Got to HR7, made my endgame armor set, beat the final-not-final boss and done all the available apex rampages, which I guess is as far as you can take the game at the moment.

The “it’s Monster Hunter for people who don’t like Monster Hunter!” comments are fair, but is that necessarily a bad thing? It’s clear this is an accessible take on Monhun for one of the most accessible games consoles of all time. If you wanna wander around the frozen wastes with a hot drink for ten minutes to land a paintball on a Tigrex before it carts you in two swipes of its claw because your finger slipped on the PSP thumbnipple, the old games are still there to punish you. Rise has a firm focus on fun first, and I think that’s just fine. Brilliant, even.

Driving a 200mph dog into a Zinogre’s face in order to start a Devil May Cry Smokin’ Sick Style!!! combo feels antithetical to the methodical precision of Old Monster Hunter, but it also feels fucking phenomenal, so who cares? In every single quest I turn my charge blade into a roaring chainsaw that chews through helpless idiot monster tails and then zipline my way up into the sky to unload an axe full of dynamite into their pathetic little skulls. Then I go to the blacksmith in the beautiful Japanese mountain village and he turns their bones into a pair of jeans for me. It’s pure violence porn on the Nintendo Switch.

The “it’s the shortest Monster Hunter ever!” comments are fair, but is that necessarily a bad thing? It’s the shortest Monster Hunter ever because you aren’t stopping to catch your breath every time your wee man does more than a minute’s jogging. It’s the shortest Monster Hunter ever because the game doesn’t make you carry a single stupid egg unless you really, really want to. It’s the shortest Monster Hunter ever because you can skip any cutscene you want. It’s the shortest Monster Hunter ever because Capcom somehow turned the Switch into a Ferrari. It’s the shortest Monster Hunter ever because you have a dog that’s a motorbike and you can turn yourself into Spider-Man. Amazing.

I totally get the complaints about the weirdly stilted endings that both the single and multiplayer content have - I saw the credits on the first day this game came out, and was suitably bemused by the “uhh maybe play multiplayer?” advice from my hunting mentor in the final cutscene. It’s a bit of a raw deal - a situation I imagine may have came about as a result of Capcom having to shift their entire workforce to WFH over the last year - but I can forgive that. I don’t need Capcom to give me cutscenes or storylines or spoon content into my mouth. In Monster Hunter Rise, you make your own cool shit happen.

Made it to HR7 and absolutely clowned [REDACTED] so I'm calling that completed for now.

It might be the best MH so far. They streamlined a lot of stuff and made it so much more accessible, despite what certain outlets might claim. We got a newcomer pal into the series nae bother. So much multiplayer fun to be had wrangling monsters and bringing them into ongoing fights.

They even did us Insect Glaive Boys justice with the Switch Skills (the Diving Wyvern in particular) making up for otherwise quite bland silkbind moves. I'm excited for DLC so I can continue to fly through the air very big and smash giant creatures.

Everything limps...

For the first time in 16 years they made a Monster Hunter game that's not for me, and honestly thats kinda rad.

I've been playing MonHun since attack was bound to the right analogue stick, and I've watched so many people bounce off this series because it's fucking impenetrable. Rise is finally the game that I can point to when someone wants to get into MH.

They've streamlined a lot of stuff, for better and worse, but most of the weird useless shite is gone, and I really hope the newcomers who play this honestly have a great fucking time.

I have my fair share of issues though, a lot of which boil down to "not in my monster hunter" shite. I grew up on paintballs and psychoserum, I have a real soft spot for the pure archaic shit that this series is known for, so you can imagine half of my complaints already.

The wirebugs seem antithetical to what MH is.
The range of monsters to hunt is lacking.
Some of the Monsters have lost a bit of their character (Tigrex is a shadow of his MH:U self).
The game feels so short.

All of the usual shite.

I will say though, the majority of the environments are dog, the worst in recent memory. Someone sucked all the colour out and it's such a crime because some of the DS games looked great compared to the fucking flooded forests 20 shades of brown.

All of my bullshit aside, I'm honestly so glad Rise exists, there is a lot to love here, at the end of the day it's a Monster Hunter game and it's a blast to play, especially if you've got some homies to come along for the ride. I'm just dumb and like all my obsolete garbo, I guess I've got the past 16 years to scratch that itch.

