Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

@CJD87 I started the game out with the Long sword, and while I liked it, I wasn’t a huge fan of the lack of speed. I actually switched to the dual blades, and those have felt way better for me. I prefer quicker combat styles, so this weapon seems to be right up my alley, at least for now.

The game is starting to make more sense to me now. I was completely overwhelmed with tutorials, gear, and weapons starting out. But at the point where I’m at, I’m at least feeling comfortable with the base mechanics. The combat feels awesome and the customization is super in-depth, and that’s really all I care about. I’m planning on going on a couple of free roams (or whatever they’re called) in the first area to grab some monster parts to craft some Wroggi armor. Might do a few online hunts as well to pick up on some skills from other people.

Definitely starting to feel the game pulling me in… even though I probably know a small fraction of everything it has to offer. I have a feeling this might be a huge timesink for me!

@StarPoint
I would caution you against that, actually.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone feels like weapons are "slower" when they first start playing MH, because they're used to action games. But the entire cadence of MH is built upon managing animation frames. Every weapon has a time commitment for a single button press attack. It's a game where you absolutely never just mash a button carelessly without knowing exactly what attack you're doing, and exactly how long its going to take to play out (this is why it's so crucially important to know your weapon and its combos).

The monsters also have animation frames. Seeing a tell, you must estimate how long you have to get out of the way. Or how much time you have to attack. Sharpening, healing, eating steaks, etc, all have animation commitments.

While Dual Blades may feel closest to what you're used to in other games in terms of minimal animation commitments and anticipation windup of moves, they kind of go directly counter to the entire rest of the game, instilling bad habits like button mashing without knowing exactly what move you're committing to before you commit. Imo, they're short term comfort now at the price of long term improvement as a player. They also dull twice as quick as other weapons due to faster attack rate, which means stopping to sharpen mid fight or continuing to fight while doing much less damage, causing the hunt to take longer. They also have horrible reach for cutting off monster tails (blunt weapons are good for breaking horns and stuff, severing weapons are good for tail cuts).

The best way to acclimate is to use a weapon with a more normal animation frame time commitment. Great Sword is what I'm using for Sunbreak and it's one of my favorites but admittedly, it's not the best for a new player because it'll feel a little too slow.

Long Sword is actually one of the faster weapons in the game, so you really want to at least acclimate to that until it "feels fast" to you. And, it will once you play enough and just get used to everything. Using a weapon like Long Sword is great for learning as each slice is purposeful with intent. The Rise iteration of it is based on countering though.

I think Switch Axe is a fabulous weapon that's a good middle ground, and the best part is, it's the funnest weapon to use in Rise by consensus. It's a more complex weapon but nothing a YT tutorial and a bit of practice in the training area can't overcome.

I don't wanna discourage you too much from using Dual Blades because they can be a really fun weapon, but I do think it's important to get to a point other weapons don't "feel slow" and using DB isn't going to speed up that process, in fact it's going to prolong it.

I guess, I'd recommend watching this video from HeyJay. He tried Rise when it launched and said it wasn't for him. "It felt too slow and clunky". But the community encouraged him to give it another go and now he's a diehard fan with 3 games under his belt and his entire channel is dedicated to the series. He reviews his original "Why I'm not buying MH Rise" video and reacts to his initial thoughts with the benefit of experience and hindsight. I think it'll help you as some of his thoughts when he was a new player may be similar to some of your thoughts now, and his new perspective after becoming a veteran player might help you see things a bit differently

Here it is:

@JaxonH Gotcha, thanks for the advice. At this point, I think I'm still just testing out all of the different weapons to see which one I like the most, but I do think it makes sense to go with the "slower" weapons just so I can get more accustomed to the play style. I will probably switch back to the long sword for now since I was doing pretty well with that weapon anyway.

I'll definitely give that video a watch, though. My initial impressions of the game are very positive, but I am absolutely willing to gain more advice and recommendations.

