Jump to content
passwords have all been force reset. please recover password to reset ×
MFGamers

Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak


HandsomeDead
 Share

Recommended Posts

It's difficult to talk about this game here since we don't have many Monster Hunters here.  There are many nuances that are different to previous games; are they better? at this point I'm undecided.  Some ways yes and others no.

 

I dunno how to talk about MH to you guys.  Just sack off whatever mediocre shit your playing now and get into this.

Fuck your story based games.  They're not good: play a few hours of this then watch something from the Criterion Collection.  You'll be better for it.

 

The weapon types are made in a way where you need to sink serious time into them and defeat the enemy types optimally.  There's true satisfaction in that.  

The variety of play is so broad and also has so much depth.  How ever you prefer to play you're covered, unless you're a stealth pacifist type then either get eaten or disappoint your comrades.

 

But this has been the case this whole time with MH.  I can't help you if you're not cool enough to be into it.  And I'm sympethetic; I'm also a relative newcomer, but I saw the error of my ways and I hate to see people making the same mistake I did.

 

This is a hard follow up to MH World and not only because of the obvious technical limitations, although a shift in gameplay and level design make up for it since the mobility options make every inch of the map explorable.  But I will say that the ground, intuitive routes feel like classic MH so when you start to fuck around with your mobility for a moment it feels like a whole new world is opening up to you.  It's so smart.

 

We're here to fight monsters, though.  And that's great.  Always has been.  But what Rise does different is okay.  I just say that because the big drama mechanic is mounting monsters and taking control of them, which is really cool to do, but it's rarer, and less immediate than what you can do in Iceborne with the clutch claw.  

It just feels a bit weird this lesser console having a mechanic (which is literally having control of a monster) more advanced but it just doesn't feel as good as just being able to slam them into a wall from the position you mount them.

 

But there is also a lacking in drama to the gameplay compared to MH World.  It's not so lacking it feels like Dauntless, there is definitely more gameplay driven drama here, no doubt.  And I can't stress that enough.  I guess it just lacks the flourishes I got used to.

 

I always feel like I gotta be more down on something I'm actually hugely enjoying.  I'm just countering strawmen in my head.  But I'm super enjoying it overall.  I would talk more about how the bugs you control give you mobility but I've still not got used to them despite being 15 hours in.  I've been doing okay but that new mechanic has a lot of depth I've not been able to figure out yet.  Early on you can play like an old idiot and get away with it.

But one of the last fights I had was against the new, flagship beast and his fight is clearly designed with high mobility in mind so I guess I gotta work on that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's so hard to make money in this game it feels too real.  I hate it.

 

I'm pretty sure I've talked to everyone in the hub and gone through all the menus and I can't seem to find extra ways to make money.  I wish I'd realised this sooner because I've been making it rain at the weapon shop making an arsenal of different elemental and status weapons.  And it's a respectable arsenal but now I have no money for armour.  I have a lot of parts but the smithy needs paid, too.

 

I'm now fighting some hard high rank monsters and I am getting wrecked.  Just losing three quarter health from a hit.  It's not ideal.

 

So don't spend all your money at once, kids.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what it's worth I had an okay time with Monster Hunter Tri (3) on Wii, which I played solo. The big monster hunting was quite fun, but the repetition of hacking lower level things for drops for crafting was rather irksome. Not really a series I'd go back to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dealing with repetition is something you have to deal with yourself.  For example I don't hunt the same monster back to back, although I know others who do treat it as a farm.  I know if I did do that I'd get sick of it too.

 

It can be intimidating to do but I'd also recommend learning two or three weapon types because some of them are like playing different games, even when fighting the same monster in the more extreme cases, like using a bow is not the same as a sword and shield, and they're all really robust.

 

 

I'd also say there is a facade or a smokescreen of variety in a lot of games that, personally, I'm getting a bit too decencitised to and get more out of systems based games than more traditional ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, shinymcshine said:

For what it's worth I had an okay time with Monster Hunter Tri (3) on Wii, which I played solo. The big monster hunting was quite fun, but the repetition of hacking lower level things for drops for crafting was rather irksome. Not really a series I'd go back to.

