Critiques & Corrections - Monster Hunter Rise & Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
It’s an unfortunate truth that when intellectual properties (IPs) expand, their greatness dilutes. Star Wars. Terminator. Lord of the Rings. Each of these franchises have become subjectively worse as they have attempted to grow their audience by building on the mythos that originally made them great. As Monster Hunter has continued to evolve from a Japanese juggernaut to a worldwide sales behemoth, the franchise has begun to show cracks in its quality, most notably starting with Monster Hunter: World and its expansion, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, and continuing into the latest franchise entries, Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. As the series prepares to grow again in the anticipated Monster Hunter 6/World 2/Universe sequel, important changes need to be implemented immediately to save the truly unique aspects of the series that have made it so enjoyable.
Ending The Indulgence In Fantasy And Anime/Manga Elements
As a bastard cousin to the Japanese role playing game (JRPG) genre, the Monster Hunter franchise has included anime esthetics from its inception, most notably, Felynes. However, since 2015’s release of Monster Hunter Generations (known as Monster Hunter X in Japan) and its inclusion of over-the-top Hunter Arts (special attacks practically birthed from a Shonen anime), the games have begun to dive headfirst into the “power of friendship.” Anyone familiar with otaku culture will understand that this power destroys realism and enables generic, immature, trope filled story telling.
Monster Hunter is not about emotions that bind people and monsters together (see the addendum at the end of this blog for my thoughts on Monster Hunter Stories). Instead, the franchise’s roots run deep in fantastical realism. Monster Hunter began by reimaging a world just like ours where wyverns and fanged beasts exist, not with a world conquering desire in their hearts, but with a chemical drive to eat, expand their population, and survive. It’s hard to describe the beauty of entering Zone 1 of the Ancestral Steppe, looking out over the digital horizon as the coded wind and leaves flow past your character, the adventure ahead palpable through the screen.
It’s with this in mind that the location design of all Monster Hunter games must continue to be praised. These are living, breathing environments that never disappoint in their realism. It’s the inhabitants within these worlds, however, that have begun to change. The people of Kamura Village in Monster Hunter Rise represent a laziness that festers in the soul of the game. Fugen the Elder, the old veteran who would inevitably die before passing down the MacGuffen to the hero if the game were an anime. Minoto and Hinoa, the twin Wyverian maidens invented for Rule 34 who are psychically connected to monsters. Yomogi, Komitsu, and Iori, the annoying Gundam children that sap any ability to show the game to friends.
These mannequin characters are a testament to an unimaginative industry and reek of listless creative direction. The main storyline, figuring out how to end a monster madness phenomenon called “The Rampage”, is fine in its own right but is filled with bland storytelling decisions. The concept that the Wyverian people (a race that has been included in Monster Hunter since its inception) have a connection with the monsters has always been a part of Monster Hunter’s lore, but it was ambiguous in its nature. Like historical indigenous groups in our own world, their connection to the monsters was a kind of spiritualism; an understanding of the world’s lifeforce and a metaphysical unity to everything around them. In Monster Hunter Rise, it’s explicitly shown that the “final” monsters, Ibushi and Narwa, can telepathically emote and posses the Wyverian people, specifically Hinoa. In doing so, the story attempts to destroy the fantastical realism that gave the franchise its own identity. Of course, all Monster Hunter games are filled with goofy whimsy and it helps the games differentiate themselves. That’s as far is as needed when it comes to a narrative.
Overbreeding. Invasive species. Changing environments. These are Monster Hunter stories. Telepathic dragons controlling humanoids and making monsters insane? Get that shit out of here.
Bringing Back Creativity In Weapon And Armor Design
It’s been stated many places before this blog, but the weapon designs from Monster Hunter: World were horrendous. Even from a story perspective, there was no reason why the hunters of the New World would regress their weapons and make them more primitive. Iron and bone skeletons covered in a clump of fur and feathers? That blacksmith should be fired.
