Monster Hunter is a series about being prepared. While not a series for everyone, for those who do enjoy it, it can be one of the single most addicting things they play. The game rewards a player being prepared for any number of situations. Let's explore briefly how being prepared is rewarded in the latest entry of the series, Monster Hunter: Rise.
Note: These are impressions gathered from playing the Switch demo of the game in a multiplayer context. I am a beginner, as you will soon figure out.
Monster Hunter is for the patient gamer. The game almost downright requires that you study and practice before going off on a hunt. Before you hunt, you have to pick a weapon class. Before you pick a weapon class, you need to know how each performs to see what you like and don't like.
Before you can hunt, you need to go into weapon training. You need to pick a weapon and start trying it out - and not just pressing random buttons either. Monster Hunter is a slow game. If you start an attack, you need to already know in your head how you plan to end your attack, and you need to know when you are committed to finishing an attack animation for large damage, and when you need to stop the attack and dodge. To be prepared to train, you need to first read the weapon combos and understand what the "goal" of a weapon combo is.
Take for example, the Charge Blade. The "goal" of this weapon in it's normal usage is to unleash a fully charged Amped Element Discharge attack. In order to do that, you'll need to build charge. In order to do that, you'll need to land the standard sword combo first, which is X, X, X, then follow it up with ZR so that you do not enter the slower Axe mode before you are prepared with charged Vials. But you need to also not push ZR too early, or you will bring up your shield and enter Guard, which is not what you want to do. Once you have charge, you need to store your charge by switching to Sword mode and pressing ZR + A, which will store one set of Vials. Rinse and repeat this until you have two charged sets of Vials, and then you can enter Axe mode and release a fully charged Amped Element Discharge attack.
But when should you release your big attack that you've taken so much time to build up? Not when the monster is moving around obviously. You need to first knock the monster down and make it so that it is stunned for long enough for you to get the fully charged attack off. In order to do that, you need to understand it's weak points and strike them repeatedly.
Now that you are prepared, and have on where to hit the monster and when to use your big attacks, you need to hunt the monster. You can't kill what you can't find.
So you have to prepare to fight by finding clues around the map that can help lead you to the monster. Droppings, skeletons and remains, tracks - all of these are clues that can help build an understanding of what monster you are looking at, and how to find it.
In order to prepare to track the monster, you need to also prepare properly for the excursion. Eating the right food, gathering the right equipment, heck, even being the right class can help you better prepare for the hour long quest ahead.
All of these things stem back to the core gameplay focus - being prepared. The game rewards you for being patient and planning out all you can about your encounters. By being so rehearsed, you will be able to keep up when the game suddenly changes your quest in the middle by throwing in a second monster or a bigger monster, or replacing your quest target with a different monster entirely.
And of course, you need to be prepared to play with other people. Monster Hunter is a lot more fun with friends.
Code someday, stay tuned!
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