Came for the twins, stayed for the Kingdom of Elgado!

Monster Hunter Rise is often compared to its very popular predecessor MH World and I don't think a comparison between those two games is fair, as it's really just a case of apples and oranges. For the sake of explaining it, I'll give a rundown of the differences between the two entries though.

First of all, this game was designed for the Nintendo Switch in mind. Given the portable nature of this hybrid console, Rise streamlined the gameplay loop a fair bit in order to make it more accessible to a pick-up-and-play gamestyle. This includes faster hunts, monsters being instantly shown on the minimap, increased traversal options with the Palamutes and the ability to pause the game anytime when you're not playing with others - a very nice feature to have (which was missing in World)! As a tradeoff, it doesn't have the expansive ecosystem or the tracking of monster footprints from World, so it's less immersive in that regard. But those gameplay changes aren't necessarily bad, they're just different. I for one appreciate the fast-paced and direct nature of Rise; it's a welcome change after spending hundreds of hours with the slower gameplay of World. Rise's combat specialises in the usage of the wirebugs, they serve as a mechanic to either perform special skills (similar to the ones in Generations) or can be used for easy movement as a grappling hook. Getting used to these little fellas can feel weird at first, but once you know your way around them they're just a ton of fun to use and can totally change the way you approach certain monsters. As an example, the flagship monster Magnamalo inflicts a special debuff that can only be cleansed through wirebug usage, so you need to keep the bar in mind and use the dash whenever you want to cure the ailment. Alongside Magnamalo, most of the other newcomers in Rise are great to fight aswell! Goss Harag is probably my favorite new addition, love his Yeti-inspired design and the fight in general. Looking forward to many great fights in Sunbreak too!

The Village quests ease you fairly well into the game, even though the first set of ranks were quite boring for someone acquainted with the franchise. Still a good introduction for new hunters and even allows you to skip the entire Low Rank of the Hub quests. Speaking of the Gathering Hub, it's rather... desolate these days on the PC port. Atleast there's the Better Matchmaking mod, which removes the Region Lock and helps you find matches a bit faster, but having to rely on a mod for something as basic as worldwide play is quite a bummer. Note that this is not an issue with the original version of the game on Switch and was only added to the PC port for some strange reason, so the game itself can't really be blamed for this. Another cool mod I can recommend is RiseTweaks for removing the framerate cap on cutscenes - another thing that should have been in the PC port from the start! Anyways, finding multiplayer matches over join requests isn't that hard for key quests (good luck finding a partner for event quests on PC though) and you should be able to reach Master Rank in no time. I can't really comment on the Master Rank content yet, as I just started Sunbreak yesterday, but it's pretty amazing so far!

My final thoughts? Rise is another wonderful Monster Hunter game and I had a great time with the base game on PC despite the aforementioned strange issues with the port. Liked it so much that I got the Sunbreak bundle on Switch as well, so make of that what you will. I think you'll get a great experience on any platform, just pick between the eye candy version (PC) or the one with the thriving playerbase (Switch). Can't go wrong here!

In a vacuum, this game is pretty good: that's what you get for inheriting one of the best combat systems of all time. But as a Monster Hunter game, it's hard not to see this as a big misstep in 2023, especially after Sunbreak. In retrospect, Rise reads like a 5th gen regression from GU, which is insane considering how scattershot and unpolished that game is. Some of it is undoubtedly because of Covid development issues (they literally had to add the last fourth of the game in post-release), but a lot is fundamentally misguided.

Last year I discussed many of my problems in the context of Sunbreak, and those all still apply to base Rise, but with even greater severity in some cases. Some additional points:

The nicest thing I have to say is probably the structure, which streamlines by picking some low-hanging fruit (minimal gathering quests, skip some overlapping village/hub progression). Of course this is also undermined by annoying aspects like Rampage (a worthless dev timesink similar to Zorah Magdaros in World) and obtuse unlock requirements for Switch Skills which hinders experimentation, but on the whole it's probably the best in the series.

