First Impressions: Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Rise has got to be the most fun I’ve had with a game in a while. Now I’m not well versed in the Monster Hunter genre, seeing as this is only my second game thoroughly played through. Monster Hunter World (MHW) was why frosty official jump into the series. Only thing that held me back from getting into it previously was that it was limited to the handhelds only with the Nintendo DS. It was too much happening and the controls just wasn’t appealing to me. So I stayed away from it. MHW took it to another level as well as accessibility, by bringing it to consoles. The controls just worked and not staring into a small screen definitely helped, slaying a Elder Dragon in HD on a 75” TV makes a big difference.

Fast forward 3 years later after the massive success of MHW. We now have Monster Hunter Rise (MHR), but this time instead of multi-platform, it is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. It is by far the most beautiful game played on that system so far. From the title screen along, I sat there about 10 mins just captivated by the song and vibes. If you know by now, I love me some video game soundtracks. They stay in heavy rotation on my playlists. Afterwards I go into character creation mode. I now spend about 1 hour or so making my character. Seeing as I just finished up Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, I decide to create mine in honor of Urbosa, best girl of course. I am quite pleased with how she turned out. I finally get into the game, and yes many may say this one may be the “easiest’ of the series, for veterans. I appreciate the fact that it feels like a proper introduction to those who may have never played before. It is fast paced. The visuals never drop or stutter in frame rates regardless of what’s happening on screen, for a system that gets a lot of flack for not being “next gen” enough. It runs a lot better than some AAA games. (side eye to cyberpunk 20777)

Of course the shining moment of this game and the series as whole come from playing with friends. This title definitely wins here. The online play is seamless. You get rewarded well. Even if you are just doing the quests for the first time. If your friends are ahead and helping you out to catch up in ranks they reap some good things too. Its really a win-win for everyone. Finding your best choice weapon out of 14 and countless skills is great. Find the build you want to go with your character and get to carving out monsters to create the best looking warrior and do it all over again. This has been such a fun ride so far and I haven’t even finished the main campaign yet. With new content on the way in the form of new monsters and such, I’m really excited to keep this going.

If you are still on the fence for this series, give the free demo a try. I’m not the expert here, but I’m having a blast. Enjoying good games is what I love, and so should you.

Lucid OmniJack