Quick Look: Monster Hunter Rise

Just a few more hours until we get to play and this will help pass the time!

Oh god why did they make the playable hunters speak a discernable language, what a horrible idea

The elusive game where you can order a dango polisher without being arrested.

Loving this game so far! Shame no end game stuff... but that will come with updates/expansions.

@doctordonkey: Thankfully there's an option to completely turn that off for both you and other players

@doctordonkey: They seem to be going for quite a shift in how the setting is presented, they're even giving NPCs names this time.

I wonder if this is a Jason game.

Knowing this will come to PC next year, I will skip the Switch version. I absolutely hated not being able to carry over my 300+ hours World character to the the PC version.

check it out, Toukiden 3!

After how amazing World was I wasn't sure if I was going to even get this since it seemed to be such a step back in terms of graphics and also scope since it is a handheld game technically. But gotta say this video really did sell me on it - Monster Hunter continues to be charming as heck. I'm definitely waiting for the PC version though.

@meierthered: With any luck Capcom will employ a similar save transfer system to Hades. If the PC version launches with the expansion and you have all your gear and shit ready to go that would be ideal. Kinda feel doubtful about it though. I've been having a heap of fun with the Switch version anyways but yeah.

I love a nice dongo, too

Should hunters tawlk?

@doctordonkey: You can change it between English, Japanese or Monster Hunter Language.

oh my god Wroggi cat armor is back

Fan Theory: Meowscular Chef shows up in the expansion to mentor the young chefs (but he's probably lookin' to pmeownd that mochi). Bonus points for a sequel where the food stand is run by an old palico couple and their grown surrogate daughter.

Edit: On second thought, those palicos may be inappropriately cat-person young, though Meowscular Chef is kind of a creeper anyway.

My dongo dislikes smoke, but LOVES the Dr. Feelgood Special.

Would love it if they did offer that feature. But as you, I doubt they will.

Hoping you guys do a MP run soon!

I greatly enjoyed my time with Monster Hunter World but I always needed at least forty minutes of uninterrupted time and that made me less likely to boot the game up these days but it looks like you can "pause" solo hunts mid fight on Rise which is a godsend.

Finally, a game that lets me mount Big Chungus!

That music seems really annoying imo, that city song would drive me up the wall if it played every time.

@merxworx01: From what I've played today, and what you can probably see in the QL, the game also moves really fast. Loadtimes, the dog mount, maps that are more compact and less confusing, no monster tracking, one-tap gathering, etc. I just feel like I'm hauling ass at all times and makes the usual MH loop even more addictive. I can enter a quest in Rise and get the monster half dead in the time it takes to load into a mission in World on a base/no SSD PS4.

I'm probably an outlier here, but this feels like a step backwards to me. I liked that World added the tracks mechanic, which made it feel more like a hunt than previous games. The hut where you could restock items rather than having to really prepare yourself was a little bit of a detractor from that, but the great environments of World combined with that tracking system often sold the feel of being a hunter and not just a boss terminator compared to the older style of game.

Yeah, it meant sometimes you had to do busywork like stopping to sharpen your sword or drink a cold drink, but I liked that. I even disliked the decreased importance of paintballs, and maybe even the limited pickaxes (ok, maybe not that).

Jason said this feels like Monster Hunter: Turbo Edition and that's pretty much what turns me off. I hope that if they do a sequel to World, they return to that style of making it feel like a World. I understand getting right into the action and slaying kaiju is great to some, but it's not for me.

@dijidiji: I'm with you actually... approaching MH before seemed insurmountable when I got into 3U, but getting into the groove and tripling down on the hunt preparation (because you made those mistakes like not bringing enough paintballs or whetstones or showing up in a cold area without hot drinks) was very rewarding and what made me evangelize the series. It felt like a badge of honor and conquering low to G-rank in 4U was one of my most memorable gaming triumphs. I had to have a system, I had my own factory in motion while also hunting the shit out of the monsters. Teaching other hunters little tips and tricks (to help their monster hunting journey with the limited chat was some of the most fun I've had playing with randoms on the internet too

That being said, some of the streamlining was needed and welcomed (cough... pickaxes lol). I'm planning on getting into Rise just because World was kind of a letdown to me (until Iceborne came out, but by then, I didn't have the time for MH)

Gameplay starts at the 15 min mark.