What's crazy is that copy-pasting the GU Hunter Arts system would have been significantly better than the existing silkbind system, in the sense that the separate meters at least prevents one imbalanced move from sucking the air away from all the others, as well as encouraging aggression through meter buildup by attacking.

Moreover, GU's quantity over quality approach in styles and arts arguably worked better in producing actually fun playstyles, just by trying so many things that some ended up turning out well. Nothing in Rise is as blatantly busted as Absolute Readiness in GU, but on the other hand none of the parry moves in Rise are nearly as well-balanced as Critical Juncture from GU.

The increase in parry moves in Rise (and 5th gen more broadly) also goes against a huge strength of the series's combat: dynamic defensive play. As I examine in this post, one of the remarkable things about MonHun is how the roll iframes are balanced against the size and speed of the hitboxes such that the timing and direction needed is situation-dependent. Parries and lengthy iframe moves such as LS's foresight slash subvert this by covering a variety of situations with the same input, which in turn lessens the need for good positioning in advance. (Small note of praise: it seems like the base iframes on the roll have been reduced in Rise, which actually makes sense as correcting for the trend of smaller and faster hitboxes.)

Adding wirebug movement is cool in theory, but in practice, it's really difficult to imagine how they could have gotten this right. A huge tenet of Monhun combat is how your offense and defense are heavily intertwined through positioning, and it's easy to see how powerful fast movement is if you play Insect Glaive or Hunting Horn. Changing movement presents a huge risk of either breaking the dynamic or not really doing anything. Rise wirebug movement ended up being the latter, where it's mostly limited to catching up to a monster, occasionally dodging a few attacks like Mizutsune beam, or moving around the map (which is actually super fun!).

The difficulty of the game has been discussed many times, but even putting aside systemic concerns such as restock and damage values, what's baffling to me is how so many returning monsters (ex. Rajang, Nargacuga, Tigrex) are effectively slowed down versions of their GU counterparts, in a game which has the least player commitment and highest average weapon mobility. It's even more blatantly obvious in retrospect, after most of these monsters got extensive AI reworks in Sunbreak.

Brief dishonorable mention to the Hunting Horn: for a weapon which has always had great gameplay but lackluster damage output, Capcom decided that the appropriate course of action was to totally redo the moveset from a long range poking weapon with weird attack angles and buffs to a spammy close range washing machine that my friend described as "something out of God Eater."

This is something that I mentioned already in the Sunbreak review, but funnily enough has become one of my top sticking points with 5th gen MonHun: the gamefeel. I'm no animation expert, so I can't give a detailed dissection, but the less snappy animations somehow give the game this strange syrupy quality. I genuinely don't understand how something like Surge Slash GS in Sunbreak, which is the best weapon idea MonHun has had in years, feels so awkward to use despite really not being that different from an old MonHun weapon mechanically.

For what it's worth, I find it difficult to imagine them iterating on this set of mechanics in the future. But I'm sure MH6 will have many, many problems of its own making...

My friends really hyped this game up, but after playing it with them for about 20~ hours, I just can't get into it.
It was fun at the start, but the gameplay loop just seems extremely samey. Take missions, kill boss, use boss materials to make gear, repeat. I didn't find it rewarding in any way, and there was an armour/weapons set much stronger than the rest without needing many items at all.
There was also this 'tower defense' mode, it sucks.
I think people play this game because the two girls are very cute.

É fascinante observar a evolução da franquia Monster Hunter ao longo dos anos, desde os seus primeiros títulos até os mais recentes como Monster Hunter World e Monster Hunter Rise.

Cada jogo traz suas próprias nuances e melhorias, e é natural que os jogadores tenham suas preferências baseadas em sua história com a série e nas características específicas de cada título.

Monster Hunter Rise é uma abordagem ousada que simplifica as mecânicas avançadas dos jogos anteriores para atrair um público mais amplo, enquanto ainda oferece uma experiência de caça aos monstros emocionante. Embora o jogo seja mais simples e intuitivo em comparação com títulos anteriores como Monster Hunter World, ele ainda oferece uma experiência gratificante. Se você está procurando uma introdução mais suave à franquia, Monster Hunter Rise é uma excelente escolha.

