Capcom's Former Switch Exclusive Monster Hunter Rise Is Off To A Great Start On Steam

the lack of cross-play for Monster Hunter Rise just makes me want to play Dauntless instead

no cross save is kinda of a turn off for me.

Also I was reading the Steam reviews, apparently some people have issues with save files

I always thought it was weird this game was switch exclusive, glad to see it got released on pc but when on the other consoles?

I wonder what the actual reason was for no crossplay. I mean they basically just said they can't because they can't.

Monster Hunter World peaked at a mindboggling ~320,000 concurrent players, so it will be interesting to see how high Rise can go.

Eh, Rise is so easy that it wouldn’t take long to get right back to High Rank. It’s the shortest Monster Hunter game I’ve played, definitely shorter than base World with all updates.

Great game, can't wait for the DLC, i put 270 hours into the game so far and it was my 2021 GOTY.

@-Juice- unfortunately this is true, Rise is by no means a short game though, it's still a solid 250-300 hour game.

But you're right, its the shortest MH game since the PS2 era, for Rise+DLC to match base World in content, without Iceborne, Sunbreak will need to have at least 200-250 hours of additional content, essentially doubling whats there currently. Which is highly unlikely, at most they'll add on an additional 100 hours of content which will be great but still a long way off World, i hope they don't continue that trend. But annoying thing about all this is World with Iceborne has even less content than GU, so it seems to be where they are going.

@zapswitch maybe its like a Street Fighter 5 situation.

PS4 is the only console to get SF5, but PC doesn't count as a console so it got released there.

I am guessing MH Rise is like the street fighter 5 situation but I don't know for sure

@zapswitch I believe Nintendo payed them a large sum of money (I can’t remember the exact figure) to have the game as a console exclusive. This was revealed in a leak last year. In fact at least in early stages it was leaked that the game was not originally intended to be a switch game at all.

@OnlyItsMeReid The money part is true but I don't know about if it wasn't originally for Switch is true.

It might have been for Switch but it would be multi-platform or something. Idk for sure

@Gamer_Zeus Rose-tinted glasses. Base World didn't have all that much content. Rise just has a more streamlined quest structure, combined with World having more drawn out story cutscenes. This was by design, since Rise devs wanted people to jump into wireless multiplayer as soon as possible, while World's dev team wanted to stretch out LR/HR for the storyline as long as possible.

Another factor that makes Rise feel like the shortest MH is simply due to its overall speed. Never before have you been able to streak across the map as fast as with a Palamute. Monsters running away to a different area has been rendered a moot point with Palamutes, taking only a few seconds to get back into the action.

In contrast, World's map design has the opposite effect. World's labyrinthian maps makes each time a monster runs away much more drawn out.

World's research system also padded out a bunch of artificial game time, akin to MH4U's system (coincidentally developed by the same team).

Both dev teams, between the Portable 3rd/Generations/Rise team and the MH4U/World team, legitimately approach Monster Hunter in fundamentally different ways. Rise has almost as much base content as World, minus a grinding hook like World's research system. It just approaches the game in a fundamentally different way, opting instead to streamline the quests to get you through the ranks even faster.

steam players going to have to wait awhile for sunbreak expansion since that one is coming to switch version first.

Sucks I won’t be able to play this with a friend who is using PC, but I’m not double dipping. Especially when MH feels natural to play as a handheld game. Sunbreak is coming soon anyway.

@Ulysses not sure how im wearing "Rose tinted glasses" when i literally played both games about 8 months apart. Like i said Rise was my Goty for 2021 but i don't kiss ass, I'm objective even when i like something.

No it isn't true about "more streamlined quests", the world is literally smaller in Rise, granted World takes longer to traverse, but its just so much more spread out, with a lot more to do.

You might call it "QOL" but a lot of stuff added into Rise just dumbed the game down, like the monster ALWAYS showing up on the mini map. The ability to instantly know where the monster is ruins a lot of the "hunting" part of Monster Hunter dont you think?

They should call it Monster Killer from now on, you're not really hunting anymore. Don't even get me started on Talismans...

I just broke 500 hrs in this game- more than any other base game in the series, and even counting Ultimate Editions, still a close 2nd behind MH3U at 600 hrs.

I told myself I wasn't going to buy on Steam without cross saves. After all, I'm not looking to redo 500 hrs so soon after, especially if it means being tethered to the TV.

