It’s been a while since I have been this excited to actually wait for a Monster Hunter game, and I must say Rise did meet the challenge. But before I go further I guess I should introduce my credentials in the Monster Hunter gaming world.
I started in Freedom 2 and then Freedom Unite for the PSP and have been playing ever since. I don’t know why I really gravitated to this series. I mean they just put you in town, don’t tell you what to do to progress, there’s no typical level system, no monster health bars, nothing really on the internet on early game guides. Back in those days if you didn’t have someone who knew what was going on, you would probably die on the first quest and give up. Luckily I had some good friends who helped me along and I got hooked, and over 10 years later here I am.
Sorry to go on a tangent, so since I skipped Monster Hunter World because I don’t have a PC for it, Rise is the first of what I would call the ”Modern” games of the series. So I was not privy to the changes they made to the game in World. So this review will be through the eyes of a player who did not play World at all. Also I am a hammer main so take that into consideration as well.
The Improvements
So being I guess an “older” player Rise seems to be so much faster paced compared to the last game I played, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. So why do I say that? Well one component in the game completely changes how the combat pretty much works, it’s called the Wirebug. I guess if you played World it would be the Clutch Claw, but my goodness does this Wirebug just make your life easier. It helps you get across terrain, if you time it right you will never (and I mean never) get knocked on your butt ever again. On top of all that each weapon has its own set of Wirebug moves that is unique to that weapon.
Playing hammer the biggest problem was always stamina, it would always run out. From charging attacks to having to roll since I don’t have shield or a block option, I would always be out of stamina and have to burn through well done steaks like nobody’s business. I am currently at the highest HR and I have yet to eat one well done steak. That’s all thanks to the Wirebug and Palamute (we’ll get to those later).
The faster pace is also contributed to Capcom making farming materials easier. As many a hunter knows it sucks missing out on that one ore, or insect, or monster scale before you can make that weapon or armor piece you’ve been dying to create. Farming non-monster parts is so easy now that you no longer are required to take pickaxes, bug nets, or fishing lures to farm these materials. Also there is a special map screen that will show you where these material hubs are on the map once you find them.
The change in the mapping system has also made the paintball a thing of the past. In the older games the map would not show where the monster is, meaning you as the hunter actually had to find the monster. After finding the monster you would then have to throw a paintball to tag the monster creating a small icon on the screen showing where the monster is on the map.
However, the paintball would wear out after a certain amount of time and you would have to then re-apply another paintball to the monster. If the monster would move out the area you were fighting and it wasn’t tagged with a paintball, you would have to search the map for it, wasting time. Rise has gotten rid of this all together and just shows where all the major monsters are on the map at all times.
Also because of the map changing the random high rank placement has also been done away with. And the best part is, there are ALWAYS consumables in the camp common box regardless of quest rank. In the past, someone at Capcom thought it would be fun to, when you reached HR 5 and above, not have the hunters be placed at the beginning camp. Instead the game would place you in a random area of map and if you would reach base camp, there would be nothing in the common box but a bunch of maps. Supplies would arrive at random times during the quest instead, most of the time long after the quest started.
However, the biggest improvement (for me at least), comes in the fact that they have taken away the potion flex pose. What is the flex pose you ask? Well the infamous potion flex pose is that every time your avatar would drink a potion, eat a ration, null berry, antidote etc the avatar would do a flex pose that would last about 2 or 3 seconds. While that does not seem like much, but I have died many a time to the potion flex pose. It was the worst. Time and time again I just sat there praying the monster would not attack me while I was posing, and many a time I would cart because of it. Now you can run around drinking the potion, debuff, whatever while avoiding the monster all together. Because of this I have been on over 200 hunts and I have carted (fainted) maybe 10 or 15 times. That’s how big of a change this is.
The last improvement I will be talking about is the Palamute, and it’s a big one. In previous games you were given a cat companion called a Palico. This cat would pretty much do so much for you, heals, gather, mine, wake you up from sleep, paralysis, and roars. Basically you name it, you could tell your Palico to do it. Now in Rise, Capcom has introduced a Palamute, a dog companion which has slowly replaced the Palico for me. Palamute can act as a mount, attacker, healer it can even hold the monster in place if you set it up correctly. The biggest thing is while riding the Palamute you can drink potions, sharpen, even attack. Plus I’m a dog person so they are so much cuter.
What I Would Change
Now not every game is perfect on first release. There are a few things that I would change, and this is where I think my opinion may not be the popular one.
First is, I feel with all the upgrades given to the players, the monsters, the ones from previous titles at least, where not upgraded in difficulty at all. In fact, it feels like the old guard, monsters such as Rathalos, Rathian, Tigrex and Diabolos have had their difficulty toned down for the players. Rathian especially, since now she is considered a low level monster.
While I know Capcom is making these changes so to reach a larger audience, I feel that the long time players are left with nothing to do after clearing the HR 7 content. Which is where I am now, I have pretty much solo hunted everything except the Rampage content and the last few monsters. All the time I was doing this I was thinking to myself where is the steep learning curve I was so used to? I prepped all the consumables I was used to making for higher ranks; max potions, ancient potions; life powders etc and never once was I forced to use any of them.
The end game now feels like there’s nothing to do, the older titles had HR break and G-Ranks and Arena. While there is Arena here, it just doesn’t seem to be worth the time. I do hope Capcom works on this in the future DLC.
Rampage is another new mechanic that I just haven’t really done save for the story mode and farming a few materials. I just don’t like it all too much, it’s tedious and at times downright annoying to do, especially manning the cannons and ballista. It feels that there are, at times, so many monsters on the screen you can’t tell where an attack will hit you and it usually just knocks you off the installation. And when you do manage to block, each installation has a health bar which will blow up once damaged enough.
So that’s my impression of the first 30 days of my Monster Hunter Rise play-through. The game is far from perfect, but it’s tons of fun for new and old players alike. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, I would recommend picking up a copy and jump in on some hunts.
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