Monster Hunter Rise Review

Finally, I’m back to writing a review. This time I wanted to tackle a Switch game. That game, as the title says, is Monster Hunter Rise. I’m fortunate enough to have a job where I get to play my Switch at work due to the fact that it is a graveyard shift and nothing happens. I am so glad this game came out to occupy those hours every day where I have absolutely nothing to do. They really made this game better with the quality of life changes and artwork. It’s also a great entry point into the series if you haven’t played one.

When I started up this game, I knew right away that it was already better than Monster Hunter World when I got to hop on my Palamute, your little puppy friend. Being able to ride around on your Palamute is fucking awesome. It allows you to cover the map faster so you don’t have to travel to a camp if you don’t want to. That’s a huge quality of life change. Another one, the scout flies are gone. Oh my god, those were annoying because they didn’t even know where they were going half of the time. I also played Generations and using the paintball to track monsters was ridiculous. This time you find a monster on the mini map and you chase after it. Love that way more than having to find tracks and then have the scout flies turn me around a few times. The tracking would have been cool if it didn’t rely on the scout flies. My biggest problem that is gone is the roars. It’s a reason why I stopped playing Monster Hunter World. The monsters roaring every few seconds to stun you was annoying. Monsters still roar in Rise, but nowhere near the volume of World and I am eternally grateful for it. There are a bunch of other quality of life changes involved, but I’d rather you check them out and see which ones you like the most. If you’re new to the franchise, then definitely just jump in and start.

Finally, the game play gets a bit more interesting with the wirebugs. The game play hasn’t changed much, but adding the wirebugs for different offensive and defensive situations really freshened up the combat situation. I tried using Sword and Shield in World and it was horrendous. I played most of Rise with Sword and Shield and it was ridiculously fun. That’s because the wirebug attack that I got with it add another layer of fun and DPS that the Sword and Shield didn’t have. I’m sure I’m not even playing what some people would deem the correct way and that’s okay. I’m having fun with it. The monsters are actually fun to fight. No more having to use flashpods to knock a flying monster out of the air and no more hounding. You can actually get reprieve from the enemy and they feel well balanced. Let’s take the Bazelgeuse. It no longer roars every few seconds to stun lock you and it no longer flies up and drops bombs all over the field. It was a fight I surprisingly had fun with because it took skill for me to figure out its patterns. It was very satisfying. The game play is pretty awesome.

Rise is hopefully the start of the new and improved Monster Hunter series that I will definitely buy more of. If you haven’t played one and feel like it’s too much for you, I suggest buy it. It’s worth every cent and you get to take it at your own pace. Just keep fighting the monsters until you feel confident that you can move on and have fun. This game is awesome that way. It lets you have fun. Plus, transmog. No more need for fashion hunting. Transmog for the win. This game is amazing just for that. More RPGs like this need transmog. I’m rambling now. Anyway, Monster Hunter Rise is awesome and will appeal to every gamer that comes across it. I hope you enjoy it like I do. If you don’t, that is fine too. Remember, just have fun.