Monster Hunter Rise

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Wireless / Online)

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Review:

Probably one of my more controversial reviews here was my review of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. I know this game has its fair share of fans who feel passionately about it, but for me it was hard to see past its countless issues – its tutorial was atrocious, its gameplay was clunky, its graphics terribly outdated, and the game feels archaic now that Monster Hunter World has streamlined the series and made it at least a bit more user-friendly.

As such, you’ll understand when I say that I admit I was somewhat apprehensive about reviewing its follow-up, released on Nintendo Switch in 2021 (with a port to PC announced for release in 2022). I know that Monster Hunter is generally one of those things you either “get” or you don’t, but also that many point to Rise as a game that even those who generally don’t care for the series would love. No doubt if I hated this one as well, people would think I just have a hate on for the series or something.

But what the heck, right? Either I like it or I don’t, and I can only comment on my own personal experience, that doesn’t invalidate yours.

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A Monstrous Performance?

One immediately apparent difference between Generations and Rise is that where Generations was a port of a Nintendo 3DS game that was already two years old by the time it got ported to Nintendo Switch, Rise was designed with the Nintendo Switch in mind, making use of a version of Capcom’s much-touted RE Engine. As a result, Monster Hunter Rise doesn’t just look better, it looks so good that the improvement is shocking.

Quite simply, the level of detail in the environments in this game is outstanding. Areas littered with dense foliage that moves in the breeze, gorgeous-looking mud and snow, and the textures here are outright incredible. The hub town that players repeatedly come back to is filled with Japanese-style structures and blossoming cherry trees that shed petals above the players’ head, buildings filled with all sorts of items and knick-knacks, and even though the town is sparsely-populated, it still feels like a place bustling with life and activity. What’s more, the character designs are similarly exquisitely-detailed and well-crafted, with the monsters themselves being particularly impressive as well. All of this with some really excellent animation that makes characters lively, and gives each monster a unique personality that goes beyond its mere visual design. This is rendered at a resolution of 1344×756 in docked mode and 960×540 portable with a mostly-stable 30FPS framerate (thanks to Digital Foundry for the numbers).

Those who played Monster Hunter World may find Rise to be a slight downgrade, with a few cutbacks if you go looking for them – for example, distance animation is lower-quality and shadows are far less impressive. However, given that this game is running on Nintendo’s underpowered Switch hardware, the quality and performance on display here is nothing short of spectacular. This is, without question, one of the best-looking games on Nintendo Switch.

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Hear Me Roar

While nowhere near as impressive as the visuals, the sound is decent, with some distinctive monster sounds, and characters who… well, despite how Asian-inspired this game’s visuals are, let’s just say it’s odd that so many of its people speak with the voice of a dudebro or valley girl. Add to that a cringe-worthy rhyming intro to each new area warning players about how “oooh, this area… well this area is suuuuuper-dangerous! I know I said that for the last half-dozen, but you really need to beware here!”. While I’m not usually one to play games with Japanese voices turned on, I kinda’ think that’s the preferable option here, just so I have a language barrier keeping me from hearing how cringe-worthy the voice acting is.

With the visuals having an Asian influence, so too does the music, with some nice vocal themes like the Title Screen theme (which doubles to show off the beautiful animation and character design of one of the characters singing said theme) and Brave Hunters. The game also has great high-intensity choral music that does a great job of making battles with monsters feel fittingly epic, like Proof of a Hero, Frost Island Theme, and Lava Caverns, Cold Blues, and Flaming Reds. All things considered, this game’s soundtrack does an excellent job of pairing with its visuals to make this a truly unique experience.

Okay, so it looks good and it sounds good, but how does it play?

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Re-Learning How To Hunt

Well, I’ll start by saying that the lessons learned in creating the massive worldwide success that was Monster Hunter World seem to have paid off here, because this is a much more streamlined experience than Generations. It’s still far from perfect – the tutorial here is better but not great, the gameplay feels more intuitive but is still a bit overly-complicated, the menus and inventory screens are similarly easier to understand but also feel overly-complicated. For players new to Monster Hunter, this will still prove to be an intimidating experience, but at least this time it’s not one that seems insurmountable.

I will say, as per series norm, the gameplay loop here is one that falls into a predictable, and somewhat repetitive pattern: Take a quest (usually hunting a specific large monster), wail on the monster a while to chip away at its health while avoiding its attacks until it flees, chase it to its new spot, and repeat until you either kill it or manage to trap it. Take the parts you earned to upgrade your equipment, then start the whole process over again. At times it can feel a bit tedious, like running through the motions, although mostly it still remains an enjoyable grind, especially in multiplayer.

