Monster Hunter Rise

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Marlew
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Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Marlew »

I don't think I've sat and just played a game all day since TLOU2, and that was sort of in haste to avoid spoilers, but I just burned a whole Saturday on MH Rise.

I thought World was great but a little bit charmless relative to the previous games and the fly things streamlined it in a pretty inane way. Great game but not a great MH game, kind of like Dark Souls 3.

Rise is a great MH game, and perhaps the greatest MH game. Obviously a lot will depend on the support and roadmap and all that but this is exceptionally good.

They've added a brilliant new element with the wire bugs or whatever they're called which makes traversal in a MH game actually enjoyable and, at the same time, cut down on the inevitable longueurs of getting to the good stuff by letting you leg it round on the back of a dog. None of this sounds too exciting but the implementation is done with a real flourish. Pinging around on a mini zip wire feels ace. Reminds me of the clawshot from Twilight Princess but with total freedom over your movement

MH is a series with its own pace and the combat, crucially, retains that for the most part, but the rest of the game is now much snappier and fun in its own right. I mean, when riding the dog around, you can go into a drift power slide and get a speed boost like in frigging Mario Kart. It's totally daft but just feels great, and not out of place in the goofy world of MH.

The wire bugs also add an extra layer to the combat because you can change angles and GTFO much more quickly than usual. It does make it a bit easier of course, you basically never getting knocked down because whenever you get twatted, if you have a bug available (they're on a cooldown), you just ping back into the action or to safety. There's also skills and special moves you can use the bugs for and far from gimmicky, they've totally given combat an extra dimension.

I have pretty much fallen off gaming over the last six months or so for whatever reason but this has been an absolute joy today and if I didn’t make myself get up and do some exercise, I would be playing it now. Early GOTY contender, easy.
Marlew
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Marlew »

Surprised nobody appears to be playing or talking about this one! It's the most killer-no-filler, most accessible MH game I've ever played. It's so streamlined, but in a good way, retaining enormous depth in all the right places, namely the combat and the gear.

It's so easy to get into and to try out different stuff, I've got several different weapon types on the go, rather than just several different hammers. Really joyous game which has reinvigorated my love for the medium.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by ratsoalbion »

There are plenty of people playing it on my Switch friends list!
Marlew
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Marlew »

Please instruct them to post here! :D
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Alex79
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Alex79 »

I'm definitely going to pick it up within the next month or so, so if you're still playing I'll hit you up! I've never played a MH game before, beyond the demo for this and about 30 minutes of one of the PSP ones...
Marlew
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

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Alex79uk wrote: April 1st, 2021, 9:13 pm I'm definitely going to pick it up within the next month or so, so if you're still playing I'll hit you up! I've never played a MH game before, beyond the demo for this and about 30 minutes of one of the PSP ones...
Nice one, defo give me a shout. I have basically ignored the single player and mostly just jumping into other online hunts (absolutely packed with Japanese players, it seems) and being carried through. If I find myself playing with beginners, I will tank up a bit more. There's always a fun dynamic to it and no nobs.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Been mucking around on the demo fighting the Izuchi and Mizutsune. Think I enjoy the exploration in just this demo area more than any of the zones in World, although tbf haven't played Icebourne yet. But the wirebugs and the vertical spaces are really fun. I just love zipping up hills and cliffsides and finding shrines and hidden areas, or a vantage point to where the monster is.

I find item usage fiddly still, and wouldn't have minded if they didn't recreate some of the more naff animations quite so faithfully in the RE Engine - the running and eating, for example. Overall a lot of fun though, and that's just based on the demo hunts.

Not going to buy it just yet though, I don't think. Might play some more of World when I unpack my PS4.
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Eterno
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

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This game has been my obsession for the past three days. I loved MHWorld and Iceborne but I think I might prefer this. It doesn't take itself seriously and it runs surprisingly well compared to World on Base PS4.

But it really just is that damn gameplay loop. I played all weekend and today at work could only think about what I'd farm tonight. I welcome all the additions, though Rampage is a bit chaotic still. I feel it will be more fun once other players know what to do to. The lack of voice chat is really an issue for such content.

