As the Ultimate upgrade to Rise there's no real surprises here, but there's something to be said for such consistent franchise quality - Monster Hunter is the most rock-solid brand name in gaming at this point, and an expansion pack to one of the best entries in the series is more than welcome; I'd be more than happy if Capcom just kept using Rise as a bedrock for an MMO-lite every year or two until the Switch finally combusts under the heat their developers have been bringing to the platform. With its sheer depth of customisable content and player expression, this is basically FFXIV for people who don't pee into bottles under their computer desk.
Criticisms can be made of Sunbreak, but they're all short-term annoyances in an expansion that could comfortably push a hundred hours. Like the original, there's an overabundance of pop-ups explaining Lucent Cromp Wenbembo Gems and DX Bugwire Casking+ that you'll never remember (until you finally need them weeks later), but it's a just an awkward signifier of how much gameplay-focused content has been crammed in to an ever-evolving ecosystem that always feels perfect until the next great idea comes along and takes thing to snow-capped heights you never imagined yourself climbing. As a Scot it also kinda pains me to trade out Fake Japan for Fake England as a hunting hub, but Capcom have done a great job of steamlining the beautiful "living menu" system Monhun thrives on even further, making the TTK even shorter than it was already; the new environment and its characters are full of more life than ever, and the follower quests are a fantastic "about damn time" inclusion to the experience that helps form an NPC-bond that goes deeper than the usual "you have a cute idle animation" acknolwedgements.
As a Freedom Unite fan, the updated Jungle brought a pixellated 480x272 tear to my eye (bring back plessy too pls...), but the Citadel is the true star of this show. A masterclass in map design that maximises every advantage of the Rise toolset, it's gotta be one of my favourite Monhun maps of all time - an Akumajo Dracula-type beat that feels like the Magala's true resting place. While I love all the imports from MH4U, there's fewer new monsters than I'd have liked - but the Monster Mash trio are so incredibly well-crafted that it's hard to be annoyed that the roster has been padded out with Really Annoyed Nargacuga and Pissed-Off Pukei-Pukei - when the combat's this good, who doesn't love a bit of repetition anyways?
Like with the original game, it's hard to give a definitive opinion on something that outright acknowledges that it isn't finished - but I have loved every moment on the Rise train so far. I just like having fun with my friends, okay? š
Criticisms can be made of Sunbreak, but they're all short-term annoyances in an expansion that could comfortably push a hundred hours. Like the original, there's an overabundance of pop-ups explaining Lucent Cromp Wenbembo Gems and DX Bugwire Casking+ that you'll never remember (until you finally need them weeks later), but it's a just an awkward signifier of how much gameplay-focused content has been crammed in to an ever-evolving ecosystem that always feels perfect until the next great idea comes along and takes thing to snow-capped heights you never imagined yourself climbing. As a Scot it also kinda pains me to trade out Fake Japan for Fake England as a hunting hub, but Capcom have done a great job of steamlining the beautiful "living menu" system Monhun thrives on even further, making the TTK even shorter than it was already; the new environment and its characters are full of more life than ever, and the follower quests are a fantastic "about damn time" inclusion to the experience that helps form an NPC-bond that goes deeper than the usual "you have a cute idle animation" acknolwedgements.
As a Freedom Unite fan, the updated Jungle brought a pixellated 480x272 tear to my eye (bring back plessy too pls...), but the Citadel is the true star of this show. A masterclass in map design that maximises every advantage of the Rise toolset, it's gotta be one of my favourite Monhun maps of all time - an Akumajo Dracula-type beat that feels like the Magala's true resting place. While I love all the imports from MH4U, there's fewer new monsters than I'd have liked - but the Monster Mash trio are so incredibly well-crafted that it's hard to be annoyed that the roster has been padded out with Really Annoyed Nargacuga and Pissed-Off Pukei-Pukei - when the combat's this good, who doesn't love a bit of repetition anyways?
Like with the original game, it's hard to give a definitive opinion on something that outright acknowledges that it isn't finished - but I have loved every moment on the Rise train so far. I just like having fun with my friends, okay? š
thought I could hold out to scorned magnamalo, but the solo grind is getting to me and I'm out of podcasts to listen to. made it past furious rajang and still got a hefty 60-odd hours out of it, even if it didn't hit quite as hard as base rise for me.
my thoughts on said base game are a bit complicated now having gone back and immersed myself in the classics for a bit. at the time it enraptured me with its polished-to-a-sheen hunting loop, but in retrospect it all seems a bit dull. frequently fights below master rank turn into combo recitation without much need to attend to what the monster is doing at all. sunbreak requires comparatively more reactive gameplay; movesets have become even more expansive while the increased speed and power of your prey can approach your ferocity with ease. indeed, it's almost a bit jarring how much damage certain attacks can do compared to the usually lax behavior of the monsters otherwise. even endgame armor will never quite protect you from particular chains the monsters have at their disposal, specifically ones that necessitate the use of the wirebug dodge.
and yes, that wirebug dodge may be the most interesting design hiccup between both this expansion and rise itself. compare to generations and its absolute evasion/readiness arts: these tools are highly recommended for g-rank play in generations but require smart use and must refill via the hunter engaging with the monster. they're get out of jail free cards that require you to know in advance your goose is cooked in order to receive their copious I-frames and escape a sticky situation, and every second you don't have one of these abilities you're forced to keep attacking to build up their respective meters.
the wirebug dodge operates differently in rise's resource economy given that the same wirebugs that it expends are used for virtually every other speciality art in the game, unlike GU's arts and their individual gauges. the design necessitates having faster cooldowns for the wirebugs overall (which are not driven by player action), and since the dodges are cheap, they're almost always available. the supposed catch is that the dodge can only be used while being knocked back, but since the window for its use is so long after being hit and its I-frames are equally generous, it removes any danger from a beefy attack so long as you can dodge out afterwards and slurp down a potion. in base rise where you would virtually never die from a single attack, this removed much of the danger from aggressive play given the cheap cost.
base rise inadvertently solved this issue via a smattering of monster patterns that could catch hunters wirebug dodging out on a first hit with a well-timed second hit (see anjanath's multiple claw swipes), but these were so infrequent as to not seem deliberate. this could have been a viable strategy in master rank for curbing the proliferation of spamming this technique. unfortunately I rarely have encountered any punishment for using the dodge; it still remains ultra-powerful for removing one's self from an unwinnable position. the design pattern instead has been mandatory wirebug dodge usage. monsters will now pop you up to let you float about in hang-time before following up with a devastating finisher that will frequently kill. if you do not conserve your wirebugs or dodge the initial attack, you'll suffer a cart without question.
something about this irks me. I'm a gunlance player, and this weapon's meta has skewed heavily towards the all-powerful bullet barrage, which guarantees an easy 1000+ damage for the cost of two wirebugs. if I use this attack and then get hit by one of these moves that requires a wirebug to escape, I'm often powerless to do anything but watch my protracted demise. obviously this is still my own fault: I should have set myself up to evade the first attack. psychologically though I feel like having a smaller first attack lead into a heavy follow-up as a few issues with it. for one: any time that I have a wirebug on me, the danger is nullified and it is reinforced in my subconcious that the attack is not dangerous. secondly: the heavy air-time for which I am helpless without a wirebug is frankly more disheartening than simply just dying from the attack in the first place. in a gameplay sense I am making the same mistake that I am when I simply don't evade or guard against an attack at all, but the way it's presented makes me feel as if I am strangled by this wirebug mechanic. what should've replaced the near-insta-kill attacks of previously G ranks has somehow become more annoying in my eyes. I think I would've preferred learning what times are safe to evade and not evade instead of getting locked into situations where the only outlet is expending a resource I may or not have. consider other monster patterns where gradations of damage occur depending on complex variables of positioning, guard/evade time, and my available skills. in comparison these new hang-time attacks feel rigid.
I wanted to focus on that mechanic specifically because I find the design principles behind it fascinating, but otherwise the expansion improves much over the base game. sunbreak actually launches with a significant amount of content even into the post-game compared to the somewhat shallow one of base rise. six different ranks + the single player follower quests + anomalies easily provided me with ~60 hours of play until I felt the need to put it down. traversal has had some neat improvements, and certain elements such as attacking ridable monsters forcing a mount have been given toggles. what kept me from playing it more when it initially launched was the unfortunately slow start the game struggles with. the interesting exclusive content is mostly walled off behind the higher ranks, pushing base game endgame monsters towards the start of sunbreak oddly enough. something like goss harag that could have perhaps ended up in MR4 or MR5 instead are relagated to an early fight. it doesn't help that the new citadel area doesn't show up for many hours after starting the game in an odd move that results in the first couple ranks feeling dominated by returning maps.
in terms of new monsters, I'm overall pleased if a little hit-or-miss on the actual new additions. every new returner rules, from frontier's rath rip-off espinas to the 4th gen powerhouses like astalos, seregios, and gore magala. garangolm, the first of the horror anthology trio of new foes, has a neat arm shift gimmick that allows him to throw his bulky body across the battlefield with ease. lunagoran, the werewolf-inspired second boss, feels unfortunately slight outside of his ice-armor mechanic. the game's flagship malzeno thankfully returns to the base game's trap/projectile-centric design, and final boss gaismagorm provides a fun siege-adjacent boss fight with a seriously-challenging final phase. there are also a set of new elemental subspecies that change their base monsters' moveset quite significantly to my shock. of these the best of these is likely magma almudron's agnaktor callback, which provided one of my most thrilling fights in the expansion. the others vary in quality, with aurora somnacanth feeling the most slight compared to its unique otter-esque base monster. title update 1's quartet of classic postgame fights has been excellent as well (esp lucent nargacuga's return), and I'm excited how the upcoming updates improve the roster.
as of now the endgame grind are the anomalies, which combine elements from hypers and frenzied monsters with an investigation system that blends the system of the same name from world with the leveling of 4U's guild quests. it's about as comfortably bland as you could hope for, especially when played in endless join requests as I am wont to do. when soloing I find the bloodblight element tedious as I resort to endlessly poking to raise my health cap rather than exploring more fun combat options. I also find the way these new investigations interface with the original anomaly quest system to be awkward... I have many more options in the quest list, but the actual grind is centered around the investigation system, which is a bit of a pain to reconcile. the early stages of this were especially dire, just refighting great baggi and volvidon endlessly. thankfully this system also has added a top-rarity version of every weapon in the game, making virtually any weapon tree's builds viable, and armor can now be upgraded via a randomized system with materials gained from the anomalies. pretty cool!
my thoughts on said base game are a bit complicated now having gone back and immersed myself in the classics for a bit. at the time it enraptured me with its polished-to-a-sheen hunting loop, but in retrospect it all seems a bit dull. frequently fights below master rank turn into combo recitation without much need to attend to what the monster is doing at all. sunbreak requires comparatively more reactive gameplay; movesets have become even more expansive while the increased speed and power of your prey can approach your ferocity with ease. indeed, it's almost a bit jarring how much damage certain attacks can do compared to the usually lax behavior of the monsters otherwise. even endgame armor will never quite protect you from particular chains the monsters have at their disposal, specifically ones that necessitate the use of the wirebug dodge.
and yes, that wirebug dodge may be the most interesting design hiccup between both this expansion and rise itself. compare to generations and its absolute evasion/readiness arts: these tools are highly recommended for g-rank play in generations but require smart use and must refill via the hunter engaging with the monster. they're get out of jail free cards that require you to know in advance your goose is cooked in order to receive their copious I-frames and escape a sticky situation, and every second you don't have one of these abilities you're forced to keep attacking to build up their respective meters.
the wirebug dodge operates differently in rise's resource economy given that the same wirebugs that it expends are used for virtually every other speciality art in the game, unlike GU's arts and their individual gauges. the design necessitates having faster cooldowns for the wirebugs overall (which are not driven by player action), and since the dodges are cheap, they're almost always available. the supposed catch is that the dodge can only be used while being knocked back, but since the window for its use is so long after being hit and its I-frames are equally generous, it removes any danger from a beefy attack so long as you can dodge out afterwards and slurp down a potion. in base rise where you would virtually never die from a single attack, this removed much of the danger from aggressive play given the cheap cost.
base rise inadvertently solved this issue via a smattering of monster patterns that could catch hunters wirebug dodging out on a first hit with a well-timed second hit (see anjanath's multiple claw swipes), but these were so infrequent as to not seem deliberate. this could have been a viable strategy in master rank for curbing the proliferation of spamming this technique. unfortunately I rarely have encountered any punishment for using the dodge; it still remains ultra-powerful for removing one's self from an unwinnable position. the design pattern instead has been mandatory wirebug dodge usage. monsters will now pop you up to let you float about in hang-time before following up with a devastating finisher that will frequently kill. if you do not conserve your wirebugs or dodge the initial attack, you'll suffer a cart without question.
something about this irks me. I'm a gunlance player, and this weapon's meta has skewed heavily towards the all-powerful bullet barrage, which guarantees an easy 1000+ damage for the cost of two wirebugs. if I use this attack and then get hit by one of these moves that requires a wirebug to escape, I'm often powerless to do anything but watch my protracted demise. obviously this is still my own fault: I should have set myself up to evade the first attack. psychologically though I feel like having a smaller first attack lead into a heavy follow-up as a few issues with it. for one: any time that I have a wirebug on me, the danger is nullified and it is reinforced in my subconcious that the attack is not dangerous. secondly: the heavy air-time for which I am helpless without a wirebug is frankly more disheartening than simply just dying from the attack in the first place. in a gameplay sense I am making the same mistake that I am when I simply don't evade or guard against an attack at all, but the way it's presented makes me feel as if I am strangled by this wirebug mechanic. what should've replaced the near-insta-kill attacks of previously G ranks has somehow become more annoying in my eyes. I think I would've preferred learning what times are safe to evade and not evade instead of getting locked into situations where the only outlet is expending a resource I may or not have. consider other monster patterns where gradations of damage occur depending on complex variables of positioning, guard/evade time, and my available skills. in comparison these new hang-time attacks feel rigid.