Shouts out to my boy Rathalos who finally stopped being a jobber and got a sweet move set.

I think it should say something that this is the only Monster Hunter that has grabbed my attention long enough for me to take it all the way to late game, high rank quests. I fucking love this game, and I think what it does differently than World or any of the other MH games before it is what sets it apart and makes it way more interesting and replayable. I've played a good bit of World, and a good bit of Generations Ultimate, but neither grabbed my interest for as long as this one has.

If you've never played a Monster Hunter before, start with this one. It's absolutely fantastic. Just stop reading and go buy it, find some friends to play hub quests with, and have a blast.

However, if you've never played a Monster Hunter and want more motivation, let me give you this.

At the risk of sounding like a total loser, I've often described Monster Hunter as if you were playing a game like Dark Souls. Both games have a very particular combat system that focuses on intent, knowing your moves ahead of time and understanding your weapon in order to get the most out of it's particular playstyle. And of course, in my opinion, the stars of any good From Software title are the bosses. Often huge, hulking things that dwarf you both in size, and in power. Things that will eat you for fucking breakfast if they get the chance. Now, imagine a Dark Souls boss that has it's own little mini open world to roam around in. It has habits. It likes to patrol certain places, and sleep in certain places, because it's a living, breathing creature that lives out in the forest.

And it's your job to hunt it down, learn it's moveset, understand everything that it can do, and use your very intent-based combat system playstyle to kill it, in it's natural habitat. Clawing for every inch it can get as you slowly chip away at it's stamina.

This isn't a boss encounter you stumbled into, or an enemy that the game sticks you in a room and wants you to learn before moving on.

This is a thing that you have to go find, and watch, and understand. And when you put all of your knowledge together, gather the right equipment (whether that means buying things from the shop, or crafting things in the middle of a fight with endemic life and materials you find in the world), and physically wrestle this thing into submission?

It's a feeling like no other.

A Hoonter must Hoont.
- Eileen the Crow

I'll update this review everytime Monster Hunter Rise get's a title update.
Ok jokes aside, after 100 Hours in Monster Hunter Rise I thought I should add my two cents. But I will begin with some background information about my Monster Hunter history. I started playing with MH Freedom 2 in 2007, and I played around 600 hours of MH World.

Monster Hunter Rise is a very good entry with a renewed focus on fully-fledged action represents the series at the peak of its powers. Still, it's lackluster for experienced players but it's the best starting point for new players. On top of that, Monster Hunter Rise might be the most technically impressive Switch game I’ve seen to date. Running on Capcom’s RE Engine, the character models and monsters are looking cool joker ehm they look great!

Capcom has done an excellent job of preserving World’s essence and style on less powerful hardware, although I still miss the old Monster Hunter essence.

Yasunori Ichinose and his team changed some parts of the gameplay drastically. Traversing around the environments is faster than ever thanks to two new elements: a pet dog called a Palamute that joins you in battle and lets you ride on its back, and a tool called the Wirebug that can be used to zip up walls and jump onto monsters, occasionally even controlling them in large-scale confrontations with other beasts. The core Monster Hunter gameplay loop has remained relatively unchanged as you hunt down gargantuan monsters, harvest their materials to craft new weapons and armor, and tackle increasingly tougher foes. Village quests can only be played alone, while Hub quests can still be tackled solo but are designed with multiple players in mind. Although the Hub is designed with multiple players in mind, it's as far as I remember the first Monster Hunter Game that scales the Hub Quests down to one or two persons.

There's a renewed focus on fast-paced action that strikes an impressive balance between being welcoming for newcomers and satisfying for battle-hardened veterans. When entering a location, for example, your trusty pet Cahoot (WHERE IS POOGIE?!) will mark all the nearby monsters on your map. You won't immediately know the identity of each one until you've already discovered them, but this cuts down on the time it takes to seek out your foe and gets you into the heart of the action much faster. It's an ideal fit for the Switch's handheld mode, allowing you to jump in and out of its most thrilling moments without having to engage with the long-winded slog to find and follow a monster's tracks. Still, some self-proclaimed "old-school" Monster Hunter players dislike this very feature. They say it makes the preparation of the hunt more irrelevant, and it is one of the aspects that makes the game too easy. I don't agree with that. I really like and love the older games, but I don't see the "hard" aspect of running around the map for 5-10 minutes until you find the Monster and in that very moment, it flies away.