@unastrike Props on the name Poppy. *Chef's Kiss*

#ISeeWhatYouDidThere

Great QL, Jason. I just unlocked 2 star quests and am having a blast. This is only my second Monster Hunter after playing World and I love how refined and sped up the game feels.

do japanese players have seriously low standards, or am i missing something? Monster hunter always seems so stuck in the past. same with pokemon to some extent. are they scared to scale up the game because they sell so well as they are?

@fobwashed nice cameo around 3 minutes.

@thisisdell: I think the gameplay starts at the 00:00 mark where they're playing the game. But thanks for the snark.

@ripelivejam I think you know what I mean, but I’ll explain it. He starts swinging the lance at the 15:00 minute mark. Everyone knows what the mh menus look like. I was just trying to be helpful. Don’t be like this.

You 100% don't NEED to grab the spiribirds lol. I never go out and seek them, I only grab them if I pass them while going to the monster. I've heard a few reviewers now say it like its a negative when its completely optional and you can very easily ignore it.

also Jason complains about not having enough wirebugs.... and then never uses them :D I find sheathing my weapon and flipping in the air towards the monster and doing aerial attacks to be one of the most fun things to do in this game. You should try it out!

@mupod: I believe I spent most of Saturday playing this and yeah its nice being ultra mobile. Big fan of wall running and how vines are now just sideways ground surface for you and the dog. I'm not sure how many areas are in this game. They are super compact and with the dog it takes no time getting from one end of the map to the other. Before a monster running away used to be a good time to heal, get your gear ready and stamina up before running after the fleeing monster. Now I find myself getting to a monster retreat point before a flying monsters gets a chance to land and rest. Hopefully there's a good mix of maps in this one.

After a weekend of playing so far, I'm absolutely in love with it. You can see all the lessons they learned from World and Rise feels like a really smart blend of that and the older games (Generations specifically) with a whole bunch of really smart additions. The combat is faster and more mobile but still retains the core "feel" of Monster Hunter, the village design is excellent, and it all loads super fast.

The village is super compact but packed really smartly so everything is within a moment's reach (and most things have multiple points of access so you don't even have to go across town to do one thing, even though it would be super quick to do so). It's even more packed with charm out the gate than World, which is saying something. Then exploration-wise it feels like it learned one of the most important lessons from BotW - let me climb on everything - but made it super accessible and fun.

Once you get your head wrapped around the wirebug muscle memory it's so quick to just zip around the environments and run up walls. There's tons of verticality to the maps but you can navigate them super quickly between the movement and the Great Wirebugs to zip over especially awkward terrain. I disagree somewhat with Jason on the wirebug timings though - the cooldown feels just about right to me to make using them feel like a commitment without every making me feel like I don't have access to them. Some of the weapon skills have a longer cooldown on their silkbind abilities, but even then you can pick up a third wirebug and use an armour skill to make it last longer, if you really want to focus on using them often.

Obviously it's early days to say how the lategame will be, but from the time I've spent I absolutely love it, and I can't wait to see the other monsters they have in store. I was actually worried I might have burnt out on MonHun by the end of my time with World, but as soon as I started playing I realised I was fully ready for a new one.

Go, Poppy!

can’t wait for the return RoF

Wow, I didn't know the difference until watching this video, but the monster introductions are way different between versions. They're said more like ghost stories in English, but with Japanese audio they're performed as shigin-style song poetry -- which hits so much harder IMO.

Worth looking up if you're curious. I love them.

@dremorak:

Yeah I'm really thankful that there's at least someone that reps MH on this site, but Jason is absolutely terrible at showing off how the game works, despite claiming to be a big fan.

Like... I get it if you hate the tower defense minigame (I'm not a big fan either), but way to color people's opinions by going into it by groaning and moaning. Not to mention... Of course it's going to look dull as hell and the area would look smaller if you're only using the back half of the area. It's a kind of unsolvable problem with personality-driven reviews, but it's frustrating knowing that some people are going to rely on a misinformed reviewer to make a decision on a game.

I have to disagree with Jason on Rampage being optional and something you don't have to bother doing. You need tickets to augment gear and the only way to fight Apex monsters is in Rampage quests.