Monster Hunter: World is an important paradigm shift for Capcom’s beloved franchise. The well-paced difficulty ramp makes for fun for newcomers, while the numerous end-game challenges keep seasoned hunters coming back for more. Monster Hunter Rise’s gameplay often tries to copy World’s success, which isn’t always a bad thing. Battles continue to be an exhilarating dance to death, the ability to customize your gear delights you, and co-ordinate hunts with friends make for exhilarating fun and unexpected results. Even with the introduction of new mechanics that amplify these features, Monster Hunter Rise has struggled to establish a creative identity of its own.
Encountering massive and impressive beasts is at the heart of the experience, test your skills with a variety of weapons. Once won, you spend your downtime running around the main hub, upgrading or forging better gear, collecting a bunch of pending quests from NPCs, and meticulously preparing for the hunt. next. This captures the fundamentals of the action fantasy series, but Monster Hunter Rise doesn’t venture beyond that comfort zone.
During the opening hour, the people of Kamura Village were busy preparing for the “catastrophe”, an army of wild monsters that specialized in placing waste on everything in their path. As the village’s newly registered hunter, you must kill or capture many creatures in the biome outside the steel gates of your homeland. As soon as you’re done marveling at the cherry blossom trees in full bloom and humming to a stunning score, be sure to grab important consumables from your ever-expanding item box, eat a meal Eat well at local restaurants for exclusive rewards and take part in the unknown. The process has a comfortable monotony that Monster Hunter fans will likely appreciate, but the addition of “Buddy Plaza” adds a new feature to your return trips.
Buddy Plaza is the base for your floats and floats (the dog and cat warriors, respectively). You can send your trusty pets on private quests to buy miscellaneous crafting materials, spend money to train them to be more effective in future skirmishes, swap their equipment or rent more by talking to the manager. Buddies are extremely versatile, and Monster Hunter: Rise constantly rewards you for using the various facilities of the square. Still sharpening that rare beak or tail? Your old “meowcenaries” might surprise you with one on a recent expedition. This kind of positive feedback gives the fight/exploration pauses some much-needed flavor.
You spend most of your gameplay experiencing the classic loop: Fight giant enemies like the wild Arzuros and the Lagombi, collect mundane items, and deliver heavy loads to camp. Be sure to explore the nooks and crannies of every map as colorful, floating birds known as “Spiribirds” can be absorbed to increase your health, stamina, attack, or defense. These buffs make completing the aforementioned quests a lot easier. Don’t you want to do all that with your feet? Ride your convertible to expedite navigation or use your rope beetle to scale slopes and mountain ranges in seconds.
Wire beetle attacks, known as Silkbinds, add a new layer of intensity to the action. When used multiple times, Silkbinds forces the monster into a rideable state. These short combat sequences all revolve around using a monster’s power against them by dashing into nearby structures to deal damage or sprinting towards other unsuspecting enemies to deal with pain. Wyvern-riding is my favorite mechanic because it adds a bunch of interesting strategy to the franchise’s age-old combat system.
Aside from attaching monsters and using ropes to run across walls in breathtaking style, there’s nothing else that distinguishes Monster Hunter Rise from its predecessors. It has enough end game content to keep you hooked long after the credits roll (if you don’t mind the big numbers) and multiplayer is still the ultimate way to play, but the excitement of the My first hunt was long gone. Monster Hunter Rise is far from being the final chapter in the series. However, if you’re looking for a sleek yet traditional adventure with a few small-scale nuances, you’ll be right at home in Kamura Village.
