Welcome back to monster hunter rise and i figured dedicate some time to address the complete newcomers to the franchise with the overwhelming success that we've had with monster hunter world.
I think, it is inevitable that a lot of players are going to be starting their hunting careers with monster hunter rise. For those players might seem, maybe a little bit too technical.
I like really just getting down to the nitty-gritty of things. There's a lot of people that might be starting fresh with monster hunter rise.
For you guys i figured this will be a good introduction with me, introducing you to some of the mechanics what we find appealing about this game is that you have a better understanding going into it because despite what you might think most people end up not really liking monster hunter the very first time that they play it.
When i initially started playing monster hunter try, i hated it. I thought the game was terrible and as a matter of fact it took me a good long while of playing monster hunter freedom unite with a friend to really understand what was the appeal of this game and what were the things that people found so interesting about monster hunter.
Hopefully by reading this article, you get a better understanding of that. Let's start at the very beginning and talk about the gameplay loop of monster hunter why is it that so many people choose to pour so many hours into this game.
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Luckily it's a fairly easy explanation when you start any monster hunter game, you're going to have a hunter who is assigned to a specific village in the universe of monster hunter.
Usually your job is going to be to preserve the balance between your fellow villagers and nature. Sometimes this means that if there's a monster who is becoming a huge threat to the surrounding ecosystem or the village itself.
You'll have to go out and take out that monster. But, ultimately everything that you do is done in the name of balance despite what some websites would have you believe that we're basically murder hobos that run around killing everything with a pulse.
Now the gameplay loop itself is going to involve. You as the hunter going and hunting a monster and then carving him for parts, bringing those parts back to the village, and crafting new weapons and armor which then enable you to take on tougher monsters and repeat at infinite.
That sounds pretty repetitive, why what is so special about this that people keep coming back for more and the reasoning is the attention to detail that the developers place both in the monsters as well as the design of the armors and the weapons which are quite simply gorgeous like these monsters.
Usually all have specific things about their design that reference real life situations then that even make some kind of sense like the an easy example that comes to mind is there's a monster called the royal ludwrath which has been confirmed for monster hunter.
Basically every creature have different element. If you have to face water element base, actually in the water whenever you are fighting him, monster usually on land so therefore what how does he survive on land if he's supposed to be on water.
Is actually something that he uses to absorb water so that when he comes out of the water that is you know sustaining him pretty much every single monster in monster hunter has logic attention to detail and then another really cool aspect of it is that whenever you kill one of these monsters and you make his armor and you make his weapon you can see that monster being reflected in that piece of gear and that is one of the main reasons why people really enjoy going through this loop.
It's basically a lot of people compare it to a boss rush. I really don't think that does it justice because when you think of bosses, you think of an arena.
In monster hunter you're actually hunting the monster so there is usually a large map that you will do combat in and will be phases to your hunt like you'll begin you'll engage the monster.
The monster might feel like you have the upper hand and then you'll run away. You'll have to chase after him and then a number of things can happen while you are doing basically the the gameplay itself.
Is why people keep coming back the the feeling of hunting these monsters. Is something that people greatly enjoy. So i figure that one of the important things to talk about next is obviously the combat.
COMBAT GAMEPLAY
Combat system in monster hunter is a deliberate type of combat this is not the combat that you're constantly canceling animations out of spam dodging or anything like that.
Even though this is action combat every single weapon in this game has a certain amount of animation commitment to it. Which provides it with a certain amount of weight which is one of the reasons why one of the biggest complaints that you hear players say the very first time that they play a monster hunter game is that the combat feels clunky.
That clunkiness that people complain about is the fact that they have to commit to animations whenever they attack a monster. You have to aim the attack that you are doing. You have to make sure that the attack is going to land and you have to weigh out whether or not it's a good time to attack.
Because the monster might counter attack you and hit you. I am very complained of this and most hunter tried the very first time that I played, i'm like dude.
