Monster Hunter Rise
Capcom Development Division 2 · RPG, ARPG, Action
Overview
Rise to the challenge and join the hunt! In Monster Hunter Rise, the latest installment in the award-winning and top-selling Monster Hunter series, you’ll become a hunter, explore brand new maps and use a variety of weapons to take down fearsome monsters as part of an all-new storyline.
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Rise to the challenge and join the hunt! In Monster Hunter Rise, the latest installment in the award-winning and top-selling Monster Hunter series, you’ll become a hunter, explore brand new maps and use a variety of weapons to take down fearsome monsters as part of an all-new storyline. The PC release also comes packed with a number of additional visual and performance enhancing optimizations.
Ferocious monsters with unique ecologies
Hunt down a plethora of monsters with distinct behaviors and deadly ferocity. From classic returning monsters to all-new creatures inspired by Japanese folklore, including the flagship wyvern Magnamalo, you’ll need to think on your feet and master their unique tendencies if you hope to reap any of the rewards!
Choose your weapon and show your skills
Wield 14 different weapon types that offer unique gameplay styles, both up-close and from long range. Charge up and hit hard with the devastating Great Sword; dispatch monsters in style using the elegant Long Sword; become a deadly maelstrom of blades with the speedy Dual Blades; charge forth with the punishing Lance; or take aim from a distance with the Bow and Bowguns. These are just a few of the weapon types available in the game, meaning you’re sure to find the play style that suits you best.
Hunt, gather and craft your way to the top of the food chain
Each monster you hunt will provide materials that allow you to craft new weapons and armor and upgrade your existing gear. Go back out on the field and hunt even fiercer monsters and earn even better rewards! You can change your weapon at any of the Equipment Boxes any time, so the possibilities are limitless!
Hunt solo or team up to take monsters down
The Hunter Hub offers multiplayer quests where up to four players can team up to take on targets together. Difficulty scaling ensures that whether you go solo or hit the hunt as a full four-person squad, it’s always a fair fight.
Stunning visuals, unlocked framerate and other PC optimizations
Enjoy beautiful graphics at up 4K resolution, HDR with support for features including ultrawide monitors and an unlocked frame rate make to make this a truly immersive monster-hunting experience. Hunters will also get immediate access to a number of free title updates that include new monsters, quests, gear and more.
Enjoy an exciting new storyline set in Kamura Village
This serene locale is inhabited by a colorful cast of villagers who have long lived in fear of the Rampage - a catastrophic event where countless monsters attack the village all at once. 50 years after the last Rampage, you must work together with the villagers to face this trial.
Experience new hunting actions with the Wirebug
Wirebugs are an integral part of your hunter’s toolkit. The special silk they shoot out can be used to zip up walls and across maps, and can even be used to pull off special attacks unique to each of the 14 weapon types in the game.
Buddies are here to help
The Palico Felyne friends you already know and love from previous Monster Hunter adventures are joined by the brand new Palamute Canyne companions!
Wreak havoc by controlling monsters
Control raging monsters using Wyvern Riding and dish out massive damage to your targets!
Fend off hordes of monsters in The Rampage
Protect Kamura Village from hordes of monsters in an all-new quest type! Prepare for monster hunting on a scale like never before!
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,998 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Players like Monster Hunter Rise mainly for its combat. The Wirebug, Silkbind attacks and Switch Skills make hunts fast and mobile, and the fourteen weapons give people hundreds of hours of things to learn. Sunbreak, the expansion, is the other draw: reviewers say Master Rank is where the game gets hard and gains a real endgame, a few call the base game a tutorial for it, and the usual advice is to buy both together on sale. Reviewers also like how quickly the game gets you into a hunt, how well it runs on modest PCs and Steam Deck, the monster roster, and the dog and cat companions.
