Monster Hunter Rise is tremendous — if you haven't played it, you only have to look at our review to see how much we loved it — so when Capcom asked if we fancied having a pop at the honking new DLC expansion titled Sunbreak, we couldn't say no.
We got to have a go at just two of the quests on offer when we visited Capcom's UK offices, one hunting a Lunagaron, and another taking down a Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate classic, a Seregios.
The Lunagaron was your standard quest, but we were pleased to bump into another new monster by chance, a great big ape-looking thing called a Garagolm. Suffice it to say that all three of these monsters made absolute fools of us; anyone like us who felt that the base game was bordering on being just a little bit too easy will breathe a sigh of relief on firing up this expansion, mere moments before their innards are used to decorate a nest.
The Seregios quest was also one of the new Follower Quests, which teams you up with an NPC to take out a monster together. We were expecting things to be a little bit more different given how they're presented, but our tussle alongside Arlow felt almost like he wasn't present for a lot of the time.
It's likely due to our familiarity with playing with other hunters online, but we were a tiny bit disappointed that there wasn't more to this mode than just having that NPC there. Other Follower Quests may be more interesting (especially if they feature fan favourites such as Minoto or Hinoa), but as it stands we left the encounter feeling lukewarm.
The opposite is true for everything else we were able to get our hands-on, though. The swathes of new quality of life features such as the Swap Scrolls that allow you to flip between two Switch Skill loadouts on the fly, your various moves being displayed on screen, and new Dango options are all substantial enough that they elevate the Sunbreak experience to feel like a true refinement of what Rise introduced. It doesn't just feel like more missions and a higher difficulty ceiling, it feels like a game-wide upgrade that brings more to the table than you might reasonably expect for a hunk (a big, pricey hunk, granted) of DLC.
Minor disappointment with the Follower Quest aside, our biggest complaint following our time with the game is how brief that time was; we feel like we've only been able to see the smallest sliver of what this new DLC has to offer, and we can't wait to sample more of it.
In a nutshell, it's more Monster Hunter, but more than just new monsters and new quests — it's shaping up to be an integral, essential upgrade to the Monster Hunter Rise experience.
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Comments 27
I’m so excited for this, can’t wait 😄
I mean, it's an expansion, of course it's going to be large...lol
Last time I saw a DLC this big? Torna, from Xenoblade 2. High hopes for this one!
Good for those die hard fans. Played for a couple hours when it was free with NSO and was bored to tears. Felt like I was playing the Wii game again with it's identical gameplay (oh wait you can kinda grapple hook things!) minus having keyboard support to communicate easily.
Oh my goshhh I'm SO excited Not long now, hunters!
@moodycat aside from kulve taroth (did it alone, with wrong gear at the time) and Alatreon (because I refuse to use ranged weapons)
World and Iceborne were easy enough.
As for Rise, I went through that even faster, at some point I started to think I was the issue.
Maybe, maybe not, but my ass got kicked when I did G rank in GU and restarting 4U made me remember that too.
It's not that the new games are bad, they are fun (however I didn't like Rise as much, let's hope Sunbreak fixes that)
But the new games give plenty of options to make the game easier, however ik Rise it felt more forced than in World (but even that game has it's own issues too)
But I am excited anyhow, MH games are still solid for me.
I hope we see a lot more new and/or returning monsters besides the 9 which we know about at this point.
A usual rule of thumb for a Monster Hunter G-Rank expansion is about 20-30 new monsters on top of base game.
Also we really, I mean really!... need some good siege battles. Nothing comes close to the greatness of Jhen Mohran from 3U. Rise is lacking those kind of quests.
I pre-ordered the expansion yesterday. Pre-ordering DLC is something I've never done until now. High hopes for good times.
@Sonos
Cartman once said that preordering is like taking a big D in your mouth. We all know he got it right.
@Aneira Good thing I don't take advice from cartoon characters and instead rely on myself and others - the others being real human beings that are not popular cartoon characters. But if quoting cartoons for life advice works for you - do it I say.
Rise was the best game for the Switch of 2021. The pre-order came with some skins for a DLC I know I would eventually buy anyway. I'm a fan. I also have money. shrug
@Sonos
Oh, it was meant as a joke. Didn't know you were actively looking to get offended. I love Rise myself. I just don't see the point in pre-ordering. It's not like a digital game can't be purchased on the day of release. If there were a discount for pre-ordering it would make sense.
@Sonos i mean, after Cyberpunk 2077 everyone should have learnt that pre-ordering video games, is a fools errand.
By all means though, do as you please, if it bombs however, don't expect a refund.
Have a few days off work booked in for this.
GET IN MY FACE
Really looking forward to playing this on PC.
@steizgr8 I booked time off for the upcoming Fire Emblem Warriors.
@RubyCarbuncle Nice!!
I hope it's as good as it looks!
I am counting the days and when it gets down to one day, I’ll be counting the hours. Then minutes, then seconds. Can’t wait!
Really looking forward to this one!
Thanks for sharing (and for the effort)! Now I’m even more impatient for the release date; cheers!
Rise is the only monster hunter game I could get into. I tried MH4U, 3U, generations… they all just felt too slow for me, I guess. The repetition is what killed it for me most of all, I’d get sick of hunting the same thing again and again when nothing around the encounter changes at all. With the older ones being kind of clunky to boot, I’d written the series off… but Rise fixed most of what I couldn’t stand in the older games. I’m now more open to giving 4U and generations a go again too. I’ll definitely pick up the dlc to get some more fun out of this one.
Iceborne was substantial enough to be worth the price. I'm expecting Sunbreak to be no different. I've come to accept that lower-difficulty Monster Hunter is just how it's going to be. The game is still fun, carts still happen (not to me haha) and grinding to create and upgrade gear is still as enjoyable as ever. I've already preordered the DLC so it's just a waiting game now.
I just hope Sunbreak heavily downplays (or even better; eliminates) Rampage quests.
Just got the Steam Deck last week and will be retiring the Switch to play this there. Now I just need get ready for MR in one month.
@Gamer_Zeus Cyberpunk was an entirely new game. This is an add-on to a super old series that has had many iterations of dlc before across multiple system. Apples to Oranges to me. Apples to Sherman Tanks would be a more apt analogy.
@Aneira they give a few skins away with a pre-order. It's a top 3 game on the switch for me so it's a no-brainer. I also want to send a message to Capcom that huge, game-changing dlc is appreciated. So I showed them with my $40.
@Gamer_Zeus lol. when has a MH expansion (or any MH game for that matter) bombed.
The Nintendo eShop is weird...
You can preorder expansions, but you can't upgrade your standard version of an Atelier game to the ultimate version, not without re-buying the whole game.
I feel like Ultimate/G expansions had more content than these new updates bring.
Where's all the sub species and returning monsters? There's only a handful. Its disappointing.
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