Alejandro: Well, in the quest mode, I really don't see a point to killing monsters. They seem to just get in the way of the item I need to collect, the one particular monster I need to kill 10 of, or the big beast I'm hunting. Yeah, I guess I can get stuff from them, but I'm sick of seeing the item-collecting animation. Even my guy seems reluctant at this point to whip out his scavenger knife to pick up "raw meat" before realizing he doesn't have any more room in his sack.

Part of why I like RPGs and action-RPGs is because all of the time you put into combat really pays off, since the stronger enemies you fight later are easier to slay with a leveled-up hero. I realize that all of the fighting in Monster Hunter sort of leads to a stronger character thanks to better weapons and armor, but I feel like I'm always a couple of crucial items short of creating what I want, and I have no idea where to find the goods.

Giant insects make surprisingly useful lanterns.

Rob: Item gathering can become tedious, but that's why you build up your farm through requests. Eventually, you won't have to forage for much at all because the villagers grow that stuff for you while you're out in the Woods or on a quest.

Also, experiment with item combinations. See what happens and what you get. Characters in the game also drop hints about how to make certain items, too.

Alejandro: What would make the game a little more enjoyable is a better combat system. Part of the problem seems like slippery contact with my hero's attacks and the monsters. 

I feel like I'll get one hit in before the monster takes a step back or to the side. Instead of them getting stuck in my combo, and my guy pulling in toward them to keep hitting, the monsters just seem stuck on their jump-around-and-attack-every-3-seconds dance while my guy stands in one place and misses repeatedly. 

I fail to see the point in having a method to the combat, either. It's just mash on the attack button and step out of the enemies’ charge every couple of seconds. You have no need to even do the rolling-dodge move the game teaches you -- just realize that enemies only fight in a straight line, and as long as you move out of that line, you'll be fine.

But underwater combat grants attack from any direction and angle....

If the game's combat was more like a true action game, maybe something like Devil May Cry, I think I would be a lot more into it. Instead, they give you this mediocre combat system that gives little to no visual or statistical rewards to players.

Rob: Monster Hunter is what an action game means to me. The Devil May Cry design of supercombos, brain-dead enemies, horde killing, and scores splattered across the screen don't appeal to me. I'm not interested in juggling bullshit enemies that never posed a serious threat in the first place. I don't care to slaughter through a seemingly unending swarm of lower-level fodder who take a ridiculous amount of punishment before finally visiting the Reaper. That's the height of tedium to me. It's why I can't bring myself to like any of the God of War games and their clones.

Instead, Monster Hunter takes a more methodical approach. Every attack counts. You have little room for error against the larger foes. You need to study attack patterns and look for an opening. Fights are a sort of dance between you and your prey -- they are little puzzles.

Solving them is a lot more interesting to me, since defeating enemies is not about reducing a health bar but instead about reading your opponent. You even need to watch for signs of weakness, so you know when to go in for the kill or set a trap for capture. The game constantly challenges and rewards my mind.

Definitely should have dodged that time.

I definitely made use of my character's entire moveset. Chaining together different attacks is important for doing the most damage. Rolling and dodging featured heavily during major monster fights, especially when I fought the Royal Ludroth. These moves saved my life several times when the creature would quickly charge at me while flinging water in all directions.

My only complaint is with the lack on a lock-on feature. I've heard an argument that it's part of the game's design to require camera management along with everything else, but I'm calling bullshit. Why? Because Capcom doesn't give you a way to easily control your movement, rotate the camera, and use all of your attacks at the same time.

They need to study control schemes developed by From Software. Both Demon's Souls and the Armored Core series map the inputs to allow easy manipulation of all three at once. In fact, mastering movement, camera, and attack is vital to success in those cases. And each game has a lock-on feature.