Rise/Sunbreak is a solid addition to the Monster Hunter series.

Rise/Sunbreak experiments greatly with movesets and lets you customise your kit to include powerful moves and fit your weapon to face any situation. The depth in weapon gameplay was expanded on dramatically. Every weapon feels great to play! While I initially didn't like the addition of silkbind, it quickly warmed up to me. it's a logical evolution to the clutch claw and grapple system from World, and does a much better job of giving you extra options to work with. In addition to silkbind moves, your regular moveset can also be changed up, letting you experiment even more, not to mention the scroll system, which lets you switch between 2 different customizable movesets.

Endemic life was reworked to be useful in hunts instead of just trophies or things you accidentally hit in fights. You now have the ability to grab endemic life and store it for later, most of which are really useful in fights. It gives a good reason to explore and prepare before fights. Unfortunately, that also comes with the addition of spiritbirds, which are scattered across the map and let you extend your life, stamina, attack and defense. These are pretty annoying to get every single fight, feeling like a massive chore.
This also unfortunately means that the amount of endemic life was drastically reduced from World, and you can no longer capture them to display in your home, which was a neat feature.

Traversal is faster than ever with the addition of silkbugs and palamutes. Maps feel good to travel in, and were well designed to be traversed with all the new movement options. This caused some veterans to claim this made the game feel less like Monster Hunter, with hunts feeling too fast paced, but this isn't entirely a bad thing, as you don't always have an hour to spend on a hunt.

The roster of monsters almost rivals that of MH Generations, and fan favourites like Valstrax and other older monsters making a come back. With title update 5 around the corner, the number of monsters in this game is only getting higher.

The online experience in World was initially atrocious, but Rise learned from their mistake and now, lobbies are stable and story quests can be joined without having to wait for the player to encounter a cinematic. Random quests can easily be joined as well. Players are also visible anywhere in the town, rather than only in the gathering hub, which is a nice change. My only gripe is that Elgado and Kamura are a very small village, with little to do or interact with in the environment compared to Seliana. I do miss being able to go to a hot spring and play with my palico, or just fool around with arm wrestling and things like that. it made the world feel more alive and interactive. The game feels more streamlined with small details being left out, with them focusing more on making hunts faster but still fun, with new mechanics sprinkled in. Still, this was made for the Switch so it's still impressive they were able to make this work.

The endgame is also pretty fun, with qurios crafting allowing you to customize your skills, weapons and armor pretty massively. My experience with joining random quests was pretty positive! with very little amount of insults and pretty nice and helpful players all around. The grind is still present, but it's also a nice place to experiment with new weapons or builds. (granted, I wouldn't go straight into a high level investigation with no knowledge of a new weapon, but still.)

In summary, Rise/Sunbreak attempts to freshen up the franchise by adding more depth to weapons, a faster gameplay loop and a massive amount of customisation. The amount of monsters to fight rivals older games and it feels great to play online. I've had a lot of fun with this game and would recommend it.

Rise/Sunbreak is a solid addition to the Monster Hunter series. Rise/Sunbreak experiments greatly with movesets and lets you customise your kit to include powerful moves and fit your weapon to face any situation. The depth in weapon gameplay was expanded on dramatically. Every weapon feels great to play! While I initially didn't like the addition of silkbind, it quickly warmed up to me. it's a logical evolution to the clutch claw and grapple system from World, and does a much better job of giving you extra options to work with. In addition to silkbind moves, your regular moveset can also be changed up, letting you experiment even more, not to mention the scroll system, which lets you switch between 2 different customizable movesets. Endemic life was reworked to be useful in hunts instead of just trophies or things you accidentally hit in fights. You now have the ability to grab endemic life and store it for later, most of which are really useful in fights. It gives a good reason to explore and prepare before fights. Unfortunately, that also comes with the addition of spiritbirds, which are scattered across the map and let you extend your life, stamina, attack and defense. These are pretty annoying to get every single fight, feeling like a massive chore. This also unfortunately means that the amount of endemic life was drastically reduced from World, and you can no longer capture them to display in your home, which was a neat feature. Traversal is faster than ever with the addition of silkbugs and palamutes. Maps feel good to travel in, and were well designed to be traversed with all the new movement options. This caused some veterans to claim this made the game feel less like Monster Hunter, with hunts feeling too fast paced, but this isn't entirely a bad thing, as you don't always have an hour to spend on a hunt. The roster of monsters almost rivals that of MH Generations, and fan favourites like Valstrax and other older monsters making a come back. With title update 5 around the corner, the number of monsters in this game is only getting higher. The online experience in World was initially atrocious, but Rise learned from their mistake and now, lobbies are stable and story quests can be joined without having to wait for the player to encounter a cinematic. Random quests can easily be joined as well. Players are also visible anywhere in the town, rather than only in the gathering hub, which is a nice change. My only gripe is that Elgado and Kamura are a very small village, with little to do or interact with in the environment compared to Seliana. I do miss being able to go to a hot spring and play with my palico, or just fool around with arm wrestling and things like that. it made the world feel more alive and interactive. The game feels more streamlined with small details being left out, with them focusing more on making hunts faster but still fun, with new mechanics sprinkled in. Still, this was made for the Switch so it's still impressive they were able to make this work. The endgame is also pretty fun, with qurios crafting allowing you to customize your skills, weapons and armor pretty massively. My experience with joining random quests was pretty positive! with very little amount of insults and pretty nice and helpful players all around. The grind is still present, but it's also a nice place to experiment with new weapons or builds. (granted, I wouldn't go straight into a high level investigation with no knowledge of a new weapon, but still.) In summary, Rise/Sunbreak attempts to freshen up the franchise by adding more depth to weapons, a faster gameplay loop and a massive amount of customisation. The amount of monsters to fight rivals older games and it feels great to play online. I've had a lot of fun with this game and would recommend it.