Notes: I've been playing the game since launch, but I will write from the perspective of someone who purchases Rise after 3.0 update because the game is unfinished at launch and it took 2 months for the rest of the base game to be added in. This review will not spoil the story, but it will spoil any monster that isn't the duo of Elder Dragons.
Background: I have been aware of the series since Tri, but I haven't played until now. What draws me to the series is that I am quite a big fan of the "boss hunting" feature in JRPG, like the Unique Monsters in Xenoblade or the Marks in Final Fantasy XII, so a video game all about fighting big bosses is very appealing to me.
The game's combat is not quite as fast-paced or responsive as other action games like Hades or Mega Man Zero, but it makes up for it in spade by giving you a high amount of toys to play with. There are 14 different weapons in the game with distinctive playstyles, and each weapon has high customizability due to the Switch Skills. For example, a Dual Blade user with Demon's Flight will focus on aerial attacks and mounting damage while a Dual Blade user with Demon's Flurry Rush will focus on ground battles.
The Wirebugs are very fun to use. They take the role of movement, high damage attack, knockback recovery, and sometimes even invincibility frames. This leads to some interesting resource management. Sometimes I keep at least 1 Wirebug live so I can escape from combos or defend myself in case things go south, but if I am confident, I go all in and spam powerful Silkbind moves.
I lean towards fast and mobile weapons like the Dual Blades and the Light Bowgun, with Hunting Horn, Sword and Shield, Long Sword, Insect Glaive, and Switch Axe as my secondaries.
The real stars of the game are of course the monsters. They all have unique designs, behaviors, and attacks (mostly). They are also very well-animated and fun to watch (again, mostly), which is great news because observing monsters' movements is the key to predicting and avoiding attacks. Unfortunately, sometimes hit effects tend to cover a good chunk of the monsters and hide their movements. Pierce and Sticky bowguns are very guilty of this. I also appreciate that the monsters feel like they have better things to do other than fight the players. In fact, they are more interested in fighting each other than fighting me. Magnamalo for some reason is more likely to be my ally than my enemy.
The only monsters I dislike are Volvidon and Jyuratodus. My favorite monsters are (Apex) Mizutsune, Goss Harag, Magnamalo, Apex Rathalos, Valstrax, and the final boss. I used to dislike Almudron and the Elder duo but they grew on me. I wonder why 80% of the roster are either Wyverns or Dragons, though. The separation between low-rank quests and high rank quests is also a little change: since the high rank versions of the monsters are just the low rank versions with one or two extra attacks. I'd expect all monsters to get the Apex treatment in high rank but I guess this means they would need to lose their immunity to Wyvern Riding and traps.
Difficulty-wise, the game is a fairly smooth sailing until I reach *6 quests: at which point 80% of the bosses gave me trouble at one point or another, but none of them is any serious roadblock (unless I try a no-faint run). Most hunts last 15-20 minutes on my first try or when I use my secondary weapon, and 10-15 minutes when I use my primary weapons. This is quite longer than I expected compared to other games (Hades' final boss took me 5 minutes even on Extreme Measure), but I suppose it is fair since boss fights take up 90% of the combat. In fact, the small monsters feel like such an afterthought that they just die in the crossfire. I wonder why the 50 minute timer is there though. I never spend half as much time in a quest.
I mostly play solo because I like to rely on my own skills to fight the monsters head-on, but I also enjoy hunting with a crew that I am familiar with. On that note I'm not fond of Rampages. Mechanically they're fine but I don't play this game to mow down hordes of boss monsters with a turret.
Character customization is a blast and I had a lot of fun mixing and matching armor pieces and playing dress-up. The ability to change armor colors just increases the possibilities (take note, Xenoblade). However, the layered armor function can only be unlocked after beating a certain *7 quest, and layered weapons are limited as of this writing.
Kamura is a beautiful village with a warm and cozy atmosphere, and the NP Cs are quite fun to talk to. Unfortunately I find myself locked inside the Hub after I finish with the Village Quests. The story... exists? I can't say that I'm too invested in it.
Overall, this has to be one of my favorite action games of all time. The fights are so fun that I want to fight them over and over again to get better and experiment with new playstyles while dressing as stylishly as I like. Really have a blast with this one. I will take some time off the game for now while waiting for Firedeade or something, but I will revisit the game from time to time. If you read the whole review,, then thank you, I appreciate your patience.