Fortunately, exploration is still a key part of the experience, even if you know the exact location of your prey. There are plenty of shortcuts and hidden paths to uncover within each location, and the addition of local wildlife--known as Endemic Life--encourages you to seek out every part of the map in order to gain the temporary buffs to damage output, stamina regeneration, and so on, that they offer. On the flip side, if you're not interested in boosting specific stats to get a leg up in battle, you can always ignore the Endemic Life and tailor the challenge to your liking. Rise offers a degree of flexibility in the way you're able to tackle each monster that goes beyond your choice of weapon and armor. With that being said, the verticality afforded by the new Wirebug mechanic has the most significant impact on Rise's exploration. You can zip through the air by using the Wirebug to your liking at all times. You can chain moves together, mixing in wall runs with additional Wire-dashes to reach previously unattainable heights and traverse the environment at a rapid pace.

What will help newer players and maybe will discourage experienced players, is that Monster Hunter Rise just isn’t difficult compared to other games in the series, even World. I found the village quests that progress the story and get you to the endgame extremely easy. The whole village quests are tutorials.

The village quests are never the true meat of any Monster Hunter game, so I think it’s fine for them to serve as a fun campaign that anyone can blast through. After the village quests, you start the hub quests. Normally their quests are much harder because every quest is scaled for 3 or 4 players. In Monster Hunter Rise, even these quests scale down to 2 or even 1 person and even most of the „hub“ quests were just too easy for me.

Still, I had the time of my life with the Village and the Hub Quests, because the whole concept of Wirebugs, Monster Hunter and all these new skills you can learn very rewarding and fun.

Conclusion for experienced players:
Monster Hunter Rise is a very good game, with some very exciting new features. (Please Capcom, keep the Wirebugs in future games). Even though the game is too easy, at the moment, I adore it. The Wirebugs add several layers of new mechanics and the weapons are better than ever. More Monsters will be added on a regular basis and at latest, when we will get G-Rank, it will be a real challenge for experienced players. I hope we will hunt together in the future.

Conclusion for new players:

Here I want to mention my father. My father is 60 years old and never played a Monster Hunter Game. At his Birthday a bought him a switch and Monster Hunter Rise. At first, he was overwhelmed with every text box and every possibility in the game. After he chose a weapon and played through the village tutorial quests, he got the hang of it. He begins to love Monster Hunter and has the time of his life playing the game solo or with his son.

- Update 2.0 -

A few weeks after the release there is already a big update. Several new weapons and armor parts. Several "PLETHORA" new monsters and still no real endgame.

The new update is nice, but it still feels like a gimmick or something that should have already been available at realease.

MH Rise started out as a game I could put hours into at a time, but then quickly becomes a game I can only play a few quests of before getting my fill; and even then it only gets those quests at the promise of some new gear I could craft, which will become quickly outdated.

While the story up to the credits is really short, the games total length seems way too long for the repetitiveness of it. No hunt ever really felt different to me, it always involved the exact same "strategy" of just starting at the camp, running to the monster (sometimes exploring if it was a new map) and using the same combos over and over. Some monsters were more annoying than others, but generally speaking I never felt like I needed to change how I approached any battle, and I got through them just fine like that.

The repetitiveness is further exaggerated by things like the amount of missions not really correlating with the amount of new monsters. At first it feels like every new mission introduces a new monster, with a fantastic documentary-style cutscenes to boot, but then higher rank missions are just "fight this monster again, but harder" or "Fight this monster you've fought before, and then fight this one". Not to mention the fact there's basically only 5 maps in the entire game, and they don't even randomly generate the resources each time so it's always the exact same bugs, plants, monsters, mining spots etc in the same places.

The game was kind of middle of the road in terms of graphics for Switch. It didn't look ugly or anything, but it didn't impress me. The actual monster designs were great however. But the game did have a very slight performance issue when it came to monsters who were in the background - especially notable on flying monsters as they seemed to move and flap their wings at a very flow frame rate until you got close.

