Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate is $16 on the eShop.

Monster Hunter Rise (digital code) is $25 on Walmart website.

Hi, new ro switch and looking for some online games. Dropped 100s of hours into Monster Hunter World so this new one has grabbed my attention now I have the console.
What's the community like on Switch, are you still able to join 8 different squads or is it more limited on a handheld, and are there many 420 friendly ones set up?

So I used to main bow in older gens but haven't touched a bow since rise as I switched to switchaxe but I've decided to try and go back to the bow which is best in rise piercing or rapid I know rapid used to be better unless you've got s large monster but rise seems to have quite a lot of big monsters for endgame so is rapid still king or is piercing the new go to?

@RandomNPC
You can join up to 10 “Hunter Connect” groups. Personally I never used them, but they’re there if you like that approach.

All Monster Hunter games besides World base the online system on 4 player lobbies, as 4 players are the max number of hunters who can go out on a quest. A lot of players disliked lobbies with 16 because it resulted in a constant mish mash, or, it resulted in 4 players banding together anyways so it was no different than before. Rise uses the classic 4 player lobby system.

Community is great, feels more like the old school community pre-World. But it is different. It’s more localized. Search for an open lobby or invite some friends. There’s no voice chat built in, but there is an absolute truckload of preset messages and customizations and stickers and gestures that you can use.

@Jrpglover
Not sure. I only played HBG for 50 hrs in MHGU. Pretty sure they’re all viable in Rise. Use whatever’s more fun.

Yeah, the online functionality is naturally limited as a lot of the assumed conveniences just don’t exist natively on the Switch, but Rise has been the only game I have played through NSO that hasn’t been an experience of constant lag, error messages and disconnects. You will find that some things like some of the early Rampages have basically no population, but generally, this is probably one of the only smooth and worry free NSO experiences you can have.

@JaxonH Thank you, Im definitely a social Moster Hunter. Some of my most memorable experiences on World were night's we didn't even go out hunting, just stayed in the gathering hall messing around and chatting.
We spent a full weekend doing an ArmWrestling Championship and ended up with over 30 people - we needed 2 separate Gathering Hub lobbies and had pre set times for when people would turn up for their round, It was epic! The wife was away on a hen weekend and I can't remember the last time I smoked that much either lol, felt like a teenager again waking and baking for 3 days solid - it was messy (A few of the guys that were drinking had to bail as they couldn't keep up.
Hopefully the Switch has as good a community. Doesn't voice chat work through a phone app? I've signed up to the online service so I have it ready for multiplayer games.

@RandomNPC
Only for certain games, mostly 1st party. .And tbh, at least for me, not having it makes it feel a bit less stressful- you don’t have to worry about talking to ppl if you don’t want, and I’m usually not one for random socializing (though I did go through a phase back in MH3U on Wii U chatting with randoms from Germany). Necessary communication still works fine via gestures, edited shoutouts and stickers.

However, I did chat with my brother (and for hundreds of hours in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate) using the Arctis 9 Wireless (he uses the Arctis 3 Wireless, which also achieves mixing Discord audio to the chat on Switch, but must be wired to Switch). The headset connects to Switch wirelessly via the included dongle, but also includes Bluetooth separately to connect to your phone, so you can mix Discord chat with game audio. I now use my Sennheiser Ambeo surround soundbar and Sennheiser 800S headphones for single player experiences, as the Arctis 9 isn’t exactly going to be featured in any audiophile magazines, but for chat on Switch, the Arctis 9 Wireless is a Godsend (though it’s basically only for chatting with friends, as everyone will need one to connect to Discord and mix audio). You probably don’t have that and neither do your friends. But it’s worth looking into if you want. Just tell all your friends they need to buy one of those and you’re good.

At the end of the day, ppl just like playing Monster Hunter, and if you’re looking for ppl to hunt with, you’ll find that.

@JaxonH Thank you, might give it a go and see how I get on.
I've recently picked up the Xbox Wireless Headset so I'm good and don't really want to have to pick up a separate headset for the few switch games I will play.
I suppose there's always discord but you get more kids joining that way than you do via the LFG boards direct from the game. I haven't got the patience for the stupidity that comes with the younger gamers and it's harder for conversation and a laugh.

I just keep coming back to this game.

Even with 470 hours logged in my save file, I haven't done all the event Quests and rampages they've added in via updates. I'm slowly working my way through them, unlocking all the layered armor sets, stickers, gestures, etc. Just got the Dark Shades tonight.

I've got basically every weapon and layered armor set in the game that I like (and pretty much every armor period, for layered armor anyways). I can't wait for Sunbreak! It's gonna be so good diving into fresh G-rank Rise content.

They're foolish for not giving us cross save though. Lot of Switch players who would have gladly double dipped if it meant bouncing their save back and forth as needed. As it stands, there's very little reason to start over after hundreds of hours and forfeit hybrid play for the privilege.

