The Jank is the Point

Last year, a few friends and I played through Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate front to back. Jaggi to Alatreon, Seltas to Fatalis. Monster Hunter has often been a go-to series for me when I want something to play on the go, but often that's a solitary experience. MH4U's original release was the last time I'd spent more time online than solo and remembering just how vibrant Monster Hunter can be while hanging with friends was a great way to kill an evening. We used the 3DS emulator Citra (or the various forks that followed its untimely death) and community-made servers and services like Pretendo to play together and despite a few technical issues along the way, had an absolute blast shooting the shit and grinding some materials. More recently, I've been playing Monster Hunter World and finding its modernized interpretation of Monster Hunter every bit as tedious and lacking as I did the first time around. I wrote a bit about why. But with MHW failing to fulfill…