The fourth instalment in Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise launched alongside Nintendo's New (well, at least sort of new) Nintendo 3DS handheld back in April. Since then, hunters around the world have been collectively stuck in a hypnotic gameplay loop of killing monsters, looting their corpses and upgrading their gear so that they can, well, kill bigger monsters, loot those corpses and upgrade that gear. Despite its extremely simple concept (and its endearingly charming obsession with cat-based puns), Monster Hunter 4 follows series tradition by being a game with a staggering amount of depth; both in terms of strategy and gear customisation. So much so in fact, that it's surprisingly easy to play Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for hundreds of hours and come away feeling like you've only scratched the surface of what the game has to offer. Even once you've reached the notorious G rank, you will continue to evolve as a player and add new tricks to your playstyle. While Capcom has done an admirable job in explaining the basics of MH4 to newcomers to the series like myself, they missed out some key tips (or in some cases hid them in easily missed NPC conversations) that may very well save a hunters life one day.