So I saw in a video Monster Hunter Rise is up to 7.76 million as of November, which shows about a quarter million sales per quarter as steady growth. And this was before the Black Friday and Christmas shopping.

I’m convinced MH Rise will eventually break 10 million on Switch over the lifespan of the system. Especially with Sunbreak putting the game back into focus next year.

What was the giant dragon that was slain in the frost islands does anyone know?

@Jrpglover
Zora Magdaros skull. Still had the dragonator sticking out.

It was the mountain like elder dragon in the base game of Monster Hunter World.

@JaxonH AHH right I was hoping it was some new monster/ super powerful old one since I just completed the frost island relics and the story sounded cool.

If Zora's corpse is in rise does this mean that rise+ world are somehow linked. Considering a being as powerful as Zora isn't something that shows up often

@Jrpglover
No more than any other previous games, I don't think. World had the Dalamadur skeleton you were inside of for Rotten Vale, and that was a MH4U monster. So they've done this type of thing before. I think it's just a cool callback for fans.

It's a strange game, Rise, and by extension the whole series I guess.
Basically it's kill monster, go back to village, kill monster... sounds awfully dull, but it's one of those rare games where it's totally up to the player to get as much out of it as they want.
Like @JaxonH said about getting all the weapons and armour - you can just play to progress through the monsters or collect everything, I guess that makes it a true RPG.

Personally, 45 hours in, it hasn't quite grabbed me, the whole setting my own goals and collecting everything thing. Be that because of time constraints or the playstyle. I've two level six village quests left, I'm purely working to finish those then dunno, maybe I'll try the hub (level one done already).

I can totally see why the series is so loved, bit still not sure if it's for me. Maybe I'm so used to combat in games like Dragon's Dogma that I find it hard to get into a groove with this.

Now excuse me, I need to go and farm Diablos more for its tailcase...

@Mii_duck
Dont forget, Hub is for solo play as much as it is MP. Half the game is in the Hub, in fact, village is more of a tutorial than anything. Hub is the meat of the game.

You'll still have to do Hub low rank, but can skip it if you've finished the village by testing out. I played it just for fun, but it's an option.

There's a lot of monsters in the Hub that don't appear in the village, as well as a ton of unlockable mechanics and tools, arena Quests, challenge Quests, most of the event Quests, etc.

I would just focus on completing the game, beating the end boss, and unlocking the final arena map quests by completing all 7 star Advanced Quests.

That alone will provide plenty to do.

I played World for hundreds of hours, I was done with Rise in under 60. The sort of “make your own endgame” is not for me. However, I would say I had more fun in my 60 hours with Rise than I ever did in my hundreds of hours of World. I know it isn’t a popular opinion, but the fact they made Rise an easier and faster game, really allowing you to keep the pressure on and play it more like an action game than a chess match, just makes Rise a much more enjoyable moment to moment game to me.

I do think, however, Rise took a step backwards in terms of the gear game. The gear was never all that interesting in World, but at least you got the set bonuses which sort of captured the monster they were made from. The removal of the set bonuses from many sets and replacing it with the resistance bonus system, just kinda shows what a muchness a lot of the gear in MH is. Not a lot of it does anything all that interesting or even boosts stats all that meaningfully. It is a power game of increments, slowly stacking tiny dribbles of power on top of one another. I find it very dull.

Hell, even with the set bonuses they leave in, I think the only one that was all that memorable was the Magna one, as those little explosives were actually really useful if you spec’d entirely into that one monster for all your gear. I also think it sucks that despite all the weapons and gear, MH doesn’t really allow you to spec into proper roles. Like you can sorta do some CCing, or support or tanking, but not really or fully and otherwise it’s just different flavours of damage.

Like unlocking new sets for the first time is always exciting, but the vast majority of the sets never gave me any incentive to grind or chase for them, as they do next to nothing of note outside of minmaxing some niche builds you make just to squeeze some more hours out of the game

@Mii_duck
Oh, and while setting your own goals can be incredibly addicting, especially for me as I love the gameplay so much so it never feels like a chore, the core of the addiction still lies in just overcoming Low and High Rank and beating the game. Village is pretty easy, but later in High Rank Hub it gets pretty challenging, and overcoming that challenge to beat the game will become the driving force of incentive to play. And naturally, to overcome, you'll need better armor and weapons along the way. So that feedback loop will naturally arise as you go.

@JaxonH - interesting, I didn't realise the Hub unlocked more mechanics, I maybe judged the game too soon then.

I'm certainly going to keep on going with it.

Oh, and the level six village quests where you fight two monsters is challenging me plenty! Hence going back to the drawing board a bit and grinding monsters, my current armour is fully upgraded so I need to go to the next level.

Weapon choice is puzzling. Like my current has an attack of 150, frost(?) of 18.
Would a weapon with an attack of 170 but no Frost or blast or whatever and a minus affinity be better? No idea, frankly.