Bonus: Monsters that I am interested in but unfortunately didn't make it into the game are Kirin, Lagiacrus, Tetsucabra, and Nerscylla. Here's also my play time and weapon usage star if you care about that. Notes: I've been playing the game since launch, but I will write from the perspective of someone who purchases Rise after 3.0 update because the game is unfinished at launch and it took 2 months for the rest of the base game to be added in. This review will not spoil the story, but it will spoil any monster that isn't the duo of Elder Dragons.
Background: I have been aware of the series since Tri, but I haven't played until now. What draws me to the series is that I am quite a big fan of the "boss hunting" feature in JRPG, like the Unique Monsters in Xenoblade or the Marks in Final Fantasy XII, so a video game all about fighting big bosses is very appealing to me.
The game's combat is not quite as fast-paced or responsive as other action games like Hades or Mega Man Zero, but it makes up for it in spade by giving you a high amount of toys to play with. There are 14 different weapons in the game with distinctive playstyles, and each weapon has high customizability due to the Switch Skills. For example, a Dual Blade user with Demon's Flight will focus on aerial attacks and mounting damage while a Dual Blade user with Demon's Flurry Rush will focus on ground battles.
The Wirebugs are very fun to use. They take the role of movement, high damage attack, knockback recovery, and sometimes even invincibility frames. This leads to some interesting resource management. Sometimes I keep at least 1 Wirebug live so I can escape from combos or defend myself in case things go south, but if I am confident, I go all in and spam powerful Silkbind moves.
The real stars of the game are of course the monsters. They all have unique designs, behaviors, and attacks (mostly). They are also very well-animated and fun to watch (again, mostly), which is great news because observing monsters' movements is the key to predicting and avoiding attacks. Unfortunately, sometimes hit effects tend to cover a good chunk of the monsters and hide their movements. Pierce and Sticky bowguns are very guilty of this. I also appreciate that the monsters feel like they have better things to do other than fight the players. In fact, they are more interested in fighting each other than fighting me. Magnamalo for some reason is more likely to be my ally than my enemy.
The only monsters I dislike are Volvidon and Jyuratodus. My favorite monsters are (Apex) Mizutsune, Goss Harag, Magnamalo, Apex Rathalos, Valstrax, and the final boss. I used to dislike Almudron and the Elder duo but they grew on me. I wonder why 80% of the roster are either Wyverns or Dragons, though. The separation between low-rank quests and high rank quests is also a little change: since the high rank versions of the monsters are just the low rank versions with one or two extra attacks. I'd expect all monsters to get the Apex treatment in high rank but I guess this means they would need to lose their immunity to Wyvern Riding and traps.
Difficulty-wise, the game is a fairly smooth sailing until I reach *6 quests: at which point 80% of the bosses gave me trouble at one point or another, but none of them is any serious roadblock (unless I try a no-faint run). Most hunts last 15-20 minutes on my first try or when I use my secondary weapon, and 10-15 minutes when I use my primary weapons. This is quite longer than I expected compared to other games (Hades' final boss took me 5 minutes even on Extreme Measure), but I suppose it is fair since boss fights take up 90% of the combat. In fact, the small monsters feel like such an afterthought that they just die in the crossfire. I wonder why the 50 minute timer is there though. I never spend half as much time in a quest.
I mostly play solo because I like to rely on my own skills to fight the monsters head-on, but I also enjoy hunting with a crew that I am familiar with. On that note I'm not fond of Rampages. Mechanically they're fine but I don't play this game to mow down hordes of boss monsters with a turret.
Character customization is a blast and I had a lot of fun mixing and matching armor pieces and playing dress-up. The ability to change armor colors just increases the possibilities (take note, Xenoblade). However, the layered armor function can only be unlocked after beating a certain *7 quest, and layered weapons are limited as of this writing.
Kamura is a beautiful village with a warm and cozy atmosphere, and the NP Cs are quite fun to talk to. Unfortunately I find myself locked inside the Hub after I finish with the Village Quests. The story... exists? I can't say that I'm too invested in it.
Overall, this has to be one of my favorite action games of all time. The fights are so fun that I want to fight them over and over again to get better and experiment with new playstyles while dressing as stylishly as I like. Really have a blast with this one. I will take some time off the game for now while waiting for Firedeade or something, but I will revisit the game from time to time. If you read the whole review,, then thank you, I appreciate your patience.
