As someone who hadn't played a Monster Hunter game in almost ten years, Monster Hunter Rise came as a bit of a surprise when I started playing it. There is a far reduced sense of friction here; gone are the days of making sure you're prepared for the environment you're entering and its extreme heat or cold, wandering around trying to find your prey, having to be careful to paintball them so you can keep tracking them down when they flee mid-battle.

I can't really think of this direction for the series as better or worse, it's more just different? The biggest things lost with this change in direction are that you form less of a connection with the game's environments (which are wonderful, and a delight to exist in) when you can just zip right to the monster the moment you start the mission, and you're also just far less encouraged to think through your preparation for battle when the game's actual focus is on getting you into the action as fast as possible. This latter point is something that isn't helped by Rise being not-particularly-challenging generally and so not punishing this lack of preparation; I played the vast majority of the game using the exact same item loadout, eating the exact same dango meal, and never feeling like I needed to change these habits in any way.

Whilst there's clearly something lost here, there's also a lot gained as Rise is able to lean harder into the action and excitement. Once you've entered the monster's locale you're never more than a minute or two from battle as you swing through the air, run up walls and drift on your dog around corners to get to where your target is as soon as possible. You can ride the monsters, smashing them against each other for different item drops, and when monsters run away it's so easy to catch up with them that it mainly just acts as a momentary reprieve to sharpen your weapon. I do think Rise can at times blur together a little bit - being able to charge towards a monster right away, the fight never really letting up, every mission starting the same way with you catching a monster or two early on with your wirebug attacks to slam them into one another - but the more action-focused approach makes for an exciting time, and I had a lot of fun moving up the ranks fighting alongside my girlfriend.

Outside of these changes, it's still very much Monster Hunter. There are still many, many systems, starting the game is a horrorshow of tutorial pop-up messages you'll immediately forget, and it's hard for me to figure out how much training my pets or sending out meowcenaries to go add to the ever growing pile of random-monster-pieces really ended up mattering in the end, but the moments in the village still mostly make for chill vibes once you wrap your head around this portion of the gameplay loop.

Other random thoughts;
- I love riding the dogs and wish they didn't feel just much worse than the cats outside of the convenience they offer
- Spiribirds suck as a mechanic and seem like the way the game is encouraging you to actually do some exploration ever but the reality is they actually force you to choose between running around a loop for a few minutes before battle to pick them up and actually be fully powered or entering battle without them knowing that you could be stronger
- Despite the fact I only played as a hammer-wielder all game long the sheer variety of weapons here continues to rule and be one of Monster Hunter's greatest strengths and really adds to the multiplayer experience when all the different playstyles start interacting in cool ways
- I think the multiplayer experience in Rise is just generally better than playing alone, but this is particularly emphasised with the handful of rampage quests which are quite unfun on your own but become very chaotic but really exciting and tense when you're coordinating them with a friend
- For the most part the monsters here are fantastic, a lot of them feel unique and compelling, turf wars are spectacular, and a special shoutout to Magnamalo who is anime as hell and easily my favourite monster to fight
- The story and dialogue are Quite Bad. I'm someone who will read almost every line of dialogue in games and even I found myself not bothering to read almost anything here after a certain point
- I love everything about the wirebug mechanic; the range of movement they offer, how fun wirebug attacks are, managing your wirebugs to make sure you can escape quickly if you're knocked down, it's all great
- The final fight of HR7, also the final fight of the main story content, was very exciting and a clear high-point of my time with the game

All said and done I played for about 50 hours, got to HR11, beat the main bulk of the story stuff, and whilst I think it's likely I play a bit more Monster Hunter Rise I'm definitely not invested in pouring in tens of hours of grind against the same monsters over and over to see a couple extra pieces of content or to get some slightly better armour so I am mostly done I think outside of the occasional multiplayer session with friends. Had a blast.