@StarPoint
What got me hopelessly addicted back in MH3U was the sheer unending depth of the game. It felt like nomatter how much I learned there was always more, much more, that I still didn't know.

Now, after 3,000+ hours spanning half a dozen games across 5 platforms, I finally feel like I know basically everything I need to know. Still not everything. Half the skills in this game I don't know what they do from memory without reading the description (they always add a bunch of new ones each game). There's damage values for your weapon, but they get multiplied by the sharpness modifier, and scale versus the hit zone of the monster part you attack, all of which have different motion values and those values vary by element as well, and that's not acounting for charm buffs, item buffs, skill modifiers, etc. Its an insane amount of info that goes into the damage calculation. There's a certain threshold in the calculation as well, below which your weapon will bounce, and above which your weapon will not bounce.

Though it does change slightly from game to game, I remember green sharpness is 1.05x damage, blue is 1.20x, white is 1.32x and purple is 1.40x. I keep a calculator handy so I can compare attack values between weapons of different sharpness colors (though at endgame I only use purple).

But ya, a huge chunk of the fun is the seemingly neverending depth. You'll soak up knowledge like a sponge the first month or two you play.

I just loved fighting bosses, and back when Tri was announced for the Wii, someone on here told me that the series was basically just a boss battle simulator. That's all it took me to get into it. lol

@JaxonH The Push Square article says that: "Another expansion on top of Sunbreak is apparently also coming in spring 2023." But going to the source, I see nothing that alludes to the existence of a second expansion, so I'm not sure where they're getting that information.

@JaxonH Yeah I am super impressed by just how involved every feature is. Like you get certain monster parts from trapping, and in order to trap them, you need a pitfall trap and a tranquilizer, and in order to get those, you need to harvest certain resources and craft other things… etc. etc. It’s pretty time-consuming but it feels great when you pull off something. I just trapped a Great Wroggi for the first time actually.

Hopefully certain aspects and features become clearer over time as well. There are still a lot of things that I’m unsure of but I think I’ll become familiar with them as they become more relevant.

@StarPoint Jaxon makes a good point re Dual Blades...

Don't get me wrong, they are a viable weapon for sure - but I fell into a real 'trap' by using them as my first weapon in Rise, as they made me play the game like Devil May Cry...! (when MHR is far more nuanced in its combat, and reliant on reading Monster tells/animations + punishing during relevant openings)

I see a lot of people online at Master Rank playing DB.... but I see a ton more playing Long Sword! Long Sword seems to be a more popular weapon, albeit I am always told Sword&Shield is perfect for beginners (I've not played S&S personally, can't vouch)

But for sure watch a lot of YT beginner videos on your chosen weapon, and learn the mechanics.

Always ask on here if you have questions, guys are more than happy to help!

@Ralizah
Ya, as suspected then. Nothing to get excited over. It's just a late port of what already exists.

They might squeeze a couple million extra sales out of this, but without cross play, and with the vast majority of MH fans already having bought and played through the game, and without PS/Xbox offering any real advantages over Switch/PC and not having the "ooh, ahh" graphics those gamers like, and being so late, I suspect the online will be abysmal after a few months. Even PC version is hard to find lobbies.

Ah well. I am so totally hooked on the game again. This title update changed everything. I'm up to MR 79, working toward 100, and then 120 and 140. This is the game that never ends, and I love it.

@StarPoint
Congrats. It feels good when you accomplish things like that. Back in the day we didn't have little blue icons that told us when a monster could be capped. We had to watch for the limp or wait for them go back to their nest to sleep. There was a skill called Capture Master, I believe, that showed an icon when they were ready to be trapped. Ever since World though they've given an icon.

Turns out it was just that Sunbreak is launching in Spring 2023 on those platforms.

Yeah I knew a whole new expansion wouldn't happen...if anything MAYBE something like a mini expansion could've happened. (like, I dunno...one that gives us a bunch of Frontier monsters, maybe a Frontier map remade for 5th generation, lol)

Anyways, decided to start over in World/IB, going to give the game another chance AGAIN and use something other than the Gunlance. Maybe I'll enjoy the game more, we'll see.

