Monster Hunter Rise – A monster game?
There is a good hunter…
Therefore, Monster Hunter Rise is the final episode of the Monster Hunter saga and will come to Xbox Series XIS after the Switch in 2021 and PC in 2022. Its release on PC reassures me a bit, as the Switch version is just as beautiful, definitely less powerful and detailed. But power is nothing without craft, and this is a famous adage in the Monster Hunter series. The game, like Monster Hunter World, is coming to Xbox Game Pass, a good opportunity to reconnect with or explore the saga!
Excited!
In Monster Hunter Rise, we enter a world reminiscent of Japanese folklore, with haiku presentations, typography and the design of the village that welcomes you. Basically, it’s a bit of the same old story: the village (and the world) is in danger because giant monsters are going crazy! So we’ll have to pacify them with swords! You don’t come to MHR for the script, but I enjoyed the village atmosphere, the music is also very pleasant and that’s the nice part. For example, country music is very soothing, and in battle, music has something to give us potatoes! On the other hand, it’s true that quests, missions and all… Finding your way is often confusing (especially at the beginning) and you wonder if what you’re doing really has an impact sometimes. Especially since the product quests… This isn’t Monster Collector… We want monsters. On the other hand, I appreciated the exploration mode, where you can enjoy the scenery as you like. Less detailed than MH World, but nice.
I touched my heart, you are under my skin!
Visually, it’s not as stunning as Monster Hunter World of its era: not as much detail, vegetation, jungle animations. It’s a little rough here. The advantage is that if MHW spends a lot of time playing with scenery, MHR will focus on one thing: action!
Action is the salt of battle against giant monsters. Here you have a man-to-man fight and attack and aggression are important things to be a good hunter. Of course, you need to prepare your armor and weapons in advance, but at the heart of the battle will be a good dose of adrenaline and action. And we can say that Monster Hunter Rise does it very well. We cannot say that the game will put us to sleep. Here you can enjoy great hunts alone or with others. Indeed, we will be there to do our solo and adult hunts in the countryside. We will go to create a group in the guild, ask for help or join the hunt. The hub is great and we connect to hunts very fast. Budding hunters respond well and I’ve had some memorable hunts with glorious strangers on the job. Rarely did my hunters go west or forage. So much so that I often had sessions where I left solo to enjoy the epic atmosphere of multiplayer hunts.
A fine weapon approved by the editors of XboxOrNot!
Action is therefore at the heart of this piece, and we have it thanks to Firebugs, who allow for more frenetic, crazy action while also giving us stylish combat moves. With this fist and our “acolytes” we get even more angry. We’ll be going solo to take advantage of our two hunting companions, and if I’ve said a lot of good things about multiplayer, I have to admit that solo isn’t far behind. So your hunter is accompanied by his mischievous Palico (cat) and loyal Palamute (dog), and they’re not there for decoration. If we used to know our kittens by their actions, now we have dogs to allow us to follow them on the hunting ground and make interesting attacks. We will also be able to control certain monsters with our bugs. The gameplay on monsters is quite tough, but it brings some freshness during big battles with several monsters.
Well, next you’ll need to skin this big monster!
A good hunter has good tools. For weapons, we find 14 known weapons of the saga. I won’t detail the minor changes, but overall we’re up. For the “samurai” side of this piece, I played a lot with the longsword in the beginning, and the actions given by the Firebugs reinforced that samurai side. But I’ve looked at other guns and for fun I use a different gun for my solo hunts and multi hunts. Lately I’ve been abusing the solo spear to play as a tank, and the bow in multiplayer to fufu from a distance without having to worry about ammo. Two “easy” weapons to pick up and super fun to master. For those who want to master it straight away, you still have other weapons like the Insect Glaive, which takes longer to start up, but can be formidable once mastered.
Therefore, Monster Hunter Rise is an action-packed episode, and its very mythic Asian setting has something to seduce. It’s not the prettiest game, but it makes up for it with its action and availability on Xbox Game Pass.
What a spoiler!