It bears mention that you do get occasional quests that break up this game’s repetitive nature, such as the rampage quests that have you fighting off a horde of some of the game’s bigger, more impressive creatures using fixed weapon emplacements with mechanics that slightly resemble a Tower Defense game. These make for some of the more impressive moments in the game, and do a great deal to keep things interesting.

Of course, I can’t fail to mention one of the biggest ways that Monster Hunter: Rise is like Monster Hunter World – the large areas are now seamless rather than being a group of separate interconnected smaller areas, which makes chasing big monsters around the map feel far more immersive… but this game still isn’t quite the Open-World game I’m sure many players would like to see from this franchise.

Taking all of that in, Monster Hunter Rise clearly takes a lot of ideas that made Monster Hunter World great and uses them to improve the experience here as well. However, this game absolutely does not simply stick to a formula that’s “like Monster Hunter World, but for Switch”. Possibly the biggest change here is that Rise is all about giving players added mobility through two new helper animals – the wirebug, and the palamute.

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The Beauty of the Beasts

The wirebug acts as a grappling hook of sorts, allowing players to grapple onto a spot in mid-air. This maneuver can be performed multiple times in a row, and this opens up a world of options. Players can combine it with wall-running to zip up to a wall, jog up it a bit, jump away, and then zip back to jog up some more. The level of freedom this creates opens up new possibilities for traversal, where players are free to go anywhere within an area provided they can find a way to climb up it. A wall divides you from the place you want to go to? Grapple over it. Don’t want to walk back and forth up a winding path leading to a mountaintop? Use the wirebug to make your own shortcut.

Likely because of this, Monster Hunter Rise features some extremely vertical level design to really push players to make use of this new feature. Mountainous areas, rocky canyons, snowy ravines – the way the game gives players the freedom to go anywhere seems to have also given the game designers the freedom to create some areas with an incredible amount of personality like no prior game in the series.

The wirebug isn’t just used for traversal, either. During combat, players needing to make a quick exit can use it to quickly zip out of the way of an oncoming enemy, or alternately they can use it to make a speedy approach to a vulnerable enemy, to zip over an enemy to attack from behind, or to slam down on them using an airborne attack. And that’s just the wirebug’s use for movement – this handy critter can also make for some killer new ways to manipulate enemies.

One such way is by using the wirebug to tether an enemy in place, making them a sitting duck for your attacks or giving players a respite to heal wounds, if only for a very brief period of time. The other major addition here is wyvern riding, where players can use the wirebug like a rein to tether themselves on top of a massive monster and influence its movement, even having it attack another monster.

The other addition I mentioned, the doglike palamute, joins the catlike palico in being an assist character that can join the player in combat, can be equipped with its own set of craftable armor and weapons, and can help distract a massive enemy or be assigned to crowd control when smaller enemies swarm a battle.

However, the major addition palamutes bring to the table is being rideable, making traversal over the game’s massive areas a breeze. Palamutes also have some ability to climb, which players can pair with the wirebug to climb even farther up vertical spaces – climbing up a cliff face with a malamute, leaping away from the wall, jumping off the malamute in mid-air, then using a few wire-bugs and more wall-climbing to close the gap to the top. Players can leap off their palamute straight into combat, attacking in mid-air. Again, it’s all about giving players added maneuverability.

These two additions are so integral to the gameplay of Monster Hunter Rise, and make for such a huge improvement to the core gameplay, that I believe that any Monster Hunter game made from this point forward will need to include them, or else feel like a significant downgrade.

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Creature Features

Of course, one of the more noteworthy elements of a Monster Hunter game is the multiplayer gameplay, and Monster Hunter Rise delivers in this area about as well as could be expected. Players can get up to three friends or random strangers to join them in quests, although they’re limited in this capacity – the game’s “village quests” are specifically single-player only. The game does not feature voice chat, a common concession for Nintendo Switch games. But on the bright side the online lobbies are absolutely bustling with players, and any lag here seems largely minimal.

There are a few other Nintendo Switch features of note here – players who prefer gyroscopic motion controls for aiming will find this option available in the menus and working well. Also, Monster Hunter Rise features Amiibo functionality, with any Amiibo usable to gain random in-game use items, or Monster Hunter Rise-specific Amiibo to get exclusive armor sets.

