This review contains spoilers
Monster Hunter Rise is a strange game to talk about, because it's simultaneously insanely fun and bizarrely disappointing. The movement in this game feels good, the QoL changes carried over from World go a long way, it feels GREAT cutting through monsters like butter- I suppose that would have to be it, right? I recently cleared G-Rank in MHGU. It's slow, and it's a bit of a slog, and it's great. The feeling of spending 30-40 minutes methodically wearing a monster down compounded the sheer amount of rewards for your effort is unmatched, and I most certainly did not get any of that while playing Rise. I am well aware that this isn't an unpopular opinion, but I do want to reiterate that for as weak of a Monster Hunter as this game may be, it still rocks. I really, REALLY enjoyed Rise. But a lot of the supposed harder fights of Rise left me saying "that's it?" while the triumphant music played and the game tried for the millionth time to get me to care about Kamura Village.
Gameplay aside, the monsters themselves are really good. I don't think that there was a single monster in the game that I wasn't, on some level, looking forward to fighting. The game looks good and this extends to their models. Most important to me, I greatly enjoyed some of Rise's originals. Rakna-Kadaki is the highlight but Somnacanth and the serpents were also standouts. The intro poems weren't... bad, but they were more corny than I would've liked. Oh well.
Uh. The character customization was good. The music was good. The story was not good but I don't really care about that anyway; I only wish that there hadn't been so much emphasis on it. New mechanics like Wyvern Riding and Wirebugs were cool for as easy as they make the game but I've been over that part already. I don't know what else to say! I like Rise. I really, really did like Rise. Still, it wasn't quite what I was expecting coming off of the heels of the past Monster Hunter games I had played, and didn't quite live up to the standard set by what I liked so much of those games. Oh, and FUCK the endgame.
Gameplay aside, the monsters themselves are really good. I don't think that there was a single monster in the game that I wasn't, on some level, looking forward to fighting. The game looks good and this extends to their models. Most important to me, I greatly enjoyed some of Rise's originals. Rakna-Kadaki is the highlight but Somnacanth and the serpents were also standouts. The intro poems weren't... bad, but they were more corny than I would've liked. Oh well.
Uh. The character customization was good. The music was good. The story was not good but I don't really care about that anyway; I only wish that there hadn't been so much emphasis on it. New mechanics like Wyvern Riding and Wirebugs were cool for as easy as they make the game but I've been over that part already. I don't know what else to say! I like Rise. I really, really did like Rise. Still, it wasn't quite what I was expecting coming off of the heels of the past Monster Hunter games I had played, and didn't quite live up to the standard set by what I liked so much of those games. Oh, and FUCK the endgame.