This is weird, i can't fight monsters keep interrupting everything that i do. I can't hit them. This is weird, this is really weird and it's like the combat of monster hunter is actually one of its strongest aspects and it's going to take some time for most people to truly understand that.
Because even in what i would consider to be its most forgiving iteration which was monster hunter world. I still saw several comments from people saying that the combat felt clunky and this is the combat itself is not clunky.
The people that are saying the combat feels clunky is because they've never experienced the combat of monster hunter before. Because if you go and you watch someone that has played the game before, you'll see them playing the combat looks incredibly fluid the way that they just go through a monster and destroy the monster.
It just seems like it flows really well and that clunkiness that people complain about is precisely what enables that type of gameplay the animation commitment both from yourself and the monster is what enables you to achieve that level of action.
It's almost like a chess game in some way and i know that some of the more veteran monstrous players will hear that quote and be like chess game.
It really is because you have to look at the patterns of the monster. You can't just go up to the monster and starts hacking and slashing away like a madman. This is not the game for that your attacks have to be deliberate and you have to calculate them in a way that you can actually achieve certain impacts. Because when you get good enough in this game, you'll be able to predict when the monsters are going to get stunned.
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You'll be able to predict when you are going to stagger a monster out of a certain animation. So that you can attack him while he's attacking you. You can break his attack, you'll be able to predict these things, because of that deliberate combat.
It's not clunk, it's quite simply unique and it requires mastery. But when you master it it is one of the most rewarding combat systems that you will have seen in any video game regardless of the comments that you will often see from new players of it being clunky. So just think about that and practice it.
WEAPON
There's 14 weapons in monster hunter rise, if you're talking about generations ultimate. because there is also the option of playing as a prowler. However i don't believe that is going to be an option in rise on our eyes at least from all of the materials that they've shown us so far.
We haven't really seen prowler combat. Maybe they will add it, who knows maybe it'll be a surprise. But as of right now we quite simply don't know.
There's 14 weapons and i'm not going to be talking about each individual weapon. Because the easiest way for you to choose your weapon. Is to basically try it out now. There's a demo right now on a switch in case you want to you know if you're considering getting onto monster hunter rise.
I believe that the demo is still available for people to download and try out. You'll be able to test out all 14 weapons to get a general feel for them now. Some of the move sets of those weapons are going to change.
Because this has been talked about in trailers. The essence of each weapon is usually present whenever you are playing that specific weapon and even though there are certain things that change the feel of the weapon what is the most important thing for you to really understand.
You get to make your choice and some people will tell you. But you shouldn't really dedicate yourself just to one weapon.
Because you know certain weapons are better against certain monsters and all of that yes that's all well and good. But if you're just getting started, it's a good idea to choose one weapon which is the one weapon that you kind of fall back on the weapon that you feel like you enjoy the most and that you feel the most comfortable playing with, and then you can focus on mastering different weapons in the future.
But to get you started to get your foot in the door and remember that this article is intended for completely new players i would advise you to basically play all of the weapons that are available in the demo and figure out you know this weapon felt a little bit better than the other one. Pick that weapon up and go again and again and when you eventually get the game.
If you are getting the game start with that weapon and you know get a couple of hunts under your belt with it. So that you actually start developing muscle memory and so on this is something that i would advise every new player to do.
Pick up a weapon that you feel is good for you after you've tried all of them. But there's a lot more depth to monster hunter than simply picking up a weapon and beating the crap out of a monster.
LAYER OF SIMULATION
There are certain elements that provide us with almost a layer of simulation in the game. Even though this is not like real simulation, these are just things that i consider contribute a lot more to the immersion of this being a hunt.
Not simply a boss fight. So for instance your character is going to have health and stamina and whenever you perform certain actions your stamina gets used. After you've been for a certain time in a hunt, your stamina the maximum amount of stamina that you have is going to diminish and at that point you're going to have to eat something your hunter has to actually eat either a ration or a well-done steak in order to recover some of that missing stamina and just like that.
There are other elements your weapon as you continuously attack the monster is going to become blunt. it's going to lose its sharpness and therefore you're going to be required to sharpen your weapon while you are hunting the monster.
