Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Rise (モンスターハンターライズ|Monsutāhantāraizu) is an action RPG game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Switch. It is the sixth mainline installment in the Monster Hunter series after Monster Hunter: World (2018) and was released worldwide on March 26, 2021. A Microsoft Windows version was released on January 12th 2022, and an expansion, Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, was released in 29th June 2022. Ports for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series, were released in 20th January 2023, followed by the Sunbreak expansion later in that year.

Rise follows many of the new conventions established for the series in World while also introducing new features and mechanics, including a new animal companion called a Palamute that can be used to ride across the map or into battle, and the use of Wirebugs to traverse the game world and mount and ride certain monsters. The game received generally positive reviews upon release with critics praising the gameplay and its expansion of the mechanics introduced in World. It has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide since launch, making it the second best-selling game in the series.

Gameplay

As with previous Monster Hunter titles, Rise has the player take the role of a Hunter, tasked with slaying or trapping large monsters using a variety of weapons, tools, and environmental features to damage and weaken them while surviving their attacks. Successful completion of the offered quests provide loot, typically in the form of various monster parts from the monster, which are used to forge new armor and weapons that can be used to take on more powerful monsters, forming the series' notable core loop. Several of the series' monsters return along with a host of new monsters developed for Rise. All fourteen weapon types that have been present in both Monster Hunter Generations and World, which mix archetypes of swords, shields, staves, bows, and guns, are present in Rise.

Rise uses the same seamless map approach introduced in Monster Hunter: World unlike the zoned area approach typical of earlier games in the series. Its maps are more focused on vertical movement than previous games, as implied by its title, so new tools are given to the player to help with quickly vertical scaling. One is the companion Palamute, a dog-like creature that the player can ride without losing stamina. The Palamute can quickly scale cliffs and can also be ridden and perform attacks while fighting monsters, alongside the player's cat-like companion Palico. A new tool, similar to the Clutch Claw added in Iceborne, is the Wirebug, which can allow a player to grapple and swing across gaps or to higher locations as needed. The Wirebug also has different interactions with each weapon type, adding to that weapon's set of moves and combos. Further, the Wirebug allows a player to engage certain monsters in Wyvern Riding, allowing the hunter to mount and control the creature to a limited degree as to either lead it into areas more amenable for combat or to engage in combat with a different monster.

Rise features both single player and local and online multiplayer modes with up to four hunters in a group. In single player modes, the player hunts with both their Palico and Palamute companions. In the online modes, players select either the Palico or Palamute to join them.

In addition to the series' typical hunts, Rise introduces "Rampage", a tower defense mode where the players must defend the base village from several attacking monsters. Prior to and during the attack, the players can set up siege weapons and instruct non-player characters to attack the monsters while the players attack the monsters directly.

Collabrations

Similar to some previous Monster Hunter titles, Rise have several collabrations with Capcom games, called "Capcom Collab". These include various content such as outfits or armor sets. The first collabration is with Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, the second one with Ōkami, the third one with Street Fighter, the fourth one with Mega Man, and the fifth one with Ghosts 'n Goblins.

Rise also had a collaboration with the 2020 action game Ninjala.^{[citation needed]} The game also has a collabration with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series and Universal Studios Japan.

On 28th November 2023, it was confirmed that some DLC collaborations would come to an end; speficially Sonic the Hedgehog, Universal Studios Japan, and the Sengan-en content. Playes would need to download this free content to "keep using it as normal" before 21st January 2024, after which they will no longer be available.

Plot

Rise arc

In Kamura Village, the player-character is informed they have been promoted to a Hunter by the Guild by the Wyverian twins Hinoa and Minoto. They escort the new Hunter to the village leader Fugen, though along the way, the Hunter catches sight of an unknown flying monster far in the distance. Fugen congratulates the Hunter on their success, but warns that they have been alerted about pending signs of "The Rampage", a mysterious calamity that occurred fifty years ago where a large horde of monsters attacked the village in a frenzied rage. Fugen tasks the Hunter to prepare themselves for a possible recurrence of the Rampage by helping with various quests to protect and supply the village with goods while building up their hunting. Further signs of the Rampage emerge, and Fugen instructs the Hunter to go to the Stronghold, a battleground that guards the gates to Kamura. After repelling the attack, the Hunter, Yomogi, the village chef, and Iori, the "Buddy Handler", are suddenly attacked by a tiger-like, mace-tailed fanged wyvern, forcing them to retreat. Fugen tells the trio that the monster is known as "Magnamalo" who appears alongside the Rampage and feeds on monsters of the horde. Under Fugen's orders, the Hunter slays Magnamalo. Upon returning to the village, Fugen and Hinoa congratulate the Hunter on their victory. Fugen then gives the Hunter his Long Sword, which has been passed down in Kamura for generations.

