Monster Hunter Rise

 Switch
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 122 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 118 out of 122
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 122
  3. Negative: 0 out of 122
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  1. New Game Network
    Apr 9, 2021
    71
    Monster Hunter Rise aims at old-school fans, those who were here before Monster Hunter World, and will be sure to enjoy themselves with this more compact entry. But for those who just recently came aboard the franchise, it will feel like a step down.
  2. Games.cz
    Mar 23, 2021
    70
    Monster Hunter Rise brings with it several new features that should become mainstays of the series. At the same time, however, it loses one of its most impressive systems - tracking the monsters. And so the hunt loses much of its magic.
  3. GAMINGbible
    Mar 23, 2021
    70
    All in all, if you're a fan of the Monster Hunter franchise then this new instalment will absolutely tick all your boxes and more, what with all the new additions it brings. While Monster Hunter World was definitely a game designed more to welcome new players, Monster Hunter Rise calls back to the core fans. If you're relatively new, this might be intimidating at first; but once you get the hang of it there's a lot of fun to be had, either solo or with a group of friends.
  5. IGN France
    Mar 23, 2021
    70
    This new opus is a great opportunity for everyone who dreamed of trying out the Monster Hunter licence but never dared to do so. Nonetheless Monster Hunter Rise find itself oversimplified because of its new features for most of the saga’s regulars.
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  1. 3DJuegos
    Mar 24, 2021
    Monster Hunter Rise returns the beloved action RPG series to a portable platform, bringing along the valuable quality of life lessons learned within MH World a couple of years ago. It’s swift and smooth, looks awesome and you just won’t be able to put it down for a good 40 hours of playtime. Could’ve used a more challenging and compelling endgame, though. [Recommended]
  2. Ars Technica
    Mar 23, 2021
    Transformative controls, mostly steady 30 fps combat make this a must-own on Switch.
  3. Eurogamer
    Mar 23, 2021
    With smart additions that move the series forward, this is the most accessible, deepest and simply very best Monster Hunter to date. [Eurogamer Essential]
  5. Kotaku
    Mar 23, 2021
    I love Monster Hunter Rise’s style. The music is lovely. The characters and creatures are gorgeous, and there’s something about all the oranges and purples in the game’s color palette that just do it for me. The visuals are a little fuzzy, as the Switch is working extra-hard to make the game look good. Really makes me wonder what the eventual PC version is going to look like. For now, I’m content that my character looks damn great. [Impressions]
  6. Mashable
    Mar 26, 2021
    That all sounds great, but there's a big caveat if you're looking at Rise as your first venture into the monster hunting grounds: It's still anchored to a ridiculously complex set of overlapping rules and systems, and from moment one it's a game that assaults you at every turn with "helpful" text-based tutorial pop-ups.
  7. Polygon
    Mar 23, 2021
    Monster Hunter: World was a game I would recommend to friends, with some caveats. But Rise’s gameplay variety and mobility — all fueled by that little Wirebug — make it a must-try game for Monster Hunter skeptics and hardcore fans alike.
  8. The A.V. Club
    Apr 2, 2021
    Currently exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, Rise suffers, looks-wise, when compared to the PS4/Xbox One-ready World. Where it soars, though, is in how much living-in its various jungles and swamps allow for. Harking back to earlier games in the franchise with an emphasis on pets and other bits of fiddly, adorable minutiae, Rise nevertheless holds on to World’s most important innovation: Open-world maps that, as the game’s name implies, put a heavy emphasis on gaining a little height on your titanic opponents.
  9. The Verge
    Mar 26, 2021
    One of the joys of the Switch is that it allows you to slot in game time when you otherwise wouldn’t be able to, even if it’s as basic a situation as your living room being occupied. Monster Hunter has always had that just-one-more-quest impulse for series fans, and with its breezy new design and portable form factor, Rise should see a lot more converted to the cause.

Awards & Rankings

10
#10 Best Switch Game of 2021
3
#3 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

User Reviews

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User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1095 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 725 out of 1095
  2. Mixed: 70 out of 1095
  3. Negative: 300 out of 1095
  1. kiwijinxter
    Mar 27, 2021
    10
    I have played every iteration of the Monster Hunter series since MH3 Ultimate on the Nintendo DS then 3DS (though I've not played MH World).I have played every iteration of the Monster Hunter series since MH3 Ultimate on the Nintendo DS then 3DS (though I've not played MH World). MH Rise maintains the fun of monster hunting (it's most fun when hunting with other players) but adds two key things:

    1. Quality of life improvements e.g. it's quicker to collect materials along the way (it used to be painfully slow), the Palamute speeds up travel, hold A to carve a fallen monster multiple times, etc.