The new movement options and the switch skills give just enough freshness to pretty much the same formula as World to make it interesting and fun. I'm having a blast with my hunting horn but also touching some new weapons like the bow and switch axe with way more ease than World.
This is even better than World as an introduction to the series and I absolutely recommend it to any player who likes action combat.
Marlew
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Marlew »

Great post, Eterno. I totally agree with the accessibility and depth comments. It really is a brilliant game, and I am pretty sure it's my favourite ever MH, certainly the one I've gone deepest into. I am pretty close to completing the 7* quests which I've never actually done with any previous game. I tend to dive in but burn out before the endgame stuff. With this, I've got several different builds in mind and really trying to max out my skills and decorations and stuff. The first time in a long long time I've enjoyed anything approaching 'the grind' because the moment to moment is so much fun.

Some of the new monsters are excellent, as well. The spider thing is diabolical but great fun to tear up its silky webbing leggings and bulbous thorax. I solo'd the 7* mission before with almost no health left and no potions, proper hail Mary shit with my dual blades. Legged it in on my mutt, jumped off, triggered Demon mode in mid air and then went into a mad spin attack coming down. Bang bang bang bang bang bang!

Parp-pa-pa-parppp! Woo hoo!
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Jon Cheetham »

I went for it. So glad I did.

There are doggos you can ride or send out on a hang glider to scout while your cat buddies are off in a submarine doing your material grinding for you. Which is a very small amount of the weird and wonderful stuff going on in this game.

I didn't plan on getting this initially either, but talking to Gadget and others as well as playing the very good demo more than I've played any demo for about twenty years put paid to that.

I'm finding it more fun and engaging in every way than World, other than obviously the environmental detail and overall graphics. I personally feel the art style is a massive step up too though. The feudal Japanese vibe is wonderful, there are these beautiful songs in Japanese as background music at the hub village and you eat sweet dango before a hunt. The opening area is a mountainous forest full of shrines and it's my favourite area in a game in a while.

I could write walls of text about how good this thing is and the adventures I've been having, but in short it's the best experience I've had on Switch since Hades.
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Alex79
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Alex79 »

Have you played Monster Hunter before, Jon? If not, interested how it was for you as a newcomer to the series, whether it's accessible etc.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

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Alex79uk wrote: April 9th, 2021, 5:54 pm Have you played Monster Hunter before, Jon? If not, interested how it was for you as a newcomer to the series, whether it's accessible etc.
I played maybe 20-30 hours of World, mostly in co-op with my brother. I know that's the one that got a lot of people on board, but I never clicked with it the way I have with this one. I think the faster pace of play (helped by an all-time great traversal mechanic with the wirebugs), the feeling of exploration and discovery, the jaunty tone and the atmosphere has really sold me on this. It feels like World but just faster and smoother and more fun.

I definitely think they've done a brilliant job making this accessible. They've cleverly split progression between Village Quests (single player only, quite forgiving on the whole) and Hub Quests, so the usual gathering hub now has a separate quest giver with hunts intended to be tackled with a party. Although these seem very doable solo, so far. I think they become tougher if you set Kamura Village to "online" and officially join a party.

Edit: I found myself getting impatient in World with the amount of fiddling and farming that seemed to be keeping me from going and exploring and hunting, but here I love all the prep and hanging out at the hub. Perhaps because it's on handheld, or perhaps I'm just more in the right frame of mind for this kind of game right now.
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Gadget8Bit
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Gadget8Bit »

As I said in Whatcha Playing, this is my first MH game and I adore it.

The combat is brilliant, the world is so much fun to run around in, the graphics are amazing (seriously, RE engine is a miracle. Or witchcraft). I adore it.

I’ve done a few online hunts (HR2 atm) but I’ve mostly been focused on the village stuff. Currently doing the 3* hunts and I’ve just done the first story rampage
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Couple more thoughts.

First, with various delays and challenging production on games at present for obvious reasons, I think Capcom's staff deserve all the praise for releasing this in such a polished state. I've had one short freeze up, otherwise I've been hunting without a hitch. The transitions from one hub area to the next are instant and load times are quick across the board. Really impressive and hopefully bodes well for RE Village.

Second, re the central theme of killing wild animals, it doesn't have the same slightly sad undertone it did in World. I was one of the people who couldn't help but notice the way that game made a big deal of you being essentially a colonist out to hunt game in its native habitat, and perhaps due to criticisms they've taken a different tact here.

The story and the utterly wonderful intro songs for the monsters go to lengths to show that many of these creatures are actually encroaching on settlements and other animals' habitats, and you often see them killing smaller fauna in those cutscenes. It changes the dynamic just enough, if that was ever a concern for you, to make it feel like you're defending a natural environment rather than violently "taming" one.

