Before we get into the technical details, let’s address the elephant in the room. Why play the Japanese version?
The Switch is already portable, so why emphasize this? Because Monster Hunter was born on the PS2 but raised on the PSP and 3DS. The franchise’s soul is rooted in ad-hoc hunting parties. Having an NSP copy means:
One major hurdle for fans running Monster Hunter XX on a western Switch is the language barrier. The game was never officially localized for the West on the Switch (we received Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate instead, which is largely the same game but with differences in item sets and mechanics).
If you are playing the Japanese NSP version, you may want to look into English translation patches. The homebrew community has created patches that can be layered over the game files, translating the text so you can navigate menus and understand the story while keeping the original Japanese voice acting or text style.
Cartridge games run identically to NSPs, but NSPs live on faster internal storage (if installed to NAND). This marginally improves texture streaming in the hub town (Bherna/Grasslands). Combined with overclocking, the NSP version is objectively the best-performing version of MHXX in existence.
This offers the best visual fidelity "portably."