    2. Fun new mechanics such as the wirebug which turns you into a bit of a mini Tarzan, and of course, the monster or wyvern riding capability, letting you control some monsters

    If you're new to Monster Hunter, my advice is to take it easy. Take your own sweet time at the beginning with the single player "campaign" which walks you through different quests which introduces you key aspects of the game. There is a whole lot to learn, however, you don't need to learn everything in order to enjoy the game. Just learn the basics, and I would say the key basic thing to learn is weapon handling - just pick ONE weapon (easier ones to pick up include sword and shield, dual sword, long sword - note easy to pick up doesn't mean easy to master!), and learn how to use it. (The next important thing is to learn how different monsters "behave" during hunts - it's the difference between success and failure in a hunt!) Your weapon is the main thing (other than armour next) that will carry you through your initial hunts. In fact, once you are familiar with the weapon system, you can immediately jump on multiplayer as well just to get a feel of hunting with other players. Monster Hunter is best played with others around the world - that's the fun of it!

    If you're a veteran of Monster Hunter, well, you don't need any advice. All that you knew is still there, but you get to enjoy the quality of life stuff that makes Monster Hunter Rise much more enjoyable since some of the terribly boring and painfully mundane mechanics have been taken out of the mix, letting you jump on multiplayer hunts immediately. That's not all though - there are new mechanics for you to learn too - the new Tarzan moves with the fun wirebugs, new Switch skills, etc. Hunting is still soooo fun!

    If you've played Monster Hunter World before this, you may find the mechanics in Rise just a slightly more "complicated" at times, but it's a perfect jumping on point because you're already familiar with hunts and weapons.

    As a result, I must say that Monster Hunter Rise is THE best in the Monster Hunter series and is a great time for new Monster Hunter players to join in the hunt, while returning or veteran hunters can continue enjoying the game with lots of new stuff - and helping new Monster Hunter players enjoy the journey.

    Jump in and enjoy the thrill of the hunt! Absolute 10/10!    … Full Review »
  2. Agonistes
    Apr 3, 2021
    5
    I am unsure why so many people are rating this game a 10. Let me preface with I have been playing Monster Hunter since PS2 (the original). II am unsure why so many people are rating this game a 10. Let me preface with I have been playing Monster Hunter since PS2 (the original). I have sunk several hundred hours into every game, so I could just be a jaded veteran (it certainly feels that way).

    Monster Hunter Rise is an okay Monster Hunter title. It is very short for a launch title and our group cleared every single piece of content in a little over a weekend of playing. This has never happened to us before in any Monster Hunter title.

    My biggest gripe is that they traded in the normal tactical essence of Monster Hunter for an action-combat buttonmashing festival. While I am sure many new players prefer this type of mindless combat over the older (albeit clunkier) style, it plays very unlike a Monster Hunter game.

    We went through every single Hub quest without ever needed to prep or practice a hunt. There were no butt-clinching moment of dodging right before fainting, or epic saves from team members. It was just go in, spam attack, wirebug away from big moves, wirebug back in, spam attack. It was a mindless experience.

    I know this is a Switch game, but MHGU had better textures and okay models. In MHR they went wiht amazing models and terrible textures. Many of the textures in the game are blurry, especially on NPC and PC models. I am still confused how MHGU had better antialiasing than MHR, which seems to have no antialiasing. Model lines are very jagged and hard.

    The sense of progression was muted since buttonmashing and wirebugs prevailed in every single fight. We didn't have a real sense of needing to upgrade armor/weapons. Near the middle of the Hub experience we ended up just making weapons more-so because they looked cool because it seemed irrelevant what our stats ended up being. No more prepping for elemental weakness or skills because it was absolutely not needed.

    They went insanely overboard with the Japanese theme. Way more thematic than previous games. If you're not a fan of Japanese culture/lore then it will get very annoying very fast since that's really all there is. It's not really a generic theme, it's more of an in-your-face Japan thing going on. For example, they renamed the Throwing Knife to Throwing Kunai. Not really a bad or good point, just thought I'd mention it.

    So far you might think I have nothing good to say about that game, but I did enjoy quite a few things.

    Palamutes are amazing, I really wish this was now retroactively in World and 4U/GU. Having double puppies is great. As a dog lover, it's amazing fighting besides these canines. The customization options are OUTSTANDING.

    The new monsters share the mechanics of old monsters, but a lot of them are interesting and fun to fight. I just wish they were actually a challenge. I really like this trend of visual differences, but keeping mechanics the same. It allows the devs to focus more time on creating a handful of truly unique monsters while retaining some nostalgia for older monsters while keeping them fresh at the same time.