VideoGame A Newcomer's Thought on Rise
Notes: I've been playing the game since launch, but I will write from the perspective of someone who purchases Rise after 3.0 update because the game is unfinished at launch and it took 2 months for the rest of the base game to be added in. This review will not spoil the story, but it will spoil any monster that isn't the duo of Elder Dragons.
Background: I have been aware of the series since Tri, but I haven't played until now. What draws me to the series is that I am quite a big fan of the "boss hunting" feature in JRPG, like the Unique Monsters in Xenoblade or the Marks in Final Fantasy XII, so a video game all about fighting big bosses is very appealing to me.
The game's combat is not quite as fast-paced or responsive as other action games like Hades or Mega Man Zero, but it makes up for it in spade by giving you a high amount of toys to play with. There are 14 different weapons in the game with distinctive playstyles, and each weapon has high customizability due to the Switch Skills. For example, a Dual Blade user with Demon's Flight will focus on aerial attacks and mounting damage while a Dual Blade user with Demon's Flurry Rush will focus on ground battles.
The Wirebugs are very fun to use. They take the role of movement, high damage attack, knockback recovery, and sometimes even invincibility frames. This leads to some interesting resource management. Sometimes I keep at least 1 Wirebug live so I can escape from combos or defend myself in case things go south, but if I am confident, I go all in and spam powerful Silkbind moves.
I lean towards fast and mobile weapons like the Dual Blades and the Light Bowgun, with Hunting Horn, Sword and Shield, Long Sword, Insect Glaive, and Switch Axe as my secondaries.
The real stars of the game are of course the monsters. They all have unique designs, behaviors, and attacks (mostly). They are also very well-animated and fun to watch (again, mostly), which is great news because observing monsters' movements is the key to predicting and avoiding attacks. Unfortunately, sometimes hit effects tend to cover a good chunk of the monsters and hide their movements. Pierce and Sticky bowguns are very guilty of this. I also appreciate that the monsters feel like they have better things to do other than fight the players. In fact, they are more interested in fighting each other than fighting me. Magnamalo for some reason is more likely to be my ally than my enemy.
The only monsters I dislike are Volvidon and Jyuratodus. My favorite monsters are (Apex) Mizutsune, Goss Harag, Magnamalo, Apex Rathalos, Valstrax, and the final boss. I used to dislike Almudron and the Elder duo but they grew on me. I wonder why 80% of the roster are either Wyverns or Dragons, though. The separation between low-rank quests and high rank quests is also a little change: since the high rank versions of the monsters are just the low rank versions with one or two extra attacks. I'd expect all monsters to get the Apex treatment in high rank but I guess this means they would need to lose their immunity to Wyvern Riding and traps.
Difficulty-wise, the game is a fairly smooth sailing until I reach *6 quests: at which point 80% of the bosses gave me trouble at one point or another, but none of them is any serious roadblock (unless I try a no-faint run). Most hunts last 15-20 minutes on my first try or when I use my secondary weapon, and 10-15 minutes when I use my primary weapons. This is quite longer than I expected compared to other games (Hades' final boss took me 5 minutes even on Extreme Measure), but I suppose it is fair since boss fights take up 90% of the combat. In fact, the small monsters feel like such an afterthought that they just die in the crossfire. I wonder why the 50 minute timer is there though. I never spend half as much time in a quest.
I mostly play solo because I like to rely on my own skills to fight the monsters head-on, but I also enjoy hunting with a crew that I am familiar with. On that note I'm not fond of Rampages. Mechanically they're fine but I don't play this game to mow down hordes of boss monsters with a turret.
Character customization is a blast and I had a lot of fun mixing and matching armor pieces and playing dress-up. The ability to change armor colors just increases the possibilities (take note, Xenoblade). However, the layered armor function can only be unlocked after beating a certain *7 quest, and layered weapons are limited as of this writing.
Kamura is a beautiful village with a warm and cozy atmosphere, and the NP Cs are quite fun to talk to. Unfortunately I find myself locked inside the Hub after I finish with the Village Quests. The story... exists? I can't say that I'm too invested in it.
Overall, this has to be one of my favorite action games of all time. The fights are so fun that I want to fight them over and over again to get better and experiment with new playstyles while dressing as stylishly as I like. Really have a blast with this one. I will take some time off the game for now while waiting for Firedeade or something, but I will revisit the game from time to time. If you read the whole review,, then thank you, I appreciate your patience.
