10 Most Essential Japanese Video Games

5. Monster Hunter: World

Capcom's best-selling game of all time, if you've been a Monster Hunter fan since the beginning, you were just waiting for the devs to smooth over the edges and deliver something on newer hardware that would truly sing.

That time finally came in 2018, when after almost a decade staying away from home consoles, World arrived fully formed to dominate the sales charts.

As a base formula many had enjoyed on 3DS and even PSP over the years, Monster Hunter's core loop of taking down increasingly large beasts, knowing you'll then use specific parts like claws, teeth, hides, fur etc to make better gear, just keeps people coming back.

If a player drops into your game with an oversized katana made from the jawbone of a creature that wrecked you the previous week, it alone is a reason to stick around, fight alongside and see what else you can find.

Wearing creatures down through attrition, setting up traps, coordinating specials and actively riding the beasts around the map for the next stage of the fight, Monster Hunter: World is an exquisite multiplayer experience, and a totally recommendable single player one, too.