Monster Hunter Rise Review

When it comes to high rank, MH Rise is notably different. There is an emphasis on The Rampage game mode, one of the new game modes unique to MH Rise. The easiest way to describe this is as if you were to play a tower defence game with Monster Hunter gameplay. There are either two or three hordes in a Rampage quest and each horde has a major threat and/or Apex monster. I haven’t had the opportunity to try this game mode cooperatively, but as a solo prospect, I didn’t actually enjoy it that much. Sure, it was cool the first few times, and the instances where you are required to do it in the Gathering Hub questline are pretty unique in terms of atmosphere, however, the problems with The Rampage arise when you reach the endgame. To kick things off, there are only two elder dragons to hunt, and the game very clearly wishes you to hunt Apex monsters for its endgame, monsters that are a significant step above the rest. They are visually distinct from the normal monsters and are much tougher to hunt. They hit incredibly hard and can behave a little differently, but they are also a returning mechanic, mimicking the previous game’s tempered hunts (a point of controversy in terms of design amongst the fanbase). Normally, I think ramping up the challenge for players to get the best gear is just a part of natural progression and is fine in and of itself, but here Apex monsters are exclusively found in The Rampage. This means that you may have to be in an activity for ten minutes or more before you actually get to hunt an Apex monster and it is very easy to fail at this point due to the Apex monster destroying your defences quite quickly. I’d imagine with a full group it would feel less like a chore, but as someone who has exclusively played solo at the time of writing, these Rampage hunts kind of bore me.

The core gameplay loop of MH Rise is easily the part that had me the most curious after playing the demo. The introduction of Petalaces (a new piece of gear that allows you to change some of your stats) has fundamentally shifted the way players will approach their hunts. Rather than trying to figure out which camp is closest to the monster, or tracking down the target in one of many zones inside a locale, you spend the first two to five minutes collecting Spiribirds to increase your attack and defence, as well as your maximum health and stamina. You eventually figure out the optimal route to take at the beginning of each hunt in each locale, but it’s still time that takes away from the core loop of Monster Hunter. On one hand, the exploration aspect of MH Rise is the best the series has ever had, but on the other hand it’s muddying a loop that was already beautiful in its simplicity. While the Petalaces can take away from the beauty of MH Rise’s core gameplay loop, the Wirebug is the polar opposite. One note of criticism that a lot of people had for the Monster Hunter games is that the controls can feel sort of slow and clunky at first glance. While this is something I can completely understand, I’ve also defended the gameplay as something that feels terrible until it clicks, and once it does do that it can feel incredibly fluid. The Wirebug adds to the fluidity of the gameplay and affords the player either extra manoeuvrability or extra offensive capabilities. Each weapon has had its moves expanded through the silkbind manoeuvres and each of these silkbind attacks are incredibly useful and powerful, but the Wirebug honestly feels its best when you use it to regather yourself after being knocked off your feet by a monster. You are back in the action as soon as possible and the recharge rates of the Wirebug are determined by the action you use – standard Wirebug actions like grappling and regathering yourself have short cooldowns, and larger actions like really potent silkbinds have longer cooldowns.

There are two more core changes to the loop, both of which I believe to be incredibly smart changes. We’ll start with Wyvern Riding. Newcomers to Monster Hunter may not realise this, but mounting is actually a relatively new feature in the Monster Hunter games, only making its debut in Monster Hunter 4. This slightly flawed but nonetheless great system allowed for players to more easily knock monsters over and stack large amounts of damage on the monsters they were fighting. MHW changed this slightly by changing the actions that you can do while mounting a monster but still capturing the original essence of mounting. It ended up creating a meta that made players focus on aerial attacks quite a lot in order to mount the monster and use powerful combos without interruption. Wyvern Riding changes this entirely. Rather than being a threshold from a specific type of damage, Wyvern Riding is enabled on a monster after taking enough damage, or if another monster comes into the fray and they attack one another. Wyvern Riding allows you to mount a monster, control it, attack other monsters or launch the monster into a wall to knock it over. The reason this does not feel like it creates an imbalance is because getting Wyvern Rides is quite organic; you are just rewarded for playing the game and aren’t forced to play in a particular style to get these mounts. I was skeptical about this mechanic at first but it definitely feels like a change for the better.