I wanted to focus on that mechanic specifically because I find the design principles behind it fascinating, but otherwise the expansion improves much over the base game. sunbreak actually launches with a significant amount of content even into the post-game compared to the somewhat shallow one of base rise. six different ranks + the single player follower quests + anomalies easily provided me with ~60 hours of play until I felt the need to put it down. traversal has had some neat improvements, and certain elements such as attacking ridable monsters forcing a mount have been given toggles. what kept me from playing it more when it initially launched was the unfortunately slow start the game struggles with. the interesting exclusive content is mostly walled off behind the higher ranks, pushing base game endgame monsters towards the start of sunbreak oddly enough. something like goss harag that could have perhaps ended up in MR4 or MR5 instead are relagated to an early fight. it doesn't help that the new citadel area doesn't show up for many hours after starting the game in an odd move that results in the first couple ranks feeling dominated by returning maps.
in terms of new monsters, I'm overall pleased if a little hit-or-miss on the actual new additions. every new returner rules, from frontier's rath rip-off espinas to the 4th gen powerhouses like astalos, seregios, and gore magala. garangolm, the first of the horror anthology trio of new foes, has a neat arm shift gimmick that allows him to throw his bulky body across the battlefield with ease. lunagoran, the werewolf-inspired second boss, feels unfortunately slight outside of his ice-armor mechanic. the game's flagship malzeno thankfully returns to the base game's trap/projectile-centric design, and final boss gaismagorm provides a fun siege-adjacent boss fight with a seriously-challenging final phase. there are also a set of new elemental subspecies that change their base monsters' moveset quite significantly to my shock. of these the best of these is likely magma almudron's agnaktor callback, which provided one of my most thrilling fights in the expansion. the others vary in quality, with aurora somnacanth feeling the most slight compared to its unique otter-esque base monster. title update 1's quartet of classic postgame fights has been excellent as well (esp lucent nargacuga's return), and I'm excited how the upcoming updates improve the roster.
as of now the endgame grind are the anomalies, which combine elements from hypers and frenzied monsters with an investigation system that blends the system of the same name from world with the leveling of 4U's guild quests. it's about as comfortably bland as you could hope for, especially when played in endless join requests as I am wont to do. when soloing I find the bloodblight element tedious as I resort to endlessly poking to raise my health cap rather than exploring more fun combat options. I also find the way these new investigations interface with the original anomaly quest system to be awkward... I have many more options in the quest list, but the actual grind is centered around the investigation system, which is a bit of a pain to reconcile. the early stages of this were especially dire, just refighting great baggi and volvidon endlessly. thankfully this system also has added a top-rarity version of every weapon in the game, making virtually any weapon tree's builds viable, and armor can now be upgraded via a randomized system with materials gained from the anomalies. pretty cool!
As someone who considers Monster Hunter World: Iceborne to be among their favourite games of all time, I kinda regret that I never reviewed the base game and its expansion separately. That's because Iceborne was already out by the time I started this Backloggd account, and I didn't think I'd really be able to remember my thoughts on World separately from Iceborne enough to make a full-fledged review. Now THE TURNS HAVE TABLED however, as Sunbreak did release after the creation of this Backloggd account and - if you can believe it after I have reviewed base Monster Hunter Rise. I don't know why I didn't write a review at the time of finishing, maybe because I knew there was post-launch content to come? Maybe because I was feeling lazy or depressed or dealing with another case of old-man-back which made me wanna avoid sitting at my desk or hunching over my laptop and typing. (Realistically, it is the latter.)
Now that the dust has settled and my chiropractor has snapped me like a wishbone, I can confidently say that Monster Hunter Rise's expansion, Sunbreak is - good! Like Monster Hunter Rise itself, it's just kinda good! I like it! But it's not a patch on the combo that is World and Iceborne imo. It does all the stuff that's worth getting excited about for a Monster Hunter game's expansion. It adds a bunch of dope ass monsters, a new hub, some super tough endgame fights and a couple other little niceties here and there. That stuff alone is enough to make an expansion worth it, but it does feel like a noticeable step down from the way Iceborne transformed World. Iceborne's new hub was a significant improvement over the base game's, it added the Raider Ride to make traversal much easier, as well as the Guiding Lands and the Clutch Claw (the latter of which, don't get me wrong did not work out as intended and hugely fucked with the game's balance, but it was something significant.)
Maybe you could argue Sunbreak didn't need to bring such big changes because the Palamute which Rise introduced is already basically the Raider Ride and no one really had any problem with the hub world (except me, I do not like Kamura Village, lmao.) But what we get in these things' stead just feel super inconsequential. NPC followers? A bunch of drab, unlikable characters who talk too much to come along with you and trivialise fights even more? Sunbreak desperately needed to make Rise harder imo, not even easier. The new hub, Elgado is like...Nice, I guess? I prefer it over Kamura at least, I find its music less annoying and think it's more aesthetically pleasing, but as far as layout is concerned it's super uninspired. There's really not much to see here. When you see how little Sunbreak actually does to change or iterate on Rise fundamentally, I think you realise how much the Switch's hardware truly hampered them. Yes, the game eventually got ported to PC, Xbox & Playstation, but it started out as a Switch exclusive and what I would've liked to see from an expansion like Sunbreak is some of the nifty little details World has that Rise is missing. Seeing monsters you've captured in pens back at the hub, seeing the environment of the maps change when an Elder Dragon is present. None of that came, and I think it's clear to me that it's because the Switch just couldn't handle it. What we're left with is some pretty limp stuff like...New Silkbind moves, which I just don't think is something we really needed. Rise already gives you enough options as is, gameplay was never the problem.
I like Sunbreak, but it's not an evolution of Rise the way Iceborne is for World. It doesn't really bring anything new to the table, it's just more Rise. Which is fine! Rise is fun! And getting to play a version of Rise where I can fight Astalos and Seregios and fuckiiin' Espinas is fine by me. Including a Monster Hunter Frontier-exclusive monster like Espinas in a main series game for the first time might be the coolest thing Sunbreak does. The monster himself might be pretty whatever but it sets such an exciting precedent, I really hope we can expect some of the cooler Fronter-exclusive monsters like Lightenna and Akira Vashimu/Jebia down the line in main series games. That'd get me pogging in my fuckin pants
Anyway, it's more Rise! If you like Rise, good! If you were hoping for its difficulty to be ramped up at all, gotta wait for those Risen Elder Dragon fights! Which are good, don't get me wrong (Risen Shagaru Magala actually gave me like 6 heart attacks) - but you gotta wade through a lot of the same old boring characters and iffy presentation to get there. Thankfully, as was always the case, the gameplay might just make it worth it!
Now that the dust has settled and my chiropractor has snapped me like a wishbone, I can confidently say that Monster Hunter Rise's expansion, Sunbreak is - good! Like Monster Hunter Rise itself, it's just kinda good! I like it! But it's not a patch on the combo that is World and Iceborne imo. It does all the stuff that's worth getting excited about for a Monster Hunter game's expansion. It adds a bunch of dope ass monsters, a new hub, some super tough endgame fights and a couple other little niceties here and there. That stuff alone is enough to make an expansion worth it, but it does feel like a noticeable step down from the way Iceborne transformed World. Iceborne's new hub was a significant improvement over the base game's, it added the Raider Ride to make traversal much easier, as well as the Guiding Lands and the Clutch Claw (the latter of which, don't get me wrong did not work out as intended and hugely fucked with the game's balance, but it was something significant.)
Maybe you could argue Sunbreak didn't need to bring such big changes because the Palamute which Rise introduced is already basically the Raider Ride and no one really had any problem with the hub world (except me, I do not like Kamura Village, lmao.) But what we get in these things' stead just feel super inconsequential. NPC followers? A bunch of drab, unlikable characters who talk too much to come along with you and trivialise fights even more? Sunbreak desperately needed to make Rise harder imo, not even easier. The new hub, Elgado is like...Nice, I guess? I prefer it over Kamura at least, I find its music less annoying and think it's more aesthetically pleasing, but as far as layout is concerned it's super uninspired. There's really not much to see here. When you see how little Sunbreak actually does to change or iterate on Rise fundamentally, I think you realise how much the Switch's hardware truly hampered them. Yes, the game eventually got ported to PC, Xbox & Playstation, but it started out as a Switch exclusive and what I would've liked to see from an expansion like Sunbreak is some of the nifty little details World has that Rise is missing. Seeing monsters you've captured in pens back at the hub, seeing the environment of the maps change when an Elder Dragon is present. None of that came, and I think it's clear to me that it's because the Switch just couldn't handle it. What we're left with is some pretty limp stuff like...New Silkbind moves, which I just don't think is something we really needed. Rise already gives you enough options as is, gameplay was never the problem.
I like Sunbreak, but it's not an evolution of Rise the way Iceborne is for World. It doesn't really bring anything new to the table, it's just more Rise. Which is fine! Rise is fun! And getting to play a version of Rise where I can fight Astalos and Seregios and fuckiiin' Espinas is fine by me. Including a Monster Hunter Frontier-exclusive monster like Espinas in a main series game for the first time might be the coolest thing Sunbreak does. The monster himself might be pretty whatever but it sets such an exciting precedent, I really hope we can expect some of the cooler Fronter-exclusive monsters like Lightenna and Akira Vashimu/Jebia down the line in main series games. That'd get me pogging in my fuckin pants
Anyway, it's more Rise! If you like Rise, good! If you were hoping for its difficulty to be ramped up at all, gotta wait for those Risen Elder Dragon fights! Which are good, don't get me wrong (Risen Shagaru Magala actually gave me like 6 heart attacks) - but you gotta wade through a lot of the same old boring characters and iffy presentation to get there. Thankfully, as was always the case, the gameplay might just make it worth it!
I'll forever be thankful for Rise and Sunbreak for restoring my faith in this series.
I was honestly preferring Rise more by the time I finished Sunbreaks base story for a couple of reasons.
While Sunbreak's monster roster is a very good selection of some of my fave past monsters, on top of their really great transition into gen5, I was honestly feeling like the game was a bit thematically confused and just threw in a bunch of monsters into a big pot unlike Rise which had a very solid theme that it masterfully integrated everything together into. While we do have the entire european abominations and aesthetic with the Three Lords and Citadel thing going on, everything else besides Gore/Shagaru felt like it didn't fit into that at all, along with Jungle being back for what really felt like no reason to me. I thought the OST was also not as good as Rise was, which is an insanely high bar to clear tbh, but there's still some god tier tracks like the Elgado Outpost's main theme.
With those said though, the game follows up and expands on base Rise really really well with the updates to the Master rank versions of the monsters, the new switch skills, and especially introducing an infinite end game grind, a first for a portable team game btw, which is really enjoyable to grind with the customization it opens up to the players.
What really sold me though into making this my fave MH ever now is how insanely well they delivered with bringing Amatsu to the game. Honestly sent me to tears with how godlike all the callbacks and fanservice to P3rd fans are which just made me feel like all these years of me playing the hell out of this franchise feel like it's recognized and rewarded. But even besides that, the game has a ton to offer on top of Rise with a very good story and cast of characters to interact and hunt with God Eater style, which I thought was honestly cool that they're finally starting to take notes from including being able to trade currency for monster materials to alleviate grinding. Would love to see this again in future titles honestly.
I honestly can't say that I'm excited for the next game which will be by the console team again but at least I know I'll be waiting very very patiently for the title after that by the portable team knowing that they'll probably blow my mind again and remind me why Monster Hunter is one of my favorite franchises ever.
I was honestly preferring Rise more by the time I finished Sunbreaks base story for a couple of reasons.
While Sunbreak's monster roster is a very good selection of some of my fave past monsters, on top of their really great transition into gen5, I was honestly feeling like the game was a bit thematically confused and just threw in a bunch of monsters into a big pot unlike Rise which had a very solid theme that it masterfully integrated everything together into. While we do have the entire european abominations and aesthetic with the Three Lords and Citadel thing going on, everything else besides Gore/Shagaru felt like it didn't fit into that at all, along with Jungle being back for what really felt like no reason to me. I thought the OST was also not as good as Rise was, which is an insanely high bar to clear tbh, but there's still some god tier tracks like the Elgado Outpost's main theme.
With those said though, the game follows up and expands on base Rise really really well with the updates to the Master rank versions of the monsters, the new switch skills, and especially introducing an infinite end game grind, a first for a portable team game btw, which is really enjoyable to grind with the customization it opens up to the players.
What really sold me though into making this my fave MH ever now is how insanely well they delivered with bringing Amatsu to the game. Honestly sent me to tears with how godlike all the callbacks and fanservice to P3rd fans are which just made me feel like all these years of me playing the hell out of this franchise feel like it's recognized and rewarded. But even besides that, the game has a ton to offer on top of Rise with a very good story and cast of characters to interact and hunt with God Eater style, which I thought was honestly cool that they're finally starting to take notes from including being able to trade currency for monster materials to alleviate grinding. Would love to see this again in future titles honestly.
I honestly can't say that I'm excited for the next game which will be by the console team again but at least I know I'll be waiting very very patiently for the title after that by the portable team knowing that they'll probably blow my mind again and remind me why Monster Hunter is one of my favorite franchises ever.
World babies will cry and hate that you don't have to temporal mantle clutch claw tenderize wallbang the monster repeatedly to have fun
The live service content model solidifies an extreme bitterness in me for a game that I would otherwise love.
I'm not exactly coy about how much I love Monster Hunter. I love 4U, I love GU, I love World, I love the scatters of other old games I've played (Tri, P3rd, 3U, Frontier), and, I loved Rise. With both Rise and Sunbreak, I had a great time with them when they came out, and tapered off when the title updates came out. But Sunbreak taught me to dread the inevitable approach of Yet Another Update.