E com a chegada de Monster Hunter Wilds cada vez mais próxima, é emocionante antecipar como a franquia continuará a inovar e a cativar os fãs antigos e novos.

Takes the modern trappings of Monster Hunter World, and translates them to a more action-oriented format, like previous 'Portable' Monster Hunter games before it. To say it 'succeeds' would be a understatement.

The presentation is superb for a Switch game, with amazing visuals, and textures for the models that, while low-res, look brilliant in moment-to-moment gameplay.

The monster variety is almost perfect, with the lack of Brute Wyverns (the bipedal freaks) being the only glaring flaw, and the music is among the best in the franchise.

The base game's only major flaw is that it's too easy, and even then, the DLC expansion Sunbreak released, not only fixing that issue, but adding PLENTY more incredible monsters to the lineup.

It doesn't get much more perfect than this. One of the best games on the Switch, bar none.

This was my second Monster Hunter game and I enjoyed it a lot, probably due to the fact that it had crossplay allowing me to play with my friends. It's like the bare minimum considering it's only the Windows Store and Xbox versions, but it's still more than most games can say they have.
The wirebugs and silkbind attacks add a lot of mobility to the weighty Monster Hunter gameplay. I think it strikes a good balance between needing to think about your movements, while also letting you become an anime hero.
Overall great game

Friend got me this as an early Christmas present after we spent around a month playing Generations Ultimate together. As somebody who is really used to the old school Monster Hunter games I wasn’t sure how jarring it would be to have much more fluid controls, but I got used to it quickly enough, and most of the quality of life improvements were much appreciated. I really liked the new monsters in this one, there’s probably a couple standouts for me but they’re all good. The graphical improvements over GU are very noticeable and the music is gorgeous. Overall a really good game, though it’s a significant departure from older games so if you’re the opposite of me and getting into the series more broadly from playing the newer titles, just be warned they’re a lot more difficult, at times bordering on clunky or unfair with certain mechanics(though that’s part of the charm I suppose).

De certa forma, uma versão "lite" de Monster Hunter World, mas isso não necessariamente é algo negativo.
Na verdade, caçar monstros nunca foi tão dinâmico e simples, em todos os sentidos.

Monster Hunter Rise traz consigo tudo o que torna um jogo sobre caçar monstros extremamente divertido, principalmente por conta do combate fluido e diversificado de opções.

A adição do chamado "Cabinseto" não só traz uma verticalidade extra tanto no combate quanto nas expedições em busca de recursos, mas também agrega ao dinamismo que o jogo se propõe a se basear.

O elenco de monstros do título também agrada bastante, apesar de eu particularmente não gostar tanto do design do monstro final, mesmo que tenha proporcionado uma luta bem divertida.

No geral, Monster Hunter Rise cumpre muito bem tudo que se propõe a fazer. Mesmo que sua narrativa sirva apenas como uma desculpa para o contexto de caçar os monstros e seja completamente esquecível, é possível perder boas horas por todas as caçadas e mais caçadas disponíveis.

The first time I played Bloodborne I had an incredibly difficult time getting over the muscle memory of attacking and using items from Monster Hunter Rise.

I just beat Bloodborne in December, and figured I should give Monster Hunter Rise another shot, since I never played the Sunbreak DLC, and it has much smoother performance on PC as opposed to the Switch (like with every other game ever ported to the Switch).

Now that I have the muscle memory for Bloodborne, I am having an extremely difficult time re-learning Monster Hunter Rise.

Nobody could have seen this coming.

Nunca pensei que caçar monstro fosse tão divertido e viciante!

Monster Hunter já apareceu pra mim muitas vezes mas eu sempre ignorei essa franquia, até porque quando tentei jogar o World a um tempo atrás, o jogo não me pegou. Me deixou uma sensação meio ruim sabe de desconforto, pareceu um joguinho meio bobo pra mim, mas hoje eu vejo que eu estava totalmente errado, e esse jogo me mostrou que atualmente eu amadureci e mudei completamente de personalidade.