Rampage tower-defense quests, collecting Spiribirds before every hunt and the wall of tutorial pop-ups at the start are the design complaints that come up most. Smaller groups of players describe awkward keyboard and mouse controls, weak online matchmaking, launch failures, shader recompiling and a save bug on PC. The main open debate is how Rise compares with Monster Hunter World: players who want an immersive hunting trip prefer World, players who want a pure action game prefer Rise, and plenty recommend both. Few reviewers question whether the game is worth playing; more of them argue about whether it is the right entry to start with.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Fast, mobile combat built around the WirebugHigh
Reviewers love the Wirebug for movement and recovery, the Silkbind attacks, wall running, and the counters that most weapons gained. Some call it the best combat in the series: "Easily the best combat of any monster hunter game", as one player put it. Others enjoy the speed itself, from "Switch Skills are game changer" to longer reviews that describe flowing around monsters in a way World never allowed. A minority find the same speed a problem. They say Wirefall removes the cost of being knocked down, that some weapons lean on the Wirebug so heavily that it stops feeling optional, and that hits lack weight. One player who still recommends the game said most attacks feel "like you're beating monsters to death with pool noodles". Those complaints feed into the difficulty and World comparison debates below.
Sunbreak turns a thin base game into the full packageHigh
Sunbreak comes up in hundreds of reviews, mostly as praise. Players say the base game's Low and High Rank are easy, short and repeat the same monsters, and that Master Rank brings harder fights, new monsters, the follower system and a real endgame. One first-time hunter advised "Get Sunbreak as soon as you can, Rise is tutorial for Sunbreak", and another reviewer wrote that "Rise was a rough diamond, Sunbreak polished it in every way possible." A third went further about the base game alone: "The base game is incredibly mid. I would honestly only get Rise if you get Sunbreak with it." The few negative takes on Sunbreak complain about its story missions reusing fights and about the difficulty of its final bosses.
Fourteen weapons, each with moves you can swapHigh
Short reviews often just name a favourite weapon (Great Sword, Long Sword, Insect Glaive, Charge Blade, Gunlance, Hammer and Bow all come up), and longer reviews praise Switch Skills for letting them reshape a weapon's moveset. Reviewers also like the weapon designs, which several call a return to form after World. The complaints here are narrower: some weapons felt weaker after balance changes or Switch Skill tradeoffs (Charge Blade, Switch Axe, Hunting Horn and Insect Glaive players mention this), and one reviewer pointed out that many interesting moves are locked behind quests and weapon upgrades, which makes trying a new weapon slow.
Runs well on modest PCs and Steam DeckMedium
Rise started on the Switch, and players say it runs well on almost anything: "Performance is exceptional you could violently ram a GPU into a potato and it would run it." Laptop and integrated-graphics owners report smooth play, high-end owners enjoy very high frame rates, and Steam Deck owners often call it one of the best Monster Hunter games to play on the Deck. One tip is to turn off dynamic shadows for a steady 60 fps. The exceptions are the crash, shader and DRM problems covered under frustrations.
A varied monster rosterMedium
The lineup gets praise, especially after Sunbreak. Magnamalo, Malzeno, Valstrax, Goss Harag, Rajang, Espinas and the returning older monsters get named often, and several veterans say the roster is more varied than World's. Some reviewers find the early base-game monsters forgettable, and a few list monsters they wish had been included.
Palamutes, Palicos and Sunbreak's NPC followersMedium
The dog is a favourite. Players enjoy riding a Palamute around the map and fighting next to both a dog and a cat, and solo players praise Sunbreak's followers, the village NPCs you can bring on hunts: "Who needs friends when you can bring NPCs into hunts". A few players dislike how the buddies crowd the screen in four-player hunts or feel the mount makes walking pointless on large maps.
Short path from the village to the hunt, and co-op from the startMedium
Little stands between the player and the fight: reviewers point out that monsters are marked on the map from the start, there is no tracking step, cutscenes are short and skippable, and there is no Handler. Several also praise quality-of-life touches such as gathering every material from a node at once and crafting decorations instead of hoping for drops. Friends can play hub quests together from the start; one reviewer said you "can do Hub quests together from the start without the requirement of having already watched the monster cutscene alone." A few players mention the catch: village quests are single-player only.
Music and the Kamura settingLow
The soundtrack, especially Kamura Village's theme, gets regular praise, and players like the Japanese-inspired look of the village, armour and weapons. A small number of reviewers dislike the theme or the voiced lines during hunts.
Good value on saleLow
A recurring tip is to buy Rise and Sunbreak together during a sale, when reviewers say the bundle is cheap for the number of hours it gives. A few reviewers think the base game alone is overpriced at full price for its size.