Getting away from assigning blame to someone in the real world, looking back, the Monster Hunter games of old were filled with eye-widening enthusiasm for their weapon designs. There was real imagination behind the motif of each weapon type, from great swords to hunting horns, and a drive for the player to hunt. The excitement would grow for what the next design might look like.
In Monster Hunter Rise, the problems of World and Iceborne persist. When several monsters from World (Anjanath, Tobi-Kadachi, Pukei Pukei, and Jyuratodus) made their return to Rise, I knew the developers would not attempt to correct their weapon design mistakes. The reason? Laziness.
There is no financial reason to be great, when good will suffice. It’s that horrible truth that causes a director to tell a graphic artist not to spend a day creating a newly imagined design. The regurgitation of oldness is seeped into Monster Hunter Rise and Sunbreak. How many times do we need to see these same designs for weapons and armors? The game’s directors must learn that both old and new designs can be included for all monsters, and that old designs of poor quality can be updated in their entirety. Create two Master Rank Rathalos armors with different variations of stats? Absurd!
Speaking of the armor designs, the poor effort is most evident in the lack of armor helmets. Too many do not completely cover the character model’s face, lending to the fact that the developers wanted to save time rather than create fully fleshed out headgear. If these facial models were particularly impressive, it would be less of an issue, but the Nintendo Switch cannot provide the graphical fidelity needed to make the digital faces worth more than a moment’s attention.
Thinking about visual variety, however, helmets of knights and ninjas are eternally cool creations of violent esthetic design. In past history, their visage could be twisted and corrupted by their armorers to induce dread, their enemies’ hands quivering as they attempted to protect themselves from the sword or kusarigama that moments later would plunge into their skulls. It’s that kind of awe-inspiring equipment that makes a player want to build a monster’s armor, which is the key gratification loop of the franchise.
Instead, the armors presented in Monster Hunter Rise and Sunbreak are consistently boring and lacking any verve to want to hunt for resources for them. With a game so intwined with its visual elements, the fact that they’ve been ignored is nothing more than disrespect for the consumer. For every Monster Hunter moving forward, do your job, Capcom, and develop.
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Provide More Content, Not Unrelated Content, And Bring Mystery Back To The Marketing
It’s never sat right with me how monsters in Monster Hunter seem to change species based on certain environmental factors. Black Diablos is another species of Diablos that is just a female in heat? Shah Dalamadur is a Dalamadur that shed its skin? Why are Rathalos and Rathian separated by sex? None of these scenarios exist in nature and only degrade the taxonomy of the series, but I’m begrudgingly willing to overlook it as a feature of the Monster Hunter universe. What can’t be ignored, and is reflective of the game designers in our own universe is, again, the laziness of monster inclusion and poor monster conception in Monster Hunter Rise and Sunbreak. In both games, there are several juvenile monsters which appear including Tetsucabra, Jagras, Jaggi, Velociprey, Bullfango, Uroktor, Basarios, Zamite, and Baggi, whose adult forms are not included. Why? For what reason was it decided not to include more monsters to hunt in Monster Hunter?
For the mysteriously delayed final battle of Rise (Rise was released in March 2021 but didn’t have an actual ending until an update was released in May of that year), we can’t be provided with a unique monster (or armor)? Instead we get Narwa again as a color tinted Narwa the Allmother? Why was Goss Harag created, when it has more in common with a creature from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or Nioh than any past monster from Monster Hunter? I never want to see a monster using swords and clubs again.
The Sunbreak expansion, like Iceborne before it, offers very little in new monster variety, simply providing color swapped variants of current monsters as a way to build out its roster. Both Rise and Sunbreak squander their monster design inspirations (Eastern and Western monster mythology), skipping a litany of new monsters that could have been invented. The time instead was used by the development team for… the Rampage mini-game and Switch Skills? There is no reason why either concept should have been included in Rise or Sunbreak and puts into question the competency of the creative staff of the game’s development unit. Thankfully for them, Monster Hunter’s gratification loop and the series’ history ensures that every game will ship units, no matter the quality. It’s the sad fate of all popular IPs.