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A Towering Behemoth

All told, what did I think of Monster Hunter: Rise? In many ways I feel like this game still bears many of the flaws that are just built into the DNA of this series. It’s overly-complicated, it’s repetitive and grindy, the tutorial could still use some polishing and improving, and there are clearly areas where it could stand to be improved further.

However, at the same time, this is a game that is a vast improvement over Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, and in some ways it even improves on Monster Hunter World. The wirebug and palamute are absolutely game-changers here, opening up a world of options both in traversal and combat. What’s more, this combines with the quality-of-life improvements this game brings over from Monster Hunter World to make it far easier for newer players to jump into this game and start enjoying – possibly more so than any prior game in the series. And it doesn’t hurt that this all comes with a phenomenal presentation that includes some of the best graphics to be found on Nintendo Switch.

In the end, its flaws and complexities mean that Monster Hunter: Rise still isn’t a game for everyone. More casual players will find it to be an intimidating game even with all the changes to make it more user-friendly. However, for players of moderate or advanced skill, this is a must-have game for Nintendo Switch. It’s a joy to hunt down massive monsters with friends in the game’s beautiful environments, upgrade your gear, and then see what new monsters you can challenge. Take it from someone who thought Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate was horribly overrated – Monster Hunter Rise deserves its hype.

tl;dr – Monster Hunter Rise is the first game in this Action-RPG series designed specifically for the Nintendo Switch, and it incorporates improvements made to the series in Monster Hunter World while adding the game-changing new wirebug and palamute to open up a world of new possibilities in traversal and combat. It’s also absolutely gorgeous, one of the best-looking games on Nintendo Switch, and it is an extremely rewarding experience with excellent online co-op play. It’s still a game that’s going to be intimidating for more casual players, and it still bears some of the common flaws of the series, but players who can push through those flaws will find this game to be a must-have on the console.

Grade: A

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Winner:

Game of the Year – I am still noticing little details in Monster Hunter Rise that make me love this game even more. Tiny little animations characters do in the background that most players would miss, tiny notes hidden throughout the game’s levels for players seeking them out, little details in the hunter journal for those looking to maximize their effectiveness. This is a game that has some incredible depth for those who seek it. Or, you can just find your favorite weapon and have an absolute blast fight-dodging your way through massive dinosaur-esque beast after massive dinosaur-esque beast.

After my massive disappointment in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, I openly noted my dread at going into Monster Hunter Rise. Ultimately, my fears would largely be unfounded – while Rise still bears some of the baked-in issues the series has long struggled with, it is clear that this game features improvements the series received in Monster Hunter World, making for a much more streamlined, user-friendly game.

However, do not for one second be fooled into thinking this game is a mere carbon copy of Monster Hunter World. Quite the contrary, the changes Rise makes to the series formula is such a massive improvement for the series that I cannot possibly see the Monster Hunter franchise continuing without them. The verticality that the wirebug and palamute add to traversal and combat open up the game in ways that make exploration an absolute joy. It doesn’t hurt that Rise has some of the most gorgeous graphics on the Nintendo Switch, an outstanding soundtrack, and some truly excellent online co-op multiplayer.

All of this adds up to a game that I think is truly the biggest, most impressive, most ambitious, and overall outright best game on the Nintendo Switch in 2021. While it’s a tough game and may not be a game everyone will appreciate, I think the majority of Nintendo Switch players, especially those who game online with friends, will consider this to be a must-have addition to the Nintendo Switch library.

Best Graphics – Multiple games on Nintendo Switch this year impressed graphically in different ways, but Monster Hunter Rise is the one game that really floored me with its beautiful, detailed environments, excellent animation, superb character designs, and its imaginative, fully-realized world. Everything from the mud, snow, and lava of your hunting grounds to the blossoming cherry trees of your hometown is rendered with exquisite detail here, as are the monsters you hunt and characters you encounter, all while maintaining solid framerates.

Best Action-RPG – Those who follow eShopperReviews will undoubtedly know that I was not fond of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. However, Monster Hunter Rise is something else entirely, bringing back to Nintendo Switch lessons that were learned in Monster Hunter World, and then building on them to make a truly great game that has a lot to offer in its own right, with the new wirebug and malamute bringing a whole new verticality to traversal and combat. The result is a game that is a joy to explore, to grind for resources, and to share with friends.

Runner-Up: Best Multiplayer

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