Float like a Bnahabra - Title Updates and the Gameplay Loop
Monster Hunter is a game about long, slow progression. Individual hunts are long, and you need to hunt the same monster a lot if you want a piece of its gear. Because of this, most monsters you come across won't be anything more than a stepping-stone to get to the next one - if you don't need any rewards from a monster, why fight it any more than you absolutely need to? Yet even if you barrel through only the mandatory quests and try to reach the 'endgame' as fast as possible, it's still a very substantial experience - there's a lot of monsters to get through, and the difficulty will ramp enough to where you'll likely have to stop and get some gear upgrades a few times per rank.
Title Updates (TUs) in Sunbreak added about 1-3 new monsters per update, alongside their respective gear and a few new decorations. TU content is detached from main progression if you reach the endgame of the previous TU before it releases, meaning each further TU is its own self-contained experience; this gives rise to a few issues. Thereās no real reason to re-fight any of the monsters in the current TU apart from for the sake of it, as all the monsters in any TU hover around the same difficulty as each other - beat one and you can beat them all, and if you can beat them all already then why would you want any of their gear?* This, combined with the lack of monsters in each TU (which is understandable, especially considering their frequency), makes each TU feel more like a theme-park visit where I hop in once, beat them all once just to see them, and then turn the game off for another month.
Sting like a Dreadqueen - Monster Hunter Rise and Difficulty Creep
Two aspects of the combat Iāve always been critical of are Wirefall, and a heavy focus on counters; without going into great detail, two easy and extremely powerful defensive options that observably warp the monster design around themselves. Throughout the main game progression, you might notice some things here and there on some of the tougher monsters, but itāll largely feel fine regardless of how you play or the weapon you use. But as the TU content is effectively Sunbreakās postgame, it understandably feels the need to up the ante a bit, but how?
These monsters have an increasing focus on heavy tracking and huge sweeping or AoE attacks that arenāt *undodgeable*, but being stuck out of rhythm against them makes it incredibly hard to get back in - a problem mitigated by simply being able to counter them, of course. This new problem then needs to be solved by further creep - some of these attacks multi-hit fast enough to punish you for countering them, or doing so at the wrong time. This is all fine in the specific context of answering counters, but falls apart once you have to try to outposition these monsters throwing out hyperactive combos, huge AoEs and tracking so aggressive you can see the monsters visibly snap towards you. These factors also ostensibly help mitigate the effectiveness of Wirefalling - fast multihits and large AoEs are more likely to catch a bad fall - but all it really does in practice is make you wait on the floor a bit longer before sending it. Itās natural and expected that monsters would have to rise to match the new power of the hunters, but the end result is an unsatisfying arms race warped around the new, powerful tools and the monstersā response to them.
Proof of a Villain - Musings and Conclusion
The months from the announcement of TU1 up until today have been a fight against a slow and crushing vortex - TU announced with information inescapably trickling through my Steam library and social circles, TU comes out, I play for an underwhelming hour or two, and then clear my mind for a couple of weeks until the cycle begins anew. While I spent most of this review pulling apart the gameplay problems with the TU cycles, the real culprit is the cycle itself - the ever-present marketing and conversation-driving to ensure my incapability of just uninstalling the game and burying it with my happy launch week memories. The cycle that wants you to keep playing their game until *they* decide you stop, not until you do.
Monster Hunter: Rise is a very good game, and Sunbreak is largely a great expansion, but I would only recommend it now that itās over.
Postnote(s):
I got into world practically at the end of Iceborne's lifespan so even tho I would probably leverage the same sort of complaints against that if I was there for the ride I don't carry the disdain that I do for this. Also helps that I think it's more fun lol
* (TU monster difficulty) Ignoring the existence of investigations to make this point, but if you enjoy the investigation loop in any way at all then you are a freak of nature and I will never be able to associate with you
I'm not exactly coy about how much I love Monster Hunter. I love 4U, I love GU, I love World, I love the scatters of other old games I've played (Tri, P3rd, 3U, Frontier), and, I loved Rise. With both Rise and Sunbreak, I had a great time with them when they came out, and tapered off when the title updates came out. But Sunbreak taught me to dread the inevitable approach of Yet Another Update.
Float like a Bnahabra - Title Updates and the Gameplay Loop
Monster Hunter is a game about long, slow progression. Individual hunts are long, and you need to hunt the same monster a lot if you want a piece of its gear. Because of this, most monsters you come across won't be anything more than a stepping-stone to get to the next one - if you don't need any rewards from a monster, why fight it any more than you absolutely need to? Yet even if you barrel through only the mandatory quests and try to reach the 'endgame' as fast as possible, it's still a very substantial experience - there's a lot of monsters to get through, and the difficulty will ramp enough to where you'll likely have to stop and get some gear upgrades a few times per rank.
Title Updates (TUs) in Sunbreak added about 1-3 new monsters per update, alongside their respective gear and a few new decorations. TU content is detached from main progression if you reach the endgame of the previous TU before it releases, meaning each further TU is its own self-contained experience; this gives rise to a few issues. Thereās no real reason to re-fight any of the monsters in the current TU apart from for the sake of it, as all the monsters in any TU hover around the same difficulty as each other - beat one and you can beat them all, and if you can beat them all already then why would you want any of their gear?* This, combined with the lack of monsters in each TU (which is understandable, especially considering their frequency), makes each TU feel more like a theme-park visit where I hop in once, beat them all once just to see them, and then turn the game off for another month.
Sting like a Dreadqueen - Monster Hunter Rise and Difficulty Creep
Two aspects of the combat Iāve always been critical of are Wirefall, and a heavy focus on counters; without going into great detail, two easy and extremely powerful defensive options that observably warp the monster design around themselves. Throughout the main game progression, you might notice some things here and there on some of the tougher monsters, but itāll largely feel fine regardless of how you play or the weapon you use. But as the TU content is effectively Sunbreakās postgame, it understandably feels the need to up the ante a bit, but how?
These monsters have an increasing focus on heavy tracking and huge sweeping or AoE attacks that arenāt *undodgeable*, but being stuck out of rhythm against them makes it incredibly hard to get back in - a problem mitigated by simply being able to counter them, of course. This new problem then needs to be solved by further creep - some of these attacks multi-hit fast enough to punish you for countering them, or doing so at the wrong time. This is all fine in the specific context of answering counters, but falls apart once you have to try to outposition these monsters throwing out hyperactive combos, huge AoEs and tracking so aggressive you can see the monsters visibly snap towards you. These factors also ostensibly help mitigate the effectiveness of Wirefalling - fast multihits and large AoEs are more likely to catch a bad fall - but all it really does in practice is make you wait on the floor a bit longer before sending it. Itās natural and expected that monsters would have to rise to match the new power of the hunters, but the end result is an unsatisfying arms race warped around the new, powerful tools and the monstersā response to them.
Proof of a Villain - Musings and Conclusion
The months from the announcement of TU1 up until today have been a fight against a slow and crushing vortex - TU announced with information inescapably trickling through my Steam library and social circles, TU comes out, I play for an underwhelming hour or two, and then clear my mind for a couple of weeks until the cycle begins anew. While I spent most of this review pulling apart the gameplay problems with the TU cycles, the real culprit is the cycle itself - the ever-present marketing and conversation-driving to ensure my incapability of just uninstalling the game and burying it with my happy launch week memories. The cycle that wants you to keep playing their game until *they* decide you stop, not until you do.
Monster Hunter: Rise is a very good game, and Sunbreak is largely a great expansion, but I would only recommend it now that itās over.
Postnote(s):
I got into world practically at the end of Iceborne's lifespan so even tho I would probably leverage the same sort of complaints against that if I was there for the ride I don't carry the disdain that I do for this. Also helps that I think it's more fun lol
* (TU monster difficulty) Ignoring the existence of investigations to make this point, but if you enjoy the investigation loop in any way at all then you are a freak of nature and I will never be able to associate with you
Such a blast of an entry <3 many cherished moments online too with the great community!
SPOILER the last boss is NOT a giant fucking lagiacrus!!! very disappointing!!!!!
Olha..... essa dlc foi do caralho, ainda prefiro em termos de plot iceborne, mas em fator tĆ©cnico e progressĆ£o pqp essa dlc Ć© um show.
Dito isso ainda estou jogando apesar de finalizar a campanha, eventualmente farei um comentĆ”rio bem pretensioso sobre mh gu apĆ³s rejogar, mas enfim esse jogo tirou todo meu tempo e foco de coisas bem importantes, porque mh Ć© assim.... nĆ£o que seja algo bom mas me diverti ( ainda me estou divertindo) horrores e Ć© isso.
( Malzeno my beloved)
Dito isso ainda estou jogando apesar de finalizar a campanha, eventualmente farei um comentĆ”rio bem pretensioso sobre mh gu apĆ³s rejogar, mas enfim esse jogo tirou todo meu tempo e foco de coisas bem importantes, porque mh Ć© assim.... nĆ£o que seja algo bom mas me diverti ( ainda me estou divertindo) horrores e Ć© isso.
( Malzeno my beloved)
Rise didn't need an expansion as desperately as World did but when Iceborne finally arrived my expectations for further Monster Hunter expansions were increased substantially. Iceborne did so much for World that it's hard to think of World and Iceborne as separate entities. While I wouldn't say Sunbreak exceeded in terms of what Iceborne did for World, Rise was an already far superior game to base game World in numerous ways and Sunbreak has now eclipse World as the best Monster Hunter game.
Rise is just flat out the most fun to play Monster Hunter game. The clunky older games have lots of merits like their simplicity and intense challenge, but no game in the franchise feels this polished in terms of control and movement. Everything is snappy and very few things feel like they take way longer then they need to. This may be why Sunbreak felt a lot of shorter then World/Iceborne, but I honestly see that as nothing but a good thing.
The monster roster is incredibly solid. Tons of variety in sizes, shapes, and movesets without being too obnoxious. I can only think of one monster that I wasn't too fond of, which is impressive since every game I've played (4U, GU, & WI) have several monsters that I just can't be bothered to fight more then once if I can help it. Even then, the one exception mentioned is nowhere near as bad as some of the low points in other games.
Like any Monster Hunter it's challenging in a way that makes every fight exciting. The hours really fly by, very rarely I felt I wanted a hunt to be over sooner. Maybe some of the endgame hunts but a patch very recently addressed that issue thankfully.
Arguably the biggest "flaw" is that it'll be harder to return to the older games. I did criticize some of them but I still believe them to be well worth your time with stuff that even R.S. can't give you. But the more the franchise improves and streamlines, the harder it'll be to adjust with the lack of quality of life in the older titles. I still forget how you needed tools to mine and catch bugs which also have limited durability, or how crafting anything can fail if you don't have enough books.
Still at the end of the day if I were to recommend a game to a newcomer, I'd honestly recommend Rise first and foremost and then Sunbreak if they enjoyed themselves. And as a fan of the franchise I had a blast and will continue to play it for quite some time.
Rise is just flat out the most fun to play Monster Hunter game. The clunky older games have lots of merits like their simplicity and intense challenge, but no game in the franchise feels this polished in terms of control and movement. Everything is snappy and very few things feel like they take way longer then they need to. This may be why Sunbreak felt a lot of shorter then World/Iceborne, but I honestly see that as nothing but a good thing.
The monster roster is incredibly solid. Tons of variety in sizes, shapes, and movesets without being too obnoxious. I can only think of one monster that I wasn't too fond of, which is impressive since every game I've played (4U, GU, & WI) have several monsters that I just can't be bothered to fight more then once if I can help it. Even then, the one exception mentioned is nowhere near as bad as some of the low points in other games.
Like any Monster Hunter it's challenging in a way that makes every fight exciting. The hours really fly by, very rarely I felt I wanted a hunt to be over sooner. Maybe some of the endgame hunts but a patch very recently addressed that issue thankfully.
Arguably the biggest "flaw" is that it'll be harder to return to the older games. I did criticize some of them but I still believe them to be well worth your time with stuff that even R.S. can't give you. But the more the franchise improves and streamlines, the harder it'll be to adjust with the lack of quality of life in the older titles. I still forget how you needed tools to mine and catch bugs which also have limited durability, or how crafting anything can fail if you don't have enough books.
Still at the end of the day if I were to recommend a game to a newcomer, I'd honestly recommend Rise first and foremost and then Sunbreak if they enjoyed themselves. And as a fan of the franchise I had a blast and will continue to play it for quite some time.