After repelling another Rampage attack, as Hinoa wonders how long the Rampage is going to last, suddenly the same flying serpentine dragon-like monster that the Hunter saw earlier appears. Hinoa's eyes suddenly turn blue as she says, "Where is my queen? Where is my queen?" before regaining her senses. The monster is later identified as an Elder Dragon known as the Wind Serpent, Ibushi. After Ibushi is repelled, the group begins to question who Ibushi's "queen" is. Master Utsushi, the village's lookout, discovers who Ibushi's "queen" is: the Thunder Serpent, Narwa, who is Ibushi's female counterpart and mate. Further research from the guild reveals the origins of Ibushi and Narwa. Every fifty years, Ibushi, as well as Narwa, will emerge to mate with each other; in order to do so, Ibushi will wander the land to seek out Narwa. Ibushi is also known to cause destructive storms by sending dragon energy into the ground. This turbulence is strong enough to uproot trees and wipe out the landscape. This causes nearby monsters to become terrified and flee directly into Kamura Village. Meanwhile, Narwa seems to wait in a location she prefers until Ibushi is able to locate her. However, the disturbance caused by her presence and electromagnetic abilities tend to drive other monsters berserk, leading to a rampage event that regularly hits Kamura Village during the Serpent's mating process. This information reveals that the actions of the Serpent Elder Dragons are the primary cause of the Rampage. Due to the fact that Narwa had wiped out most of the village's hunters, they call on the Hunter to slay Narwa. After a fierce battle with the Thunder Serpent, Narwa is seemingly killed when she falls to her death. Narwa's corpse is not found, however, causing Fugen to believe that Narwa is still alive. At night, the Hunter witnesses Hinoa and Minoto (possessed by Ibushi and Narwa) talking to one other, saying that their offspring will roam across the earth.

After fending off various elder dragons, the Hunter is told that Narwa and Ibushi have returned and finally united. Fugen calls on the Hunter to confront the two serpents and end the Rampage for good. The Hunter battles Ibushi, whose life force is devoured by Narwa, transforming her into Narwa the Allmother, greatly enhancing her power. The Hunter faces Narwa again and is aided by the unexpected arrival of Magnamalo, who attacks the Thunder Serpent. After a destructive battle, the Hunter slays Narwa and returns to the village. Fugen names the Hunter the Savior of Kamura as the village celebrates with a great feast and Hinoa states that the village is finally at peace.

Sunbreak arc

After the end of the Rampage, the hunter is hailed as a hero and peace returns to Kamura. This peace turns out to be short-lived, as a hermit crab-like monster, a Daimyo Hermitaur arrives in the shrine ruins. The Hunter and Utsushi investigate and slay the Hermitaur but a new, strange werewolf-like monster suddenly appears out of nowhere and attacks the two. They are unable to defeat it until the arrival of a knight from Elgado named Fiorayne, who repels the monster, then explains that the monster is a Lunagaron from the kingdom of Elgado.

Fiorayne shares that her purpose in Kamura is to recruit the Hunter to help the people of Elgado face a trio of monsters called the Three Lords. One of the Three Lords, a vampyric elder dragon known as Malzeno, is believed to be making the monsters more aggressive and driving them out of the kingdom. As the monsters from Elgado are now threatening Kamura as well, Fugen accepts Fiorayne's request and allows the Hunter to travel to Elgado in order to meet its commander and defeat Malzeno.

Arriving in Elgado, the Hunter meets Admiral Galleus and his allies. The Hunter and Fiorayne soon face the first of the Three Lords, Garangolm, and defeat it. The Hunter and Elgado's lead scientist, Bahari, encounter a species of glowing red moth-like creatures called Qurio. Bahari believes the Qurio may somehow be responsible for the madness plaguing the monsters of Elgado. The Hunter and Fiorayne soon face Lunagaron again, who is the second of the Three Lords, and defeat it as well, but are ambushed by Malzeno, who seems to be commanding the Qurio. Malzeno poisons Fiorayne with a virus from the Qurio as it departs.

With Fiorayne's life in danger, the Hunter seeks out a doctor named Tadori, who is able to create a cure for the virus. Now convinced Malzeno is the source of the Qurio, Galleus commands the Hunter and Fiorayne to defeat the dragon once and for all. The Hunter and Fiorayne confront Malzeno in Elgado's destroyed citadel and slay it, causing a swarm of Qurio to fly away from its corpse. The threat seemingly ended, the people of Elgado begin to relax, but Galleus is concerned something else is at work and begins construction of a fleet of ships armed with dragonators.