This lack-of-monster issue pails in comparison to undoubtably the worst feature included so far in franchise history (even worse than underwater combat and Siege Quests): Apex Monsters. It’s hard to understate the frustration that comes when a positive game system (Deviant Monsters, Apex Monster’s spiritual predecessor) is stripped of any worth and whose only new purpose is to waste time. Fighting an Apex Monster provides no awards of value. It gives no sense of accomplishment. Classic Deviant Monsters that closed out the “Generations” era of Monster Hunter could have easily been included (Bloodbath Diablos and Soulseer Mizutsune being the prime examples).
For what reason was the Apex Monster system, which is just fighting tedious battles with no useful rewards, put in the game? We can only hope that it was an internal snafu, maybe some kind of strange legal wrangling, that kept the incredible Deviant Monsters from being included. However, like most other issues with current Monster Hunter games, it’s far more likely that laziness (new 3D renders would be needed for the monsters and armors) is the culprit.
Another disturbing trend is that the marketing as of late for Monster Hunter games has been terrible. It’s difficult to understand why, but my belief is that a malicious marketing survey told Capcom that in order for people to be excited for the next Monster Hunter game, they have to spoil nearly every included monster and armor design that will be available. Since Monster Hunter World, Capcom’s marketing team has seen to it to deflate as much anticipation as possible for the mysteries and adventures that lay ahead for the player. Only the “final” monsters for Rise and Sunbreak, Narwa and Gaismagorm, respectively, were not shown in any pre-release marketing material, which is even more pathetic when it’s considered that Narwa is just a color swapped version of another monster, Ibushi. Social media and YouTube accounts have to be unfollowed, as week after week, Capcom charges ahead with images of everything that there is to experience in their games.
It’s difficult to describe the joy and excitement of encountering a new monster for the first time. Molten Tigrex. Hellblade Glavenous. Bazelgeuse. Blackveil Vaal Hazak. When I learned about these monsters on my own in-game, with no hand holding, they created a lasting impression. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get that feeling again from Monster Hunter.
It’s interesting that the majority of these problems came about in Rise and some were corrected in Sunbreak. I have to give credit where it’s due; Sunbreak reverts some of Rise’s mistakes with a naturally occurring story (symbiotic, parasitic invasive monsters) and has a more traditional Monster Hunter cast of characters (charming, with little characterization). It’s as if the game’s staff realized the problems and took action. Unfortunately, with both games likely fleshed out years before Rise’s release, corrective action is most likely not what occurred, which can be seen in the fact that the armor designs and lack of monster variety in Sunbreak continue to denigrate the series’ legacy.
Capcom needs to reclaim Monster Hunter’s identity from the generic aspects of the marketplace and not be scared that boldness in creativity will lead to a decrease in sales, which it will not. Look no further than recent quality-of-life changes to the games as ways to update mechanics while keeping the series’ greatness. Movement while healing? Awesome. Wirebugs increasing maneuverability? Perfect. Tiering the quest difficulty based on player numbers? Yes (although this should only apply to the “Story” Quests. Hub Quests need to return to the traditional four player format, to help build community, especially in the West)! But with all these excellent decisions, Capcom belittles its efforts by crafting anime stories where they aren’t wanted, not designing armor and weapons where they are needed, and ignoring monster variety where it must be done. They need to create marketing efforts that continue to build on the beauty of the world they’ve created, only including adventure, items, and a hint of what’s to come when a player boots up the game. Moving forward, new monsters, weapons, and locations, should draw inspiration from Monster Hunter’s incredible past, making all that was old, new again.
P.S. Don’t get me started on Monster Hunter Stories. Those games in no way reflect Monster Hunter’s individuality as a franchise, and it’s important that fans reclaim cannon from inventors, even if its only within their own opinions. It’s why we as individuals must always be creative, as the products that we love aren’t our own.
