It's been about a week (as I write this) since the first title update came out for Monster Hunter Rise, and after sinking around 30 more hours into the game, I think I'm ready to talk about what's new. BACKGROUND:
Some of the stuff in this update has already been announced prior to the game's release, so I had a vague idea of what was going to be added. Around the end of April, we got a presentation that showcased a lot of the new stuff, and just like that, I was excited to play more of the game. I've heard some people say that Rise is an "incomplete" game at launch, and it does appear that Capcom pushed back some content meant to be in the base game to be released post-launch. This is the first Monster Hunter game I've actually taken the time to learn, so I don't really know what constitutes a "complete" game for this franchise, but I'm not sure I agree with the notion that it was a rushed game. The base release has a respectable amount of content with lots of monsters to fight, 14 weapons that accommodate various play styles, and the story, while weirdly handled, does have something vaguely resembling an ending. Would I have preferred more monsters at launch? Naturally. But I don't think that necessarily means that Rise is incomplete as a release. Regardless, I'm just glad there's more stuff to do. This is the sort of game that would benefit from a periodic free update model, so that players like me have something to look forward to even if I end up completing all the new stuff. WHAT'S NEW: New Monsters, Weapons, and Armor Of course, we're all here for one thing: more shit to kill and turn into armor. Overall, this update adds four new monsters, plus two new Apex variants of existing monsters. I've fought every single one of them at least twice, and I'd like to share some brief thoughts on each monster.
As with every new monster, we get new weapons and armor sets to play around with. The new armor sets are pretty powerful (the Teostra set in particular seems excellent for crit-focused builds), and they look neat to boot. As I have only learned a handful of weapons, I only got to play around with a few of the new ones, but the ones I've made so far are no joke. The Teostra dual blades, for instance, deal both Blast and Ice damage, which is a ton of fun to use. I also love the look of some of the new weapons, like the Chameleos long sword (which has a blade that fluctuates from invisible to visible, as the mosnter does). Your Palicoes and Palamutes get new armor and weapons as well, which is great. My favorite is the Kushala Daora Palamute armor, which makes your dog look like goddamn Anubis. Layered Armor Building armor to fit your play style in this game often means wearing pieces that don't mesh together well at all, but the addition of layered armor does away with that. Now, you can create a separate set of armor that's purely cosmetic, without affecting your regular armor (which has all the stats and skills you need). Though layered armor is not a new mechanic to Monster Hunter, it is one a new player like me can appreciate. Now I can dress up my character however I want without having to worry about losing skills I need for my current weapon. You do still have to get material drops and such to craft these armor pieces, but the requirements are a bit more lenient, and if you're playing this game regularly anyhow, you can quickly get all the materials you need in a few hunts. New Quests Though a lot of the new quests have to do with the new monsters, there are also a bunch of new quests added to the Hub and Arena that fall outside of that. The ones I want to highlight are the regular Apex hunts, which allow you to fight Apex Arzuros, Apex Rathian, and Apex Mizutsune in a normal hunt environment. I really liked this addition, as previously, you could only fight these variants in Rampage mode, which is a pretty time-consuming mode. This way, I can easily grab the Apex drops whenever I need them, and if I ever feel like taking on a challenging fight, I don't have to do a Rampage just to get to it. I hope the Apexes having a regular hunt sets a precedent moving forward, because I'd like to fight Apex Rathalos and Apex Diablos normally. I also hope this means that we'll get a regular hunt quest for Wind Serpent Ibushi and Thunder Serpent Narwa (her quest is already sort of normal, but I prefer a less gimmicky fight). Event Quests are also a thing now, as you can download special quests via the Internet whenever they come up. As of this writing, only one Event Quest has come out, and it's just a hunt for an existing monster, but I am excited for the potential of this feature. The rewards themselves just seem to be cosmetic stuff like emotes and such, which I'm indifferent about. There's even a new Village Quest that you can play if you've 100% Village beforehand, and it'll let you craft a brand new armor piece once you beat it. Other Things One of the major changes to the game is the unlocking of the Hunter Rank cap. In the base game, HR 7 was the highest rank, but now that has been removed such that the maximum is level 999 (or some absurd number like that). The rank doesn't matter past HR 40 (as the last of the new stuff is unlocked at that rank), so I guess it's just neat to see the number go up. I personally don't care about this; in fact, I think the HR cap being unlocked would just out me as someone who plays this game a lot. Some changes have been made to existing quests, with different monsters now showing up in certain areas. This is most notable in the Rampage quests, as Magnamalo can now show up to wreck your shit. It is... terrifying, to say the least, but not unbeatable. More level caps have been raised, like Palico and Palamute max level (from 35 to 50), as well as the max armor upgrade level cap (so you can strengthen armor even more). The latter is more significant to me, as the ability to jack up my defense even higher is important in the tougher hunts. New weapons have also been added outside of the ones tied to the new monsters, with many of the existing weapon trees being expanded. The Rathalos weapons, for example, have a new upgrade tier that you can access. A couple of new Petalaces and a bunch of new Decorations have also been added, further expanding your options for your builds. The latter is quite significant as well, as some skills that didn't have Decorations in the base game (Weakness Exploit, Handicraft, Paralysis Attack, among others) now have them, so some armor pieces can now be swapped out. Some new cosmetic DLC has also been added, which I don't really care about. The one thing I will comment on is the Character Edit Voucher, which allows you to edit your character with the character creator you get at the start of the game. I don't understand why such a feature is something you have to pay for; nothing about adjusting your avatar's look merits an additional purchase. VERDICT: Monster Hunter Rise's update had a good amount to offer, with a handful of new monsters to beat the shit out of, new armor sets, weapons, and decorations to work towards, the addition of layered armor to add style to hunts, and a few neat changes or additions like Apex monster quests. Quantity-wise, it doesn't seem like much (especially going by the number of new monsters), but the new content gave me a lot of reasons to keep playing, from practicing the Elder Dragon fights, to farming materials for those new weapons, and teaming up with my friends on the Rampage quests. I'm content with what they added here, although I suppose that's because I don't grind this game out as much as more dedicated players do (and I end up not blasting through all the content as quickly). In any case, the next update is due for the end of May, so that's another thing to look forward to. Hopefully they add just as much stuff, if not more. - end -
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
June 2024
Derryck
|