These things are elements that require a certain layer of preparation and you're going to have to gather some of these consumables yourself in order to be able to take on these hunts.
The more challenging the hunt is the more of these consumables you are going to need. Whenever you are out in the hunt, you might keep an eye out if you happen to spot an herb. You might want to pick that up. Because you usually use herbs, you can convert them into potions which then you can you know heal yourself by drinking.
CRAFTING AND GATHERING MATERIAL
Those potions there's also other things like honey you can combine herbs and honey through a crafting menu. You can do this pretty much anywhere.
This allows you to make a stronger potion and they're just like that. There are a ton of other items that you will be able to craft. You'll be able to craft barrel bombs to blow up monsters, you'll be able to craft flash bombs to blind monsters, you'll be able to craft traps so that you can actually trap a monster and be able to deal damage without the monster moving for a certain amount of time. This adds a layer of preparation.
So you're gonna be wanting to pretty much pick up anything that you can. Whenever you're out in the map and you see an item that you can interact with that, you can pick up.
You want to make sure to pick that up. So that you start understanding. This is an herb this can get me healing stuff, there's an antidote herb this can get me like you know antidotes so in case a monster poisons me.
I can remove the poison and there's a ton of other things like that now. These can be gathered while you're out in hunts as a matter of fact usually monster hunter tends to have special quests that you can do where basically your objective is not to kill monsters.
Just in case you feel like oh i need to go gather things to make potions. You can go on these quests which you can end anytime that you want. So that you can go and collect as many materials as you want.
Sometimes you might also want to do this. Because you need to mine certain ore nodes which are also important crafting materials or you might need to go and find bones which are also important for you to craft armor and stuff like that.
So get in the mindset of thinking about picking up things while you are hunting monsters. Because you know the more things you pick up along the way, the less things you're going to need to actually go out and pick up. But just be aware that there is a layer of preparation and gathering crafting materials that you need to keep in mind okay.
EATING BEFORE HUNT
On top of that one of the things that you always want to do before you go out on a hunt and this is something that you can't experience in the demo. Is eating usually every village has like a canteen type thing and obviously the monster hunter rise one is going to be with dango we've seen some of the trailers.
But basically before you go out on any hunt, you want to go there and you want to eat. because you can get special buffs for that hunt and you always want to go in with as many buffs as possible. because that is going to make it more powerful. It's almost like a ritual before you go out on a hunt one of the things that you definitely want to make sure that you do is you eat now.
DIFFICULTY
Personally i don't really think that monster hunter is a terribly difficult game. If you are struggling it, usually means that you either haven't fully mastered the weapon that you are using or you haven't gotten used to the attack patterns of the monster that you are fighting.
However having said that this is assuming that you regularly keep up with upgrading your gear and some of you might be wondering well how often do i have to upgrade my gear.
This is one of those things that doesn't really have an easy answer. This is going to change from hunter to hunter. Better hunters won't have to upgrade their gear as often.
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Because they're not going to get hit as often by the monsters. Therefore they can go in with sligh tly under geared equipment and they can still manage just fine. However newer hunters might want to upgrade more frequently the way in which you figure out whether or not you need to upgrade.
If you start noticing you know my hunts are taking a little bit longer. I'm actually carting in the middle of my hunt which by the way for those of you that don't know karting is when your hunter faints because your hunters never actually die. So if your health pool reaches zero, a couple of pallicos go out and they roll you back to camp on a cart that's what people say when they mean karting.
So if you're karting more often during quests that might be a good indicator that your gear might need a
little bit of tweaking.
RANKS
There's also ranks to each of the quests that you take in monster hunter. You'll start things off at low rank which is the easiest difficulty. But eventually there's going to be a point where you're going to be changing into high rank.
Once you start on taking quests that are high ranked quests, that is going to be a noticeable leap in difficulty at that point you might want to just try and craft the high rank armor as fast as you possibly can If you are really struggling.
