2022’s Stunning Retail Space Designs Of The Year
June 28, 2022
Climb & Fight Your Way Out In Dying Light 2: Stay Human!
June 29, 2022
Kill monsters, craft your arsenal from their loot drops, and kill bigger monsters, and make better gear from their loot again in this new entry of the famed Monster Hunter games!
Introduction
Disclaimer: This review is strictly focused on the PC port of Monster Hunter Rise. Most of my playthrough experiences that I have described in this version may or may not coincide with the original Switch version of the game.
The Monster Hunter series of games is one that still resonates within the hearts of veteran gamers of the Nintendo 3DS and Playstation platforms even after years of releases of both mainline and spin-off games.
The abnormally-steep learning curve that is required by the player to have a deep understanding of familiarizing themselves with the core fundamentals of the game, paired together with some of the most in-depth and complex combat mechanics I have ever seen in an action-adventure RPG game and a diverse selection of weapons that requires the player to play a certain way and adds another layer and learning curve for the player to learn.
And once you think you’ve got the basics of the game down, it chucks you in a mid-boss level fight that takes a good amount of your time to defeat and get some sweet loot out of it. Only to realize that you’re gonna need more of those items to craft even gear and repeat the mission again in a slightly faster time to complete it. And the cycle repeats itself at the higher levels after.
Monster Hunter is by no means an easy game to get into as a beginner, and the same can be said for games that also require a steep learning curve to overcome like Dark Souls (Yes, yes. I understand the jokes…), or any 4X strategy game like Civilization.
However, I can confidently say that next to Monster Hunter World, Rise is definitely the “easiest” entry in the series that a newcomer can pick up and learn the ropes at their own pace, whilst ramping up the difficulty just enough for them to pose a challenge and be somewhat forgiving at the same time.
The Story
Monster Hunter isn’t exactly known to have a story throughout your hours of playtime. About 95% of the time, you’ll be running around fighting monsters that are ten times your size and harvesting their body parts to craft badass gear, min-maxing your build, and even researching and deciding what types of foods to eat for a skill boost against a certain monster (Yes, you gotta eat before every hunt. You can’t hunt on an empty stomach!).
The story of Rise takes place in a small village of Kamura, where you are woken up by your dog companion and informed by an outside party that you have finally been promoted to the rank of Hunter by the Guild run by the Wyverian twins, Hinoa and Minoto. And as you greet the village leader, Elder Fugen, and being congratulated by him. A winged monster catches your eye and is given a premonition by a mysterious calamity simply known as “The Rampage”. And it is from here on out that you officially start your monster hunting duties in an effort to prepare the village for a possible incoming assault by evil forces.
Like I said before, Monster Hunter has a very vague storyline for an RPG of this scale. However, the upcoming DLC to be released in June, Sunbreak will be expanding on the story more and focusing on taking down an Elder Dragon as well as adding more gameplay mechanics to enhance the combat further.
Playthrough Highlights
Immediately after download, the very first thing I did that a PC gamer would do is go to the settings menu and maxed out everything I can to get the game looking as good as possible on my ultrawide monitor.
The PC port of Rise has some graphical improvements over the original Switch version that makes playing it a much more experience for PC users like me. Rise on the PC has support for monitor resolutions up to 4K and ultrawide support for those who want to have the most immersive monster hunting experience at your desk, and uncapped framerates for buttery smooth animations and timing your heavy-hitting moves perfectly.
Another big shocker that I come across when I saw the first opening cutscenes of the game is how much more detailed the game is compared to the Switch version. I caught a glimpse of my colleagues banding together with their Switches in the game and I was blown away at how much detail there is to the textures. I even had to do a sanity check to compare the visuals from both versions, and the PC port just trumps over everything in the visuals department. Textures are just much sharper and clearer to me.
Jumping into the game and blazing through the first few hours, it could be because of my past experience of playing my fair share of Monster Hunter during my 3DS days, I didn’t notice that the gameplay mechanics have been made easier to learn when I was slogging through the tutorial section. Rise took some pages out of World and streamlined the entire experience to make it easier for newcomers to get into the series, and Rise is even more accessible to those who want to enjoy the Monster Hunter for the first time.
Playing Rise also made me feel that the game is much more fast-paced than any other entry I have played, and it’s thanks to two new gameplay features that made it so. The first is the introduction of a new companion, the Palimute, which is a dog-like companion that you can customize to your own playstyle during hunts and gives you to ability to travel across large areas or speed through a hunt by riding on it, as well as climbing up ledges quickly to catch up with the monster you are hunting down.
The second addition is the introduction of the Wirebug, which it itself adds yet another layer of combat mechanics to augment your playstyle. While you are primarily taught to use it as a tool to introduce more verticality and upwards mobility for the player to overcome terrain, it is also a useful tool to quickly move out of the way and dodge attacks and AOE moves and give yourself some breathing to prep your equipment. But of course, the best use of the Wirebug is to take control of any monster you like while they are stunned or weak and pit them against other larger monsters against their will to get both loots at the same time. Additionally, you can also use the Wirebug to pin them down and deal as much damage as you can before they break free.
Another new addition in Rise that I didn’t expect to like this much is the introduction of a TDM game mode. This is where you essentially defend the town from invading monsters either with a group of friend or all alone by yourself with NPCs. There is also a surprising amount of depth to the minigame that requires some serious coordination from other players in order to successfully defend the village from other monsters. One player would have to be at the frontlines to hold the monsters back, while another player will have to dedicate themselves to shoveling coal to reduce the cooldown time for defences, and another will be spending a majority of their time manning the turrets and rain hell onto them.
Last, but not least, is the completely new theme of the world in Rise. The whole world is essentially revolved around a more oriental and Japanese theme this time, rather than the grand fantasy vibes as seen in World and other Monster Hunter games. While I don’t miss the large areas that really give you the immersion of being in a fantasy novel in World, I enjoyed the smaller and more compact world of Rise and it definitely suits the whole them of the games name, Rise and its theme revolving around ninjas in Japan and introduction of the Wirebug to make it happen.
Final Thoughts
Like I said at the introduction of this article, Monster Hunter is not an easy game to pick up if you’re a newcomer. And just like me when I played the game as a teenager years ago, I pretty much have to git gud in my first hunt multiple times and train myself in the tutorial area to learn the ins and outs of the gameplay mechanics and then mastering them to finally overcome the insanely-steep learning curve.
However, with the introduction of World, Capcom has streamlined the entire experience and learning curve for beginners and newcomers of the series to enjoy the long-running Monster Hunter series for the first time and Rise has made it even more accessible to even younger players wanting to slay dragons and larger monsters. And with the Sunbreak DLC coming in a couple of months, that could very well add the difficulty curve and more story elements that will excite new players with a tougher challenge and for veteran Monster Hunter players to finally quench their thirst for tougher battle with the return of the Elder Dragon.
Want to get into the world of Monster Hunter? Then Monster Hunter Rise is a great start to learn the core fundamentals of the game!
Credits
Author: Ryan L.
Game: Monster Hunter Rise
Developer: CAPCOM Co., Ltd.
Release Date: 13 Jan, 2022
