Monster Hunter Rise | Nintendo Switch Review

I have a lot of great memories from a lot of great games, but none stand out in my mind as much as the Monster Hunter line up. 2004 saw the release of the first Monster Hunter and Capcom saw the start of what would become a World wide hit. Me? Well, I saw countless hours hunting, gathering, and carving my way through most of the titles. Almost 20 years after the first release, Monster Hunter is still challenging hunters to draw their weapons and forge their place among the ranks. With the new installment, Monster Hunter Rise, on the Nintendo Switch we are asked again, will we become the hunter or the hunted?

New Faces

Monster Hunter Rise introduces us to Kamura Village, where not all is well. As a new hunter in the town, you are walked through some of the finer points of the hunt, while signs of an impending disaster begin to loom over the village. With new friends and teammates, you set out to face this disaster head on. Learning all you can about new monsters, tools, and abilities will help you gain strength to overcome the growing challenges around Kamura. If you’ve played Monster Hunter before you might see the same formula as many other games in the series, but don’t worry if this is your first time. While monsters from other games make appearances, plot points and characters from other games do not. So there are no story elements missing from not playing other titles, just missing experience.  

Climbing the Ranks

Along with a familiar story comes a familiar progression. Major plot points come out as you complete Urgent Quests, which also opens up new quests and usually new ways of hunting. While quests can be anything from hunting pigs, collecting eggs, or repelling an elder dragon bent on burninating all of your peoples, quests have been split up by difficulty into different levels of starred quests. Each level has Key Quests that need to be done before the Urgent Quest can be attempted. In previous games the Key Quests were not marked, making you wonder if you have to fight the angry T-Rex with wings, but Rise assures you, yes you have to fight the overgrown electric Nightstalker.

Once the Key and Urgent Quests are done you can try your hand at a new level of starred quests. Personally, I’m happy that they went back to this method after having every Urgent quest available one after another in Monster Hunter World. I was waiting for the “go do other things, I’ll tell you when I’m ready” line games tell you so you spend time doing something other than the storyline, but before I knew it I was half way done and outclassed.

We’re Gonna Need Bigger Guns

Bigger is always better, unless its teeth, claws, or the size of that tail that is about to remind you why you wear armor. As you progress and get higher and higher in the ranks, you will find that the monsters become stronger and more numerous. Stronger monsters mean stronger gear, yes , but because the rewards are the monster’s materials rather than just loot, you are only as strong as the meanest thing you can hunt multiple times. The armor you get from different monsters have different traits and resistances, meaning reinforcing your armor against fire could weaken you to another element.

Armor isn’t the only thing affected; weapons lash out with different statuses or elements, even sharpness or type of bullets is influenced by the creature it is made of. You will also get new abilities that might help you deal with earlier problems or mistakenly put yourself in the path of a new threat. The new Wire Bugs are a testament to this helping hunters move through the air more easily and use surprising attacks. What seems to be a trivial addition to movement can turn the tables when used at the right times. In the end, it is about preparedness and experience working together to balance the pros and cons of different armor and weapons as you face creatures from all different environments and abilities.

Bring on the New

When it comes to games, I’m not the first to say a game is great or not because of storylines or how well the game looks. Instead I look at how well the game works within itself and how frustrating the game is or can be. I said before I’m a big fan of Monster Hunter and maybe it’s just me, but I feel like training wheels for new players came with Monster Hunter World and only got worse with Rise. 

Let us just start with the good and work our way down. Like World, Rise has no loading screens while on a hunt to allow for quick access to multiple areas of the map. The previously mentioned Wire Bugs and the new Palamutes (hunting dogs) are great ways to move even faster around the map while in and out of a fight. Mounting the Palamutes is a great feeling; riding into battle or chasing down resources all while letting you eat, heal, and collect. Wire Bugs give most weapons two extra abilities, either an extra dodge or a strong attack or any combination. With the weapons holstered, the Wire Bugs give the hunter a boost to jumping distance or speed.

I fell into a group not too long ago that was comparing the Monster Hunter series to the Dark Souls series. How difficult the two series can be and how rewarding it felt when finally overcoming that challenge and gearing up for the next. I felt that World dumbed it down with the changes they made to crafting, gathering, armor, and the addition of the scout flies. Rise takes it one step farther. Scout Flies are not needed as the monster is always shown on the mini map. Most of the maps are single level or are not very complex to navigate and with as fast as you can move, I haven’t had a hunt last more than 15 minutes. Even offline, there are plenty of openings to get out of danger thanks mostly to the Palamutes and some of the Wire Bug actions. It is less of a hunt and more of a grudge match and, in my opinion, the game feels more like Dauntless than Monster Hunter. Then again, I see it from a long time player standpoint and maybe this is what new or younger players need to get into the series.

Fresh Meat

If you are looking to jump into Monster Hunter to see if it is for you, there really is no better place to start. With its short quests, tutorials, and all around player-friendly gameplay, much like World, you can step in, learn something new, step out and come back to it later. All the weapons have a combo list to help learn each one’s strengths and weaknesses, and while swinging a sword around like you’re promoting a carwash is fun, it won’t always get the job done. There is a training ground just in case you do find that special weapon and you just need to get that cool move you did that one time down. Plus the game has built-in explanations about most things so you don’t have to search the web for answers.

Quest Complete

All in all, I still love and play the newer Monster Hunters and Monster Hunter: Rise is no different. I do wish that there was more of a challenge at certain points and more of what made the games great for me in earlier titles, but there are a lot of changes that just make the game stand out and more user friendly. I spent most of my life playing these games and have bought consoles solely for Monster Hunter and will continue to do so because, like most players, there is that one game that speaks to you in all the right ways and this series has done that again and again. So, what do you say? Will you Rise to the occasion and join the hunt?

Fun Fact: Monster Hunter is so popular in Japan it has its own theme park! 

This review is based on a purchased copy of Monster Hunter Rise on Nintendo Switch. It’s exclusive to that platform.