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.

Reviewed on Jul 10, 2022


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