Monster Hunter Monster Hunter Rise

[Azure Sage]

Today, a brand new Monster Hunter game was announced for the Switch; two of them, actually. One is called Rise, and it looks really fantastic.



This game looks great for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest reasons and also something I personally wanted out of the next MonHun, is that it seems to blend old world and new world gameplay. We get lots of new world quality of life like open maps, mobility, and so on, combined with the stylish gameplay reminiscent of GenU. A lot of the weapon movesets seem to pull from their World counterparts, but there's also a lot of new special moves that evoke hunter arts, especially when you combine them with the Wirebug. That little critter makes for some crazy omnidirectional movement tricks and allows for even more badass hunting moves. It also vastly improves mobility across the maps, bringing BotW's freedom to climb anything to mind.

They went all-in on the traditional Japanese aesthetic here. I'm not the biggest fan of the architectural style, unless its ruins, but I can't complain too much when the monster designs are so good. The new ones are all inspired by Japanese mythos, so they should make for some nice hunts. The new flagship seems to have some spooky special ability that makes me think of Gore Magala's frenzy virus or the Black Blight from Stories. Looking forward to learning what that's all about.

And of course there's the Palamutes. We get our own hunting dogs alongside our felyne companions now. This is obviously inspired by an old weapon type concept that eventually became the Insect Glaive, so it's really cool to see it find new life in this way. I love this a lot. I want to see how they can be customized in this game, because you can have more than one. Naturally there's gonna be some ability customization to go along with that. Should be neat.

I really wanted styles and arts to return, but I think the Wirebug is an acceptable alternative for me. The mobility it offers looks just as good as both aerial and adept styles, which should allow me to enjoy certain weapons just as much as I do in those styles. Layered armor is coming over from World, which is great.... as long as they don't make it locked only to special things until the end of the game's life like they did with World. Everything has to be able to be layered from the start, period. There's no excuse to not do that. I'm a little anxious about this.

More info is coming on the 26th. I'm definitely staying tuned for more. This game looks crazy good. I mean, look at this! This is sick!

 

[Spirit]

I've tried far too many times to like Monster Hunter as a series because smacking big monsters with big swords is fun.

But every game I've played has felt clunky and drab to me. At this point I've long since given up trying and won't be buying any new games from the series.

I can see the changes made in this one compared to other games but it isn't enough for me to feel comfortable or engaged.

I'll be sticking with God Eater.

 

[twilitfalchion]

It looks enough like a new style of MH game for me to keep an eye on it, although my past experience with MH hasn't been very positive. The MHGU demo felt so clunky and slow that it felt tedious to even fight. Hopefully it's made to be much smoother and faster paced.

 

[Azure Sage]

We got a time on the presentation for MHRise. I'm really excited for this. There's a lot that I want to see, namely how the Wirebug controls in combat. Like, the buttons you press for it. I want to see more of how you combine it with the weapon's general moveset, and I also wanna see the general movesets period. They used to do weapon intro videos on youtube, hopefully they will continue with that if we don't see this here.

If the presentation also include Stories 2, hopefully we'll see some gameplay even if it's just developmental. I'm not expecting more than this, but I'm still really excited.

 

[Azure Sage]

Rise got an updated trailer. It's the same up until after the monster showcase, in which you get to see new Wirebug mechanics and they look absolutely sick. You also get to hear a few more different voices you can have for your hunters.

 

[Azure Sage]

Video of the direct feed gameplay footage in the TGS stream.

My first impression was that this game looks amazing. The visuals are a lot like GenU's but a lot more refined and detailed. The shrine ruins map looks gorgeous and full of fun things to discover. I really like how they took concepts from World like endemic life but made them better. In World, endemic life was basically "look for them to capture and collect" but here they actually do stuff for you like give you buffs and that's really cool. They're not just enriching the world anymore, they're also enriching the gameplay. It's also nice to see more of World's quality of life, like item shortcut wheels and restocking/changing gear from base camp.

I love the HUD. Looks nice and clean, isn't too crowded, the monster icons look incredible in that new inkbrush style, and the map looks pretty cool. I wonder if we're gonna have a dedicated map screen like in World. It was also cool to see how the Wirebug functions. Rather than being a consumable tool like some people were guessing, its on a cooldown. Seems fair enough. It seems like you hold ZR and then move the stick to decide where to go. Maybe by not moving the stick is how you go up? It'll probably be easier to get an understanding of how to use it in the moment in a demo, but from the stream it looked pretty seamless to use.

