Monster Hunter Rise (2021)

When Capcom started adding additional/new DRM to older games on Steam, everyone predicted it would break Steam Deck compatibility. And now here we are:

Monster Hunter Rise update breaks Steam Deck compatibility, users blame new DRM

Call it petty, but I'm going to avoid buying games if they don't play on Steam Deck due to DRM. I'm fine with tinkering to get games to work, but DRM goes beyond basic compatibility mismatches. Interoperability between my desktop and Steam Deck is a big factor influencing why I buy certain games for PC, so maybe Capcom's going on the old temporary "avoid this company" list until this is sorted out.

I really like this game but my god is the UI ever terrible. Want an example? When faced with a tutorial screen you have two options subsequent to reading, pressing A for Next and B for Close. However if the tutorial screen is only one page long, or you are on the final page pressing Next or Close prompts the same dialogue box "Exit the Tutorial? Yes or No." Regardless of what you want, you have to agree to close the tutorial. Now, at the beginning of the game this is unclear, and many tutorials are only one page long, which leads a new player to wonder if they've pressed the wrong button when faced with the question of whether or not to close the tutorial.

This kind of design is unintuitive and creates friction for the user, and the philosophy of this design permeates every other aspect of the game. It just generally has a very poor interface that fights the player. In time one grows accustom to it, but there are absolutely better ways to design every aspect of the game.

The game is also filled with layers upon layers of useless elements and fiddly little bits to have to learn and deal with, like hiring buddies, trading, and other nonsense that really just gets in the way of honing in on the core enjoyable aspects of the game. I also don't love the wirebugs. I understand their purpose but I've yet to feel they improve my experience over something like Monster Hunter World.

I like this more than Monster Hunter World since everything feels a bit less drawn-out. Still I think there's a bit of a limited appeal for me in these games. Though I am still having fun after the first few sessions, I'm not absorbed into it like I want to be with a big action-RPG. Maybe part of it is just that the game feels disjointed, popping back and forth between the home village and different medium-sized field areas every 15 minutes or so with occasional dialogue.

I think what would make me like it a bit more would be more of a feeling that I'm actually progressing through a world, being able to naturally discover my objectives while exploring instead of picking them from a list one at a time, and maybe a more straightforward gear/loot system that's easier to get a grasp of. Besides that, even with these lower-HP monsters, I still don't super love how long fights take in these games without meaningfully changing enough to justify the length IMO (I'm only 5-6 hours in though). But at least the core gameplay is fun and the game has a really nice look and charm to it.

If I finish the main story, I'll report back with a full review, otherwise I still will have had a pretty good time with it. Definitely still going for now.

I can't decide if I like this game or not, which has been my experience with a bunch of the monster hunter games. Invariable somewhere in the early game is a a pain-in-the-ass monster that you must kill to proceed into the later levels. I just didn't expect it to occur at HR 2. Magnamalo is bullshit.

I do enjoy the technical nature of the game of learning the monster. This game is very streamlined from past games and really keeps the game more focused on the action. But for all the Monster Hunter games there is no ability to grind in the early game and get better stuff. So much of the content is locked behind proceeding the urgent quests. You are already given the best weapons and there is no point in crafting the other ones. To get stuck on the early quests is just demoralizing.

I started playing this again on PC when it launched two weeks ago. Put about 40 hours in... I thought I'd delve deep into this but I feel the same burnt out vibes.

Maybe my hundreds of hours of playtime on World aren't helping. Maybe double dipping wasn't a great idea. There's something about Rise that makes it feel less grand, less immersive and less important to play. The gameplay is there, the aesthetic is there (even though it lacks in detail and polish). I think it's the lack of story, of fresh ideas.

Kulve Taroth was amazing to me, in World. And doing these 16 player events felt fresh, felt MMO-like, without having to grind on a daily basis.

I hope the new Monster Hunter game explores these concepts further. An MMO-lite, a casual MMO, where online play feels less disconnected an anonymous, as it does in Rise.

I also hope the new MH game has a better story and introduces something new, fresh, something deeper than the wirebug. And don't get me wrong. I love MH, and I enjoyed Rise. But it is not the BIG new MH game I was hoping it to be. Maybe the Sunbreak expansion will change my mind, I doubt it.

Also, fuck CAPCOM's shitty end-game concepts. I despised the Guiding Lands in Iceborne and I despise the Talisman grind in MH Rise.