Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak - Preview

Monster Hunter Rise

Hunters, to arms, Sunbreak is approaching! The time is finally coming to unleash swords, spears and rifles again to return to the world of Monster Hunter Rise, one year after the adventures that saw us free the village of Kamura from the threat represented by Narwa and Ibushi, thwarted thanks to the unexpected help from the fearsome Magnamalo.

The dusts have settled, restoring serenity among the inhabitants, and in the meantime new challenges have presented themselves to keep the most tireless warriors in training, such as the Apex monsters and the Valstrax Crimson. Despite this, the craving for new and more full-bodied content made itself felt a lot among the members of the community, who clamored to be able to face new and more dangerous challenges, finally entering the G / Maestro rank.

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The excitement has returned to mount with the announcement of the Steam version of the game, available since last January, and the confirmation of alignment with the Nintendo Switch version as regards updates to game content. For this reason, when the release of the new Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak expansion was confirmed simultaneously for the two platforms, the community returned to play with great enthusiasm, refreshing that somewhat rusty muscle memory - especially in Nintendo users. .




Thanks to the recent Digital Events we have learned about Malzeno, Garangolm and Lunagaron, the three lords of the kingdom who recall the classic trio of terror stories, namely Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man, ready to hinder us in our investigation alongside Fiorayne, with whom we will cross the path in an attempt to unravel the mystery the mystery that lies behind the new series of reckless and furious attacks that lead monsters to invade different areas of the kingdom, reaching Kamura.

First look at Sunbreak

The challenge at the Lunagaron centered on a cooperative hunt of 4 human players engaged in the new area of ​​the Citadel, which stretches around the abandoned ruins of an old castle and houses a diverse array of biomes within, from forested areas to stretches of frozen ground, to grim abandoned ruins.



It is precisely by exploring this uninhabited environment that we discover the first novelties, starting with the possibility of climbing walls without necessarily using the wire insect, as now it is sufficient to run towards the wall from climb to watch our hunter start the animation. This simplification in the dynamics of traversal makes exploration more stimulating, and consequently leads to consume stamina and insect wire in abundance, pushing to specialize in the optimization of resources.

For this reason it is essential to collect wire insects, which increase the recharge capacity of the actions connected to them, while taking advantage of the peculiarities introduced by the new species, namely the ruby ​​thread insect and the gold thread insect. By collecting the first, we will do more damage with the Calvable Punisher, while with the second it allows us to obtain more materials from the blows dealt using a wyvern mount.



The tactical component of using these new insects is enclosed in the ability to collect only one type at a time, allowing teammates to know which one we have thanks to an icon on the user interface, so they can coordinate on who should ride and at what time. >
Another new example of endemic fauna is the Ragnonette, an example of the same species as the Burattiragno but capable of creating a more resistant thread, to be used to pull - literally - monsters towards destructible obstacles or other creatures, somewhat reminiscent of that that was possible in World with the grappling hook. The Ragnonette is also very useful for grabbing flying creatures and bringing them to the ground, becoming a fundamental asset for those who use short range weapons and do not have long range skills.



We have seen it its use against the Lunagaron, target of the first hunt of the demonstration, a splendid blue wolf that regulates the temperature of its body thanks to an organ capable of cooling the inhaled air. Being a rather fast and mobile fanged wyvern, the Ragnonette's thread allowed it to gain an advantage in battle by throwing it against a wall to knock it down and allow the whole team to unleash their best shots.

In brief the damage inflicted leads the beast to unleash its anger: the passage to the rage reveals its real features, leading it to stand up on its lower limbs just like a werewolf would and exploiting the cold air to generate spikes and claws with which to attack the team ferociously . The extreme mobility of the Monster Hunter Rise combat system allows you to manage its movements, but be careful not to get distracted, because it is capable of performing long chains of blows!



The hunt goes on along many areas of the Citadel, until we meet a Garangolm, a powerful fanged beast that tends to be peaceful, but which during the rage is able to change the state of its body by covering the left arm with moss and the right with magma, representing a high danger for hunters with a weak water or fire set.