I'm really happy that their demo weapon was the dual blades, as that's my main weapon of choice. The moveset for the db looks very similar to World, which I will admittedly not be fond of if they don't fix how World ruined archdemon mode. However, the new moves they added look incredible, especially with the Wirebug. You can use it for a literal adept evade from GenU which makes me extremely happy, as adept was my favorite style for db. I'm really happy to see them incorporating not just special moves from World but also hunter arts and style moves from GenU. That's exactly what I wanted to see happen.

It was cool to see the palamutes in action. The mobility they give you is really nice. They're also super adorable and the fact that you can play with both them and your palicos even when out on a hunt is super nice. They said in the stream that it has no effect on gameplay but it's just delightful to have that option and I completely agree with that line of thinking. Speaking of mobility, being able to run straight up walls is completely new and cool. I'm not surprised that it burns through your stamina so fast, but your stamina recovers when you hang around on Wirebugs so you can take breaks like that and continue the climb, which is really nice. All these movement options they're adding are so exciting.

I am more hyped to get my hands on this game than ever before. I shall close with this very important screenshot from the stream.

Extremely important.

 

[Azure Sage]

Apparently there was another gameplay demonstration, but I have no idea when and where this was shown. I didn't know this was a thing, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this on my feed.

Not much to say about this one. It shows off the long sword, an old main of mine from my early monhun days. I didn't like it in world/iceborne, and it looks like that's where its moveset is pulling from in this entry. The wirebug moves look pretty slick on it, at least. I miss old world ls.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

Rise looks good, but I'm actually disappointed that a port of Monster Hunter World never found its way to Switch. I was kind of holding out for it.

 

[Azure Sage]

Rise looks good, but I'm actually disappointed that a port of Monster Hunter World never found its way to Switch. I was kind of holding out for it.

That was never going to happen. But don't worry, you aren't missing much; anything World did, Rise is already doing better.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

That was never going to happen. But don't worry, you aren't missing much; anything World did, Rise is already doing better.

What about having an actual story mode?

 

[Azure Sage]

What about having an actual story mode?

Who plays MonHun for the story lol

Rise does seem to have more of a story than old world games, though. Probably not as story-heavy as World, yeah, but MonHun doesn’t need to be.

 

[Spirit]

Who plays MonHun for the story lol

Me, and the lack of a substantial one throughout the series has been a large part of why I could never gel with the series.

I need a reason and Monster Hunter has never really given me one, or characters worth a damn.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

Who plays MonHun for the story lol

Rise does seem to have more of a story than old world games, though. Probably not as story-heavy as World, yeah, but MonHun doesn’t need to be.

If Monster Hunter had one, I'd be far more interested in the franchise. World is the only MH I've been interested in, and it's the only one with a story.

 

[Azure Sage]

Me, and the lack of a substantial one throughout the series has been a large part of why I could never gel with the series.

I need a reason and Monster Hunter has never really given me one, or characters worth a damn.

If Monster Hunter had one, I'd be far more interested in the franchise. World is the only MH I've been interested in, and it's the only one with a story.

I personally have never felt like MonHun needed a story focus. It's not the kind of game you pick up to be told a tale, its a game you pick up in order to fight monsters. You want a reason why you're fighting the monsters? You're making your own character, so think up a backstory for them. Pay attention to the quest descriptions, read the monster list for details about what you're hunting, observe the environments you're hunting in, talk to the people in the towns, etc. Put all those little bits together yourself and come up with your own reasons. That's how I've always played the games, anyway. MonHun is very gameplay focused, and the story and lore is always secondary at best and usually learned through your own observations rather than being told to you. I like it like that.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

I personally have never felt like MonHun needed a story focus. It's not the kind of game you pick up to be told a tale, its a game you pick up in order to fight monsters. You want a reason why you're fighting the monsters? You're making your own character, so think up a backstory for them. Pay attention to the quest descriptions, read the monster list for details about what you're hunting, observe the environments you're hunting in, talk to the people in the towns, etc. Put all those little bits together yourself and come up with your own reasons. That's how I've always played the games, anyway. MonHun is very gameplay focused, and the story and lore is always secondary at best and usually learned through your own observations rather than being told to you. I like it like that.

While I'm all for a more passive method of stoytelling (otherwise I wouldn't be such a huge Dark Souls fans), it's still important to me for there to be a story that you can finish and then feel some level of completion about. Without that, Monster Hunter just feels too much like Grinding: The Game.