Might do the same with Rise/SB once it's done with the title updates...maybe give the ranged weapons a try with that game...I dunno, never liked them.

Is anyone else starting to burn out on the game? Don't get me wrong, I think Rise/Sunbreak is fantastic and probably has the best gameplay in the series with the fast paced combat and wirebugs, but the lack of "new content" is wearing me down. I've grinded to MR110 only to be "rewarded" with yet another variant and this is also the case up to MR140 researching online. Many of the MR quests all blend together with the same set of monsters/variants of these monsters. The only way to inject any sembelance of variety into the experience is by setting the anomaly quest target to any, but even they are losing their lustre. I'll probably sit out the updates in 2023 if they don't add actual new monsters.

Part of it I think is because Risen monsters aren't...exactly too special. Yeah, new attacks and stuff, but that's about it. Chaotic, eh...it's alright, but...still just another Magala. Followers being able to join most MR quests is my favorite part because of the investigations taking forever to solo...but it still requires grinding and stuff.

Really I think it's just mostly been variants and stuff of monsters that were already in the game, so basically just a slightly harder version of those monsters. At least the last update we got a subspecies that most of us never encountered before and a new rare species.

@Zilock
No game lasts forever. This is not an MMO, it's a game you play through until you've had your fill and you move on.

There's actually a crapload of monsters and content in Rise + Sunbreak, which rivals World + Iceborn, but at the end of the day, endgame is all about replaying monsters you've already fought. 70 something large monsters only stretches so far before the game has to use other creative ways to create longevity. And for everyone, a point will come where you've simply had your fill, and that's OK. If you feel tired of playing, then just quit playing. You got your money's worth. You beat the game and played through extensive parts of endgame.

I'm not burned out. I'm 800 hrs in at MR80 and haven't even started on anomoly quests yet (barring the first 2 stars just to check it out). I'm wrapping up the remaining quests and then diving in to anomoly.

It's nice that new monsters still unlock every 20 ranks because it gives something to look forward to. But it's not like there "isn't enough new content". The expansion is chock full of new content, with an additional 10 monsters added just from title updates. You're just facing the reality that no matter how much content is added, it doesn't last forever.

...I kinda wished that Afflicted monsters would at least gain some new moves on higher levels, or something...

@Joeynator3000
Oh that would be great. But also unrealistic. Going back and designing, programming and testing moves for 70 something monsters that already got new moves for master rank, just for anomoly, the vast majority of players will never see... I'm surprised they even gave us ranks to level up at all with the glowing spots and explosions and stuff and separate drops. It was probably hard enough just dialing in the sliding HP and damage.

Basically like MH4U guild quests, but way better.

@JaxonH 4U did something like this actually, not all monsters got changes, but a few mild changes here and there. Also affected mainly elder dragons, but you get my point.

Such as Kirin doing its horn thrust attack would cause a lightning bolt to strike in front, or Teo's powder (or was it Chameleos's poison clouds...?) would drift in a direction. Stuff like that...I dunno, just some kind of change here and there to keep things interesting.

@Joeynator3000
Well, the game is what it is. I for one am extremely grateful for the anomoly quests as it adds limitless endgame content with monsters that gradually hit harder and become more difficult, not to mention their increased speed and, unlike guild quests, provide exclusive drops.

I hear when farming afflicted monsters, light bowgun is a great weapon to use. I've used heavy bowgun for about 50 hrs in MHGU but that was years ago. Maybe I'll make a LBG set when I get to Afflicted and try it out. I've pretty much mastered Great Sword, so it would be fun to switch things up.

Having done every Follower Quest and Support Survey available to me at MR80, I've moved on to the normal quests. Which, I've already done every quest in the base game. And 3 star rankings in Master Rank.

So almost there! Then, finally, I can begin the Anomoly quests.