Monster Hunter Rise Review

Reviewed by Jason Simmons II

Monster Hunter Rise is the newest addition to Capcom’s Monster Hunter series, directed by Yasunori Ichinose, who also directed previous Monster Hunter entries: Freedom, Freedom Unite, and Generations. In many ways, Rise is a return to form for the series, refining many of the mechanics veteran players will be familiar with; as well as continuing the series tradition by introducing some new mechanics which affect not only combat, but locomotion and strategy as well.

The biggest selling point of the game is the monsters you’ll be hunting throughout, and with over 30 monsters and 14 unique weapon types to hunt with, Rise definitely has this in spades. Each monster feels unique, not just in design or their interactions with the player in combat, but their interactions with the world around them and other monsters, as well. Hunting each individual monster feels unique, and the satisfaction of defeating a fire breathing dragon the size of a house never ceases to feel exhilarating. 

The game takes a bit more of a stylized approach to it’s new monsters than some previous entries, with many of them looking and feeling like beasts from Japanese folklore. The focus on stylization over realism creates some much more memorable monsters than many of those seen in World, for example. One particularly memorable hunt was against the Bishaten, a tengu-inspired bird/monkey hybrid that attacks primarily by throwing hard fruit while balancing on its hand-like tail. These fruits can poison you or just knock you around, but they also provide you with an easily exploitable weakness, pick up a fruit or two from the monster when you break it’s parts, and you can give the beast a taste of it’s own medicine.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Monster Hunter if the spoils of your hunts just went to waste. Each of Monster Hunter Rise’s monsters are paired with a host of new weapons and armor sets. Nearly every single monster in the game can provide materials for new weapons and armor, allowing players to create their own unique blend of armor pieces and weapons, mixing and matching pieces from different sets to get their ideal set of abilities, resistances, and, most importantly, style.

Rise also provides the players with a couple of major new tools: the wirebug and Palamutes. The wirebug is primarily used to move around a bit faster than usual, allowing players to dash, pull themselves upwards, or even recover if they get knocked off their feet. Of course, movement isn’t all the wirebug is good for, it also allows players to use new silkbind attacks, which can deal extra damage to monsters or help to keep you safe from their attacks, each weapon has its own unique silkbind attacks that help to differentiate them even more than their large movesets already do. 

Additionally, mounting from previous games has been completely overhauled and replaced with Wyvern Riding. Wyvern Riding allows the player to not only mount the monster, but take control over it. You can use your new steed to fight monsters, navigate around the environment, or just ram it into walls to deal some major damage. Triggering the new Wyvern Riding system is a bit different than previous games, you no longer simply jump onto the monster and hope RNG is on your side, now you must either use silkbind attacks, find a new creature called a puppet spider, or lure it into a fight with another large monster. Aerial attacks will still trigger the mounting state; however, from my experience, this is pretty rare, especially with smaller weapons, such as the sword and shield or the dual blades.

Palamutes, on the other hand, are a more direct companion in the form of trained Canynes (Monster Hunter’s version of dogs). You can equip your Palamute with its own set of weapons and armor and take them out to fight with you, very similarly to Palicoes (The more cat-like companions of the series). Palamutes have the added bonus of allowing you to ride on their back to help navigate or fight monsters without draining your stamina. You can even use items while moving on the Palamute to heal up, sharpen weapons, or prepare for an upcoming battle. While playing single player, you can travel with 2 pets of your choice, whether they be Palicoes, Palamutes, or a mix of both.

Players should be warned that this game is much more similar to previous Monster Hunter games than World, which had a more cinematic and expansive scope. Rise instead works to refine the things that make Monster Hunter great, while cutting out a lot of the fluff. This does not mean all the changes are perfect, and I suspect many of the cuts were to make the game work well on the Nintendo Switch’s hardware. 

A major difference I noticed was the designs of many of the maps, which are significantly less vertical (and in some cases, just less interesting) than their counterparts in World. This is not to say that maps are entirely flat, but they are instead populated almost exclusively of smaller cliffs. This lack of verticality is especially confusing when factoring in the new wirebug and expanded wallrunning mechanics, which allow players to easily traverse cliffs. To add to this, the game’s initial roster lacks many of the flying monsters of the series, and the ones that are included still tend not to take advantage of the multiple layers of the map designs. 

Monster interactions with the world seem to be less meaningful, and they tend to be less mobile than in some previous games. I have even had several fights in Rise where monsters are completely taken out in a single area, which doesn’t match up with my experiences in previous games. 

Finally the game doesn’t have an extremely large cast of monsters, especially when compared to the previous two entries in the series. These issues may be fixed over time (especially the monster variety),  as the game adds additional content, but they mark just a few of my issues with this game, especially after spending so much time with World and its 3 years of additional content.

To sum it all up, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Monster Hunter Rise. I have grown attached to my new pet dog to go with my cat, the new wirebug mechanics make getting around the map a blast (especially when Tarzan-swinging off cliffs and over pits), and the weapon controls feel tighter than ever. This game made me decide to differentiate the podcast review scores from my personal review scores, so I give Monster Hunter Rise an 8.5/10.

(Reviewed on Nintendo Switch)

Final Rating: 8.5/10