Where players are split
How it compares with World and WildsHigh
Monster Hunter World comes up more than any other topic, in praise and complaint alike, and negative reviews lean on the comparison more than on anything else. Players who prefer World miss its detailed, living maps, monster tracking, turf wars, the weight of its hits and its sense of scale. They call Rise an arcade spin-off or a step down, or as one negative review put it, "Like monster hunter world, but worse." Players who prefer Rise say it is more fun to play and faster, with better weapon movesets, a better endgame and much better co-op with friends. Many reviewers sit in between, calling World the better game and Rise still great, and recommend owning both. Wilds brought some players back to Rise, and a few of them said they now prefer it to the newer game. Veterans of older portable games tend to side with Rise, which they see as a modern version of the handheld entries they grew up on.
Difficulty: easy early, punishing lateMedium
A common view is that the base game is too easy, with monsters that die in a few minutes and tools such as Wirefall, counters and defensive gear that make mistakes cheap. Players who reached Sunbreak's endgame often describe the opposite problem: high-level anomaly monsters and final bosses that track aggressively, one-shot players and have bloated health. Newcomers are split again, with some finding the learning curve steep and others calling Rise the friendliest entry in the series. One veteran described the balance as easy to enter with "plenty of unforgiving monsters waiting down the line."
Switch-era graphics and smaller mapsMedium
Some players accept the lower detail as the price of a Switch port and like the colourful art style, saying it looks better on PC than they expected. Others call the maps bland, empty and dated next to World, and dislike the large Switch-sized interface. Several note the game hides this best when played for the combat rather than for exploration.
The endgame grind: anomalies, Qurio and talismansMedium
For many veterans Sunbreak's anomaly endgame is a high point, because it sends them after so many different monsters. One wrote that anomalies "are challenging without getting out of control with HP bloat." Other players call the same loop a slog, especially the random rolls for armour augments (Qurio) and talismans. As one long-time player put it, "Late game gear optimization can feel quite impossible if you follow online guides for optimal loadouts due to the random nature of the gear rerolling system". Crafted decorations get praise from both sides as an improvement over World's random drops.
Story and charactersLow
Reviewers who mention the story usually call it thin or just okay, which few of them mind in a Monster Hunter game. A smaller group likes the characters, particularly the Kamura twins, the Sunbreak cast and the followers, and several enjoy the game's lighter, sillier tone compared with World.
What frustrates players
Rampage tower-defense questsMedium
Of the base game's design complaints, Rampage is the one reviewers name most often. Players dislike being required to clear it to progress, call it slow and chaotic, and say it takes away the weapon combat that makes the series fun. One reviewer who still recommends the game called Rampage "a major momentum killer", and several negative reviews name it as their reason for not recommending the game. A minority enjoy it with friends or say it is better than World's siege missions, and reviewers often note that Sunbreak drops it.
Clunky keyboard and mouse controls and cameraMedium
The group raising this is smaller than for Rampage or Spiribirds, but it turns up in negative reviews out of proportion to its size. Keyboard and mouse players describe awkward default bindings, Wirebug inputs that need the scroll wheel and mouse together, and limited rebinding: "Can't keybind alt and certain other keys without external software." One reviewer summed it up as "Fighting the mouse and keyboard controls is harder than fighting the monsters." Others mention a weak lock-on, a camera that struggles near walls, and missing input buffering. Several reviewers advise using a controller.
Online matchmaking: no quest list, region lock, no crossplayMedium
Playing with strangers is the problem. Reviewers say there is no list of running quests to join as there was in World, matchmaking is region-locked, low and high rank lobbies are often empty, and some report communication errors and disconnects. One reviewer wrote that "The matchmaking is region locked, and with a smaller population than World, it was nearly impossible to find others without this mod", referring to a community fix. Switch players also wish they could carry their saves over or play across platforms. Complaints about playing with friends are much rarer.
Collecting Spiribirds before every huntMedium
Spiribirds raise health, stamina, attack and defence for one hunt, and players dislike having to run around the map collecting them each time, especially since food and potions no longer top up those stats. These complaints come mostly from players well into the game. "Spirit birds are probably the worst mechanic ever, apart from Rampage fights, tedious and bloated for no reason." Several reviewers use or recommend a mod that grants the buffs at the start. A few players defend Spiribirds as part of preparing for a hunt.
