{"id":14446,"date":"2021-03-31T13:18:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T13:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/monster-hunter-rise-review-excellent-gateway"},"modified":"2024-07-19T07:44:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T07:44:22","slug":"monster-hunter-rise-review-excellent-gateway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/monster-hunter-rise-review-excellent-gateway","title":{"rendered":"Monster Hunter Rise review: An excellent gateway into the franchise"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many, Monster Hunter is an enigma. The loop of killing monsters to earn gear to fight bigger monsters is the core of many popular RPGs, but Monster Hunter’s execution requires more patience than Diablo<\/a> or Destiny. You have to acclimatise to the befuddling control scheme, learn what’s important within the overwhelming stacks of menus, prepare for each hunt with traps and items, and that’s before you take into account the endurance test battles where every monster has distinct attacks to counter.<\/p>\n

Monster Hunter World, which became Capcom’s highest-selling game of all time, went a long way to streamlining the franchise’s appeal outside of Japan. With Monster Hunter Rise<\/a>, there’s a sense anyone who didn’t click with past entries might have their best gateway yet into the phenomena, albeit with some caveats for long-time veterans.<\/p>\n

So what’s changed? The most meaningful addition are Wirebugs — a movement mechanic which allows you to zip around the map. It gives combat and traversal an extra layer of versatility, where you can scale up walls, jump over monsters to avoid attacks, fling yourself long distances, and navigate around areas like never before. The change ups the pace across the board significantly, meaning you’re spending far less time wandering to find monsters or materials in the different biomes. Combat, while still closer to Dark Souls than Devil May Cry, feels flashier too — with the added verticality providing more options to play with.<\/p>\n

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Monster Hunter Rise has some excellent new creatures to take down (Picture: Capcom) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The addition of Palamutes (basically massive dogs) also speed up the downtime. You’re no longer trudging on foot to beasts gallivanting across the map but riding your trusty companion, which cuts the travel time significantly. Coupled with the Wirebugs, these additions largely eliminate the worst aspects of Monster Hunter — putting greater focus on the excellent fights themselves.<\/p>\n

There’s greater variety in that department too. Alongside the traditional quests, with different branches for both single-player and multiplayer, there’s Rampage mode. This is Monster Hunter goes tower defense, and it’s far better than that will ever sound. Here, you fend off hordes of monsters with various turrets and bombs before they can break through barriers to the village. It’s chaotic, rewards you with materials for upgrades<\/a>, and leans into Monster Hunter’s goofier qualities, while acting as cathartic release if you simply want to hammer monsters with a machine cannon.<\/p>\n