But... my love for the series and wanting to support it overrode my resentment toward Capcom over cross saves, and I went ahead and scooped it. Spent 3 hrs getting all my radial menus and custom shoutouts and options settings matching Switch, and got the Dualsense Controller config set up properly with gyro aiming...

It looks nice. I'm running 4k 60fps with VRR and HDR on the max graphical settings. Could probably get 120fps but my VRR is set in Nvidia for 60 and I don't wanna change it. 60 is good enough, anyways.

Tbh, once you adjust to the smoother framerate and sharper image, it doesn't feel any different than the Switch version tbh. Cause when you're playing it you're too busy focusing on what's happening to pay attention. It is a nice experience though. But I got it more for posterity than to actually do another playthrough. I'll stick with Switch and wait for Sunbreak. Maybe toy with the PC version in the meantime just for fun.

I hope the PC version does as well as World did. It's success is what makes AAA Switch exclusive Monster Hunter games financially viable. It's a much harder sell to convince Capcom to make a Switch exclusive for 8 million sales (as good as that is, and it'll probably hit 10m for base game by the time the gen is over), because one platform can only do so much... but for 16-18m? Now that is too good to pass up. PC is why we're getting high quality exclusives like Rise and Stories 2. And the better it does on Steam, the higher the likelihood Capcom will be willing to give us another exclusive Monster Hunter on Switch 2.

So buy buy buy this game! Support it strong! Switch, Steam, doesn't matter where. Either way, it directly contributes to us getting the next exclusive Monster Hunter built ground up for Nintendo hardware.

Great game! I put in around 85 hours into it.

I'm looking forward to the new DLC expansion this year.

@Gamer_Zeus You're not being very objective though, and definitely viewing World with rose tinted glasses. Rise beats a fully updated vanilla World in amount of monsters and quests and it still hasn't finished with its event quests.

World (Vanilla): 117 Hub quests, 52 Event quests, 26 rotating Special Arena quests + random generated research quests. Total: 195 quests. 36 Large Monsters, 18 small monsters.

Rise: 128 Hub quests, 43 Event quests, 55 Village quests + random generated rampage quests. Total: 226 quests with more event quests incoming. 46 Large Monsters, 26 small monsters.

I played World for the first time at the beginning of last year on my PC, and Rise at launch, so I only had three months between titles. Frankly, graphics aside, Rise is the better of the two. I always loathed "hunting" the monster. World, the tracking of footprints was just a tedious waste of time and before that where you would not know where the heck the monster was hiding was just frustrating. Especially as it moves in between the sections while you were, so you would search the whole map and maybe not even come across it. I eventually just used psychoserum all the time. Rise, thank GOD, skips that pointless step and gets us right into the action. And because of the quality of life improvements I have played it more than any other Monster Hunter title simply because I enjoyed my experience. Being in my thirties and having to balance work, life and gaming, I appreciate games that don't waste my time.

My top three MH play times are:
MHR: 350hrs MHW: 250hrs MHGU: 200hrs.

@Munchlax Yeah. It's weird.

I remember playing Red Faction 4 (Armageddon) on PS3.
It were nearly 15 hours long, but after 10 hours it became tedious and repetitive. A struggle to complete.

100% Assassins Creed Odyssey + all 3 Game Worlds took me 180 hours. More or less engaging all the time.

Point is. What's the point of a game that is great for like only 20 hours, and the rest is a endless boring grindfest for 180 hours?
That's nothing more than waste of time.

And there is 20 hours games with like 10-15 hours of video, and 5-10 hours of gameplay. cough*Sony*cough.
Those 20 hour games only have 5-10 hours of gameplay, as video is not gameplay.

Destiny 2 were fun for over 1000 hours for most people. (Including me).

Generally, many 10 hour games is way better than 200 hour games.
Endless backtracing and repetitive tasks is not fun.
These repetitive games were more fun in 1990's than now.

@TanukiTrooper You do realise that literally 90% of review sites and gaming channels puts World above Rise right? Are they all using "rose tinted glasses"?

I mean before reeling off your unpopular take on this matter, did you decide to look at what the wider concensus was on this? before claiming "must be rose tinted glasses"

Here you even proved my point for me, you know that 1 quests in World is the equivalent to roughly 2.5 quests in Rise?

"World (Vanilla): 117 Hub quests, 52 Event quests, 26 rotating Special Arena quests + random generated research quests. Total: 195 quests. 36 Large Monsters, 18 small monsters.