A flood of tutorials at the startMedium
New players often bounce off the opening hours. They describe long text boxes and pop-up tutorials before any real fighting, then combat they were not ready for. The complaint comes up often in negative reviews from players who quit or refunded early: "The tutorial is so miserable that I've quit the game twice before finishing it." Players who pushed through usually say the game opened up once they did.
Enigma DRM added after launchMedium
Reviewers report that the game gained Enigma DRM in January 2024, and a wave of negative reviews followed. Players said it broke the game on Steam Deck and Linux for a while, worried about performance and mods, and objected to DRM being added years after release. Some later edited their reviews back to positive, noting the Deck and Linux problems had been fixed. A handful still mention it as a reason not to buy.
Crashes, launch failures, shader compiling and lost savesMedium
A steady stream of PC players report the game failing to start after an update, communication errors, D3D crashes, and shaders recompiling on almost every launch: "Basically NEARLY EVERYTIME you start the (pc version) game, it will compile shaders for ~5 minutes." The most painful reports are about lost saves, including a bug that makes the game say no save data exists. One player wrote: "500+ hours of game lost due to a save file bug." Another recovered theirs with a fix from a Reddit post. These reports are much less common than the gameplay complaints, but they are behind some of the angriest reviews.
Unfair hitboxesLow
A group of players complain that monsters hit them when they appear to be clear, especially in the air or behind a monster. Some compare this unfavourably with World.
Windows 10 supportLow
At the end of September 2025 a cluster of short negative reviews reacted to what players describe as a statement that the game might not be supported on Windows 10. Players on Windows 10 worried it would stop working: "If you're on windows 10 dont buy this they said they cant promise future updates wont make the game incompatable." One positive review replied that the end of official support did not mean the game would stop working.
Paid cosmetics and character edit vouchersLow
A few players dislike paying for layered armour packs and character edit vouchers, a much smaller complaint than the others.
3. The player conversation
Thousands of reviews are one-line jokes or cheers about bonking monsters, the dog or a favourite weapon, so the tone is warm and mostly short. The longer reviews usually come from series veterans weighing Rise against World and the older portable games. Among those veterans the argument is milder than it first looks: many recommend Rise while saying World is better, and some negative reviews still praise the combat.
Who raises what depends on how far players got. Players with only a few hours mostly talk about the tutorials, and some about crashes or launch problems. Players with hundreds of hours talk about Sunbreak's endgame, anomaly grinding, Qurio and talisman luck, weapon balance and late difficulty, and Spiribird complaints come mainly from players well into the game. Rampage and the comparison with World come up at every stage.
Over time the conversation has stayed steady, with a few spikes. Reviews in January 2024 reacted to the Enigma DRM, and some of those writers later switched back to positive. Around the release of Monster Hunter Wilds a wave of players returned to Rise and posted positive reviews, some saying they now prefer it to the newer game. At the end of September 2025 a short burst of negative reviews responded to the Windows 10 support statement.
4. What the developers could do
- Make Rampage quests optional for progression. Rampage is the base-game design complaint reviewers name most often, and several players say having to clear it is what made them stop or leave a negative review.
- Give keyboard and mouse players full rebinding and better defaults. Control complaints turn up in negative reviews out of proportion to their numbers, with specific asks such as binding Alt and fixing awkward Wirebug inputs.
- Add a joinable quest list and remove the region lock in matchmaking. Players say finding strangers is nearly impossible without a community mod, and they point to World's quest list as the model.
- Offer an option to start hunts with Spiribird buffs. Players call the collection a chore, and some already install a mod that does exactly this.
- Spread the opening tutorials out and let players fight sooner. Players who quit early describe long stretches of text boxes before their first real hunt.
- Fix the missing-save bug and the shader recompiling on every launch. These are rarer than gameplay complaints, but a lost save cost one player hundreds of hours and drive some of the angriest reviews.
- Keep the game working on Steam Deck, Linux and Windows 10. The DRM and Windows 10 waves both came from players afraid the game they bought would stop running.
- Add crossplay or cross-save with the Switch version. Switch owners who bought the game again on PC ask to carry their progress over and to play with friends on other platforms.
