolutely do not miss the Wirebug from Rise. The difficulty is still here, the last quarter of the game is full of 1-hit kill monsters if you’re not paying attention. The grind is there at the tail end, so that you don’t need to farm in Low Rank. Cooking may be a bit of an adjustment as the ingredients are not infinite, but the ability to cook anywhere is amazing.

I’m still in the mix of things now, and normally only come up for air near HR50 or so (e.g. once I have the armor & weapon I want, not the decorations). The top end consumables are not really a consideration right now, nor optimization. So far, the entire vibe is Monster Hunter World 2 – Even Less Friction. Impressive.