Because quite simply monsters are going to have more health. They're going to deal more damage and if you go just straight up into high rank with low rank armor, things are going to start getting significantly harder.
So that might be another one of those situations where i definitely feel that now yeah those are difficulty spikes. Now for monster hunter rise, we should really only have low rank and high rank and then potentially there might be monter hunter rise ultimate.
Because this is the way that they usually do their games like if you look for instance that monster hunter World and iceborn. Iceborn is essentially the next rank of monsters so monster hunter world only has low rank and high rank and then you go to iceborn and you have your what they called master rank.
But in japanese is what people refer to as g-rank and then previously monster hunter games is what was called the ultimate version that basically also gave you access to g-rank.So, those are the three tiers of difficulty. But for now you really only have to worry about low rank and high rank now.
ELEMENTAL AND AILMENT SYSTEM
Another interesting thing while we're on the subject of difficulty is sometimes a fight might seem harder than it initially looks. Because you are using the wrong equipment there is an elemental system in place in monster hunter as well as an ailment system.
Let's talk about those two things. Whenever you have a fire monster by general rule of thumb, you might not want to bring a fire weapon.
Because most likely the monster is going to be resistant to fire. If they follow suit with the same system that they had in monster hunter world, you're going to have something in game called the hunter's notes which will tell you the resistance of monsters.
Once you fight them once or twice and you will get an idea of what type of element or ailment will be effective against that monster and this is going to be something that you will want to consider if you are struggling with a particular fighting a monster that is weak to fire or weak to ice, then maybe craft a fire or ice weapon to fight that specific monster.
If you are fighting a monster that moves too much, consider maybe taking a weapon that has a paralysis status ailment which is going to enable you to paralyze the monster from time to time.
There are an endless number of things that you can do in monster hunter which is one of its uh most appealing features is the fact that you can do specific builds to defeat specific monsters and that is something that a lot of us find particularly satisfying.
So you know if you're if you're struggling maybe your build's not working on all that well and at that point you might want to look at a guide particularly if you're fighting a super tough enemy or something like that there's . But just keep in mind that usually weapons have ailments and elemental damage and that is something that you need to take into account whenever you are fighting monsters.
STATS
There's also other stats in the weapon which you will come to understand further down the line like affinity.Affinity is essentially your critical strike the difference between blunt weapons like the hammer and the hunting horn and slashing weapons like the long sword and the great sword which is going to be important.
Because to give you an idea a blunt weapon. If you hit a monster in the head with it, you can eventually stun the monster and a slashing weapon if you hit the monster in the tail with it. Certain monsters you will actually be able to chop off their tail and that is going to give you additional materials.
VILLAGE QUESTS VS GATHERING HUB
QUESTS
Now for monster hunter rise there is something very specific that you have to keep in mind and that is village quests versus gathering hub quests. Now in monster hunter world pretty much every quest could be undertaken in multiplayer.
If you were playing with friends, you could go to pretty much any quest and be like hey let's go hunt a brathalos or something and off you and your friends go on that quest.
However ryze is taking in a way that is different from monster world and is going a little bit back to the roots of monster hunter and there is going to be village quests and gathering hub quests now.
Village quests are solo quests which means that unlike monster hunter world, you're not going to be able to bring in your friends to help you. However the game does provide you with a robust buddy system which brings in either two cats or two dogs the palacos and palamutes or one cat and one dog.
You get to choose the companions that go with you into these missions. You'll be able to customize them in some form from the footage that we've seen.
So far looks like they're going to be somewhat similar to the pelicans that we had in generations ultimate and the way that those worked is at least with the palacos.
You'll be able to choose between having a palico that can trap monsters, a palakku that can bomb monsters, and the palico then can heal you. So the support skills on the palaco is going to be something that is going to be pretty useful for you and then there's also the palomute which looks like he's gonna be attacking enemies.
I don't know exactly all the things that the palomut is gonna be able to do at this point. Because palomute is a first time uh introduction in monster hunter rise.
