Hey there! it's been a while hasn't it? Can you wager a guess as to what I've been keeping busy with this whole time?
Of course it's Monster Hunter! Who'd've thought? Yes, I've been putting my nose to the stone, thoroughly enjoying the latest installment of my prized series. It's been just over two weeks since it came out (and longer since I've posted, whoops!) and I've made a fair bit of progress, and had a good amount of time to mull over what I think. So, I'm here with an update for my blog! Finally! This will be a looser entry, as my last one took quite a bit of work. I'll be going over what I've experienced with MHRise, and what other fun things I've been thinking about over the past while.
Bright eyes, bright future, cute as a button.
Much of my time lately has been dedicated to really just taking it nice and easy with this game. It has been ages since I've gotten to enjoy a Monster Hunter experience like this, as my last game of this style was Monster Hunter Generations on the 3DS back in 2015. Yes, of course I played a good 230+ hours of World, but as we've found out, that has a lot of fundamental differences from other games in the series.
Rise is a welcome return to form. Enjoying a nice, single player focused intro to the game, and having an ever-present location to expand out into multiplayer from the get go. However, I have seen that this game seems to struggle with on-boarding, allowing players to dive right into the harder, multiplayer designed quests without even finding the tutorial for the brand new game mechanics. World seemed to hold the hands of newcomers significantly better, but I digress. When one begins the so-called Village Quests, they are able to enjoy a low barrier of entry the series has relied on for nearly every iteration. I have heard some point out that this may be the easiest version of this style, with monsters having little enough health that you cannot fully damage their breakable parts before they meet their demise. An interesting development for sure. But here I am already getting lost in the weeds!
I have clocked in a good 45 hours with this game so far, and I am very nearly done with the main "story" as it were. There's been a lot of talk that this game ends prematurely, credits roll a mere 8-10 hours through, and then after tens more you've encountered every beastie. I'm at the threshold of the final boss as we speak (don't worry, it's too early for me to just spoil things) and I'm certainly left wanting. Since I have a fairly decent memory, this doesn't seem all that different from my experience with MHW. Big updates periodically dropped in on that game, adding back fan favorites, brand new designs, and some interesting events here and there. Rise is evidently taking a page from that book, marking that this major change in how these games have traditionally been released is here to stay. I'm neutral to this style of update, as it obviously (yet artificially) extends the lifetime of play significantly. Where I'm just about at the end of the presently released game, currently mulling about and upgrading my favorite weapons, I will be treated to having new monsters to fight every couple of months, bringing me back to enjoy more of my favorite pastime. Be this as it may, I cannot help but feel that I would much prefer a complete product. I know, wild idea. There is very clearly a lot of empty space in this game. I will spare this game my ire for now, as we are very much still deep in a pandemic. This has very evidently effected nearly every life on this earth so I will not gripe that those working on this should have done more. However, this still falls into a trend of games entering release and continuing to lay the tracks as they go.
These prosatic intros are a fun touch, also look at my baby.
But here I am, carrying on. All in all, Rise has been a very welcome distraction lately. It feels like a very warm blanket, and I can only see myself wrapped up in it for the better part of this year. If World is any indication, it might be consecutive years! A girl can dream. So now, I'll just gush. I am so happy to have my favorite armor returning in this game, the Barioth set. I've already crafted the low and high rank sets, and am enjoying every hunt with the wild mane it gives my sweetheart hunter, Bee. My brand new bumbling baby boy, Goss Harag, is such a pleasant addition to the game. Not only is he the cutest new face, but his weapons and armor are choice! A welcome addition to the high raw, poor affinity family. I will very likely be meeting with the big teddy bear frequently in the coming future. I just recently faced the new spider enemy Rakna-Kadaki. She's an interesting fight, but what excites me more is that her inclusion might signal the return of the Seltas and Carapaceon monsters... Let me fight more skittering meanies! The rampage mode is quite simply tower defense in Monster Hunter. I cannot complain, it is a welcome new way to fight in this game. I'd be interested to see if it changes the formula of the raid bosses this game has had for several iterations (I'm talking about Jhen Mohran, Kulve Taroth, etc.). All of the new monsters are fantastic, and their yokai designs play wonderfully.
Happy, fuzzy, living large.
So, presently, I am quite pleased with my time spent playing this game. I hope you enjoyed my quick rant about my new favorite game, and I must apologize that I've spent too much time away from this blog to enjoy myself. Expect more big projects in the future! And hopefully more frequent smaller updates in-between. That's all I have, so... Ta-ta for now!