 

It's a weird game to find your own rhythm for sure. I've only dabbled in demos before Rise but decided to pick this one up. When I'm playing it, half the time I keep asking myself what all the fuzz is about. But when I turn off the console I kind of want to turn it back on and play a bit more. I've yet to find a weapon that pleases me, I feel like the cool stuff is cumbersome while the quicker options are underwhelming. At least I've enjoyed my time in the hub area, very nice visual design and some excellent music choices that vary from area to area.

 

In any case I doubt I'll get into it really hardcore like some people, I'll probably just play through this solo like a causal and move on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I just saw the credits, which considering that it continues as usually afterwards feels like they just randomly sprinkled them in between two quests. The cover monster was a massive difficulty spike as the game basically went from walk in the park to "I hit you with 80% damage combos" from one mission to the next. 

 

My initial feelings towards this haven't changed much. There are moments where I really enjoy it followed by situations where I feel my mind drifting towards other stuff (will they release Rose for SFV tomorrow?!?). One thing that bothers me a little is how some of its complexities only seem to be there for complexity's sake. I really don't see the point of having to eat a meal before a mission to max out your health and stamina bars for example. Why aren't they at 100% on default? I also couldn't for the life of me figure out how to use certain coatings when using the bow, even after making sure I have them in my inventory and that my bow is compatible with them. Intuitive, this is not. But then again it took me approximately 1000 arrows to kill a monster with it so I doubt I'll ever use that weapon again anyway.

 

On the other hand the different locations are pretty nice and traversal is extremely fun, to the point where I'm wondering how people were able to enjoy the earlier games without the wirebug.

 

So, yeah, mixed bag and I don't see that changing anytime soon. But then again this was always just a stopgap for me until the other, more interesting Monster Hunter game arrives, which I'm very much looking forward to with some additional franchise experience under my belt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say I'm at the point I've seen everything now and just waiting for event content or however they do ongoing stuff.

The final monster is definitely a good one, I probably like that fight more than previous ones.

 

I've talked about Rampage mode yet since I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first but after doing it a few times I think I do like it.  You usually get something like this in MH games like in World it's the Zora Magdaros fight where you end up using very different mechanics to defeat them.

Rampage is a bit smaller scale than that but I think it makes good use of these other mechanics.  It's basically tower defense where you use ballistas and cannons to push back a wave of monsters with the option to set off a gong that gives you a big attack boost.

 

There's limits and cooldowns attached to these things and it's pretty well thought out.  It's maybe a little too easy as even doing the hardest variations rarely end in failing.  You just have to use a little common sense to win, which I suppose is good when you're playing with randoms with little communication.  I can forsee a harder version added eventually and right now it seems like could facilitate a harder version.

Its pretty fun as is right now and I don't mind you have to play this mode for one of the monsters and Apex variants of some monsters.  Though Apex Rathian does seem to basically be Gold Rathian from Iceborne.

 

 

Rise does have a different endgame to World and I'm not sure I like it as much, though I do appreciate it's less random, you do end up doing some more same-y stuff.

In World it was about doing tempered monster hunt where you were rewarded with random stat changing gems, but here you craft them.  It does mean you can focus on crafting specific gems but the investigation hunts in World had slightly different properties to them (whether it be the time limit, other monsters, area it takes place) so it didn't feel as repetitive.  But then it could take an age to get what you want if RNG isn't in your favour, though other rewards still made it worthwhile.

 

It could use some tweaking.  I think adding a similar investigation system would help, not rewarding you with gems, but something that mixes up the fights more.  I generally think they were a great addition to World.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After 40-ish hours with this game I finally got a more or less decent "kill-shot" after completing a quest:

 

EzB5uzSVIAQk3ft.jpeg

 

Up to this point they've always been really bad, like me being dizzy while my dog kills the monster, or me clipping through the monster while its face takes up 80% of the screen or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Yesterday they dropped the first big update.  Quite a few additional monsters are in now.  Teostra and Kushala Daora return from World and Chemeleos who is new to me since it's been a while since it's been in a game.  Oh, and Bazelgeuse was stealthily added too.  And two Apex variants with Rathalos and Diablos.

 

Which is a surprising amount.