Eu comecei a franquia por Monster Hunter World e definitivamente amei o jogo e estava ancioso pelo Rise desde seu anuncio, demorou muito mais do que eu queria para eu finalmente terminar o jogo, mas cĆ” estamos no fim da expansĆ£o Sunbreak
e devo dizer que Ć© diferente do que eu esperava, nem para o bem nem para o mal, mas diferente, o Rise Ć© um jogo extremamente mais focado em confrontos que o World e retira vĆ”rios dos seus excessos que por vezes faziam do World Ćŗnico, e o resultado disso Ć© que o Rise Ć© Ćŗnico a sua maneira tambĆ©m, Ć© dĆficil para mim decidir atĆ© qual eu gosto mais porque sinto que isso vai muito mais para um lado do que eu valorizo mais em Monster Hunter, mas falando da expansĆ£o, ela eleva o Rise em basicamente tudo e retira partes que nĆ£o eram unanimes dentro do fandom, Ć© grandioso em seus confrontos e para isso ele precisa ser grandioso em seu moveset de caƧador, e assim o Ć©, o combate da Sunbreak em minha concepĆ§Ć£o figura entre os mais complexos e bem pensados entre os AAA modernos dos quais eu experienciei, e para isso ele expande o moveset do Rise base te dando mais agencia de que ataques vocĆŖ prefere usar para cada monstro alĆ©m das builds de armas, armaduras, e outros extensores, e isso Ć© muito importante porque Ć© um jogo que nĆ£o te diz que forma vocĆŖ deve enfrentar cada monstro e sim te dĆ” N opƧƵes de enfrentar cada um; E falando nos monstros, uau, tem varias das lutas mais incriveis em que jĆ” estiveis, associados a uma lore que antecede cada monstro tornando cada um deles um personagem no jogo e deixando cada luta mais pessoal; Para mim atĆ© o momento a Sunbreak Ć© tudo que esse jogo poderia ser, tenho preferencia pessoal pela tematica do Rise base, mas isso esta muito longe de ser um problema, pois a tematica da Sunbreak Ć© refletida perfeitamente nas mecanicas expandidas do Rise, e em seu roster memoravel, se procura Monster Hunter pelas coisas que citei acima, esta em casa com esse jogo.
e devo dizer que Ć© diferente do que eu esperava, nem para o bem nem para o mal, mas diferente, o Rise Ć© um jogo extremamente mais focado em confrontos que o World e retira vĆ”rios dos seus excessos que por vezes faziam do World Ćŗnico, e o resultado disso Ć© que o Rise Ć© Ćŗnico a sua maneira tambĆ©m, Ć© dĆficil para mim decidir atĆ© qual eu gosto mais porque sinto que isso vai muito mais para um lado do que eu valorizo mais em Monster Hunter, mas falando da expansĆ£o, ela eleva o Rise em basicamente tudo e retira partes que nĆ£o eram unanimes dentro do fandom, Ć© grandioso em seus confrontos e para isso ele precisa ser grandioso em seu moveset de caƧador, e assim o Ć©, o combate da Sunbreak em minha concepĆ§Ć£o figura entre os mais complexos e bem pensados entre os AAA modernos dos quais eu experienciei, e para isso ele expande o moveset do Rise base te dando mais agencia de que ataques vocĆŖ prefere usar para cada monstro alĆ©m das builds de armas, armaduras, e outros extensores, e isso Ć© muito importante porque Ć© um jogo que nĆ£o te diz que forma vocĆŖ deve enfrentar cada monstro e sim te dĆ” N opƧƵes de enfrentar cada um; E falando nos monstros, uau, tem varias das lutas mais incriveis em que jĆ” estiveis, associados a uma lore que antecede cada monstro tornando cada um deles um personagem no jogo e deixando cada luta mais pessoal; Para mim atĆ© o momento a Sunbreak Ć© tudo que esse jogo poderia ser, tenho preferencia pessoal pela tematica do Rise base, mas isso esta muito longe de ser um problema, pois a tematica da Sunbreak Ć© refletida perfeitamente nas mecanicas expandidas do Rise, e em seu roster memoravel, se procura Monster Hunter pelas coisas que citei acima, esta em casa com esse jogo.
You know a game is good when you suddenly start grinning from ear to ear after realizing just how much fun you're having.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak's core gameplay is unbelievably polished. I haven't felt this sense of cohesion between combat and movement since Titanfall 2. Every single weapon has so much depth; I have been almost exclusively been using greatsword as of writing this review and there are still so many switch skills and builds that I haven't even tried yet. The portable team has finally achieved a perfect balance of empowering the player while still making the monsters feel threatening. It isn't insanely tough, but monsters--especially as you get into later master ranks--are quite intimidating with how quickly and relentlessly they can throw out attacks.
I've heard some complaints about how the size of the new roster isn't as robust as some would have liked, but in this case I'm glad Capcom went with quality over quantity. Every single new fight in this game is fantastic. And while it may take some time to get to the brand new guys, the master rank versions of base Rise monsters got really interesting updates to their movesets, and in some cases this can change the encounter dramatically.
The only real criticism I have for this game is a super small one: there are two monsters present here (if you've played through master rank, you probably know which ones I'm talking about) that really should have been incorporated into the story better considering their significance to the Monster Hunter universe. They were still wonderful fights, but I wish they were given more importance in the plot (which was actually quite entertaining for a Monster Hunter story, I might add).
I don't know if I can say that Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is the perfection of the Monster Hunter formula, since Rise as a whole has a very different design philosophy from the other, more grounded MH titles. However, I can say that this game perfects the formula that base Rise set up and is my favorite Monster Hunter experience to date. Here's hoping for some great title updates in the next 6+ months!
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak's core gameplay is unbelievably polished. I haven't felt this sense of cohesion between combat and movement since Titanfall 2. Every single weapon has so much depth; I have been almost exclusively been using greatsword as of writing this review and there are still so many switch skills and builds that I haven't even tried yet. The portable team has finally achieved a perfect balance of empowering the player while still making the monsters feel threatening. It isn't insanely tough, but monsters--especially as you get into later master ranks--are quite intimidating with how quickly and relentlessly they can throw out attacks.
I've heard some complaints about how the size of the new roster isn't as robust as some would have liked, but in this case I'm glad Capcom went with quality over quantity. Every single new fight in this game is fantastic. And while it may take some time to get to the brand new guys, the master rank versions of base Rise monsters got really interesting updates to their movesets, and in some cases this can change the encounter dramatically.
The only real criticism I have for this game is a super small one: there are two monsters present here (if you've played through master rank, you probably know which ones I'm talking about) that really should have been incorporated into the story better considering their significance to the Monster Hunter universe. They were still wonderful fights, but I wish they were given more importance in the plot (which was actually quite entertaining for a Monster Hunter story, I might add).
I don't know if I can say that Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is the perfection of the Monster Hunter formula, since Rise as a whole has a very different design philosophy from the other, more grounded MH titles. However, I can say that this game perfects the formula that base Rise set up and is my favorite Monster Hunter experience to date. Here's hoping for some great title updates in the next 6+ months!
Simplesmente peak of fiction.
I kill monsters.
PĆŖnis
I use a few websites for keeping track of upcoming games and their prices. As my main hobby keeping track of hundreds of games can be difficult and I like everything organized and efficient as much as possible within my life. Whilst looking through new releases on PSprices it has genuinely shocked me how many of them are just downloadable content for skins, emotes and above all battlepasses or real world money for fake world currency for some kind of bland looking games as a service gatcha. Monster Hunter itself isn't immune to these trends with cosmetic fluff for new haircuts and emotes abound on digital store fronts. When I was growing up though, additional content had substance in the form of expansion packs, which is much closer to what Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is. It's actual value for money for those that want more of the base game.
I'm not going to talk about what Monster Hunter Rise is as a game, if you haven't played it you shouldn't be reading this. I'm going to discuss what Sunbreak adds, what content it brings to the aforementioned experience.
For a start it has a whole new story carrying on from the end of Rise with a new faction and new hub location the Elgado Outpost. Story isn't Monster Hunter's strong point but I do feel this was a slight improvement for an excuse for you to be slaughtering Monsters. The hub is full of new characters that give side quests and the way it ties some of them back to Kamura village is quite nice. It has all the details I really love about the series with Palico's riding little mining carts, hidden owls on roof tops and the animations and design are all great. There are two new maps to explore The Jungle and the Citadel. The Jungle is a remake of a classic Monster Hunter location with lush beaches and well...jungle. I really liked going back there in a more modern gameplay setting. The Citadel is a frozen crumbling ruin with a tiny bit of swamp attached. Both settings are fun new locations to fight with more great wirebugs, relics and secrets to find. In these locations (and the old) there are also new endemic life added. My personal favorite is the marionette spider that you can lasso a monster with and then pull it into a wall.
The biggest aspect of these new locations and characters though is how it improves the single player quests by allowing the knights there (and later former Kamura village characters) to go on hunts with you either through follower quests or survey quests. The way they improve the single player experience to make it feel more like a group hunt is outstanding and should be in all single player Monster Hunter games going forward. They set traps, heal, and sometimes go "I'll be back in a minute" and come back riding an Anjanath or something barreling attacking your target. It's hilarious and really adds to the experience.
Speaking of the Monsters, Sunbreak adds a variety of new ones, some from previous games (Astalos, Shogan Caenataur etc.) and some completely new. Around 10 in all plus a variety of subspecies like Furious Rajang. Previous Monsters from Rise all have master rank tougher variants with their own armor and weapon sets to boot. The new inclusions are all pretty intimidating initially and the art design is absolutely spot on. Malzeno the cover monster is especially cool, like some kind of vampire dragon.
I've mentioned quite a bit here already in broad strokes but the thing is about Sunbreak is I could keep talking about it, it's just more of what was in Rise and I don't mean that as an insult. I haven't even mentioned skill swapping, the Castlevania looking arena level, Risen Elders etc. My group and I haven't even finished all the quests ourselves and we have been playing it for many hours now.
To be blunt, if you like Rise, buy Sunbreak, it's almost a full second game.
I'm not going to talk about what Monster Hunter Rise is as a game, if you haven't played it you shouldn't be reading this. I'm going to discuss what Sunbreak adds, what content it brings to the aforementioned experience.
For a start it has a whole new story carrying on from the end of Rise with a new faction and new hub location the Elgado Outpost. Story isn't Monster Hunter's strong point but I do feel this was a slight improvement for an excuse for you to be slaughtering Monsters. The hub is full of new characters that give side quests and the way it ties some of them back to Kamura village is quite nice. It has all the details I really love about the series with Palico's riding little mining carts, hidden owls on roof tops and the animations and design are all great. There are two new maps to explore The Jungle and the Citadel. The Jungle is a remake of a classic Monster Hunter location with lush beaches and well...jungle. I really liked going back there in a more modern gameplay setting. The Citadel is a frozen crumbling ruin with a tiny bit of swamp attached. Both settings are fun new locations to fight with more great wirebugs, relics and secrets to find. In these locations (and the old) there are also new endemic life added. My personal favorite is the marionette spider that you can lasso a monster with and then pull it into a wall.
The biggest aspect of these new locations and characters though is how it improves the single player quests by allowing the knights there (and later former Kamura village characters) to go on hunts with you either through follower quests or survey quests. The way they improve the single player experience to make it feel more like a group hunt is outstanding and should be in all single player Monster Hunter games going forward. They set traps, heal, and sometimes go "I'll be back in a minute" and come back riding an Anjanath or something barreling attacking your target. It's hilarious and really adds to the experience.
Speaking of the Monsters, Sunbreak adds a variety of new ones, some from previous games (Astalos, Shogan Caenataur etc.) and some completely new. Around 10 in all plus a variety of subspecies like Furious Rajang. Previous Monsters from Rise all have master rank tougher variants with their own armor and weapon sets to boot. The new inclusions are all pretty intimidating initially and the art design is absolutely spot on. Malzeno the cover monster is especially cool, like some kind of vampire dragon.
I've mentioned quite a bit here already in broad strokes but the thing is about Sunbreak is I could keep talking about it, it's just more of what was in Rise and I don't mean that as an insult. I haven't even mentioned skill swapping, the Castlevania looking arena level, Risen Elders etc. My group and I haven't even finished all the quests ourselves and we have been playing it for many hours now.
To be blunt, if you like Rise, buy Sunbreak, it's almost a full second game.
This is a weird one for me. I've enjoyed my time with Sunbreak, certainly more than with base Rise, and at first I was hooked, but sadly it's become clear that this isn't the pivot into smart, fast, ability-based combat I was hoping for, but instead just a repair crew led by a new director coming to fix base Rise's baffling mistakes. It's definitely the best 5th gen game, but a 5th gen game nonetheless, with all the baggage that entails, plus some new problems for good measure.
Most of this review will be negative, but the game as a whole is actually decent, hence my rating. I played it, I mildly enjoyed it, I would tentatively recommend it to others depending on their interest and the price point. I like Gunlance, good weapon. But the discussion around this series endlessly frustrates me, because it seems that flaws are either glossed over or only superficially addressed. You can find plenty of people online talking up Sunbreak's virtues, especially over Rise: the progression, difficulty, no Rampages, endgame systems, gear balance, crabs (damn I love the crabs), and so on. Flowery writing and nice sentiments have their place, but you can read that elsewhere. What I find lacking is deep, meaty analysis.
So I'll save us some time and just reach straight for the butcher's knife.
---
I will overlook a lot of bullshit if a game's fundamentals are high-quality, see DMC3, MHFU, etc. But sadly it's just not fully there for Sunbreak, despite all the improvements, and my gut says that there are some deep flaws here that are hard to ignore. If I had to pin it down in a few words, the combat feels too "passive" and "reactive"; it feels like my actions don't have much influence on the state of the monster beyond just dealing damage.
In most other action games (DMC, Ninja Gaiden, etc.), each individual enemy can be put into a variety of states, such as hitstunned, launched, grabbed, jumped on, etc. which all have different causes and effects. But monsters only have a few states: normal, flinch, exhausted, and immobilized. Immobilizing a monster generally isn't very interactive, and just serves as a reward for the player using some simple mechanic (KO, damage topple, wyvern ride, hunting helpers, ...). Exhaust is a similar story, albeit nice for varying the pace more organically. Flinching can interrupt monster attacks, but because monsters move around so much, keeping track of flinch thresholds is very difficult (moreso than older games) and only done at the highest levels of play. So most of your time will be spent with the monster moving and attacking while being unaffected by your actions.
In the past, Freedom Unite tackled this problem with monster AI. Monsters moved and attacked in predictable ways based on where you were standing, but their attacks were quite dangerous unless you were well-positioned in advance, so balancing offense and defense with an eye towards the future was key. These days this is mostly gone, as what the monster does is largely determined by raw RNG that you have little control over, excepting the specific fixed strings of moves that are coded into the AI. Furthermore, the monsters have so many moves and so much movement they can do from neutral, that it's not feasible to play around them in advance. These two factors combined essentially eliminate preemptive positioning beyond the canned "monster will do X -> Y -> Z, so prepare for Y and Z if you see X".
So your best bet in neutral is to stand somewhere midrange and do one of two things: wait for the monster to attack, then dodge and punish, or throw out big attacks and take trades. While this can be fun in its own right, especially when you experiment with aggressive ways to leverage openings within or after attacks, eventually it inches dangerously close to a call-and-response structure that gets old fast. Even the micropositioning that's long been a series staple, while still enjoyable to a degree, is dampened by the ridiculous tracking on many moves, which is there to hit players using the various extremely powerful defensive tools attached to wirebugs, and partially because higher framerates than 30 are glitched and increase tracking.
