>>3787473
>>3787843
I can't see anyone who plays Monster Hunter as well as RPGs considers it an RPG. I have played shit tons of Monster Hunter. Well over 1000 hours on the first game and other than the Wii entry, hundreds of hours on every other one up to Generations Ultimate.

Monster Hunter has a lot of thematic similarities to RPGs in that it's a fantasy setting which honestly is like 90% of RPGs and the game centers around doing quests for people. For one though, most RPGs have a story and characters the game makes them try to care about. Monster Hunter has only paper thin characters and story. Beating the ultimate last boss in 3 all they say is wowie kazowie. Also
RPGs have always been defined as games that use character stats and abilities to determine combat outcomes. Why in Skyrim if you're high level and in massive armor you can just stand still and take no meaningful damage while being raged on by a dragon and then kill it by hitting the attack button a few times. That's not Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter is an action game, specifically it's a boss rush action game. It is all about learning the patterns and specific bullshit of the current monster so you can avoid it and land your own attacks. You collect new armor and stuff but it's mostly cosmetic (though this does get less true as the series goes on) and if you're not actively playing then you can be in end game equipment and get trampled to death in seconds. Finally, usually in RPGs there's a leveling system that makes your character progress and grow. You do go up in hunter ranks in Monster Hunter but they really don't affect much, it's just a marker of progress