There's a few little niggles I have along with all this. Like when you gain a new hunter rank you unlock a ton of new stuff, but there's more than one of any given important NPC in the game, for example 2 blacksmiths, 2 shopkeepers, and for some reason you need to talk to BOTH of them to hear the exact same message about how they've expanded their stock or whatever. And then there's the dango girl who after a new rank will always have about 5 things to say, and you have to go through them all separately because the game can't just put them all into one interaction.

I haven't played the past games (except for a tiny bit of MH3, but I can't remember anything about it), but I do know the wirebugs and palamutes are new to this game and they were great additions, but it makes me wonder how sluggish the past games must have felt. I couldn't imagine having to run around these maps without a palamute to speed around on, or the wirebugs to accelerate climbing.

MH Rise to me is a game that is best at the beginning when everything is new and the game puts effort into making each monster introduction seem special (it should be noted that all high rank missions take place in co-op mode, which doesn't include cutscenes, so any monsters introduced there don't have them). But it doesn't have the meat in the gameplay to justify the amount of grinding and content it has. It does try, even when in late game, as each new rank will offer some new stuff, but it's usually something like a new dango meal, or a new way to make item decorations, and not enough to justify playing through 10 more quests doing the exact same thing
You could change weapons every mission to get a bit of variety, but that just means grinding more because weapons are not very cheap. Even when I only focused on one weapon type the whole game, a lot of the later weapons were hard to obtain without dedicated focus on a single monster, repeating the same mission over and over.

Solid entry point for newcomers to the series.
A return to more traditional form after World, but retaining many great additions and quality of life changes from the blockbuster 5th gen opener.

-The wirebug and its associated moves/switch skills are things I likely cannot do without after this game.

-New monsters are great and welcome additions to the roster, hope they are kept in future titles.

-Rampages are fun, but feel a little under-developed.

-Palamutes are fun to use but need the same active skill build depth as the palicos. I miss the prowler mode.

-Title update 2.0 added a handful of monsters that are welcome returns, and added some nice features like layered armor crafting.

The game is great, but it feels slightly lacking at the end of its major update lifecycle. It doesn't hit the same highs previous entries

Looking forward to the G rank version/dlc whenever it happens!

Feel like this game is a good marriage between old school Monster Hunter and World, There is a lot of things from World that I feel SHOULD be in this game that isn't for whatever reason but overall pretty solid game, a bit salty it was released unfinished(Story abruptly finishes and there are less Monsters than previous Monster Hunter games not counting World)

But ignoring all that pretty great and fun game looking forward to what type of Monsters get introduced iwth patches and what not.

Oh also FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CAPCOM DO NOT PUT A GODDAMN ELDER DRAGON BEHIND RAMPAGE QUESTS AGAIN TY

This is the most streamlined Monster Hunter yet and one of the best. It combines the DNA of old Monster Hunter, specifically Portable 3rd and World into an efficient, fluid and truly remarkable achievement carving a fascinating way into the future of the franchise. At about 70 hours this is by far the shortest time I have spent with a Monster Hunter game and the lack of a G/Master Rank or tempered monster equivalent to really incentivize the endgame grind is a bit disappointing and the Rampages are interesting but ultimately tedious and repetitive. Still, the variety created through Wirebugs and Switch Skills adds so many interesting layers. In Generations I quickly bounced off the excessive amount of different styles and Hunter Arts, this new system is very similar but actually integrates naturally through the design of the monsters and world around the Wirebug concept, which is important for me to accept such a drastic design iteration. I really hope they manage to supply this game with steady content to solve most of my issues, but the future seems bright for Monster Hunter. We have come a long way since the days of fan translation patches on the PSP, huh.

I just finished every quest up until and including HR7 with a playtime of 103 hours.

I've been playing Monster Hunter since 3 Ultimate on Wii U. I only bought it because I needed a game for the brick but once I had a friend teach me the ropes, I was immediately hooked. Next I played World and while I enjoyed it enough to beat the main story, the game didn't hold my attention for as long as it could have and I think this was down to the game not separating its story quests with its multiplayer quests, the long loading times on a PS4 and the hub being a bit too big and confusing.

Going into Rise I wasn't expecting much, I thought I was burnt out on Monster Hunter until I played the demo and discovered two things that would change Monster Hunter forever for me and I think everyone else who has played it. Wirebugs and Palamutes.