Because your attacks can't really affect the monster beyond dealing damage, and the micropositioning of hitboxes and movement is less emphasized, more pressure is put on balancing to differentiate moves. MH has never really been that good at balance, but in the past it's been serviceable, with the major exception of Generations Ultimate, where at least you can ignore most of it if you really want. While Sunbreak is probably better off balance-wise than GU (really not saying much), now the stakes are higher, with the core mechanics of Wirebugs and Switch Skills at play.
Wirebugs in general don't really feel like much of a resource to manage at all. This is partially because most of the cooldowns are low, so by the time you would need a bug, you almost always have it (unless you're wirefalling on every single hit). It's also partially because the tradeoffs between silkbinds aren't really there. Often there is either one silkbind that is obviously the best to spam (Hammer's Impact Crater, Switch Axe's counter, Charge Blade's Counter Peak Performance, etc.), or the desirable silkbinds (many of which have ridiculous defensive properties) are low cooldown as previously mentioned.
Wirefall, a mechanic with great potential for defensive decision-making, is severely hurt by this, as the intended cooldown tradeoff is mostly irrelevant compared to its power. This forced the developers to add:
- "Gotcha" followups that catch wirefall, which are trivially memorized and don't contribute to depth long-term.
- Combos that need wirefall to break out of, which feels less like a strategic decision to conserve wirebugs and more like being punished for getting caught at an unlucky time.
- Simply banning wirefall for certain attacks, which "works" but is rather clumsy and has no pattern that I could discern.
For better implementations of resources like Wirebugs see Nioh 2 Anima meter, Unsouled meter/Ghost Orbs, probably many fighting games, and MHGU hunter arts.
Switch Skills are a little less egregious, and there are some gems like Greatsword's Surge Slash Combo and Gunlance's Blast Dash, but a lot of them are just bad compared to their alternatives, and not even situationally useful or significantly different to play, which really limits the impact of Switch Skill Swap beyond the skills that impact the swap action itself. It's sort of like if Nioh only had 1-2 stances per weapon but still had flux, it's neat I guess but falls short of its potential.
Why nobody brings this next point up continually baffles me: 5th gen MH feels substantially worse to control than older games. Movement feels slippery, and the animations smooth into each other in an unsatisfying way. One of the joys of classic MH was how weighty yet precise everything felt. Slamming your meticuously-aimed Greatsword into a monster's head, waiting just the right amount of split-seconds, then watching your hunter snap into motion to iframe the next attack was a fantastic feeling that never got old. But that's gone now, presumably for "realism"/"fluidity"/trailer footage. And it's not like this is some unsolvable problem; DMC, Ninja Gaiden, and Nioh are as least as fast-paced as Sunbreak but feel much better to control. This might sound like a nitpick, but this is the type of thing that gets stuck in your subconscious, silently influencing the texture of your experience.
Given that this series has adopted a Call of Duty style dev cycle, it's not terribly surprising that the systems around the fundamentals, even the newer additions, have accrued MMO-like bloat and internal tension. Just to name a few:
- Why are you allowed to ride the dog and sharpen during combat?
- Why would you ever use more than one ammo type for gun if you can just restock your best type?
- Why do the strongest healing items in the game have the fastest use animation?
- Why is the inventory limited at all if you can just restock?
- Why are there still tons of completely useless armor skills?
- Why does wyvern ride do so much damage yet has nothing to do with the regular combat systems?
- Why do weapons still have obviously garbage moves like GS upswing that are almost 20 years old?
- Why does auto-farm still need busywork maintenance?
- etc.
You basically have to self-restrict to work around these problems, which would be alright if there were only a few obvious things to ban, like Freedom Unite's traps and flashes or DMC/Bayo's consumable items. But here it's a mess because they're littered everywhere, mixed in with other mechanics, and difficult to identify for inexperienced players. It's like if there were a hundred DMC/Bayo items in the same category as the weapons. And plenty of them either exert broad influence on the game or can't be easily banned at all.
---
Let's be crystal clear on this point: the problem is NOT that Sunbreak isn't old MH. Old MH is useful as a point of comparison, because it faces many of the same critical design questions. But as the context around those questions changes, those existing answers need to be reevaluated.
I'm not asking for Freedom Unite 2, Freedom Unite already exists and I can play it right now. What I am asking for is a solid game.
Every so often I hear people say that Rise is "a bad MH game, but a good action game." Frankly I suspect the people saying this don't play other action games (except maybe Souls which is another can of worms). But they are "right" in one sense: MH doesn't have some special privilege that protects it from comparisons to games outside of its series.
Nioh 2 has tons of bosses, a stamina system, powerful abilities tied to a shared meter, a handful of weapon types,
and on the fly moveset switching. It executes nearly all of these better than Sunbreak. But that's because Team Ninja is an experienced studio whose reputation and livelihood depends on making solid, polished games, while Monster Hunter is a juggernaut series that's accrued plenty of inertia through loyalty, branding, and multiplayer, so the quality (or lack thereof) in its mechanics is mostly lost on the playerbase. I commend Monster Hunter's dev teams and management for maintaining a reasonable level of craftsmanship even in these conditions, but is missed potential really surprising when all the incentives are pushing against it?
At the end of the day, if you are looking for good 1v1 boss fights, Monster Hunter is still the best series by a big margin. The fundamentals of timing and positioning are still intact enough to have a good time running through the main story with your weapon(s) of choice, and many of the classic MH trappings are as fun as they've ever been. But, sadly, I'm not seeing this entry, or future ones if the series's recent history is anything to go by, as a game to deeply invest into and love.
Ah well, nothing lasts forever.
Most of this review will be negative, but the game as a whole is actually decent, hence my rating. I played it, I mildly enjoyed it, I would tentatively recommend it to others depending on their interest and the price point. I like Gunlance, good weapon. But the discussion around this series endlessly frustrates me, because it seems that flaws are either glossed over or only superficially addressed. You can find plenty of people online talking up Sunbreak's virtues, especially over Rise: the progression, difficulty, no Rampages, endgame systems, gear balance, crabs (damn I love the crabs), and so on. Flowery writing and nice sentiments have their place, but you can read that elsewhere. What I find lacking is deep, meaty analysis.
So I'll save us some time and just reach straight for the butcher's knife.
---
I will overlook a lot of bullshit if a game's fundamentals are high-quality, see DMC3, MHFU, etc. But sadly it's just not fully there for Sunbreak, despite all the improvements, and my gut says that there are some deep flaws here that are hard to ignore. If I had to pin it down in a few words, the combat feels too "passive" and "reactive"; it feels like my actions don't have much influence on the state of the monster beyond just dealing damage.
In most other action games (DMC, Ninja Gaiden, etc.), each individual enemy can be put into a variety of states, such as hitstunned, launched, grabbed, jumped on, etc. which all have different causes and effects. But monsters only have a few states: normal, flinch, exhausted, and immobilized. Immobilizing a monster generally isn't very interactive, and just serves as a reward for the player using some simple mechanic (KO, damage topple, wyvern ride, hunting helpers, ...). Exhaust is a similar story, albeit nice for varying the pace more organically. Flinching can interrupt monster attacks, but because monsters move around so much, keeping track of flinch thresholds is very difficult (moreso than older games) and only done at the highest levels of play. So most of your time will be spent with the monster moving and attacking while being unaffected by your actions.
In the past, Freedom Unite tackled this problem with monster AI. Monsters moved and attacked in predictable ways based on where you were standing, but their attacks were quite dangerous unless you were well-positioned in advance, so balancing offense and defense with an eye towards the future was key. These days this is mostly gone, as what the monster does is largely determined by raw RNG that you have little control over, excepting the specific fixed strings of moves that are coded into the AI. Furthermore, the monsters have so many moves and so much movement they can do from neutral, that it's not feasible to play around them in advance. These two factors combined essentially eliminate preemptive positioning beyond the canned "monster will do X -> Y -> Z, so prepare for Y and Z if you see X".
So your best bet in neutral is to stand somewhere midrange and do one of two things: wait for the monster to attack, then dodge and punish, or throw out big attacks and take trades. While this can be fun in its own right, especially when you experiment with aggressive ways to leverage openings within or after attacks, eventually it inches dangerously close to a call-and-response structure that gets old fast. Even the micropositioning that's long been a series staple, while still enjoyable to a degree, is dampened by the ridiculous tracking on many moves, which is there to hit players using the various extremely powerful defensive tools attached to wirebugs, and partially because higher framerates than 30 are glitched and increase tracking.
Because your attacks can't really affect the monster beyond dealing damage, and the micropositioning of hitboxes and movement is less emphasized, more pressure is put on balancing to differentiate moves. MH has never really been that good at balance, but in the past it's been serviceable, with the major exception of Generations Ultimate, where at least you can ignore most of it if you really want. While Sunbreak is probably better off balance-wise than GU (really not saying much), now the stakes are higher, with the core mechanics of Wirebugs and Switch Skills at play.
Wirebugs in general don't really feel like much of a resource to manage at all. This is partially because most of the cooldowns are low, so by the time you would need a bug, you almost always have it (unless you're wirefalling on every single hit). It's also partially because the tradeoffs between silkbinds aren't really there. Often there is either one silkbind that is obviously the best to spam (Hammer's Impact Crater, Switch Axe's counter, Charge Blade's Counter Peak Performance, etc.), or the desirable silkbinds (many of which have ridiculous defensive properties) are low cooldown as previously mentioned.
Wirefall, a mechanic with great potential for defensive decision-making, is severely hurt by this, as the intended cooldown tradeoff is mostly irrelevant compared to its power. This forced the developers to add:
- "Gotcha" followups that catch wirefall, which are trivially memorized and don't contribute to depth long-term.
- Combos that need wirefall to break out of, which feels less like a strategic decision to conserve wirebugs and more like being punished for getting caught at an unlucky time.
- Simply banning wirefall for certain attacks, which "works" but is rather clumsy and has no pattern that I could discern.
For better implementations of resources like Wirebugs see Nioh 2 Anima meter, Unsouled meter/Ghost Orbs, probably many fighting games, and MHGU hunter arts.
Switch Skills are a little less egregious, and there are some gems like Greatsword's Surge Slash Combo and Gunlance's Blast Dash, but a lot of them are just bad compared to their alternatives, and not even situationally useful or significantly different to play, which really limits the impact of Switch Skill Swap beyond the skills that impact the swap action itself. It's sort of like if Nioh only had 1-2 stances per weapon but still had flux, it's neat I guess but falls short of its potential.
Why nobody brings this next point up continually baffles me: 5th gen MH feels substantially worse to control than older games. Movement feels slippery, and the animations smooth into each other in an unsatisfying way. One of the joys of classic MH was how weighty yet precise everything felt. Slamming your meticuously-aimed Greatsword into a monster's head, waiting just the right amount of split-seconds, then watching your hunter snap into motion to iframe the next attack was a fantastic feeling that never got old. But that's gone now, presumably for "realism"/"fluidity"/trailer footage. And it's not like this is some unsolvable problem; DMC, Ninja Gaiden, and Nioh are as least as fast-paced as Sunbreak but feel much better to control. This might sound like a nitpick, but this is the type of thing that gets stuck in your subconscious, silently influencing the texture of your experience.
Given that this series has adopted a Call of Duty style dev cycle, it's not terribly surprising that the systems around the fundamentals, even the newer additions, have accrued MMO-like bloat and internal tension. Just to name a few:
- Why are you allowed to ride the dog and sharpen during combat?
- Why would you ever use more than one ammo type for gun if you can just restock your best type?
- Why do the strongest healing items in the game have the fastest use animation?
- Why is the inventory limited at all if you can just restock?
- Why are there still tons of completely useless armor skills?
- Why does wyvern ride do so much damage yet has nothing to do with the regular combat systems?
- Why do weapons still have obviously garbage moves like GS upswing that are almost 20 years old?
- Why does auto-farm still need busywork maintenance?
- etc.
You basically have to self-restrict to work around these problems, which would be alright if there were only a few obvious things to ban, like Freedom Unite's traps and flashes or DMC/Bayo's consumable items. But here it's a mess because they're littered everywhere, mixed in with other mechanics, and difficult to identify for inexperienced players. It's like if there were a hundred DMC/Bayo items in the same category as the weapons. And plenty of them either exert broad influence on the game or can't be easily banned at all.
---
Let's be crystal clear on this point: the problem is NOT that Sunbreak isn't old MH. Old MH is useful as a point of comparison, because it faces many of the same critical design questions. But as the context around those questions changes, those existing answers need to be reevaluated.
I'm not asking for Freedom Unite 2, Freedom Unite already exists and I can play it right now. What I am asking for is a solid game.
Every so often I hear people say that Rise is "a bad MH game, but a good action game." Frankly I suspect the people saying this don't play other action games (except maybe Souls which is another can of worms). But they are "right" in one sense: MH doesn't have some special privilege that protects it from comparisons to games outside of its series.
Nioh 2 has tons of bosses, a stamina system, powerful abilities tied to a shared meter, a handful of weapon types,
and on the fly moveset switching. It executes nearly all of these better than Sunbreak. But that's because Team Ninja is an experienced studio whose reputation and livelihood depends on making solid, polished games, while Monster Hunter is a juggernaut series that's accrued plenty of inertia through loyalty, branding, and multiplayer, so the quality (or lack thereof) in its mechanics is mostly lost on the playerbase. I commend Monster Hunter's dev teams and management for maintaining a reasonable level of craftsmanship even in these conditions, but is missed potential really surprising when all the incentives are pushing against it?
At the end of the day, if you are looking for good 1v1 boss fights, Monster Hunter is still the best series by a big margin. The fundamentals of timing and positioning are still intact enough to have a good time running through the main story with your weapon(s) of choice, and many of the classic MH trappings are as fun as they've ever been. But, sadly, I'm not seeing this entry, or future ones if the series's recent history is anything to go by, as a game to deeply invest into and love.
