User blog comment:Plexioth- xD/Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate/@comment-1758220-20130329033054

So I hopped on Portable 3rd today just to compare things, and I really noticed the difference in quality for the first time, for better and worse.

Though the screen resolution of the PSP is less than that of the 3DS XL, MHP3rd's colours are absolutely stunning compared to MH3Us, which look highly washed-out in comparison. I swear, when scrolling through my item pouch or reorganizing my inventoy box, my eyeballs almost melted out of my face from how sharp and clear everything was after having been staring at the 3DS screen for the past 59 hours of gameplay. The difference in font quality is really quite saddening. MH3U's font is damn-near unreadable compared to MHP3rd's (or MHFU's) crystal clear font.

That said, the environments feel much more atmospheric in MH3U, with most of the original particle and lighting effects intact from the original Tri maps. The addition of proper shadows is a massive visual quality booster as well, highly evident when I compared Royal Ludroth hunts. The colours on the maps themselves vary. Some look much better in Ultimate (Tundra, Volcano) while some look notably better in MHP3rd (D. Island, Flooded Forest). There are some truly out of place textures in MH3U which look almost unfinished compared to the rest of the map (Areas 2 and 10 of D. Island are especially bad for this), whereas these are more or less in line with the rest of the map on MHP3rd.

There are far more jagged edges in MHP3rd, and the game does look a lot rougher in motion. In MH3U, the fraerate is buttery smooth and the higher resolution keeps the maps looking mostly fabulous as you traverse them.

Overall, MH3U looked markedly better than MHP3rd, but the lack of colour vibrancy is really irritating to me. If we could have MHP3rd's colours and text combined with MH3U's everything else, we'd have a truly amazing piece of work.