Or maybe this is all my head canon to justify enjoying this game so damn much I don't want to find fault with it? Who can say...
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

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The only fault I have with the game (and it’s a tiny fault) is that the map is really bad for showing elevation of things. When you’re doing the collection quests I spend far too long looking in an area only to realise the item is above or below me.

But it’s a tiny niggle in an otherwise flawless game
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Eterno
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

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Now that I've spent a good amount of time at end game, I have to admit it is a bit "lacking". It wouldn't be fair to compare it to Iceborne, but I do miss some of the more challenging monsters we had even at the end of World. The game doesn't have any really challenging monsters that require a specific team or armor build. I really miss having set bonus when you wear 2, 3 or 5 pieces of the same armor.
It's still a lot of content and I'm writing this with about 80h played, so this is probably just another case of being too used to these endless grinding games and not wanting to let the game go as I finish it.

And the reason I don't want to let go is because it's just so good! Again, the gameplay has been incredible and I really appreciate the technical prowess that this game on the Switch is. I went back to Iceborne to see if my memory was playing me tricks and no, it does run better on Switch.

I also noticed one key thing I do not miss whatsoever: the "hunt" part of the quest. These 5 minutes you spend at the start of each quest roaming the map, following the green light path. I don't miss that a bit and I realized that's a huge part of the instant fun Rise brings. The transversal and wirebugs make exploring and even reaching the monster way more fun that simply looking for it through the map. I hope they never bring it back.

The easier drop rate has really allowed me to touch so many different weapons I never touched before. With the addition of so many moves through the skills, the game almost feels like a fighting game. I have started playing Sword and Shield and it's hardly the same game as my Hunting Horn. S&S is very fast combo type of gameplay, when the HH is much more about positioning and hitting hard at that right spot. The Bow is again a totally different gameplay and type of preparation for the hunt.
I don't see any game planned to be released this year that could be better than this so...probably my GOTY already.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by ratsoalbion »

From what I've read, it sounds as though the end game was compromised by the mid-pandemic late development and that the intention is that this will be addressed with future updates.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Saw credits on this a few days ago, but there is masses still to do. Been finishing off the endgame Village Quests and now it's all Gathering Hub stuff. I have also just gained the ability to recolour my already fabulous armour, so I'm deeply excited about that.

Tried out the multiplayer yesterday, did three hunts by answering Join Requests. This is a great way to do it as you don't have to use time hanging around in someone else's lobby while they do goodness knows what. You're straight into an in-progress hunt, catch up with the rest of the party, donk the monster over the head, friendly emote and you're home with a bunch of new loot. Perfect. No voice chat, my ideal arms-length approach to online play with randoms.

Haven't done many Rampages, only the two necessary to advance the main story so far. They are ok, not as involving to me as the main gameplay but I do quite like sprinting about getting my tower defense installations set up, and maybe smacking a monster on the chops on my way past.
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

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Monster Hunter Rising Crust Pizza
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Monster Hunter Rise

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Jon Cheetham wrote: April 17th, 2021, 4:05 am Haven't done many Rampages, only the two necessary to advance the main story so far. They are ok, not as involving to me as the main gameplay but I do quite like sprinting about getting my tower defense installations set up, and maybe smacking a monster on the chops on my way past.
So having done a couple more at the Gathering Hub, Rampages are much more fun in multiplayer.

Been having a blast jumping into hunts with randoms and keeping my join request open, people generally pile in once I've softened the monster up a bit and then it's just mayhem in the best sense. Due to my timezone I'm playing mostly with Japanese players it would seem. Everyone's nice, and the in-game messaging system seems to encourage a warm atmosphere as well, auto-sending upbeat comments at various points.
Eterno wrote: April 12th, 2021, 3:23 pm With the addition of so many moves through the skills, the game almost feels like a fighting game. I have started playing Sword and Shield and it's hardly the same game as my Hunting Horn. S&S is very fast combo type of gameplay, when the HH is much more about positioning and hitting hard at that right spot. The Bow is again a totally different gameplay and type of preparation for the hunt.
I have been using sword and shield as the Mizutsune one was too neat not too (the sword is a decorative fan, the shield isn't there it's just punches). It's a lot of fun and changes up the rhythm massively.
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