Ah well, nothing lasts forever.
it's fine. It doesn't resonate with me as much as Iceborne, but it's a good tide-over before World's sequel.
When I hear people saying how Sunbreak isn't Monster Hunter I always check for two things, and usually at least one of them checks out:
1) They're World fans
2) They "used to play Freedom Unite back in the day with their good ol' PSP"
Don't fall for the common accusations, Sunbreak is the absolute pinnacle of Monster Hunter combat, paired with one of the best monster rosters in the series: you've got Astalos, Primalzeno, Gore Magala, Lucent Narga and many other stupid good fights to learn and get your new hat out of.
A thing I usually criticize about Iceborne is the sets balancing: you want to do GS? Fatalis. CB? Fatalis. DB which are literally elemental killing machines? Fatalis, elemental sucks ASS in that game. Pair those weapons with a full Fatalis armor (or one AT Velk piece if you fancy) and slot in the decos you just grinded 100+ tempered Teostra for and you're good to go!
Now here, things are different: any weapon has so many possibilities, in terms of both elemental and raw damage and skills you want to implement to your playstyle. Berserker, Strife, Blood Rite, Buildup Boost; you name them, they got them.
My very reasons for it not being 5 stars are bond to the fact the expansion starts VERY slowly, like 3 stars worth of missions are mostly boring fights you already did with a fire/blast variation of a newcomer you fought in base Rise BUT the second you slay that damn Astalos the game just starts to ramp up and it NEVER STOPS.
My other reason is the fact once you get to the endgame it gets a bit disorienting for all the stuff it introduces you, so it takes a while to understand that + it slows down quite a bit because the real juicy stuff starts after you reach MR100, with Scorned Magnamalo and the Risen fights which are just that good and challenging!
Man I love this game, what a wonderful life-ruining experience.
1) They're World fans
2) They "used to play Freedom Unite back in the day with their good ol' PSP"
Don't fall for the common accusations, Sunbreak is the absolute pinnacle of Monster Hunter combat, paired with one of the best monster rosters in the series: you've got Astalos, Primalzeno, Gore Magala, Lucent Narga and many other stupid good fights to learn and get your new hat out of.
A thing I usually criticize about Iceborne is the sets balancing: you want to do GS? Fatalis. CB? Fatalis. DB which are literally elemental killing machines? Fatalis, elemental sucks ASS in that game. Pair those weapons with a full Fatalis armor (or one AT Velk piece if you fancy) and slot in the decos you just grinded 100+ tempered Teostra for and you're good to go!
Now here, things are different: any weapon has so many possibilities, in terms of both elemental and raw damage and skills you want to implement to your playstyle. Berserker, Strife, Blood Rite, Buildup Boost; you name them, they got them.
My very reasons for it not being 5 stars are bond to the fact the expansion starts VERY slowly, like 3 stars worth of missions are mostly boring fights you already did with a fire/blast variation of a newcomer you fought in base Rise BUT the second you slay that damn Astalos the game just starts to ramp up and it NEVER STOPS.
My other reason is the fact once you get to the endgame it gets a bit disorienting for all the stuff it introduces you, so it takes a while to understand that + it slows down quite a bit because the real juicy stuff starts after you reach MR100, with Scorned Magnamalo and the Risen fights which are just that good and challenging!
Man I love this game, what a wonderful life-ruining experience.
Sunbreak takes the already outstanding base that was Rise and trims the fat and further polishes a combat system that has been already shined to near perfection over the last several entries. Simultaneously it ups the difficulty substantially and adds several standout monsters, both new and old. New Master Rank armor gives a greater degree of control over player build options, and the new skill swap abilities gives an unprecedented level of expression and freedom. As far as combat in video games goes, it just doesn't get better than this.
A ravenous new experience for Rise
Sunbreak is an excellent expansion to the base game that reignited my love for Monster Hunter Rise that I sunk sixty hours into the game for a week like I always do with the series. I can't speak much from a series veteran since I've only played Gen 2 a lot before Gen 5 but this has been the most fun I've had with the series so far. One thing I really love about this series is that you can play and grind as long as you want without any time gates at all you happen to see so much often in games of this specific niche and Sunbreak brings more variety into the mix.
The story is better than the base Rise with interesting subject matter and the characters are more fleshed out and endearing via the follower quests addition they added. The locations they added being the Jungle and Citadel are excellent additions to the area and the new monsters are really fun to fight which I feel like they went with the quality vs quantity approach which I like more. The new switch skills and builds give way for a lot more experimentation to the point that for the first time in the series that I actually went out of my way to try new weapons instead of sticking to my tried and true. Follower quests are a great surprising addition that gives the characters way more personality than it even reflects it in their own playstyle. Fiorayne is the true all rounder that will heal and attack when approriate while someone like Luchika becomes a feral demon and just spams the fire button and never think about her (and your) own welfare that I thought was really charming.
I put around sixty hours into Sunbreak and I already got a few sets already done with a few decorations with all there's left to do is talisman farming which I admit can be a bit tiring after ten hours in a row but with more content in the horizon, I'll be ready to come back into this game and series at a moment's notice. If you loved Rise, you already have this expansion and if you're still on the fence for Rise then you should pick it up at this point.
Sunbreak is an excellent expansion to the base game that reignited my love for Monster Hunter Rise that I sunk sixty hours into the game for a week like I always do with the series. I can't speak much from a series veteran since I've only played Gen 2 a lot before Gen 5 but this has been the most fun I've had with the series so far. One thing I really love about this series is that you can play and grind as long as you want without any time gates at all you happen to see so much often in games of this specific niche and Sunbreak brings more variety into the mix.
The story is better than the base Rise with interesting subject matter and the characters are more fleshed out and endearing via the follower quests addition they added. The locations they added being the Jungle and Citadel are excellent additions to the area and the new monsters are really fun to fight which I feel like they went with the quality vs quantity approach which I like more. The new switch skills and builds give way for a lot more experimentation to the point that for the first time in the series that I actually went out of my way to try new weapons instead of sticking to my tried and true. Follower quests are a great surprising addition that gives the characters way more personality than it even reflects it in their own playstyle. Fiorayne is the true all rounder that will heal and attack when approriate while someone like Luchika becomes a feral demon and just spams the fire button and never think about her (and your) own welfare that I thought was really charming.
I put around sixty hours into Sunbreak and I already got a few sets already done with a few decorations with all there's left to do is talisman farming which I admit can be a bit tiring after ten hours in a row but with more content in the horizon, I'll be ready to come back into this game and series at a moment's notice. If you loved Rise, you already have this expansion and if you're still on the fence for Rise then you should pick it up at this point.
Took a break from the game and Monster Hunter in general shortly after beating the main story boss. Picked it back up about a month ago, and whew... Didn't even notice time flying.
About 400 hours later and after grabbing all achievements, Rise is definitely way up there in my personal Monster Hunter pantheon.
It's 1am and I'm sleepy as hell after nabbing the last achievement so I won't write a huge review. I'm just really happy with the game and super satisfied with all the time I spent on it.
It's not everyone's cup of tea, especially for those that started playing MH with World, but this is my kind of MH right here baby. Little to no bullshit in between hunts, just slicing and dicing crusty ol' lizards to make beeg sword, then slicing even bigger lizards.
It's not as immersive or environmentally dense as World, but I never gave a shit about that. Rise has style, a killer soundtrack, and one hell of an addicting gameplay loop. Doubly so if you decide to go for all achievements or have your own personal achievements like I do, such as using every weapon in the game 100 times or crafting every weapon/armor set.
Can't wait to see what the next entry in the series has in store. All I know is I'll be there day 1 for sure B^)
About 400 hours later and after grabbing all achievements, Rise is definitely way up there in my personal Monster Hunter pantheon.
It's 1am and I'm sleepy as hell after nabbing the last achievement so I won't write a huge review. I'm just really happy with the game and super satisfied with all the time I spent on it.
It's not everyone's cup of tea, especially for those that started playing MH with World, but this is my kind of MH right here baby. Little to no bullshit in between hunts, just slicing and dicing crusty ol' lizards to make beeg sword, then slicing even bigger lizards.
It's not as immersive or environmentally dense as World, but I never gave a shit about that. Rise has style, a killer soundtrack, and one hell of an addicting gameplay loop. Doubly so if you decide to go for all achievements or have your own personal achievements like I do, such as using every weapon in the game 100 times or crafting every weapon/armor set.
Can't wait to see what the next entry in the series has in store. All I know is I'll be there day 1 for sure B^)
the most fun i've had with mh since iceborne
(EDIT 11/16/2022: Follower system was expanded to work with most Master Rank quests as of update Ver.13.)
Oh right. This came out and I played a fuckton of it. Haven't touched the game since the last title update, so I may as well throw my thoughts I had amassed out there before the year's over.
The amount of content on offer confuses me a bit, specifically the quest selection. Base Rise had a selection of quests that felt condensed. Most of the multi-monster quests were reserved for quests recieved from villagers, usually unlocking something upon completion. Sunbreak also has a substantial amount of villager requests. They start off fairly strong, a few pictures here, a few deliveries there, but then they suddenly devolve into capturing everything. There also isn't a single quest in master rank with the objective of "capture". Rise is already one of the easiest games to capture monsters in (your cats warn you, a symbol appears next to the monster's icon, very few monsters have materials you can only obtain via carving), and it's no different in Sunbreak.
I'm somewhat surprised that it took MH this long to implement a system like this. Many modern MMORPGs let you take NPCs along on quests if you don't have friends (or at least, the Phantasy Star games I've played do that) to help assist with content that was built to be done alongside other players. MH is a series that falls on both sides of this; there's often a portion of the game built for solo, but the game will expect you to bring friends for the later content. Sunbreak's solution to this is "follower quests", quests where you're accompanied by a character from the game. I really like how each follower gets their own set of quips, preferred weapons, and styles of hunting. It helps the characters of Sunbreak stand out as more than typical NPCs, and the same thing retroactively happens for base Rise's characters when you take them on hunts. Fiorayne will also join you in specific urgent quests (even in multiplayer, strangely enough). Many pairs of followers also have unique dialogue when on quests. The one thing that baffles me about Followers are that you can only take them on follower quests/support surveys, menus of quests dedicated to this feature alone.
The reason why I find all these "extra quests" so confusing is because of the Key Quest system. In my eyes, it encourages playing a couple marked quests in the current tier, nothing else, and just moving on as ASAP as possible. This is good for the story, less so for your Master Rank. And to that extent, there's no real reason to do otherwise, thanks to how the HR/MR system works. In the classic MH games, your HR was uncapped after you got to a certain point of high rank. However, in those games, your uncapped HR is silently being counted in the background, accumulating with every quest you do. So when your HR cap is unlocked, it's this big surprise when you see how high it already is! Rise/Sunbreak do not do that though. Instead, once your HR/MR cap is unlocked, you are expected to start grinding from that point.
This feeling also stems from a place of gameplay stagnation, which is definitely on me, but it's an easy trap to fall into. I may be in the "postgame", but my armor set is completely figured out, I've got a reasonable selection of endgame weapons, and it kinda makes doing more quests just feel like I'm going through the motions. The subquest system kinda falls to the wayside when you don't necessarily need more Kamura Points or armor spheres. Another thing that finally started getting on my nerves was collecting the Spiribirds at the stat of every single quest. To me personally, this system now feels like the "preparation phase" that takes place before a quest is bleeding into the quest itself. Now you've got what feels like pre-quest prep and post-pre-quest prep. You could go fight the monster immediately, but you might get mauled due to having lower health, no defense/attack buffs, etc. I miss being able to just eat a meal beforehand, and go straight after the monster in the quest itself.
The selection of new and returning monsters in Sunbreak makes me so happy (4th gen represent). Hunters have gotten a fresh set of tools for master rank, but it's balanced out by MR monsters being no slouches. Every single monster is significantly faster, more agressive, and they're all sporting new moves as well. Seregios is relentless, Gore and Shagaru Magala look fantastic for their first foray in HD, and wildcard picks like Espinas made for some very memorable fights. In terms of areas, I can praise the Citadel for its sheer variety of biomes and its massive size, but it did feel a bit too big for me at times. Nah, I'm personally a fan of the Jungle map. Everything is fairly dense, tons of underground tunnels to explore, and great wirebugs that quickly take you all across the area It feels like a faithful adaptation of the original map, with the flair of 5th gen MH.
The newly introduced endgame being an amalgamation of MH4U's guild quests and MHW's investigations really doesn't do it for me. Anomaly quests are already obnoxious enough to grind in their own right, and I had my fill long before the first title update brought along the real endgame. Sunbreak is fine. It's very fun and high-quality. But I don't think it'll leave a massive impact on me that the rest of this series has.
Oh right. This came out and I played a fuckton of it. Haven't touched the game since the last title update, so I may as well throw my thoughts I had amassed out there before the year's over.
The amount of content on offer confuses me a bit, specifically the quest selection. Base Rise had a selection of quests that felt condensed. Most of the multi-monster quests were reserved for quests recieved from villagers, usually unlocking something upon completion. Sunbreak also has a substantial amount of villager requests. They start off fairly strong, a few pictures here, a few deliveries there, but then they suddenly devolve into capturing everything. There also isn't a single quest in master rank with the objective of "capture". Rise is already one of the easiest games to capture monsters in (your cats warn you, a symbol appears next to the monster's icon, very few monsters have materials you can only obtain via carving), and it's no different in Sunbreak.