Although the Qurio have lost their host, they have begun killing monsters around the kingdom. The Hunter and Fiorayne find the citadel littered with the corpses of monsters, their life energy drained by the Qurio. The Qurio swarm gathers as a large pit opens from beneath the ocean near Elgado. An enormous monster, Gaismagorm, emerges from the pit, causing an earthquake. Before the creature can cause anymore destruction, Galleus arrives with his fleet and forces it back into the pit. Galleus and Bahari revel to the Hunter and Fiorayne that the creature was the "Archdemon of the Abyss", a legendry monster that is said to rise up from underground and destroy the world. They also reveal that, based on their research, Gaismagorm is the true source of the Qurio and it sent them out to gather energy in order to free itself from beneath the sea. As Malzeno wasn't affected by the Qurio, it rivaled Gaismagorm and stalled its release. With Malzeno now dead, nothing is able to stop the Archfiend from emerging.

Galleus gathers his ships and orders the Hunter and Fiorayne to descend into the pit to slay the creature. Within the pit, a destructive battle follows, with Galleus providing artillery fire to aid the Hunter. With his help, the Hunter and Fiorayne bring down Gaismagorm, causing the Qurio to begin to die. Reuniting with Galleus, the Hunter and their allies return to Elgado, where the people of both the kingdom and Kamura are celebrating their victory. Galleus and Bahari inform the Hunter that though their source is gone, the remaining Qurio are still a threat. Fiorayne asks the Hunter to stay with her in Elgado and continue to fight with her to protect the kingdom.

Development

During development of Monster Hunter: World, the team members stated there were no plans to release the game for the Nintendo Switch, but that they were open to a new entry that would be more popular with the "high school age bracket". A while after Worlds was released, rumors were posted online that Capcom was working on a new Monster Hunter title exclusively for the Switch. On September 17, 2020, Nintendo revealed the game during a Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase. This was then followed up with more info during the Monster Hunter direct on the same day. More information was revealed during the 2020 Tokyo Game Show. Rise has been in development for at least four years, having been built on a standard Switch hardware from the ground up.

Monster Hunter Rise is considered to be the sixth main installment after Monster Hunter: World, despite not being numbered in a similar fashion to previous titles. The game's producer, Ryozo Tsujimoto, said that with both World and Rise, they wanted to move away from the use of traditional numbering for the main titles in the Monster Hunter series and instead name them based on a central concept that the game was built around, with "Rise" reflecting the verticality of the game's levels and gameplay elements. The verticality resulted in level design that resembled a medieval Japanese/Asian aesthetic, which had not been an initial goal of the design team but was happenstance from their design. The game's director, Yasunori Ichinose, had previously directed Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, a title that had never been released outside of Asia; Portable 3rd featured Yukumo Village as its hub location, a Japanese-inspired setting with hot springs, and which reappeared in Monster Hunter Generations. Ichinose did not want to reuse Yukumo Village for Rise but wanted a similar setting, one that could be considered in the same reason, and designed Rise's hub, Kamura Village, with similar concepts as Yukumo. Further, this setting helped with the game's approach to more freedom of movement, much like that of ninjas, according to Ichinose, which also worked well with that setting.

Rise's pre-planning development started after the completion of Generations and Generations Ultimate, and was co-developed alongside World, with ideas being shared between the two development teams. The game was built with the RE Engine that was originally developed for Resident Evil 7 and since been used for other Capcom games like the Resident Evil 2 remake and Devil May Cry 5. As this was the first time this engine was used for a game of this type, it delayed some of the production as they worked to assure smooth gameplay within World's zoneless approach on the Switch. Further, the Palamute companion was developed with the portability of the Nintendo Switch in mind, eliminating the depletion of stamina as the player rode it around the game world. According to Ichinose, due to the specs of the Nintendo Switch, it would have been easier to use data from the 3DS era, but since Monster Hunter: World was released recently, it was important to make Rise look as modern as possible.

Programmer Kotaro Miyabe was mainly in charge of selecting and implementing graphics technology and optimizing the overall performance of the game. He stated that it was a real challenge to make online cooperative play among a maximum of four players, four Buddies, three large monsters, and numerous smaller monsters and environmental creatures all operate on a seamless locale. On top of that, [they] devised ways to leverage the hardware to its limits in order to provide a satisfying game experience with beautiful visuals and short loading times.

Natsuki Hanae provide the game narration.

Release

Rise launched on the Nintendo Switch worldwide on March 26, 2021. Alongside its release, Monster Hunter Rise includes three amiibo figures of the Palico, Palamute, and the game's signature monster, the Magnamalo. Using the Amiibo unlocks a set of unique layered armor for the player in the game. A month-long demo was released on January 7, 2021, featuring four quests with all fourteen weapons available as well as single player and online multiplayer support. The demo's release briefly caused the Nintendo eShop servers to suffer outages due to its popularity. The game is expected to have free post-release content similar to World.

