This may not be the Pokemon Colosseum Review that I had promised nor is it even retro but fear not that shall still arrive in due course my loyal ones. This Review merely came about as it happens to be the game I am currently playing and I have obtained a capture card and wanted to mess about with it to see how it worked.
So without further ado, Monster Hunter Rise is the latest in CAPCOM’s monster hunting series. It continues to deviate from the old school handheld games of yesteryear and takes the same approach of Monster Hunter World. In most aspects, many things of this game are great improvements even over it’s big console counterpart. The graphics aren’t as good as World, but by no means are they bad either. For a Switch exclusive the RE engine it uses is highly optimised putting out one of the best looking games on this system.
The game itself comes with a plethora of quality of life upgrades, some rolling over from world. Some very welcomed ones like, the whetstone being a permanent carry item with unlimited uses. Not needing to carry pick axes, fishing lines and bug nets. Just run around the maps find the points and harvest away, even adding multiple items at once, and auto combination, meaning restocking potions on the go. No longer just at your inventory trunk. Getting rid of hot/cold drinks for certain environments, this just makes it a smidge easier as you aren’t worrying about losing stamina in the cold whilst getting violated by a giant flying wyvern.
The wirebug allowing for a much more varied movement set than previously allowed, also coming with distinct attacks for all 14 types of weapons, and one of the coolest additons, monster riding. Not to mention the extra traversal around the seemless map areas, which once required a loading screen for each little area.
It still comes with all the many different types of armours and weapons, that is signature of this game, with the spruced up weapon tree from World and the easier upgrades for armours. With the additional help of optional quests this time round which act as sub quest whilst you are out hunting.
Each one rewarding you with village points as well as a specific item reward.
If these aren’t up to your fancy you could just grind out the new rampage quests which is basically just an interactive tower defense game. Allowing you to farm certain items usually of the returning APEX monsters.
I could go on for many, many more paragraphs about the MH franchise but I won’t. As it ultimately it boils down to you take a quest, go to the specific area and kill some shit. Which I like to do to some really heavy deathcore or death metal adding to the ambience of the total annihilation of my foes. I may have some issues but that is for another time.
I could also go on about the nice new areas, the online hub, the intricacies of the weapons, decorations,talismans, different type of monsters, blah blah blah. The overall experience and that boring shit but I don’t wanna really. The game is good, it’s really good and if you’re new to the series or thinking about playing, it couldn’t be a better time to jump in, it’s by far the most accessible for new players. Which is also it’s biggest draw back. Now I don’t know if it’s due to re-jigging the health,hit boxes, and damage outputs of both you and the monsters, but it just feels far easier then the older stuff. All the old monsters that returned in this that used to give me mad grief just don’t seem too anymore. Now this could be a good thing, but it takes away a little bit of the edge of the older games, the 40 minute arduous battles and having to grind them out 4/5 times for specific materials. On the flip side however it could be a sign of how far the gaming industry and this particular franchise has come. The main quest poses nearly no challenge and it isn’t until the high rank hub quests around the 6 star stuff it really start’s to feel like the old games again, so it hasn’t completely disapeared.
A very strong 8/10, Certified highly tasty. A great frachise made better with good quality of life upgrades, nice graphics and a great range of monsters. That for me is only held back by it’s lack of difficulty, where I’m sure many would disagree. However with the Sunbreak DLC out next summer, this has every chance to return and only make a brilliant game even better.
TastyRetroGaming 