The new part of the series, of course, was not without innovations, most of which represent either a logical development of old mechanics, or a new look at familiar things.
Palamute is a new breed of companion dog first introduced in Monster Hunter Rise. Similar to the Palico cats, dogs help the hunter in combat with the help of special hunting devices. The player can ride Palamut, thereby speeding up his movement across locations. Sitting astride a faithful animal, you can use some items, such as potions and a whetstone, but you will not be able to fully fight.
The hunter is free to summon Palamut at any time and thus avoid critical situations when fighting problem monsters. Riding a dog, you can return to camp in a matter of seconds, replenish supplies or change equipment, and then rush into battle again with renewed vigor. At the same time, players are allowed to take pets on cooperative missions, thus eight opponents will act against one monster at once.
Another major gameplay novelty is Wirebug, a freer and easier-to-use variation of the Clutch claw from Monster Hunter World. Unlike its predecessor, Prutozhuk does not need a specific purpose and can be used anywhere. With the help of this device, the hunter is able to instantly move in space, being attracted to the bugs appearing from the air.
The charges of the Prutozhuk are limited, and are restored automatically over time, or during the selection of one of the wild Rodshock scattered across the locations. Each of the fourteen weapon types also received several offensive abilities that use Prutozhuk’s charges.
Powerful attacks of monsters, throwing the hunter into the air, have become less dangerous, since the player can use the Prutozhuk right during the flight and dodge the finishing attack, or, conversely, again rush into the thick of the battle without losing the pace.
As in the previous part of the series, monsters can enter the Turf War among themselves, however, apparently, this mechanic was simply copied from Monster Hunter World, and the new monsters presented in Monster Hunter Rise do not have to this unique animations, and just swap blows.
The Mounting mechanic evolved into Wyvern Ride. When making some attacks, including the use of Prutozhuk charges, the monsters lose stamina and can be completely subdued by the hunter for a few seconds. This time can be used either to attack another creature, or simply make the animal bang its head against the wall.
A new piece of equipment has been added to the hunter’s arsenal, called the Petalace. Exploring locations, the player will find on his way colorful Spiribird, the collection of which increases the four main characteristics of the character until the end of the quest. The type of Petestretic dressed determines the amount of the maximum bonus that can be obtained when collecting Spiritbirds.
At the moment, there are no hunting tasks in the game that require collecting the full set of Petestretic’s bonuses to successfully complete the level, which is why collecting Spiritbirds is seen as a dreary and useless process. By and large, this is just a help for beginners or insecure players who are experiencing problems during the passage of missions.
While in the camp, players are free to change several of their weapon movements in the manner of Monster Hunter Generations. For example, the Hunting Horn’s charged attack, which deals massive amounts of damage, can be replaced with a cocoon skill that resonates with the Horn and damages nearby enemies. It would seem that such a solution will allow each hunter to find their own unique style of play even within the same weapon, but in practice there is little variation, so it is not entirely clear why this function exists at all.
To collect resources found in combat zones, hunters have a separate bag in which they put the goods they find, just like in Monster Hunter World. What the QoL changes of the previous part of the series did not reach was the character’s warehouse, which again is a dump of tripe, potions, cartridges for onion guns and other garbage, so after creating each conditional Demonic potion (Demondrug), you have to sort the inventory again …
The pivotal point of the storyline, Rampage, is presented in the form of special missions with unique rules. In fact, this is a variation on the games of the Tower Defense genre – hunters set all kinds of turrets and traps, preventing hordes of monsters from breaking through to the heart of the village. In the course of destroying enemies, a special scale of Stronghold experience accumulates, and when you take a new level, access to more diverse hunting installations opens up.
Hunters can personally take control of any of the installed turrets or, in the old fashion, engage in direct combat with the enemy. Sometimes among the hordes of enemies come across unique types of monsters with the Apex prefix. Such creatures differ from ordinary ones in their unique appearance and a set of attacks. For example, the Apex Rathian shoots poisonous thorns that cut into the ground and form a poisonous cloud. Despite the classification, the Supreme monsters leave behind standard materials, so it is not possible to make separate armor from the Supreme beings.
Rampage itself is relatively straightforward. There are few variations of turrets, which is why the tactics of fighting hordes of enemies are for the most part the same. However, as a reward for successfully defending the village, special certificates are issued with which you can improve your weapons, for example, by increasing the attack or increasing the damage from techniques that use the charges of Prutozhuk.
Similar to Monster Hunter Word, there are five main locations available in Monster Hunter Rise, where you have to hunt for living creatures, collecting resources along the way. The maps themselves are still divided into zones, but unlike Monster Hunter Generations, they are completely seamless.
Keeping the capabilities of Prutozhuk in mind, the developers made the hunting territories as vertical as possible, inviting the player to explore locations using new modes of movement, which ultimately became a controversial decision. The fact is that all these multi-level hills can be conquered exclusively by the player, while the large monsters there simply have nowhere to turn around. The bottom line is that the vast majority of the time the hunter will spend exclusively at the lower levels, where he will fight monsters.
