With the upcoming release of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak on consoles beyond Switch, many players are excited to finally test their mettle against the expanded roster of monsters. Monsters like Seregios, Espinas, and Astalos finally make their appearance in the current generation of Monster Hunter games through Sunbreak. With a bevy of new gameplay mechanics and an entirely new tier of hunter ranks to work through, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak has proven to be a worthy successor to the critically-acclaimed Monster Hunter World DLC, Iceborne.
Still, Monster Hunter World remains the best-selling entry in the franchise, having sold over 18 million copies to-date. It breathed new life into the franchise, and although Capcom has essentially sunset its support for Monster Hunter World in favor of Rise, World would benefit from incorporating some of the new monsters introduced in the latest Monster Hunter title. Capcom doubled down on player accessibility in Rise, but World still serves as a great opportunity for Capcom to introduce players to these new monsters.
Introducing New Players to the Monster Hunter Series
Historically, Monster Hunter games were not particularly popular outside of Japan. While each new entry has drawn substantial crowds in its home country, it wasn't until Monster Hunter World that the series saw significant success abroad. World introduced the series to a much larger demographic owing to its modernized art direction and focus on accessibility.
This new direction allowed Monster Hunter World to quickly climb the rankings, and Iceborne capitalized on World's success by doubling down on features that made the original title appealing. Even so, Monster Hunter World remained true to the spirit of its predecessors, with increasingly difficult monsters that use unforgiving mechanics culminating in the release of Fatalis as the "final boss" of the game. Given Monster Hunter Rise went in its own direction with unique mechanics all its own, players are clamoring for a proper sequel to Monster Hunter World.
Incorporating New Challenges from Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
Monster Hunter Rise continued to push the envelope with a greater emphasis on accessibility. No longer did players need to navigate arcane multiplayer menus and sit through unskippable cinematics before teaming up with friends. The art direction was simplified compared to World, a necessary concession for releasing the game exclusively on Nintendo Switch. This decision also allowed players with lower-end PCs to get in on the fun once that port hit. There's a good case to be made for the introduction of more Monster Hunter World monsters like Nergigante in Rise as its content updates continue rolling out.
But the fact remains that World holds the title of best-selling entry in the Monster Hunter series, and despite the fact that Rise has since released on PlayStation and Xbox consoles too, its art direction is hardly taking advantage of the massive graphical processing power offered by current-gen consoles. As a result, many players still prefer Monster Hunter World's realistic graphics and more grounded gameplay.
This is the core of the argument for introducing Rise's monsters into World. Such a move would combine the best of both worlds - the ever-increasing amount of content from Rise with the mechanics and graphical fidelity of World - to satisfy players on both sides of the aisle. Until Capcom releases a new entry in the Monster Hunter series with an uncompromising focus on current-gen consoles, players will need to continue fighting Sunbreak's new roster of monsters at a lower resolution.
Monster Hunter Rise is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.