I'm somewhat surprised that it took MH this long to implement a system like this. Many modern MMORPGs let you take NPCs along on quests if you don't have friends (or at least, the Phantasy Star games I've played do that) to help assist with content that was built to be done alongside other players. MH is a series that falls on both sides of this; there's often a portion of the game built for solo, but the game will expect you to bring friends for the later content. Sunbreak's solution to this is "follower quests", quests where you're accompanied by a character from the game. I really like how each follower gets their own set of quips, preferred weapons, and styles of hunting. It helps the characters of Sunbreak stand out as more than typical NPCs, and the same thing retroactively happens for base Rise's characters when you take them on hunts. Fiorayne will also join you in specific urgent quests (even in multiplayer, strangely enough). Many pairs of followers also have unique dialogue when on quests. The one thing that baffles me about Followers are that you can only take them on follower quests/support surveys, menus of quests dedicated to this feature alone.
The reason why I find all these "extra quests" so confusing is because of the Key Quest system. In my eyes, it encourages playing a couple marked quests in the current tier, nothing else, and just moving on as ASAP as possible. This is good for the story, less so for your Master Rank. And to that extent, there's no real reason to do otherwise, thanks to how the HR/MR system works. In the classic MH games, your HR was uncapped after you got to a certain point of high rank. However, in those games, your uncapped HR is silently being counted in the background, accumulating with every quest you do. So when your HR cap is unlocked, it's this big surprise when you see how high it already is! Rise/Sunbreak do not do that though. Instead, once your HR/MR cap is unlocked, you are expected to start grinding from that point.
This feeling also stems from a place of gameplay stagnation, which is definitely on me, but it's an easy trap to fall into. I may be in the "postgame", but my armor set is completely figured out, I've got a reasonable selection of endgame weapons, and it kinda makes doing more quests just feel like I'm going through the motions. The subquest system kinda falls to the wayside when you don't necessarily need more Kamura Points or armor spheres. Another thing that finally started getting on my nerves was collecting the Spiribirds at the stat of every single quest. To me personally, this system now feels like the "preparation phase" that takes place before a quest is bleeding into the quest itself. Now you've got what feels like pre-quest prep and post-pre-quest prep. You could go fight the monster immediately, but you might get mauled due to having lower health, no defense/attack buffs, etc. I miss being able to just eat a meal beforehand, and go straight after the monster in the quest itself.
The selection of new and returning monsters in Sunbreak makes me so happy (4th gen represent). Hunters have gotten a fresh set of tools for master rank, but it's balanced out by MR monsters being no slouches. Every single monster is significantly faster, more agressive, and they're all sporting new moves as well. Seregios is relentless, Gore and Shagaru Magala look fantastic for their first foray in HD, and wildcard picks like Espinas made for some very memorable fights. In terms of areas, I can praise the Citadel for its sheer variety of biomes and its massive size, but it did feel a bit too big for me at times. Nah, I'm personally a fan of the Jungle map. Everything is fairly dense, tons of underground tunnels to explore, and great wirebugs that quickly take you all across the area It feels like a faithful adaptation of the original map, with the flair of 5th gen MH.
The newly introduced endgame being an amalgamation of MH4U's guild quests and MHW's investigations really doesn't do it for me. Anomaly quests are already obnoxious enough to grind in their own right, and I had my fill long before the first title update brought along the real endgame. Sunbreak is fine. It's very fun and high-quality. But I don't think it'll leave a massive impact on me that the rest of this series has.
I feel like the time is now to update my Sunbreak thoughts, about halfway (Iām guessing) through the title updates, and, well, I was in the mood to write about it. The game has changed a lot since I wrote my first review, and my suspicion that thisād end up my favorite Monster Hunter turned outā¦even more true than I expected. So I wanted to write about why.
Anomaly investigations feel like an endgame designed specifically for me. Or, almost. My favorite Monster Hunter endgame is essentially what we got in Rise: essentially nothing making you play, beyond you wanting to play, because itās fun. It gives you some hyper challenging monsters, and no reward for fighting them, because it is so confident in simply being fun to play that it expects you to fight them anyway. I didnāt care about Apexes not having gear: I liked that the game just made these challenging fights and invited me to do them, if I wanted to. I did fight them, and I did have fun. I had so much fun in the endgame of Rise. But I acknowledge that these days, most people playing a game like Monster Hunter crave more concrete tasks to accomplish, more systems to engage with, and rewards for doing so. I donāt begrudge that, even though it usually ends up making me less interested in a game in the long run.
But anomaly investigations. I love them. I spent about 200 hours in base Rise simply using the āRandomā button on Join Requests. This was my absolute favorite feature of Rise. This is why, despite knowing Riseās matchmaking is objectively worse than Worldās, I still kind of prefer Riseās. Itās pretty shit for trying to find specific monsters to fight (pre-anomaly investigations, at least) but the Random button. I love that button. In World, scouring the board for Join Requests and manually choosing one every time, when I just want to āplay Monster Hunterā and donāt care about the particulars, Iād usually grow tired and bounce off after about four hunts. In Rise, Iād keep going back and jumping into Random fights all night. Random hunts actually made the camp feel somewhat less egregiously casual, since if I suddenly realized, āI brought a poison SnS to a monster immune to it,ā I could go swap out a build real quick. Or Iād equip a weapon I was still learning to play, get something like Valstrax that I felt not ready for on that weapon, no worries, Iāll just switch to my trusty GS. Or so on. I never got bored because I was always fighting different monsters, trying different weapons, and always felt like I was helping people out, and the time to jump into the next hunt was just about zero.
Anomaly investigations feel like the team at Capcom saw how much time I spent doing random hunts and made an endgame system specifically for me. Iām using my well-tuned GS build? Iāll limit my search to the upper levels. I wanna try out a new build, a new weapon, new switch skills? I can just cap the level to 40 or something low and hunt something without having to worry about carting (probably). Because I will essentially use any of the materials investigations give to me, Iāll just have it give me any random target. Pre-investigations, I thought anomaly quests didnāt quite stick the landing on āmaking the entire roster relevant in endgame,ā but investigations nailed it, since you have augmentation as an endless anomalous material funnel.
And I get why people donāt like armor augmentation. But I really enjoy it. I felt base Sunbreak had a really diverse array of viable options for builds, and I think that augmentation makes that even more true. Sure, I canāt take a crap gear piece and make it great, but for example, I really love the skill on the Malzeno armor that heals you when you hit a broken part. Stacked with bloodblight and recovery up, a single hit on GS can heal me to essentially full, which helps me stay really aggressive in anomaly hunts. So I take some of the Malzeno armor into augmentation and basically roll on it until I get some better offensive skills (which the armor largely lacks). Is it a meta set? Absolutely not. Can I still pump out far better damage than in a world without armor augmentation? Yes yes yes.
I think armor augmentation is bad for min maxing, for the more hardcore community, but I think Sunbreak is really about encouraging build and playstyle diversity in a way that the MH series has, in my experience, never done (GU is close, but most weapons have extremely extremely āthe bestā art/style combos, where I just feel Sunbreak allows for a bit more diversity. Partly because itās easier! Which I donāt think is inherently horrible). It feels bad rolling a bad augmentation roll, but since Iām not really going for a God Roll, I just get a good offensive skill on a comfy piece, or a good comfy skill on an offensive piece, and then call it a day. If youāre happy with the āgood enoughā augment, it really takes extremely minimal grinding.
Then Iāve really enjoyed the title update monsters so far. I like that the weapons donāt feel dramatically, insanely better than what we already have, just providing even more options (the armor sets, on the other hand, have some pretty great unique skills, but even they are there to encourage you to try out new types of play, eg. attacking the monster from behind). I again donāt really care about how many fire monsters weāre getting, I guess probably since I main raw-focused weapons and donāt really pay attention to elemental resistances in my armor (giant fireballs are generally very easy to dodge) and just donāt care that much what color the big projectile being thrown at me is. Again, I kinda get why some people care, but I donāt. Which is a running theme with Sunbreakāall of the common criticisms are just things that donāt bother me, or that I actively like. I hope we get at least a couple completely new monsters (new to this game, I mean; I donāt really expect fully original monsters in title updates) but I like all the fights we have so far. While base Rise has some monsters I really hate (Volvidon, Basariosā¦thatās it, really), Sunbreak has only added monsters I really like (Seething Bazelgeuse I find a little boring). Which is not true of any other Monster Hunter game Iāve played (Portable 3rd is close, but alas: Nibelsnarf).
I think Monster Hunter will return to the World mode for its next entry, or something at least closer to it (a bit slower, more emphasis on ecosystem interactions, more grounded combat), and Iām fine with that. Iām sure I will really, really enjoy the next game. But I think itās possible Sunbreak stays essentially my perfect modern Monster Hunter. And Iāll always have it, and Iāll be playing it for a long time.
Anomaly investigations feel like an endgame designed specifically for me. Or, almost. My favorite Monster Hunter endgame is essentially what we got in Rise: essentially nothing making you play, beyond you wanting to play, because itās fun. It gives you some hyper challenging monsters, and no reward for fighting them, because it is so confident in simply being fun to play that it expects you to fight them anyway. I didnāt care about Apexes not having gear: I liked that the game just made these challenging fights and invited me to do them, if I wanted to. I did fight them, and I did have fun. I had so much fun in the endgame of Rise. But I acknowledge that these days, most people playing a game like Monster Hunter crave more concrete tasks to accomplish, more systems to engage with, and rewards for doing so. I donāt begrudge that, even though it usually ends up making me less interested in a game in the long run.
But anomaly investigations. I love them. I spent about 200 hours in base Rise simply using the āRandomā button on Join Requests. This was my absolute favorite feature of Rise. This is why, despite knowing Riseās matchmaking is objectively worse than Worldās, I still kind of prefer Riseās. Itās pretty shit for trying to find specific monsters to fight (pre-anomaly investigations, at least) but the Random button. I love that button. In World, scouring the board for Join Requests and manually choosing one every time, when I just want to āplay Monster Hunterā and donāt care about the particulars, Iād usually grow tired and bounce off after about four hunts. In Rise, Iād keep going back and jumping into Random fights all night. Random hunts actually made the camp feel somewhat less egregiously casual, since if I suddenly realized, āI brought a poison SnS to a monster immune to it,ā I could go swap out a build real quick. Or Iād equip a weapon I was still learning to play, get something like Valstrax that I felt not ready for on that weapon, no worries, Iāll just switch to my trusty GS. Or so on. I never got bored because I was always fighting different monsters, trying different weapons, and always felt like I was helping people out, and the time to jump into the next hunt was just about zero.
Anomaly investigations feel like the team at Capcom saw how much time I spent doing random hunts and made an endgame system specifically for me. Iām using my well-tuned GS build? Iāll limit my search to the upper levels. I wanna try out a new build, a new weapon, new switch skills? I can just cap the level to 40 or something low and hunt something without having to worry about carting (probably). Because I will essentially use any of the materials investigations give to me, Iāll just have it give me any random target. Pre-investigations, I thought anomaly quests didnāt quite stick the landing on āmaking the entire roster relevant in endgame,ā but investigations nailed it, since you have augmentation as an endless anomalous material funnel.
And I get why people donāt like armor augmentation. But I really enjoy it. I felt base Sunbreak had a really diverse array of viable options for builds, and I think that augmentation makes that even more true. Sure, I canāt take a crap gear piece and make it great, but for example, I really love the skill on the Malzeno armor that heals you when you hit a broken part. Stacked with bloodblight and recovery up, a single hit on GS can heal me to essentially full, which helps me stay really aggressive in anomaly hunts. So I take some of the Malzeno armor into augmentation and basically roll on it until I get some better offensive skills (which the armor largely lacks). Is it a meta set? Absolutely not. Can I still pump out far better damage than in a world without armor augmentation? Yes yes yes.
I think armor augmentation is bad for min maxing, for the more hardcore community, but I think Sunbreak is really about encouraging build and playstyle diversity in a way that the MH series has, in my experience, never done (GU is close, but most weapons have extremely extremely āthe bestā art/style combos, where I just feel Sunbreak allows for a bit more diversity. Partly because itās easier! Which I donāt think is inherently horrible). It feels bad rolling a bad augmentation roll, but since Iām not really going for a God Roll, I just get a good offensive skill on a comfy piece, or a good comfy skill on an offensive piece, and then call it a day. If youāre happy with the āgood enoughā augment, it really takes extremely minimal grinding.
Then Iāve really enjoyed the title update monsters so far. I like that the weapons donāt feel dramatically, insanely better than what we already have, just providing even more options (the armor sets, on the other hand, have some pretty great unique skills, but even they are there to encourage you to try out new types of play, eg. attacking the monster from behind). I again donāt really care about how many fire monsters weāre getting, I guess probably since I main raw-focused weapons and donāt really pay attention to elemental resistances in my armor (giant fireballs are generally very easy to dodge) and just donāt care that much what color the big projectile being thrown at me is. Again, I kinda get why some people care, but I donāt. Which is a running theme with Sunbreakāall of the common criticisms are just things that donāt bother me, or that I actively like. I hope we get at least a couple completely new monsters (new to this game, I mean; I donāt really expect fully original monsters in title updates) but I like all the fights we have so far. While base Rise has some monsters I really hate (Volvidon, Basariosā¦thatās it, really), Sunbreak has only added monsters I really like (Seething Bazelgeuse I find a little boring). Which is not true of any other Monster Hunter game Iāve played (Portable 3rd is close, but alas: Nibelsnarf).
I think Monster Hunter will return to the World mode for its next entry, or something at least closer to it (a bit slower, more emphasis on ecosystem interactions, more grounded combat), and Iām fine with that. Iām sure I will really, really enjoy the next game. But I think itās possible Sunbreak stays essentially my perfect modern Monster Hunter. And Iāll always have it, and Iāll be playing it for a long time.
I had intended to leave my second run of Sunbreak until much later in the year to focus on my second run of world/iceborne but a friend of mine wanted to do his second run through so I joined in.