Thanks to the ruby ​​thread insect, however, the Garangolm once ridden becomes a powerful weapon to use against the Lunagaron, taking advantage of the very powerful Riding Punisher further strengthened from the new insect. Furthermore, in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, it is possible to choose whether to ride a weakened monster or continue to attack it from the ground, without risking to ride it involuntarily - so as to allow those who have a ruby ​​or gold thread insect to exploit its potential.

A break between new faces

After successfully completing the hunt, we return to the Elgado outpost to build new equipment and weapons, entrusting ourselves to the expert hands of Minayle, endowed with great skill in forging metals despite her young age thanks to the teachings of Hamon, the Kamura blacksmith, with whom she came into contact thanks to Rondine's travels.

We are then shown one of the first equipment of really useful Master / G rank, namely the Lunagaron set. As expected, it shows some weakness towards fire, but offers an excellent defense of 114 per piece. We could not see the skills of the set, but it is safe to assume that they may be related to attack or speed of movement / dodging.



Ready to go, we turn to the "missioner" outpost of Elgado, little Chichae. Despite being her first experience as a mission board receptionist, she works hard and shows great charisma, earning the trust of all the passing hunters and the respect of the knights in the area.

The girl, however, seems to be hiding a secret behind his image so composed and reserved, even more so seeing how Fiorayne and Admiral Galleus, leader of the knights of the order and officer in command of the Elgado outpost, behave in his presence. Chichae is in fact the heir to the throne of the kingdom, committed to helping as she can during this moment of crisis.



In the next quest we witness a collaborative mission of followers, which sees us hunt for the alongside Master Arlow, Galleus' companion and in charge of training the knights of the order. These missions allow you to improve relations with the characters of the outpost, who will often be the same to commission these assignments, and are a nice digression from the classic routine. The followers actively contribute to the battle and, should they run out of energy, their "respawn" is not considered in the count that would lead to the failure of the mission.

The goal is to get the better of a welcome return, the ferocious Seregios! This winged wyvern made his first appearance in Monster Hunter 4, released only in Japan, while here in Europe we were able to meet him in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, an extended and complete version of the original title.

Threat from the past

This creature is extremely dangerous because of the "scales" that completely cover its body, which can be launched to carry out deadly attacks capable of generating bleeding, a temporary additional damage, visible in dark red on the life bar, which accumulates with each action performed (run, attack, dodge) and is subtracted all together with the first hit, making the fight extremely risky.

By recovering from bleeding is enough to eat a well-cooked steak or use an immunizer, and if you don't have these items you can sheathe your weapon and kneel to speed up the process natural healing. Once healed from the bleeding, stamina recovery is faster for a short period of time, very useful for keeping up with a fast and never tame monster, never to lose sight of being hit by one of its devastating swoop attacks .



During these fights we were able to appreciate the flexibility of the exchange skill system, which in addition to introducing a whole new series of possibilities for each weapon, also allows you to set two different skill presets to be alternated with a simple sequence of commands. You can therefore set the most conservative skills on the red roll (one of the presets) and maybe switch to the blue roll when we need more damage-focused skills.

Or, simply, the two sets can be alternated to use all of them. skills equipped in long combos - wire insect charge permitting - seamlessly, also taking advantage of the new Dodge Swap to avoid enemy attacks while changing the swap skill roll. We are already ready to see the compilations of incredible combinations that will be created by the most skilled hunters!



Overall, this preview has allowed us to see in detail all those elements introduced in the recent Digital Event on May 10th, offering us a complete overview of how the new features of this expansion can change the gaming experience.

At the moment the most interesting elements are linked to the greater freedom of movement guaranteed by the renewed climbing system and the introduction of the Exchange Skill Inversion, which significantly increases the potential of a combat system that already with Monster Hunter Rise had reached considerable levels of depth.



Some doubts remain about the always greater congestion of information on the screen, between the 8 characters battling monsters and all the information present on the UI, but it is probably nothing that a little bit of p ration and tweaking in the options cannot solve.

So you just have to wait to get your hands on the game and really understand what the monsters of the Master degree are made of, which historically have represented a challenging but satisfying obstacle for all fans of the series, and how structured and broad the proposal of story and post game missions is - in the hope of having abandoned the unhappy rampage / fury forever. Happy Hunting!