Dei uma chance ao Rise pois ele me chamou muita atenção, gostei muito da estética dele, seus gráficos mais cartunescos e caricatos me encantaram mais do que o World, que já tem uma pegada gráfica mais próxima ao realismo e menos simples ao ver. Quando entrei nessa maravilha eu não tava conseguindo me adaptar direito aos controles, sério, realmente MH tem um tipo de controle diferente e que nas primeiras horas é um inferno pra se adaptar, mas fica tranquilo que depois ali de umas 3 horinhas ou 2 jogando você consegue manjar melhor do estilo do jogo.

E falando sobre estilo, MH é um jogo sobre caça de monstros e pra caçar monstros você precisa de um equipamento! E as armas são o destaque principal da franquia MH, pois tem arma pra todos os gostos, seja pra quem gosta de algo mais lento, mais rápido, equilibrado, até mesmo pra quem gosta de coisa a distância ou de da tiro (existe um fodend* fuzil nesse jogo), e não se engane nessas coisas de qual arma é melhor ou qual da mais dano, todas em igual consegue matar muito rápido, é só questão de gosto e de se adaptar, algumas demoram mais tempo pra você mestrar e outras nem tanto.

Uma coisa que eu gostei muito também desse jogo foi os preparos antes de uma caçada, tu comer tua comidinha, preparar teus equipamento, comprar os suprimentos.. tem todo um processo muito foda antes da caçada (claro que não são necessários, é opcional) que te favorece bastante na hora que tiver pau a pau ali com o queridão.

Eu não posso dizer muito sobre as criaturas desse jogo, porque de fato este foi o primeiro que joguei a sério, a única criatura que reconheci ao ver assim foi o Anjanath e o Rathian, que aparentemente são clássicos da franquia (me corrijam se eu estiver errado), enfim, eu AMEI o design de cada bixo desse jogo e o moveset deles, é tudo muito bem trabalhado, da um certo tesão conseguir atingir o golpe neles e finalizar tua missão, uns são mais rápidos outros mais lentos, uns mais fáceis e outros mais difíceis. Só sei que meu bixinho favorito de caçar é o Tigrex, e ele vai ficar no meu coração pra sempre.

Falam que o Rise não é o MH ideal pra se iniciar, mas sendo sincero eu gostei de ter começado por esse aqui, o único problema é que ele ainda não é um MH finalizado né eu acho, dizem que ainda vai ter mais atualização (pelo menos até a data desta análise), eu ainda não matei la todos os bixos, mas fiz os principais da campanha e da DLC, agora só me restou os do RM 20 pra cima pra concluir tudinho do jogo até agora mesmo, mas como estou sofrendo com um problema de crash dei uma certa desanimada.

Mas enfim, ta ai galera é um jogão do caramba, mesmo se não gostarem do que ve por ai na internet, deem uma chance, aproveitem que o jogo base ta na gamepass (infelizmente sem a DLC que dá um upgrade insano pro jogo), experimentem monster hunter! Pode ser que a sua primeira entrada nesse game, seja um ponto pra você embarcar na franquia toda !

MH Rise is the odd crackhead cousin of the Monster hunter family tree: while the other titles are more methodical, slower and more focused on the environmental settings they are building on, Monster Hunter Rise is more about "YO LESGO SPIDERMAN AROUND TO KICK THIS BIRD AND THE USE THE BIRD TO KILL THAT ANIME TIGER BEFORE THE RAMPAGE OR BEARS ARRIVES"

Comparing other MH games to Rise is like comparing the real historical depiction of a ninja with the "Naruto anime ninja" ... which is kinda funny considering the inspirations behind RIse's settings.

Compared to older titles, your movements is fast, energetic, almost limitless... it's soo good that even the monsters struggle to keep up with you (something that luckily the Sunbreak extention fixes heavily). This creates an experience so different compared to the rest of the franchise that is no surprise that it received mixed feelings from the fanbase.