Rise: 128 Hub quests, 43 Event quests, 55 Village quests + random generated rampage quests. Total: 226 quests with more event quests incoming. 46 Large Monsters, 26 small monsters.".

I was looking for this info, this can perfectly be used to prove my point. Which makes it hard to believe you played World because if you did you would know the biggest difference.

Because in World, those total 195 quests are the equivalent to 400 Rise quests, easily, possibly more because every single quest in World takes a lot longer to finish, the maps are bigger, there is no magic satellite to tell you where the monster went, better haul ass and get there fast, there is a lot more preparation for killing monsters and quite frankly the World quests are a lot more engaging, especially at the end compared to Rise.

On Rise in the allocated 45 mins you can easily kill all 3 monsters on the map unless you are legitimately bad at the game. You wouldn't be able to do a similar feat on World by any stretch of the imagination.

Now granted the reason for some of this is down to the dumbing down of the Series "lets show you where monsters are so you don't have to "hunt anything" - this annoys me to no end because it literally takes the Hunter away from "Monster Hunter".

Anyway you should take your fanboy hat off buddy.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thegamer.com/best-monster-hunter-games/amp/ -rose tinted glasses huh?

https://boardgamestips.com/scrabble/what-is-considered-the-best-monster-hunter-game/#What_is_considered_the_best_monster_hunter_game - rose tinted glasses i assume?

In fact here you go, this is from a Nintendo fansite IN Japan (where MH games are most popular), an article you may remember actually, rating the top 100 games of all time in Japan.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nintendoenthusiast.com/100-favorite-console-games-of-all-time-in-japan-50000-users/amp/

World is in position 70 while Rise isn't even in the top 100 games.

This is a country that prefers Nintendo over every other console maker and is a country who are huge fans of MH and out of 50,000 gamers, they couldn't get Rise in the top 100 games.

trust me, World is a better game, you can have you opinion, but it's an unpopular take on the subject and if anything, you are the one wearing fanboy glasses.

You would almost think NL posts these Rise articles because they know a lot of people click on it, and in some cases even comment on stuff in a not so charming way...

Oh well...

@Gamer_Zeus my personal opinion about Rise vs World (or vs GU, 4U and so on) aside.

It is a shame they didn't keep the online MP system from World in Rise, that was a change I actually did like a lot.

@Rayquaza2510 i didn't even want to get into the Online aspect of Rise Vs World, thats just embarrassing for Rise.

But unfortunately i think Rise is more hindered by Nintendo's shoddy online system more than anything.

Expensive upgrade for PC to start all over again.

@anoyonmus yah that part I heard somewhere, might not be true

@Gamer_Zeus
You seem to be trying a little too hard to dismiss others opinions.

You have yours, let others have theirs. I too prefer Rise to World, all things considered. Both amazing games, of course.

But you can't beat someone's opinion into submission or use other ppl's opinions to validate your own as being more legitimate. If you like World more, that's great. Many ppl do. If others like Rise more, that's also great. Many ppl do.

It doesn't need to be a pissing contest.

@OnlyItsMeReid yeha

@JaxonH i've put 400+ hours on MHGU (and there's room for more) but stopped playing Rise on the 70 hour mark, nothing more to do, Valstrax set and weapons, all quests completed, have all weapons and armor i wanted, etc.

Honest question, what you did in these 500 hours? I'm a old MH player, started back on Freedom 2 os PSP. Rise is just to easy, to short, and i play almost alone.

I'm returning to MHGU and lets's see this "massive" update Sunbreak.

@Dinizz_2d
I just did all the Quests. I still have 4 Event Quests without a checkmark, but aside from that I've done every quest.

I put 400 hrs into MHGU myself but didn't bother doing all the Quests. Way too many gathering Quests in that game.

@JaxonH no it didn't start off with me dismissing other people's opinions, i stated my opinion and i was told that my opinion is based on "rose tinted glasses"... which is the text book definition of having your opinions dismissed.

Even though it's actually the most popular opinion within the community which is the exact opposite of "rose tinted glasses"...

But lets be real here, my opinion got called out here because Rise is on the Switch and World isn't. Makes Nintendo fans mad.

Which makes the fact that Rise didn't even get to the top 100 games of all time in Japan (Nintendo County) while World got to 70 even more glaring.

"Rose tinted glasses" indeed 🤣.

@JaxonH whats even more ridiculous is i actually said Rise was my GOTY for 2021 but because i didn't praise it over World, i get called out.