But he will let you ride you which means that you will move around the map a little bit faster. So you know that's something to take into consideration. But just keep in mind that when it comes to the village quests that is just you and your companions no multiplayer the gathering hub quests on the other hand can be undertaken either solo or in a multiplayer environment with your friends or even with random people.
MATCHMAKING SYSTEM
I'm assuming that the game is going to have some kind of a matchmaking system, so that you can go and match up with other players at least from the footage that we've seen.
It definitely looks like, they're doing some stuff with that is going to help you match with other players that are maybe undertaking the same quest as you. Some of you might be asking, well can't i just play the multiplayer portion. Because i know that a lot of people prefer to engage in multiplayer when it comes with monster hunter or probably because a friend is trying to get you to to play the game with them.
The answer is i actually don't know. Because sometimes in most hunter games they require to do a certain level of village quest. At least i think it's been like that in in previous games and only then you can go into the multiplayer section of the game.
But either way and getting involved in the single player portion of the game. Usually unlocks uh certain rewards that you definitely want to take advantage of whether those rewards are additional resources for your consumable items or additional meals that you can eat in the canteen.
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So that you become more powerful whenever you go out on a quest. Basically there are a lot of reasons to engage in the village quests and even if you're like scared of being left your own devices on the single player portion of the game, the developers have actually said that they're going to make village quests a little bit easier so that you can go through them.
Then go play multiplayer with your friends if that is your main reason for playing monster hunter rise. But do keep that in mind these are things that you will want to consider doing in the same sometimes the npcs of your village are going to have requests that they're going to ask of you.
Usually these requests will involve something like go kill a random monster somewhere or go pick up a very specific rare material. These are worth engaging in. Because the rewards might once again be additional ingredients for the canteen which is probably going to give you additional buffs for whenever you go out on a hunt.
It might even be access to more consumables. So keep these things in mind and talk with the villagers from time to time there will usually be some form of an indication like in monsoonal world you had exclamation marks on top of the villagers whenever they had a request for you. In generations ultimate, it would usually be marked on your map with like a yellow text bubble indicating that there's a request for you somewhere.
So keep tabs on that uh and try to pick up those requests. Sometimes
those requests are even things that you can just complete while you're doing another
quest.
PROGRESSION
So it's not like they're super hard and finally let's touch up on progression. Because i realize that this review is actually a lot longer than i intended particularly for brand new players.
You guys are gonna be overwhelmed and i'm super super sorry when it comes to progression in monster hunter things are actually pretty simple you complete quests and you eventually will progress each quest is going to have a certain ranking in terms of number of stars.
Once you complete a certain number of key quests which the game determines. I'm not sure how they're going to be showing up in monster hunter rise.
I believe in world the key quests were marked but in previous games they did not mark the key quests. So, i'm not sure how that's gonna work in rise. But basically uh once you complete a certain number of key quests if you don't know which ones are the key quests just complete all of them.
Eventually they're going to give you an urgent quest, and this quest is going to be a little bit more challenging than the quest that you did before. Because that quest is going to feature a monster from the next tier of quests.
But you will want to complete these as they come along. Because this is how you start uh unlocking further upgrades to your weapon and obviously you gain access to new monsters which gives you access to new armor sets and new things that you can craft.
Basically that's just how you progress in the game you complete a certain number of quests in the tier that you're at you complete the urgent quest you move on to the next tier.
That is kind of like monster hunter rise deluxe in a nutshell for brand new players.
Hopefully this was somewhat understandable.
This review was designed as generalist as possible. So it is not exclusive to monster on rise this can also be used as an introduction to mods around the world with the exception of the village versus gathering hub quests.
They're kind of like the same thing in monster hunter world, but yeah hopefully this helps you out and if you're someone that has more experience and when it comes to monster hunter or someone that just is super excited about getting started on monster under rise.
One of the things that i would advise you learn more about wire bug is going to be a key aspect of monster hunter rise and thank you all very much for reading this article, i'll see you guys in the next one article.