A special edition Nintendo Switch bundle, which includes the console and dock emblazened with Rise artwork along with a copy of the game, was also released on March 26, 2021. Ahead of Rise's release, the crossover game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate included three Monster Hunter-themed Mii Fighter costumes as downloadable content, including the Hunter armor, Rathalos armor, and a Felyne hat. Rise also had a collaboration with 2020 action game Ninjala.

Despite Rise being initially billed as a Switch exclusive title, leaked information suggested the game was a timed exclusive and would come to PC in the future. This was later confirmed by Capcom. According to Tsujimoto, due to demand and interest from players, the company is planning on developing a Microsoft Windows version of Rise. The PC version was released in January 12th, 2022. The Windows port was released on January 12, 2022, which includes all content that had been released for Rise for the Switch as of November 2021, with a demo available on October 13, 2021.

In December 2022, Capcom announced that Rise was set to be released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on January 20, 2023. The game became available in Game Pass for Xbox, PC, and Cloud at launch. Cross-play and cross-progression is only supported between PlayStation consoles, or between Windows (Microsoft Store) and Xbox consoles. The voice chat and image filters previously exclusive to the Steam version are included in the ports, and the game runs at 4K 60FPS on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, with an option to target 120 FPS at lower resolution. The Sunbreak expansion followed later on April 28, 2023.

Sunbreak

A major paid expansion, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, was released in June 29th 2022. It adds three new monsters, the new Switch Skill Swap ability, the new Follower Quests, new weapons, armor and story elements, and it expands the hunting rank the player can reach, similar to past Monster Hunter games. The Malzeno is the flagship monster for the expansion, confirmed to be “a fierce elder dragon”. Shogun Ceanataur, a crab-like monster who first appeared in Monster Hunter 2, is present in Sunbreak as well.

In addition to the digital-only Standard Edition of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, a special Deluxe Edition includes the massive expansion in addition to bonus content such as layered armor sets, gestures, and hairstyle. Hunters looking to start their journey in Kamura can select the "Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak" set in physical or digital versions for Nintendo Switch. This set includes the Standard Edition of Monster Hunter Rise, as well as the massive Sunbreak expansion (included as a digital voucher in the physical version).

Players who choose to purchase any version of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak early will receive the “Loyal Dog” and “Striped Cat” layered armor sets for Palamute and Palico companions. At launch, players on Nintendo Switch will also be able to purchase three new Malzeno-inspired amiibo that unlock special layered armor for their hunter, Palamute, and Palico pawtners. The expansion will be centered on a new monster, the Elder Dragon Malzeno, but will also bring back monsters from previous iterations of the series.

Reception

Monster Hunter Rise received positive reviews from critics, ending up with a Metacritic score of 87. Critics praised the addition of new items like Wirebugs and the game's expansion of Monster Hunter: World's mechanics.

Sam Machkovech of Ars Technica praised the new movement mechanics and how the game adjusted many monsters from previous entries to compensate for it. He also criticized the game's technical performance saying, "I did run into frenetic battles where the frame rate buckled into the mid-20s." Martin Robinson of Eurogamer appreciated how the game's hunts were shorter than prior games.

Richard Wakeling, writing for GameSpot, enjoyed the new Japanese-styled setting, and the Rampage missions. Ryan Gilliam of Polygon enjoyed the game's increased accessibility for newcomers to the series, and how the player had more ways to approach hunts.

Awards and accolades

Monster Hunter Rise was nominated for Best Role Playing Game and Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2021, but lost to Tales of Arise and It Takes Two, respectively. The Sunbreak expansion won the Grand Award prize at the 2023 Japan Game Awards.

Sales

Capcom has announced that launch shipments of Monster Hunter Rise reached four million units worldwide three days after release. Monster Hunter: World had shipped five million units during the same period after release. It sold over 1.3 million copies within its first week of sale in Japan, and was the bestselling retail game of the week in the country; it also led to a surge in Switch unit sales, more than doubling combined sales of the Switch and Switch Lite compared to prior weeks. By April 27, 2021, six million units had been shipped. Total shipments reached 8 million by January 13, 2022.

In August 2022, Sunbreak had surpassed a total of 4 million copies while Rise had a total of 11 million copies. In January 2023, Sunbreak sold 5 million copies. The base Rise game had sold 12 million copies by February 2023, while Sunbreak had sold 5 million copies by January 2023. As of June 30th 2023, Rise and Sunbreak have sold thirteen million units and six million unites worldwide respectively.

In May 2024, it was reported that Monster Hunter Rise has surpassed 15 million units while the Sunbreak expansion surpassed eight million units.

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External links

• Official website

• Wikipedia article

• Monster Hunter wikia article