Leaderboard

Monster Hunter Rise So this is kind of dubious in terms of whether I "beat" it. I've not nearly finished all the game's content, but I killed this game's flagship monster and saw the credits so I'm going to consider that good enough to at least post about it here even if I still have lots left to do. I've played the game for about 25 hours so far, which isn't much time to see the credits for a Monster Hunter game but it's long enough that I know how the game works and how I feel about it. This is by far the most accessible Monster Hunter game yet, so if the others were too complex for you, including World, then this might be easier for you to swallow. Kamura Village is smaller than Astera in MHW, but that also means it's easier to navigate and most of the important NPCs you need are all right there in the same spot. Quests are divided into two types: village quests which are strictly a solo affair and hub quests, which are multiplayer focused. Solo hunting, while not a cakewalk, is still easier than it's ever been before thanks to the fact you get to take along not one but two NPC companions to help you in fights and you can mix and match between palicoes and palamutes. Speaking of which, there are four main features in this game that make it different from the others. First are the palamutes, which are giant dogs you can ride around to traverse the map faster. For better or worse, you no longer have to track monsters to know where they are on the map so you can easily hop on your palamute and ride over to the fight in just a minute or two after spawning. Palamutes also help you in fights and can be given special equipment to assist with healing, buffing, or debuffing. When you also bring along a palico or a second palamute, just having extra targets to get the monster's attention can make your life a lot easier when you need to heal or sharpen. You're only allowed to bring one companion if you are doing multiplayer, but that number used to be zero so in a full hunt you'll have four hunters and four pets all going after the same monster, which can admittedly get chaotic. I'm hoping Capcom patches in the ability to turn off the attack effects for other hunters so there's less flashy anime shit going on during a multiplayer hunt. The second new feature is the wirebug, which is pretty much a grappling hook except it's a beetle that shoots wire. What sets this apart from normal grappling hooks is that the beetle doesn't have to attach to anything to be used. You can use it like a normal hookshot too, but since beetles have wings you can also use your wirebug to swing or launch yourself no matter where you're standing, which is great for setting up aerial attacks when in previous games you'd need to find a platform to jump from in order to use them. I can't stress enough what a game changer this is, especially since aerial attacks are often the best attacks for many of the game's weapons. There's a short cooldown on the bug after shooting it twice so you can't spam it endlessly, but it's still pretty generous. Wirebugs can also be used for special weapon based attacks that do mounting damage. What is mounting damage? Well that leads into the third new feature. Monster riding! This is far from the first game where you can mount the monsters, but in previous titles mounting was mostly limited to stabbing them until they fell down or making them run headfirst into a wall for big stun damage. In this game, the wirebugs are used like reins so that when you mount a monster you can actually control its movement and its attacks, which means you can make it attack other monsters. Once you've done that, the two monsters are likely to start fighting with each other for a while which not only does a ton of damage to both monsters but it also creates lots of material drops and gives you precious time to heal, buff, or sharpen while they're distracted. It's super satisfying when you can pull it off, and as long as you remember to use attacks with mounting damage it's not too hard to do. Last but not least is the last big new feature: switch skills. In Monster Hunter World and every other MH game I tried the weapons all have their own gameplay style but for each one there's usually an optimal flowchart when it comes to which attacks and combos to use. You'll probably find an attack string that works for you and then use it for the rest of the game. In Rise, however, every weapon has three attacks that can be switched out for a different attack, which can completely change how you use the weapon. For example, I went through the game using the sword and shield. The default combo for the circle button on my controller was a series of shield bashes, which is great for stunning monsters if you hit them in the head. However, you can switch this combo out for one that does multiple stabbing attacks, and since I was using a poison sword this meant multiple hits that all stacked poison on the monster. From what I can tell, there's no universal "right" or "best" way to set up your switch skills for each weapon. It all depends on your personal preferred gameplay style and even then I could see myself switching them up again depending on the monster I'm fighting. It adds a lot of strategy without being too complicated for newbies to grasp. Rise might not be as big or as pretty as World, being a port of a Switch game and all, but it's definitely the easiest to jump into and do a few quick hunts when you have some spare time. I am totally addicted and plan on getting my rank up as high as I can so I'll be ready when the Sunbreak expansion comes out.

Ugh, why am I doing this to myself? This is only going to end in pain... But yeah, I read most of my Junji Ito back in October and I don't wanna touch the few books I have left yet because the next one isn't coming out until the summer. So I just got started on Ghost in the Shell and after that is Akira, both of which are pretty short, so I'm gonna need something for after. Think I'll also get The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezz soon.