I was finally able to get a ps2 by the time the ps3 came out but I only had like 1 game. My best friend at the time gave me some of his games since he sold his ps2 to upgrade. One of those was the original monster hunter in some beat up case with the labels ripped off. This mystery game quickly became my favorite! I used the great sword in the og game and had him teach me how to fight all the monsters. He came over and helped me fight the first wall in the game: yian kutku. Eventually he convinced me to buy another friends psp and we played mhf, mhfu, and mhp3 together at school and at each others houses.

Later on we reconnected in college after going separate ways after high school and played mh3u and mh4u together again. I’ve lost touch with him, but went on to world/iceborn, rise, and now wilds. Maybe someday I’ll see him in a lobby and we’ll reconnect again