On June 8, 2023, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak received its final update in the form of the primal Marzeno, the flagship monster of the expansion, which is still not tainted by Cryo and happens to be much more deadly than the main version.

That day, a bunch of carts dropped me off at camp while I was grinding all the parts.

I think now is the perfect time to talk about my thoughts on Monster Hunter Rise, the Sunbreak expansion, and all the changes to the game from start to finish. If you want to know our initial thoughts on Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, click on the links provided.

So…where do we start?

Low Rank

Changes

How about where every hunter starts their journey? Kamura Village, waiting to begin their first serious hunt. For experienced Monster Hunter players, this game felt very different as they got used to the controls. Especially thanks to the wirebug mechanic, which allowed for more freedom of movement and the use of special moves. I barely got around to using it at first, but now it feels so natural and blends into my playing style. Since Wirebugs will likely not appear in other games, I was wondering what the next game would offer and how mechanics like the grappling hook would be further refined. Will the next part slow down the game or will it raise the stakes and make the hunters even more agile? Only time will tell.

I also really hope they keep the ability to customize your fighting style through switch skills and the like. This mechanic was underutilized before the expansion, but with the release of Sunbreak and the addition of new moves and style-changing features, the system has become more useful and customizable.

I think that’s why I prefer the gameplay of Monster Hunter Rise over Monster Hunter World: the freedom. You can basically move anywhere on the map, your movements and attacks are fluid, and you have more control over combat than usual. The only change I didn’t like was the addition of Spiribirds, colorful little birds that boost your hunting stats. These aren’t the best incentive to explore the world, since you have to run around to reach your full potential after each hunt, but it was interesting to find out the preferred way to get as many upgrades as possible before starting a fight.

High Rank

The grind

Once you get past the story, though, the real game begins, and then the problems begin. Monster Hunter has always been a boring game, but here the gameplay loop felt very…lifeless at times. You don’t play because you want to, but rather out of obligation, i.e. obligation like the Rampage system.

This feature was fine, but I could understand why people didn’t like it. Not everyone likes tower defense games, the change in gameplay felt a bit too drastic, and I don’t remember losing even once, even with the seemingly harder challenges. You also have to face unique monsters and fight your way through them to get tickets that allow you to upgrade your weapons with Rampage abilities. Through the event quests, you find out why you finally get to fight all of these unique monsters normally. Eventually, the whole Rampage system was abandoned for Sunbreak, and her abilities were relegated to decoration to be inserted.

But the real reason I stopped playing after a while is because after defeating all the monsters and finishing the story, there was nothing left to do. You can complete all the quests and complete all the arenas, but at some point you’re left with nothing to do but collect talismans and look for skill points for attack boosts, exploiting weaknesses, or speed eating. Once you get to this point, there’s not much motivation to continue. It’s simply about reducing the time to kill, which is the goal for some, but for casual fans it can feel like more work for less reward.

But what still bothers me is the fact that they had to add in the remaining monster and Kamura story resolutions, because there was only a slightly longer time between the credits and the fight with Nalwa, the All-Mother. It was all about talismans for the perfect physique, and it got really boring after a while. While we got through by steadily taking on event quests, stickers and poses offered very little reward and made up the bulk of the event quests at the time.

Master Rank

The endgame

About a year later, these base game issues were addressed with the Sunbreak expansion. The story is formulaic, as you’d expect for a Monster Hunter game, but I really liked the monsters’ biology, how they lived, and their place in the circle of life, and I preferred the smaller storylines. Plus, it actually had a satisfying plot that worked even without subsequent updates.

The Master Rank monsters are great, and fan favorites like Gore Magara and Espinas are back. This makes the final monster list as extensive as Iceborne’s, and some of the fights should be the most entertaining I’ve experienced in a long time. The roars after killing a monster are a sign of a great battle. The Follower system was a great addition to the game, providing a cooperative experience for single players, lowering the difficulty, and offering fun character interactions. I and many other players preferred to have certain characters like the Kamura Twins and Master Utsushi as their main followers, mainly because they could use the Hunting Horn, especially when doing Anomaly Quests.

Ah, Anomaly Quests.

Anomaly Quests were an exciting challenge at first, but as the struggle progressed, it really tested my patience and perseverance. A lot of stuff is locked behind Anomaly levels, and you have to complete these quests to get the materials you need to use Qurious Crafting and Qurious Melding, which give you a huge boost in power. All of the old talismans you’ve been grinding since you reached Master Rank will be nullified once you get your first Anomaly Talisman. Some of the roles I took were crazy, and had both the skills I wanted and some high-level decoration slots. With each update, Hunters got stronger, not through stats or skills, but through the sheer potential of the builds they could create.

And suddenly I realized I was doing the same thing I was doing before Sunbreak: grinding materials to get better amulets, only monsters were harder and blood corrupted. It’s good that there’s always something to do and new challenges to overcome, but it takes a long time to clear all the levels. And of course the “Continue to increase MR” notification didn’t get removed after defeating Primitive Marzeno.

But my biggest complaint was the fact that there was a significant lack of crossover event quests. Monster Hunter World had some very cool and awesome new additions, like Behemoth and Leshen (no matter how terrifying their fights are), and some great armor and gear. Who would have known that Ezio’s Robes were part of the meta? There was a lot of cool layered armor here in Sunbreak, some of which were ported over from World and Iceborne, and some remastered armor sets from Monster Hunter Frontier, but that was it, and everything that looked fun was behind paid DLC and blocked. I don’t complain too much about the lack of crossovers, but this is where I want more from other series.

And… that’s pretty much all I wanted to say about Monster Hunter Rise. I will always love Monster Hunter, and Monster Hunter Rise will continue to be a great game for me. This journey hasn’t been the most fun I’ve ever had, but I’m glad I went, and I’ll always cherish the memories and the weapons I made.

Also, my character is now voiced by Arin Hanson. Thank you Capcom for making this DLC available for free!

Until the next Monster Hunter game (and our 20th anniversary next year), happy hunting!