These two mechanics completely changed how Monster Hunter is played, allowing for such a great use of mobility and creativity when in combat or simply exploring the environment. The massive, gorgeous areas in Monster Hunter World were always a pain to navigate but with Rise, it is as much fun to explore the environment than it is to fight the glorious and (mostly) unique monsters in the game and I can't see myself playing future Monster Hunter games if these two mechanics are dropped.

More onto the game itself, Monster Hunter is one of those rare series that just gets better with each subsequent entry. The new monsters Rise have introduced must be the best and most creative yet, both in terms of aesthetics and mechanics. As someone who is scared to death by spiders in both digital and non-digital formats, I was quite scared to go up against Rakna Kadaki. Not only was it genius on Capcom's part to leave it to the end, it's also probably the most fun monster to fight in the whole game, arachnophobia be damned.

The only real flaw with this game is that while everything in the game is amazing, the end is non-existent. Once you defeat the final boss, it's found out that the two serpents of the game that caused the rampage of monsters aren't actually dead and you just have to wait for something to happen I guess? I know Capcom is planning to remedy this with future updates but it's incredibly jarring to go from an incredibly awe-inspiring boss fight in a new, unique location with a cutscene following that telling you how cool you are and then out of no where being told that they aren't actually dead? It's really odd but it shouldn't be an issue in the near future.

Anyway, giving Hammers the ability to fly is amazing and that alone should sell you on it. Buy this game, even if you've never touched a Monster Hunter before and I'll see you all when G rank is out.

This is before the April update, but already this game is going to be one of the highlights of my year. I'm not a fan of how much it trivializes a lot of key aspects of older games by removing any need to prepare before a hunt (like, you can access your item box at any time from a camp. Why.), as well as not even needing to track monsters or learn their habits because everything just shows up on the map now; it just feels like a glorified boss rush. Fortunately though, each fight is really fun, the wirebugs add a lot to make the movement feel really good, and it's just an absolute blast to play with friends, especially the Rampage quests (aka tower defense). If you haven't played MonHun before, this is a perfect place to start (although it's really hard to go back to the older games grumble grumble). I really can't wait for the future updates and eventual G-rank stuff.

Edit - post April update: Holy fuck I love this game

GOAT

Great mix of classic and modern monster hunter. While a more player friendly entry it didn't my fun I had with a Monster Hunter game. The map designs are great and encourage exploration thru worthy enough rewards for the player to even bother. The wirebug and the palamutes are one of my favourite new additations to a monster hunter game ever. Knowing that there is only a 50% that ONE of the TWO is making it in the next title is sad but, that makes this game all the more special. From Armor designs , the new presentation of the Monsters and new monsters fighting styles and designs themselves. to beautiful music that fits the game aesthethic and vibe perfectly. While it also allowing a different take on some previous OSTs that sparked some great rearangements of older songs. High Potential to be the best Monster Hunter Game ever if they continue to deliver.

Update: March 2022
Bought this on PC to play with friends and I've sunk even MORE time into it than I did on Switch by trying out more weapons this time around, as well as finishing ALL the offline quests, which I didn't do on my Switch version playthrough. I can't wait for Sunbreak to release!

Original: April 2021
Quite possibly the best Monster Hunter title to date. I LOVE the new monsters, the variety in the roster, the Wirebug system, and most everything else that's here. There are some aspects that feel a bit unfinished/rushed, but I'm hoping that future title updates (and hopefully even an expansion?) will make this game pure gold.

This was fun! The new additions, like the Wirebug and Palamutes, are genuinely fantastic and I hope they become series staples, because I genuinely can't imagine not being able to swing around in a Monster Hunter game anymore. Aside from that, the hunts are still extremely fun and the variety of playstyles is still very impressive.

I can't help but feel like the game's a little underbaked, though. It really shows in the ending, which is hilariously abrupt. Rampage quests are also just...not good.

Still a really solid game overall, and one that I'll most definitely be returning to soon.

It has been a month, so I feel like I can safely say my opinion on this game.

This is now my new favorite monster hunter due to its creative design, blood pumping battles, wealth of customization, some of the best graphics on the switch, and, most of all, the series-topping mobility that makes traversing the world, quick, fluid, and interesting.

I have logged over 80 hours in this game and if I didn't have other shit to do, I'd log in 80 more. Fantastic game.