Monster Hunter Rise is an action role-playing game released for the Nintendo Switch on 2021 with a PC/Steam version on the way in the next year. I'd like to also share my personal experience with the series since this game has had a long history with varying entries and experiences. I mostly played the PSP Monster Hunter games for a while before going to Monster Hunter World completely skipping the 3DS era so not all of my experience here is from Monster Hunter World albeit a huge chunk of it. This game manages to nail a lot of things that I would say make the perfect monster hunter game for me despite the easier difficulty compared to the other titles and lack of content to the point it's not even finished yet at the typing of this review. Despite that, this has been one of the most fun action RPGs on Switch that looks and runs surprisingly well on the hardware.
Monster Hunter Rise manages to combine the "good" elements of the modern monster hunter games (World, Iceborne) and the past monster hunter games to create something that manages to please both here. The new additions to this installment with wirebugs and palamutes completely change the way you play the game in a positive way to the point I can't imagine a monster hunter game without them. This game also manages to bring back the more refined and quicker combat of World without the myriad of other problems the game brought in terms of the structure. That said not all weapons have been created equal here and I can't speak for most of them since I mostly played LBG/HBG/LS during my playthrough. The village and characters themselves actually bring a lot more charm than the previous entries could really do at the time with the limited hardware despite Monster Hunter always having charm in their games. The soundtrack also does a good job in doing this as it gives the village a quiet japanese aura to it and the special boss themes here really sell the grand and epic monsters you're fighting throughout the game and especially at the end. Something that manages to impress here is the general graphical and framerate performance of this game manages to keep 30 frames per second while having 4 people pelt a monster on the screen with various effects. The graphics here might make this one of the best looking games on the hybrid console so far with the developers at Capcom utilizing their amazing RE engine.
Despite my extreme enjoyment with this game, there are some things that I found a bit disappointing and felt tedious at times. The Rampage quests are sort of a mixed bag for me, it's a cool idea in concept but then playing it felt boring as you're relegated to tower defense and holding the right trigger until the counter signal comes up in which you can damage the monster in a normal sense. The rewards are worth it but you spend much longer in these quests compared to the normal hunts. Probably the biggest complaint about the game is the game's low difficulty compared to the rest of the series. I can say this is true as I rarely carted so far in the HR hunts solo compared to the previous entries, triple carting is rare even in the random player games you might get into.
I sorta told myself I was gonna wait for the PC release of this game to finally play it but I eventually caved in and bought it for the Switch. I spent 8 hours a day playing it for the first week I got it and I still have a lot to do. Monster Hunter Rise manages to be extremely addicting albeit easy and moves the series forward in a way I really can't see them moving back from.
Monster Hunter Rise manages to combine the "good" elements of the modern monster hunter games (World, Iceborne) and the past monster hunter games to create something that manages to please both here. The new additions to this installment with wirebugs and palamutes completely change the way you play the game in a positive way to the point I can't imagine a monster hunter game without them. This game also manages to bring back the more refined and quicker combat of World without the myriad of other problems the game brought in terms of the structure. That said not all weapons have been created equal here and I can't speak for most of them since I mostly played LBG/HBG/LS during my playthrough. The village and characters themselves actually bring a lot more charm than the previous entries could really do at the time with the limited hardware despite Monster Hunter always having charm in their games. The soundtrack also does a good job in doing this as it gives the village a quiet japanese aura to it and the special boss themes here really sell the grand and epic monsters you're fighting throughout the game and especially at the end. Something that manages to impress here is the general graphical and framerate performance of this game manages to keep 30 frames per second while having 4 people pelt a monster on the screen with various effects. The graphics here might make this one of the best looking games on the hybrid console so far with the developers at Capcom utilizing their amazing RE engine.
Despite my extreme enjoyment with this game, there are some things that I found a bit disappointing and felt tedious at times. The Rampage quests are sort of a mixed bag for me, it's a cool idea in concept but then playing it felt boring as you're relegated to tower defense and holding the right trigger until the counter signal comes up in which you can damage the monster in a normal sense. The rewards are worth it but you spend much longer in these quests compared to the normal hunts. Probably the biggest complaint about the game is the game's low difficulty compared to the rest of the series. I can say this is true as I rarely carted so far in the HR hunts solo compared to the previous entries, triple carting is rare even in the random player games you might get into.
I sorta told myself I was gonna wait for the PC release of this game to finally play it but I eventually caved in and bought it for the Switch. I spent 8 hours a day playing it for the first week I got it and I still have a lot to do. Monster Hunter Rise manages to be extremely addicting albeit easy and moves the series forward in a way I really can't see them moving back from.