Big fuckin sexy zip and dip moves go wheeeee, bullet barrage is incredible, the title update monsters were absolutely fire and for the first time in 10 years I have played a MH game without using Hammer, I really miss it lmao
Big fuckin sexy zip and dip moves go wheeeee, bullet barrage is incredible, the title update monsters were absolutely fire and for the first time in 10 years I have played a MH game without using Hammer, I really miss it lmao
So, after playing and beating Monster Hunter Rise I had heard they would do an expansion like Iceborne did for World. To be honest I didn't really have much expectation for the expansion (Sunbreak) even after it first got announced, I expected maybe a few areas and some new monsters and that's about it...
I was wrong, Sunbreak really does feel like what they were going for with Rise, not that rise was a bad game at all, but Sunbreak feels more polished in pretty much every kind of way. The lands you hunt in while not as many as Rise, feel every detailed and rich with appeal. The weapons now have extra moves as well as silkbinds that give the game that faster pace that Generations had giving a bit more of an arcade vibe. You are no longer tied to having to use one set of attacks, you can switch on the fly with the new switch skill scroll mechanic, further giving that arcade vibe and freedom to build your playstyle in a unique way.
The story is definitely a huge step up, the characters feel more like interesting people and while the stakes feel only slightly more higher than Rise, it still doesn't touch World or Iceborne...which I feel is a decent trade off, if the characters can hold lesser story up then it's just as good as a great story with lacking characters.
The new solo missions with the NPCs are a really nice touch and totally 200% better than the Rampages of Rise. The difficulty of the game has definitely been ramped up, not really to an overly hard degree, but rather steep at times compared to Rise.
If I had to give the game any slack, as someone who mains the Hunting Horn only, I felt that there are very few new Hunting Horns to make as in monster to weapon tree, most of the new monsters just enhanced one of the old Rise trees, so there weren't a lot of new horns or returning horn models from the past games, and honestly if that's my ONLY real complaint then they did extremely well.
I really enjoyed this from start to finish, it's a series I love and it's great to see it's getting it's due and is treated very well with a lot of love and care.
I was wrong, Sunbreak really does feel like what they were going for with Rise, not that rise was a bad game at all, but Sunbreak feels more polished in pretty much every kind of way. The lands you hunt in while not as many as Rise, feel every detailed and rich with appeal. The weapons now have extra moves as well as silkbinds that give the game that faster pace that Generations had giving a bit more of an arcade vibe. You are no longer tied to having to use one set of attacks, you can switch on the fly with the new switch skill scroll mechanic, further giving that arcade vibe and freedom to build your playstyle in a unique way.
The story is definitely a huge step up, the characters feel more like interesting people and while the stakes feel only slightly more higher than Rise, it still doesn't touch World or Iceborne...which I feel is a decent trade off, if the characters can hold lesser story up then it's just as good as a great story with lacking characters.
The new solo missions with the NPCs are a really nice touch and totally 200% better than the Rampages of Rise. The difficulty of the game has definitely been ramped up, not really to an overly hard degree, but rather steep at times compared to Rise.
If I had to give the game any slack, as someone who mains the Hunting Horn only, I felt that there are very few new Hunting Horns to make as in monster to weapon tree, most of the new monsters just enhanced one of the old Rise trees, so there weren't a lot of new horns or returning horn models from the past games, and honestly if that's my ONLY real complaint then they did extremely well.
I really enjoyed this from start to finish, it's a series I love and it's great to see it's getting it's due and is treated very well with a lot of love and care.
It's hard to come off the coattails of MHW Iceborne, but this entry is really solid, and does a lot of things better than Iceborne too. My main issue with Rise is that while the combat is flashy and fun, I can't help but feel it makes fighting monsters a little less intimate than before. I've put far less effort into recognizing telegraphed attacks because I'll get by just fine through generous counter windows, wire bug attacks, and some beefy ass hits. I miss the environmental hazards and more grounded approach that previous entries had. Weapons are all extremely powerful, perhaps too powerful, with not a single one being notably outclassed.
That being said, I'm still very glad this exists on its own. It's nice to have a Monster Hunter game that's a bit more like Dynasty Warriors, especially with combat so buttery smooth. Many new creatures are so well designed and fit right in with the old, looking at you Magnamalo. World traversal and wirebug recovery moves also take a lot of the sluggishness away that exists in other games, and I think that's a great choice for this more amped up combat style.
While I prefer the approach earlier entries had to combat more, I still really respect this game because it knows exactly what it is. A fun, flashy, sometimes mindless ARPG with some great creatures and weapons to explore. This is a quality game, it's really a matter of preference between this game's approach and World's approach.
That being said, I'm still very glad this exists on its own. It's nice to have a Monster Hunter game that's a bit more like Dynasty Warriors, especially with combat so buttery smooth. Many new creatures are so well designed and fit right in with the old, looking at you Magnamalo. World traversal and wirebug recovery moves also take a lot of the sluggishness away that exists in other games, and I think that's a great choice for this more amped up combat style.
While I prefer the approach earlier entries had to combat more, I still really respect this game because it knows exactly what it is. A fun, flashy, sometimes mindless ARPG with some great creatures and weapons to explore. This is a quality game, it's really a matter of preference between this game's approach and World's approach.
I really think Rise made me decide I wasn't going to talk or put my thoughts on any of these games online until they're fully 100% truly done with updates and while this still has a few more event quests to go that I will gladly get to as it stands this shit is done with Primeval Malzeno.
Sunbreak (from this point on occasionally referred to as Sunrise keep up) is without a shadow of a doubt probably the first one of these I've really been as addicted to as I was to 4U way back on the 3DS. While with Worldborne it eventually became a game of endless deco/KT/Safi farming Sunrise is a game that while as of this moment I have less time put into it than Worldborne unlike that game I can see myself definitely making another character to do an all new playthrough with a year or two from now.
The fantastic and frenetic combat of Rise is back in full swing and as with most G rank titles the monsters are faster and meaner than ever before, but Sunbreak goes even further implementing features and mechanics thought to have been lost with Frontier. Monsters like the Espinas duo and P Malzeno go absolutely berserk and it fucking rules. You can tell this time around the devs and especially the director who has been really open about about his love of Frontier really wanted to bring all that shit back and while I can't speak as someone who has played Frontier the consensus from those who have is enough to tell me they basically got it right. To combat this new ferocious beastiary we get the new scroll swap and switch skill mechanic and while I can definitely see the scrolls being a Sunrise exclusive gameplay element I hope to god switch skills return going forward. Being able to switch out your weapons moves for different ones is a million times more interesting to me as someone who cares more about game feel than the maps feeling alive and like a real ecosystem that Worldborne pushed.
This is also the first MH since 4U where while still having the same nonsense and simple "What could be causing this? Oh, it's monster! Actually it's this monster!" story MH always has it truly gets the feeling across of being on an adventure with a ragtag group to investigate and slay a dragon. It's funny too cause like Worldborne has a similar thing as always going on but it feels dumber in that game than here or 4U or even 3U? I don't know why, but it does. All this eventually culminating with the launch versions dragon satan finale and now the final update's P Malzeno leave me with a feeling of satisfaction that neither Xeno nor Shara really left me with despite the latter's genuinely great fight. Love the characters in this one too. I know it sounds silly considering most of them are just trope characters you see in lots of Japanese media, but Monster Hunter has always had a weird sort of like Jurassic Park 1 likeability to (most of) its characters that I can't help but enjoy interacting with them. Capcom knows this too cause the follower system (another thing kind of taken from Frontier) implemented in this game is really just a dating system lets be real and it better come back. Also if you look like Minayle hmu.
Yeah most of this review sounds like rambling, but I've got a year of shit to say and I've had plenty of time to reflect on and honestly I really really really like this game. It's a feeling like I've mentioned I haven't felt towards a Monster Hunter since 4U around 8 years ago (Jesus Christ kill me). Sure I can criticize how the roster isn't as big as GU's (stupid). Hell I could criticize the super slow grind of the Anomaly system, but I personally don't mind it. It's a much more passive grind that I could play at whatever pace I wanted and all the post launch monsters don't really require all the shit you get from it to fight them. Afflicted monsters being a genuinely fun challenge and the THE best version of endgame powered monsters (this is not arguable don't even bother) only helps. Loved the secondary combat mechanic of hitting the glowing bits like hyper monsters, but unlike them it actually feels like it does something. Love the knockdowns leading to tired state for easy hits after doing enough damage, but unlike 4U Apexes it's not annoying as fuck to get there without some shitty extra item. Love that they actually get cool slight distinct visuals aspects (Khezu full on looks like Red Khezu, Luna looks like a super Odo), as opposed to the boring violet metallic tint of World's tempered monsters. Yeah I'm shilling hard and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, this game is better than Worldborne. What it lacks in fidelity (made up for by better art direction here anyways) it more than makes up for in being actually fun to play and having creative combat scenarios that could never be done in that game's slower pacing or shitty attempts at MMO raid type battle.
Oh my lord the music of this game too. I am very vocal in my dislike of some of World's tracks (Iceborne is definitely a bit better about this), but Sunbreak like Rise before it goes all in with some of the coolest original tracks in the series alongside remaking older ones in a much closer fashion to their originals while still adding in new touches to make them feel fresh. The end result is just chefs kiss baby. Peak MH OST.
Sunbreak may not be perfect and it kind of like Generations Ultimate is hampered by a good as fuck but also kind of weaker first half (Gen portion in GU Rise portion here), but by the time you're dug in like a tick in Sunbreak that shit won't matter when Fiorayne leaps through the sky and slamshitfucks Pacific Rim back into the Earth. Yeah, I'm thinking I'll be playing this still a fuckton while waiting for MH6 and years away from now too.
Sunbreak (from this point on occasionally referred to as Sunrise keep up) is without a shadow of a doubt probably the first one of these I've really been as addicted to as I was to 4U way back on the 3DS. While with Worldborne it eventually became a game of endless deco/KT/Safi farming Sunrise is a game that while as of this moment I have less time put into it than Worldborne unlike that game I can see myself definitely making another character to do an all new playthrough with a year or two from now.
The fantastic and frenetic combat of Rise is back in full swing and as with most G rank titles the monsters are faster and meaner than ever before, but Sunbreak goes even further implementing features and mechanics thought to have been lost with Frontier. Monsters like the Espinas duo and P Malzeno go absolutely berserk and it fucking rules. You can tell this time around the devs and especially the director who has been really open about about his love of Frontier really wanted to bring all that shit back and while I can't speak as someone who has played Frontier the consensus from those who have is enough to tell me they basically got it right. To combat this new ferocious beastiary we get the new scroll swap and switch skill mechanic and while I can definitely see the scrolls being a Sunrise exclusive gameplay element I hope to god switch skills return going forward. Being able to switch out your weapons moves for different ones is a million times more interesting to me as someone who cares more about game feel than the maps feeling alive and like a real ecosystem that Worldborne pushed.
This is also the first MH since 4U where while still having the same nonsense and simple "What could be causing this? Oh, it's monster! Actually it's this monster!" story MH always has it truly gets the feeling across of being on an adventure with a ragtag group to investigate and slay a dragon. It's funny too cause like Worldborne has a similar thing as always going on but it feels dumber in that game than here or 4U or even 3U? I don't know why, but it does. All this eventually culminating with the launch versions dragon satan finale and now the final update's P Malzeno leave me with a feeling of satisfaction that neither Xeno nor Shara really left me with despite the latter's genuinely great fight. Love the characters in this one too. I know it sounds silly considering most of them are just trope characters you see in lots of Japanese media, but Monster Hunter has always had a weird sort of like Jurassic Park 1 likeability to (most of) its characters that I can't help but enjoy interacting with them. Capcom knows this too cause the follower system (another thing kind of taken from Frontier) implemented in this game is really just a dating system lets be real and it better come back. Also if you look like Minayle hmu.
Yeah most of this review sounds like rambling, but I've got a year of shit to say and I've had plenty of time to reflect on and honestly I really really really like this game. It's a feeling like I've mentioned I haven't felt towards a Monster Hunter since 4U around 8 years ago (Jesus Christ kill me). Sure I can criticize how the roster isn't as big as GU's (stupid). Hell I could criticize the super slow grind of the Anomaly system, but I personally don't mind it. It's a much more passive grind that I could play at whatever pace I wanted and all the post launch monsters don't really require all the shit you get from it to fight them. Afflicted monsters being a genuinely fun challenge and the THE best version of endgame powered monsters (this is not arguable don't even bother) only helps. Loved the secondary combat mechanic of hitting the glowing bits like hyper monsters, but unlike them it actually feels like it does something. Love the knockdowns leading to tired state for easy hits after doing enough damage, but unlike 4U Apexes it's not annoying as fuck to get there without some shitty extra item. Love that they actually get cool slight distinct visuals aspects (Khezu full on looks like Red Khezu, Luna looks like a super Odo), as opposed to the boring violet metallic tint of World's tempered monsters. Yeah I'm shilling hard and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, this game is better than Worldborne. What it lacks in fidelity (made up for by better art direction here anyways) it more than makes up for in being actually fun to play and having creative combat scenarios that could never be done in that game's slower pacing or shitty attempts at MMO raid type battle.
Oh my lord the music of this game too. I am very vocal in my dislike of some of World's tracks (Iceborne is definitely a bit better about this), but Sunbreak like Rise before it goes all in with some of the coolest original tracks in the series alongside remaking older ones in a much closer fashion to their originals while still adding in new touches to make them feel fresh. The end result is just chefs kiss baby. Peak MH OST.
Sunbreak may not be perfect and it kind of like Generations Ultimate is hampered by a good as fuck but also kind of weaker first half (Gen portion in GU Rise portion here), but by the time you're dug in like a tick in Sunbreak that shit won't matter when Fiorayne leaps through the sky and slamshitfucks Pacific Rim back into the Earth. Yeah, I'm thinking I'll be playing this still a fuckton while waiting for MH6 and years away from now too.
Sunbreak's new monsters and maps are mostly-great additions to the rather anemic base game, but they're not wisely-spread out at all, and none of this addresses the lack of substance in neo-MonHun's structure. The hub is kind of confusing.