Literally typical Nintendo Fanboy behaviour, it's too funny.

I found Rise to be pretty easy, but I also played every MonHun since Tri. I got a few friends to jump in on Rise, what with the popularity of the Switch, and the reality is that Rise is still a really dense game to get into for casual gamers. At this point I actually prefer the stream-lined experience Rise gives over World's, especially when it comes to multiplayer and grinding out hunter levels. Plus, and I'm sorry for this, Tempered and ArchTempered monsters aren't fun or interesting. I just don't care.

@Pokester99 The level of Nintendo fanaticism is really lunacy, i basically said "Rise is my GOTY for 2021 but World was better" and they're snapping at my heels like poodles with rabies.

@Gamer_Zeus I admit that the phrase rose-tinted glasses was unnecessary on my part. I shouldn't have presumed what you were thinking.

Ironically enough, I have used almost that exact phrase you used to describe the direction of the Monster Hunter franchise, because Monster Hunter really is becoming increasingly arena-like rather than evolving its methodical, thoughtful hunting roots.

What I meant by more streamlined quests was the structure of the quests themselves. World places the multiplayer behind its storyline, whereas Rise places the multiplayer in front of its story. World was intended by its devs to stretch out your character's progression, whereas Rise intentionally made it easier to shoot up the ranks without too much story or other side activities getting in the way. In fact, you can translate that fundamental approach into every aspect of game design, from stretching out the experience of the quest itself to the size and shape of the map design, with Rise containing wide roadways for your Palamute to zip through.

And, I fully agree about Rise dumbing down the game, in all the ways you described. However, as someone who began with old-school Monster Hunter on PSP, I have to say that in my experience, World did even more damage than Rise.

In my opinion, one of the distinct characteristics of old-school Monster Hunter was both the slower pace of the hunt and the requirement for careful decision making, which also meant unforgiving, inconvenient punishment for careless decision making.

And MHWorld took away so much decision making from the player, or in other words, the game removed so much of the inconvenient punishment for careless decision making. The environment, elemental differences, the items, even the stats and equipment themselves can all be virtually ignored in World, and now also MHRise in turn. In order to hunt a monster efficiently, or even successfully at all, a player used to think carefully about the equipment and items they brought into a quest. But ever since World, you can just bring the same basic items every time and get by pretty well (with exceptions). In fact, on my second play-through of World, I went through the whole game and halfway through Master Rank with the Iron SnS and the default armor!

Thank goodness MHGU is available on Switch. Otherwise I would be sorely missing the old-school experience. But despite that, I still love Rise and played World to death, and am still excited for Sunbreak as well as the follow up to World. Honestly, the only two games that will make me buy a PS5 is the follow up to World or that Harry Potter game. Monster Hunter is quite literally a system seller for me. Come to think of it, that's why I bought the PS4 in the first place.

I've come to terms with the reality that as the franchise continues to evolve and change, I have to change my expectations along with it.
Or simply opt out.

Oh wow, that's a bit of a wall of text! Leave it to a longtime fan to accidentally write up a few too many essays in his time about MH.

@Munchlax Ha! Me too. I'm at a point my life where anything that takes over 20hrs is a hard sell

@Ulysses yeah no worries, i got rather annoyed at the "rose tinted glasses" comment and proceeded to do exactly the same thing with your opinion so it makes me no better.

But yeah i agree, the series has been getting dumbed down more and more and it all really started with World so i get what you mean when you say you hate it more for that fact, MHGU was literally the pinnacle of the series before Capcom dumbed it down, i guess you could call some aspects of it "streamlined", but much of it is to cater to the casuals and get as many sales as possible.

I do feel that Rise took that notion of "dumbing down the games" and turned it up 10 notches though, it started with World i agree, but one game later and you're a giant dog riding Spiderman thing just whizzing around the map.

It was all just a bit over the top in Rise, World made the Gameplay a lot more faster and added a lot to what the player can do.

I felt that they could have at least made 2 or 3 more games in the same vein as World before turning up the dial on the "streamlining" of the game but whatever.

I like both Rise and World so i don't care at the end of the day, I'm comparing two games that i like and both are among my top 10, i actually got into the series with MHGU around mid 2020, but i simply got overwhelmed by how much there is to do, Rise was coming out too in March of 2021 and i had World to play too.

I should really go back to MHGU. Oh look a wall of text... 🤣