But at the end... you still have a lot of fun with the quirky crackhead cousin: the gameplay is fun and addictive, the design of the monsters is impeccable and full of care as ever, the environments are corgeous (especially considerin Risa was originally a Switch exclusive), and even the story, one of the least interesting parts of a MH game, is able to make to have some slightly touching moments.

One it's own, Monster Hunter Rise works a lot... but if I can suggest something, the extensition Sunbreak fixes a lot of issues of the vanilla game, so I suggest to include that one if you plan to try it.

Man, you can tell this is a legacy series that did one thing good back in the day (hunting monsters) and laser-focused on gradually refining that. The Fantasy Japan setting is nicely rendered but generic and about as shallow a cultural representation as the average Mexican restaurant in America. The narrative and characters are generally either nonexistent or faintly embarrassing. This sounds harsh, but they barely matter - they're set-dressing and setup for the monster hunting, and they have the good manners to move by quickly.

That aside, the monster hunting - it's intensely satisfying. The initial approach makes a good first impression with rewarding mechanics. Zipping around the environment as you scoop up and strike down the local wildlife is a functional amuse-bouche, building up anticipation and crystalizing the final preparations. Popping a web-slinging spider or a pheromone-puffing mink into your pocket might point you towards hijacking an extra monster to rodeo into your target, while grabbing status-inflicting exploding toads may instead tempt you to set up a trap.

The monster fights themselves are certainly worthy of being the series' singular focus. Each monster has a distinct character and a variety of attacks, with constant surprises as you hunt increasingly dangerous targets. A razor-tailed velociraptor, a colossal acrobatic crane, and a b-boy mega-monkey are some of the first targets, and they only get more extravagant. While the game is broadly forgiving if you're staying on curve with upgrading armor & weapons, analyzing a monster's attack patterns and exploiting their weaknesses is still exceptionally satisfying.

In between hunts, upgrading your equipment is often enough encouragement to go back into the fray to test out your new digs. It's not an XCOM-level "one more turn" effect by any means - upgrades tend to be more numerical rather than meaningfully changing the way you interact with fights - but given how strong the outfit & weapon visual design is, test runs are tempting.

After a hundred hunts, many of Rise's charms have already started to wear thin. The environments' unchanging nature means that exploration is decidedly finite, and collecting wildlife at the start of a hunt can turn into more of a chore than a treat. The limited ways monsters engage with their environment (typically milling about aimlessly, occasionally beefing with other monsters in the locale) similarly limits the variety - and impacts the monsters' credibility. (Most hunts start by telling you the target is a danger to civilization, not that you ever see that.) And the Rampage side-mode - a sort of Monster Hunter tower defense - is broadly unworthy of revisiting more than the game insists. But by this point, you've probably cleaved through nearly all of Rise's content. I wish there were more systems to encourage (or force) improvisation, but Rise shines bright enough for the majority of its time that it's hard to rag on it especially hard for an ending that fades away.

mayhaps visually a bit of a step down from monster hunter world, i think rise still has a lot of charm, and it plays as good as mhw, with stuff i sometimes even like more. i do think the actual story content is pretty light but monster hunter's usually more about the actual hunting anyway, so it's all fine.

if you liked monster hunter world, there's a pretty good chance you'll vibe w this one too, much faster gameplay loop though, without the need to go out and search for the target monster(s) after the first time you do it. it does expedite farming quite a bit which is nice enough.

my one real complaint is kinda just not vibing too much w the way spiritbirds work, capping off max hp until you find enough of them, which i find to be a little annoying sometimes tbh

Monster Hunter joins games in complete vestigiality of their own systems. In trying to make the game more "fun" and movesets more complicated, it streamlines gathering, sharpening, any kind of resource management, planning around the hunts with item needs and even variety of gameplay in any meaningful sense into oblivion, leaving an admitedly entertaining multiplayer character action game, with none of the strategic depth and slow methodical approach and somewhat lowfi charm that birthed and sustained the series more or less up until world.
Games are a victim of comfortable player bases