    There's supposedly an update that is going to add the "harder" hunts later this month, so I might come back and update my review. If the game was harder and less reliant on cheesing everything with the wirebug I would have had a much better review of the game.

    tl;dr - This game should be called Monster Hunter Lite, it's very watered down and insanely easy. No point in prepping for hunts, or even upgrading equipment because every hunt is just a button-mashing fest where you jump in and out with the wirebug to dodge everything.    … Full Review »
  3. Melopahn
    Mar 27, 2021
    2
    Ive given 3 monster hunter games a try and Rise will be the last, no matter what advertising says was improved these are daed to me. I wouldIve given 3 monster hunter games a try and Rise will be the last, no matter what advertising says was improved these are daed to me. I would describe monster hunter games as the series that is "like that other game, but intentionally tedious and frustrating.

    Sound/music - What is in the game is acceptable, but annoying and repetitive. Song clips are short bursts of 30-40 seconds of music that you're going to be hearing through an entire 30-50 minute hunt.

    Story - Like all monster hunter games the story exists because other games have story. It is inconsequential and skipping everything the game will let you skip won't impact the game in any way. You're doing some random story about a rampage but you go hunt random monsters that are just living life. The fact that I can't just skip all of the story despite it being useless is baffling but whatever the core design of Monster hunter is developers saying "hahahaha that'll piss the players off".

    Visual/Graphics - Monster hunter has alwasy skimped on visuals and graphics to allow them to put out more product more quicky, however it actually has impact in a game thats all about timing hits and dodges in clunky combat. The lack of smooth frame rates and character movements will result in you missing an enemy and getting hit by their move. The end result is that the combat ends up being slower than most early gaming JRPGs. Its somethiing you can learn to play around but it would work much better if it just worked as you see it rather than having to learn the little nuances that conflict with your senses.

    Gameplay - This is what really matters and where Monster hunter baffles me endlessly. Every aspect of interacting with the game as a player sseems to be made intentionally annoying, not difficult, annoying. Tutorial menu/blurb, push a to close, "Are you sure?" - default selection of "No", move cursor... select yes. Talk to the same person again cause you just want to upgrade your weapon. Oh hey another annoying menu pop up with the tedious multi click requirement. Loading times have been improved but are still annoying. The tutorial/introductory zone "shrine ruins" features 3 large monsters to fight. Of course you can't just grab the quest for all 3 monsters go to the shrine ruins and explore everything and hunt the monster... That would be fun and make sense. You have to select each monster one at a time, load in hunt that one monster, leave, turn in the quest, select the next monster you already guaranteeably encountered (cause they are all in the zone every time you go), go back to the zone, repeat everything you did the previous time, repeat all of the above again for the 3rd monster... and so on.

    While what i'm describing should already sound like a form of torture... it gets worse! The monsters you are hunting run away... all of them. What does this add to the game? More tedium, delays and annoyance. It isn't more realistic (if something you're hunting IRL runs away that **** is gone). It isn't more fun to stop the fight move locations and start the same fight again. You can't lock on to something like in a good game, you can choose which large monster you're hunting, and tap R to focus the camera on it (for a nano second) then its back to flailing wildly, so as a player you constantly have to just tap R prior to unloading your combo, again this isn't because its more challenging, more realistic, more fun its just another little frustration that works better in every other game its in. Hit boxes for yourself and monster are just atrocious, sometimes the hit registers normal and does normal damage sometimes you hit the armored part of the animal and do less damage, visually though you hit the same spot 4 times and it just said F-You 1 of them. Monsters get the same benefit, sometimes you're no where near the visual of their move but you're getting hit all the same because F-You thats why. Ive seen the swing of a monsters claws hit a player in front of them and hit me who is about 2 feet behind them sharpening my weapon.

    Sharpening your weapon is another insanely frustrating thing, its literally a "must do" function roughly every 20-25 swings of a weapon, which comes very quickly. Usually in one of the 20 encounters you'll have with the monster prior to them running away to delay the fight you'll have to sharpen for every single one.

    At the end of everything all i can say is that I am shocked and amazed that monster hunter still exists. The only thing Monster hunter truly excels at is making other games look amazing. Games with real monster targeting are incredible, games with varied high production sound tracks are incredible, games with tight controls and well constructed combat are incredible. Games that push the graphics and programming of a system hardware are incredible. Games that take the time to polish the UI to make the game accessible and user friendly are incredible. Monster hunter is none of these things.    … Full Review »
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