:O
WHOOOOOOO!!!!!!! i will try to get down to that place in london atleast once 
Afoia...atleast i could pair up with you on it :lol:
i'm about 2 weeks away from completing the second game...which will bring me just upto date with UNITE ^_^ and then save data will be transfered across to the new game and all my long swords will be converted into money and bargain tickets off new class armour muhahahahaha
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in ways you can compare it to FF....and yet its not so turn based....you collect resources and that includes bug catching, fishing, mining and killing monsters for their hides and other body parts. taking them to the workshop and buying armour....using things called armour spheres that are bought or mined to upgrade that armour....and using resources to make weapons...there's loads of weapon types to choose from too......
*Great sword (imagine cloud strifes sword and you've pretty much got a Great sword concept right there!)
*Long sword (like giant katana's - i love this type)
*Sword and shield (does what it says on the tin xD )
*Hammer (massive hammers bigger than the hunter)
*Music hammer (you can play notes aswell as attack and form songs to unlock boosts of defense, fire attributes...blah blah blah the list is endless)
*lance (abit slow...but defence on them is brilliant)
*Gunlance (i have a personal hidden love for them....their build like a lance, can attack like a lance...but can fire unlimited bullets and can do a move called the wyvern fire...a massive energy blast that is capable of killing an awful lot of monsters in seconds.)
*light bowguns.
*heavy bowguns
*bow and arrow
You also get a cat (felyne) in UNITE, it fights along side you as a support character which can either attack with a sword...or be a kamikaze cat with bombs lol....or both!
there's also a farm that you can upgrade and manage
and cats who are your chefs and cook you meals which depending on what you choose as ingredients, can unlock abilities when you fight.
You have a guild card that you can pass around to other hunters on and offline and can personalise it too.
the start up of the game is always tough....collecting resources to build better armour...but after the 3 star village elders quests seem to pick up the pace and going after harder monsters becomes more fun. prep for a hunt is also key...you'll learn what items to combine to create more items. You see...its not just hunting...its an awful lot!
Now for the quests...there's a few hundred quests in total given by the village elder....then the cat elder gives just as many but twice as hard with new variations of monsters. then the guild hall lower desk which is a step up from the cat elder...then the higher quests on the second guild hall desk....and at the very end is the hardest quests where the monsters are crazy....the strongest monster is called fatalis....and most people die after one hit.....i know my armour which is in the 400's won't be able to protect me from it. There's also a super saiyan type monster called the Rajang...its a primate-us type monster who's hair turns from flat and black to spikey and bright gold when its enraged....and on the guild hall quests on the higher quests the rajang is already in its super saiyan esque level. and can hit a second level where it turns completely gold and looks like oozaroo but with bulls horns.
there's also the training arena and the treasure hunter quests...all good fun for training and getting rare items
its a long winded game...and thats why its loved...the graphics are really breathtaking for a psp game.