Bonus: Monsters that I am interested in but unfortunately didn't make it into the game are Kirin, Lagiacrus, Tetsucabra, and Nerscylla. Here's also my play time and weapon usage star if you care about that. Notes: I've been playing the game since launch, but I will write from the perspective of someone who purchases Rise after 3.0 update because the game is unfinished at launch and it took 2 months for the rest of the base game to be added in. This review will not spoil the story, but it will spoil any monster that isn't the duo of Elder Dragons.
Background: I have been aware of the series since Tri, but I haven't played until now. What draws me to the series is that I am quite a big fan of the "boss hunting" feature in JRPG, like the Unique Monsters in Xenoblade or the Marks in Final Fantasy XII, so a video game all about fighting big bosses is very appealing to me.
The game's combat is not quite as fast-paced or responsive as other action games like Hades or Mega Man Zero, but it makes up for it in spade by giving you a high amount of toys to play with. There are 14 different weapons in the game with distinctive playstyles, and each weapon has high customizability due to the Switch Skills. For example, a Dual Blade user with Demon's Flight will focus on aerial attacks and mounting damage while a Dual Blade user with Demon's Flurry Rush will focus on ground battles.
The Wirebugs are very fun to use. They take the role of movement, high damage attack, knockback recovery, and sometimes even invincibility frames. This leads to some interesting resource management. Sometimes I keep at least 1 Wirebug live so I can escape from combos or defend myself in case things go south, but if I am confident, I go all in and spam powerful Silkbind moves.
The real stars of the game are of course the monsters. They all have unique designs, behaviors, and attacks (mostly). They are also very well-animated and fun to watch (again, mostly), which is great news because observing monsters' movements is the key to predicting and avoiding attacks. Unfortunately, sometimes hit effects tend to cover a good chunk of the monsters and hide their movements. Pierce and Sticky bowguns are very guilty of this. I also appreciate that the monsters feel like they have better things to do other than fight the players. In fact, they are more interested in fighting each other than fighting me. Magnamalo for some reason is more likely to be my ally than my enemy.
The only monsters I dislike are Volvidon and Jyuratodus. My favorite monsters are (Apex) Mizutsune, Goss Harag, Magnamalo, Apex Rathalos, Valstrax, and the final boss. I used to dislike Almudron and the Elder duo but they grew on me. I wonder why 80% of the roster are either Wyverns or Dragons, though. The separation between low-rank quests and high rank quests is also a little change: since the high rank versions of the monsters are just the low rank versions with one or two extra attacks. I'd expect all monsters to get the Apex treatment in high rank but I guess this means they would need to lose their immunity to Wyvern Riding and traps.
Difficulty-wise, the game is a fairly smooth sailing until I reach *6 quests: at which point 80% of the bosses gave me trouble at one point or another, but none of them is any serious roadblock (unless I try a no-faint run). Most hunts last 15-20 minutes on my first try or when I use my secondary weapon, and 10-15 minutes when I use my primary weapons. This is quite longer than I expected compared to other games (Hades' final boss took me 5 minutes even on Extreme Measure), but I suppose it is fair since boss fights take up 90% of the combat. In fact, the small monsters feel like such an afterthought that they just die in the crossfire. I wonder why the 50 minute timer is there though. I never spend half as much time in a quest.
I mostly play solo because I like to rely on my own skills to fight the monsters head-on, but I also enjoy hunting with a crew that I am familiar with. On that note I'm not fond of Rampages. Mechanically they're fine but I don't play this game to mow down hordes of boss monsters with a turret.
Character customization is a blast and I had a lot of fun mixing and matching armor pieces and playing dress-up. The ability to change armor colors just increases the possibilities (take note, Xenoblade). However, the layered armor function can only be unlocked after beating a certain *7 quest, and layered weapons are limited as of this writing.
Kamura is a beautiful village with a warm and cozy atmosphere, and the NP Cs are quite fun to talk to. Unfortunately I find myself locked inside the Hub after I finish with the Village Quests. The story... exists? I can't say that I'm too invested in it.
Overall, this has to be one of my favorite action games of all time. The fights are so fun that I want to fight them over and over again to get better and experiment with new playstyles while dressing as stylishly as I like. Really have a blast with this one. I will take some time off the game for now while waiting for Firedeade or something, but I will revisit the game from time to time. If you read the whole review,, then thank you, I appreciate your patience.