The announcement of a new Monster Hunter title came as a complete surprise last September when it was revealed for Nintendo Switch. Although Monster Hunter World proved to be the best selling in the series, fans were still eager to see if it would get a return to handheld platforms. It was finally unveiled and with it brought a whole slew of new additions that fans were extremely eager to try out. Finally the demo released earlier this month, and Monster Hunter Rise is shaping up to be one of the best-feeling entries in the series.
When it comes to Monster Hunter, the largest draw by far is its combat. Fighting tons of giant monsters with a variety of weapons, improving one’s skills as new monsters make debuts and create brand new fights that need to be figured out. Previously the most innovative title in the series wasMonster Hunter 4, which added an emphasis on verticality and the ability to both use aerial attacks and mount monsters.Monster Hunter Worldwould go on to improve this with better weapon controls, the open area maps and even more ways to traverse them besides simply running and climbing. Monster Hunter Rise, on the other hand, has taken all of these things into account and managed to create one of the most fluid movement across the series both in and out of combat. It accomplishes this with two things: the wirebug and the Palamute.
The Palamute featured at the beginning of the trailer announcing Monster Hunter Rise acts as a mode of transportation and combat helper. For the first time ever players in a 4-person party can all choose a companion to come with them, whether it be Palico or Palamute. The canyne companions are often the more convenient between the two, as they allow for extremely fast travel without the cost of stamina. They also allow players to use certain items while riding and are free to control.Iceborneattempted a similar concept, by riding on small monsters found in map areas, but they only followed a trail and couldn’t be further controlled. Palamutes also attack monsters and can even be mounted mid-battle to allow for many ways to avoid enemies while healing or sharpening one’s weapon while on the move. They’re also capable of climbing certain kinds of walls, but not all, which is where the wirebug comes into use.
The wirebug is perhaps the largest change to Rise and one of the most fun as well. The wirebug is an assistant the hunter uses both for traversal and in combat. By using a strong silk these bugs producer, hunters can launch themselves across the ground or into the air as long as one is available. If a hunter runs into a wall and has enough stamina, they’re able to climb up until their stamina depletes. Palamutes may be able to climb certain walls, but hunters with enough stamina can keep climbing until they reach the highest peaks of the area using wirebugs at their disposal. In combat hunters can use wirebugs to perform silkbind attacks which differ based on the individual weapons. Some of these are straight attacks that do massive damage if they land, others offer buffs and some act as counters if the hunter times it when about to get hit. These consume 1 or 2 wirebugs depending on the silkbind move so they can’t be infinitely spammed, but are a fantastic way to add to combat. Especially when taking into consideration that traditional mounting is gone entirely and instead silkbind attacks can help lead into the brand new wyvern riding.
Wyvern riding debuted in the most recent trailer that launched this month before the demo was announced. In previous titles mounting was achieved by jumping and attacking monsters through aerial attacks. This allowed players to hop on the monsters back, attack them for a short period of time and knock them over to allow a hunter and their allies to attack the wounded beast. Now that’s gone entirely in favor for wyvern riding, which is a huge improvement over previous iterations. After enough silkbind or normal aerial attacks have been hit on the monster it will enter a stunned state where it can be grabbed using the wirebug silk. This allows a hunter to chain themselves to the beast and completely control them. From there they can do attacks, evade and even ram the monster into walls for damage. This is limited by time which depletes at a good pace, but wyvern riding isn’t just about the monster currently being fought either. Much like in previous entries, monsters will occasionally run into one another during a fight. In Rise these monsters are much more likely to attack one another, which quickly puts them in a state ready for riding. Monsters can be controlled to attack one another, which fills up a gauge at the bottom when successful hits are landed. Once charged the monster can unleash a strong attack, leading to the other being knocked down. If a monster is instead knocked out by ramming into the wall, it will in turn be temporarily tied to the ground where it thrashes until it can escape. This new type of mounting is not only more engaging and enjoyable, but just more engaging than just stabbing the monster’s back as previous versions had. The only downside is its easy to run over allies when riding, so it’s a good idea to step back or steer clear when near others.
While not much can be said yet about the story through a simple combat demo, we do see the usual trickling or lore the Monster Hunter series likes to leave in many of its maps. The Shrine Ruins was available for play and ended up being more than enough to explore and get a grasp for how the other maps are likely to work. The maps aren’t too large that it sometimes feels overwhelming nor was the Shrine Ruins so vertical that it felt like taking forever to chase one down. Hunters also now have an owl companion called a Cohoot which upon entering a quest will give a complete rundown of the area, including monster locations available at all times. World introduced the concept of endemic life, which were small creatures players could capture with nets to use in decorating their homes back at camp. Now endemic life actually plays a role in combat with many giving buffs to hunters or debuffs to monsters. This gives exploration a whole new meaning as well since it’s often worthwhile to go off the beaten path to grab some along the way to a monster to be fully prepared for a fight.
For many, Monster Hunter Rise is the handheld title that fans had been hoping for. Despite not being on next-gen consoles, Rise is pushing the series forward with grand new ideas and massive improvements on the previous entry. While the demo was purely based around the core combat, it gave a perfect insight for older players on what to expect going into the full title. Obviously we won’t get a better look at the village mechanics or the mysterious rampage that has been teased until later, but right now Monster Hunter Rise is becoming an almost painful wait for its release on March 26.
