It’s been more than a year since Monster Hunter Rise came out on Nintendo Switch and Capcom has been delivering solid update after update after update to the game. The PC version of Monster Hunter Rise is still fresh in my mind too since it was released in January 2022. Capcom has now finally released the much-anticipated Sunbreak expansion on both Nintendo Switch and PC and it certainly breathes a lot of new life into the game.
Elgado
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak sees players returning to the Monster Hunter world albeit in a different region. Players will visit Elgado Outpost after venturing forth into the unknown with a royal knight that visits Kamura Village. It should be noted that you cannot access Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’s content without having first completed the base game’s main story. As such, players who are completely new to the game will have a lot of content to get through first before being able to dive into Sunbreak.
If you’re a returning Monster Hunter Rise player that completed the base game, Sunbreak kicks off at a rather glacial pace. You’ll be facing off against some very familiar-looking monsters albeit their different variants or subspecies. This isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff and it’s something that we’ve seen before in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. The game slowly builds the story up with some fairly straightforward quests while introducing its new characters to you. Royal Knight Fiorayne is one of the best characters that Capcom have created and being able to take her with you on hunts makes a massive difference to the game.
Fiorayne effectively plays like another hunter and honestly, having played Monster Hunter games online for a number of years now, she definitely does better in hunts than some actual human players that I’ve encountered. This is something that Capcom should really consider keeping in future Monster Hunter titles since they’ve done a great job here and this enhances the overall single-player experience of the game a lot.
New Characters, New Monsters, New Items
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak doesn’t only introduce you to new characters such as Fiorayne, Admiral Galleus and more but also features more unique monsters. The expansion tweaks the overall gameplay mechanics quite a lot too. The most notable change is that players can now equip two different sets of Switch Skills. This means that you can have a loadout of two different Switch Skills for your weapon which you can change on the fly during hunts. Having these two sets of Switch Skill loadouts at your disposal, which you can also edit back at camp, makes an absolutely massive difference to the entire game. Essentially, it means that you now have access to numerous new techniques and playstyles for each weapon allowing for a lot more customization. This is quite literally game-changing since you can change over to a more useful style while hunting a monster based on what’s required in a specific situation. This is a welcome change that the hardcore players are definitely going to enjoy using in-game.
When it comes to new monsters, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak drip feeds them to you. You’ll first face off against subspecies or variants of familiar monsters but when an actual new monster features in a quest, you’re in for a treat. If you’ve watched any of the game’s promotional trailers or played its most recent demo, you’ll know about Malzeno. The other two of the “Three Lords” were also shown off in promotional trailers but encountering and fighting them in-game never disappointed.
One thing that should however be noted is that Sunbreak is based around Master Rank hunts and therefore is a lot tougher than the base Monster Hunter Rise game. If you’ve got to the Sunbreak content though, you should be quite skilled and should be able to handle everything the game throws at you. However, with that said, the bump in difficulty might catch you off guard if you’ve been away from the game for some time. It ain’t Monster Hunter if you aren’t being tossed around the battlefield by a giant creature after all.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak also introduces a range of new weapons and items to craft. Getting the new armour sets (layered and normal) will keep you busy for a while and allow you to customise your character even further. The new regions look fantastic on PC with all graphics settings maxed out and Capcom has really done a great job with the flashy effects in-game. There’s new endemic life in the new maps too and the Marionette Spider in particular is such a useful addition to the current lineup. The different wirebugs are also great in action.
The soundtrack of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak features some good music tracks but Elgado’s main theme just isn’t as catchy as Kamura Village’s one, unfortunately. It does however give off a very chilled coastal village vibe and serves its purpose in that regard. The voice acting in Sunbreak is excellent with the characters in cutscenes delivering convincing performances. No complaints here about that.
Sunbreak
Overall, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is an extremely great addition to Monster Hunter Rise. It tweaks up the formula just enough to keep the entire game fresh and it also introduces a lot of new content for players to get through. Much like Monster Hunter World: Iceborne revitalised Monster Hunter World, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak does the same to Monster Hunter Rise. Seasoned veteran players will love the new changes and while the slow burn to facing off against new monsters might be a tad off-kilter, once you do encounter them, they present a fearsome challenge and the playerbase is sure to love this. Finally, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak also has a full year of additional content planned and Capcom will be delivering new monsters to hunt throughout the year. If you’re a Monster Hunter Rise fan, Sunbreak is a definite must-buy expansion.
Grab your copy here https://www.monsterhunter.com/rise-sunbreak/en-uk/
Reviewed on PC
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