 

I was a bit worried about Kushala as it's a pain of a fight in Iceborne, and in a way that wasn't so fun, so it's nice to see it's been balanced in a way that makes it less of a pain.  Teostra is largely the same but it was always one of the better more challenging fights.

 

There's still not much of an endgame here but if this update is representative of what's to come then cool but I'm a little concerned about Apex monsters because they are visually different and have different moves to regular variants so they require more work than the Tempered monsters from world but they're coming out slower, as much as they are more interesting to fight.

It's hard to see how good the fights are in Rampage mode since they do take place in a small area but the ones that were in from the start can now be fought normally.  And it's here I discovered Apex Mitzutsune is no joke when it has room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
  • 5 months later...
  • 5 months later...

I've been hitting Sunbreak pretty hard since it released, no need to go into how long specifically 😶 

 

There will be SPOILERS in this post.

 

But I'm in the end game and finished the story and I suppose I have thoughts.  So I'll focus on what's new; there are two new areas (one is from MH2 but I've not played that one so it's new to me) and they're pretty good and there are returning monsters and totally new ones which are interesting.  I like the monsters they call The Three Lords which are based on Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and the Werewolf and I especially like the werewolf-like Lunagaron, it seems like it's going to be similar to Odogaron from World but then it buffs up and stands on it's hind legs and becomes are different beast, it's cool.  There are some new variations of previous monsters and they're fine but they're always variations of monsters that would never drop what I needed so I have so I have this bad impression of them, like do I wanna fight a fire version of Almudron who doesn't drop it's Mantle that I need for my Bow and fought tons already? I guess I will but I'm not excited about it.  In fact it's already happening again with Lunagaron, I need it's rare piece for the helmet armour piece (and bow funnily enough) but it refuses to drop 🙃

But that's just the MH life at times.

 

The last boss is fine, you always have a big f'ing dragon at the end it's probably better than the one in vanilla MHW but not as good as the one in Iceborne, but the end boss in Vanilla Rise that isn't just a big f'ing dragon is still a more interesting fight IMHO (but the Sunbreak version is harder and doesn't let you get away with as much nonsense 😟).  Oh, and they brought back Furious Rajang and... just fuck Rajang generally but especially fuck that variation.  The lore with it is a Rajang's tail can be hit while it's wilding out to get it out of that state but Furious Rajang got it's tail removed so is always wilding out and has more attacks still and its just... Its just never chill, I hate it.

 

Skill Swapping!  That's a thing now too.  Before you had to pick skills before you go into a hunt but now you can take most of your skills with you and switch between them in the game.  It's very cool in theory but I am a creature of habit and I have my way and I stick to it.  I feel pretty bad about it as I can definitely see it making the fights more dynamic but I'm boring.  Maybe I'll get to the point I'll experiment with it but now I'm just trying to survive out there.  Even though there is an ability that turns the switch skill animation 

into a parry which sounds really cool but also a good way to get rekt when buggering it up.  I don't think I've ever been good at the parrying mechanics in MH.

 

Finally there are the anomaly quests which seems to be the main endgame content.  They're similar to the tempered monsters from MHW in a sense in that they have a lot more HP and for lore reasons go into Bloodlust(?) mode which make them stronger and faster, and also infect you with bloodlust when hit with a physical move.  While you're in that state you gain health back from hits but your healing items are only half as effective so things can get hectic (I don't know for sure but I'm suspicious of monsters getting health back from hitting you, it must be that, sometimes they just refuse to die).  Doing these gives you the materials you need to get the really good weapons and you gotta have the good stuff, right

 

 

So It's just more Rise, really.  I think the endgame is potentially stronger than before which is good as that was it's weakest part but the attacks monsters do have been tweaked and new ones added that make it more dynamic on their end to as well as the skill swapping and such.  There's also a bunch of single player stuff where an AI controlled character or two goes with you and they're fine, kinda impressive at times actually, but you still do the carrying and sometimes I want to be carried so I'll stick to the regular way of playing.

Monster Hunter is still a reliably good time.  Nice to have that constant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HandsomeDead changed the title to Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak
  • 4 months later...

It's more self explanatory than previous versions so there's that.  Just find a weapon you're having fun with and play around.  Don't worry about learning everything until you're ready as playing simply works well enough early on and just make sure you pick up all resources and it'll become clear what they're used for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...