So far, I'm loving Monster Hunter World. So much so I even had to write about its similarities to Dragon's Dogma and why I love them both: https://steemit.com/gaming/@mikedynamo/the-magic-of-monster-hunter-world-and-it-s-big-brother-dragon-s-dogma
I really like the way you spoke of "The Grind" and what that means. I didn't spend much time with Diablo proper but enjoyed many a clone over the years as it carved out its own genre. I didn't really think much about it, but there is a definite design philosophy difference between grinding and character building in Elder Scrolls and other western RPGs. I'm having trouble putting my finger on it.
The one difference I can see is in the games you mention and MHW is the idea of a personality for your character. Witcher, Fallout, Skyrim, etc all have lots of dialogue you can effect which I feel has a different flavor to how you build your character. While we can choose different weapons that dramatically shift the gameplay and make our characters look how we wish (though this system is poorly thought out in my opinion) we are all going on more or less the same adventure. I feel that it can affect the grinding by making it more linear and controllable. Just a thought anyway. Great read.
Thanks for the great comment @mikedynamo. I've been thinking a great deal on that narrative difference in other open-worlders and it's actually very refreshing to play MHW without what ultimately amounts to very little variance (and I say this as a big fan of all 3 of those games) in story.
And this is totally separate but a giant hammer slam to the face of a Rathalos is oh-so-satisfying. Much more than a Fallout mini-nuke.
Ha... yeah. There's something special about melee combat. Hell... I play Fallout with melee combat.
But it's fun to think about how much story really impacts the leveling mechanics. That's the idea you brought to me with your article, so thank you kindly.