Monster Hunter Rise
The striking Japanese art draped over Rise heralds the franchise’s return to the handheld format where it first made its name… so is this Switch title destined to be a monster hit?
Monster Hunter Rise, Maquette
If an exclusive entry on the little Switch feels like a step back for a game series that has embraced big-boy consoles in the past, think again. Even though Rise’s graphics run below the handheld’s standard resolutions, Capcom’s RE Engine makes it one of the best-looking games on the machine.
Where Rise really shines is in its distinctive artistic flavour, with evergreen cherry blossoms and monsters inspired by yokai from Japanese mythology. This adds to the wildly varied roster, compared to how the previous Monster Hunter World played it safe with dragons and dinosaurs. Old staples like Rathalos and Diablos are still roaming, but you’ve also got the bear-like Arzuros, the fire-spewing Rakna-kadaki… and Khezu, who’s just disgusting on all counts.
There’s a huge array of weapon and armour designs necessary to improve your stats, and the alluring loop of hunting powerful monsters in order to craft better gear so you can take on even tougher ones remains as strong as ever. You can even use Wirebugs to ride weakened monsters, a ludicrous but inspired amalgamation of mounting and turf wars from previous instalments.
At first, it appears Rise has adopted an archaic approach of splitting its single-player and multiplayer modes with village quests and hub quests respectively. But the village section is really more for onboarding newcomers, while seasoned hunters can dive straight into hub quests, the only way to progress to the ‘high rank’ quests. Far from scaling down, this game builds on the accessible streamlining from Monster Hunter World for a wilder hunting fest with even cooler abilities.
Noobs will feel at ease, while veterans will find ways to play with the new mechanics and tackle the toughest monsters. Whichever you might be, sharpen your weapon of choice, as you won’t want to miss out on one of the best games of 2021 so far.