New forum theme up and running!
Is it's action battle system as sophisticated as Oblvion/Skyrim?
Battle in monster hunter is all about learning the monster's moves pretty much. You have your attacks and a dodge button. While wielding a weapon you move a bit slower(depending on the weapon) and can't use the sprint button. Without a weapon you can sprint and use items. So you kinda have to decide what's best for the situation. There are several items to use, such as the usual potion and antidote. But also whetstones to restore the durability of your weapons, paintballs/flash bombs/sonic bombs etc that can be used situational in some battles or just place traps and bombs.
Switch axe is an axe that can turn into a sword for extra elemental or status damage when you have attacked enough with the axe.
Also no, there's no story to get into. It's not really a rpg in that sense. The storyline is there but it's not really important or about saving the world. Each game starts pretty much like this: You are a hunter, a monster hunter and you start out with nothing and then takes on quests in different areas to do different things. You either kill some monsters, gather some materials, deliver some huge eggs while being hunted by dragons, fish while fending of huge bugs or go on hunts for the large monsters. As you do these things you will get crafting materials. Those materials can be used to craft weapons and armors and other useful items.