So my other habitat on the internet apparently moved to PC...whether I play with them at all before they chew through the content is beyond me, but I got the game on pc with sunbeak.
-Runs at 4k/whatever fps it's at it looks good to me, quite well, since it's a switch game ported over.
-Game doesn't look visually as good at world, but yknow, it is what it is.
-I got 2 ps5 controllers, so I can use one for pc games and the other for the ps5. The game supports xbox/ps4/ps5/switch/and some other xbox button icons for the UI, very nice.
-the defender weapon is kinda like an mmorpg "exp boost" to get you to the expansion earlier, it's basically a weapon tree that costs almost nothing to upgrade that's better than...everything...in low rank, and high rank...so just use that and bee line the main game because the garbage of a higher rank >>>> the best of the rank below it.
-took me about 15 hours to rush through low rank/high rank in hub(playing with randos the entire time), doing so got me to start sunbreak stuff
-I think the movement in this game was made better than base rise? I feel like goddamn spiderman sometimes, I feel the wall climbing isn't really limited anymore, so you can just go till your stamina runs out...then you jump off wirebug back (the time you're jumping you restore some stamina), and run up the rest of the wall. FEELS REAL GOOD, the movement in this game is scrumptious.
I am not that far into actual sunbreak stuff due to, not playing videogames 24/7 and seeing sunlight sometimes. But I can indeed say uhh...I'm playing the game on pc and it runs fine? Game ain't going anywhere so if you need some idiot who still after all this time isn't that good at monster hunter to get you through some lower rank monsters, I AM THAT GUY.
Unrelated note but related to the thread subject, thinking about playing monster hunter freedom unite on an emulator...I hear those things can do like online play now a days...would be cool to find some interested parties to play old hard as fuck monster hunter, maybe see if I could even play such a thing after being spoiled with how free rise is.
*edit*
~30 hours in, taking away from my DNF Duel time (really good new fighting game) pretty hard.
Just hit MR5, I "think" the main sunbreak story ends at the end of MR6? then it does that thing it seems to do where the rank unlocks to infinity, and you get incremental stuff at 10, 20,...90, 100, then it stops but you can go to 999. So I am relatively far as the story goes. Mostly bee lining the story, because the farther I get the better gear I get, the easier going back to do the other missions will be. Also having an unlocked rank means going back to do said missions will passively increase that.
The new town is good, compact, but everything is in the right spot. Feels like they really put time into making a small concentrated hub town where everything you need is quick and easy to reach. There was no issues with the old town, and on pc, you can just warp there in under 5 seconds to hit up anything you need, but it's good they are keeping consistent.
New switch skills/wirebugs. Hearing you can have different loadouts that you can swap between on the fly didn't seem something I'd use much. Well, I still don't, but I do sometimes, so it's a fine enough addition. Lance has a new "switch skill" for it's forward + horizontal poke attack which is a shield bash thing. Doesn't look very flashy, but you can do it after anything, and you can do it in any direction, and it's a shield bash, so...it blocks stuff.
ITS REALLY GOOD. You're attacking and need to reposition mid combo? Shield bash in that direction and keep the damage coming. You're attacking and need to reposition mid combo while a monster is about to hit you? Shield bash in that direction and keep the damage coming, it's a shield, and you just go through attacks as if they never happened. When I am able to play lance properly, I take monster attacks, say "not tonight dear" and keep the flow going.
Switching loadouts comes handy because the move that it replaces is like a charging guard thing, which is nice for approaching monsters. However, out of that, you can enter a jump, and from said jump a triple air poke thing, which can be canceled into a backhop, into the charge guard jump tripple poke thing. It's good damage that doesn't use up a ton of sharpness, so it's worth swapping to on downed monsters.
It also feels like you have a lot more skills in general to play with on armor/decorations, so if you want to run more defense to not cart, while also having some damage skills, you totally can.
Having more fun with this than I expected probably going to keep Lance only until I finish the story beat which unlocks MR rank, then maybe try a few other weapons I have had my eye on.
Only problems I have with the game is it's a time where none of my friends are playing. Not a graphics whore at all, but looking back at how good World looked, it is a pretty significant step back in the visuals department. And you can change the town BGM to other stuff in game, which is a neat feature,
but the god tier town music from World unfortunately ain't an option. Pretty nitpicky stuff, and stepping down graphically to release on the switch, when nobody has a ps5 right now, was a good compromise imo.
*edit*
So, I finished MR5, and the urgent quest to take you into MR6 is the "final boss" so think xenojiva from world where you do that, the main story is done, credits, and your rank unlocks.
The "final boss" of sunbreak I enjoyed a bit more than base rise. I don't want to speak too soon maybe I'll change my tune when I play more, but out of world, rise, and sunbreak, I think the final boss of sunbreak is the most enjoyable out of the 3. I did cart once in a "if you aren't ready for it you just die" situation, more of a knowledge check death, so nothing too cheap. The last boss of base rise is really annoying and I strongly dislike doing it, and at the end of rise, before content updates, the meta was farm that boss over and over and over for parts to melt down into talismans...and you can see I liked that less than the endgame to world, before content updates. 80-90 hours compared to the 200 I put in world...yeah...
However I got to catch up doing every quest in base rise, since im not on my switch file, and all the quests I didn't do in sunbreak having just bee lined the story. There's also single player "follower" quests, where you do a single player hunt with various town NPC's. I haven't done any of these yet, but I do know a set of armor is locked behind one of these, so it's a cool addition.
Probably going to figure out what I want my lance set to be and farm for that, then look at trying a new weapon. I know I like hammer, I still want to understand sword and shield, switch axe was fun in base rise, I hear things about insect glaive kinsect heal shenanigans, shield + spread HBG is fun, there's a lot to play with.
I guess now the game starts and we'll see how long I play. I think part of the reason I put so much time into world was the small 3ish week window I was playing with irl friends most every day, and I lack that now, so staying power may not be as much. We'll see, pretty happy with my purchase so far, even though I had to buy the damn game again and zoom through to the end again.
*edit*
Just hit me, rise/sunbreak is a bit easier than World, which was a challenging game on its own right, but a lot easier than old monster hunter. I am saying that because fuck Teostra.
I don't think I need to elaborate.
Fuck Teostra.
*edit*
I didn't expect to buy this expansion, let alone put in "cough" 70 hours so far "cough".
Kinda didn't like iceborne from what I played, clutch claw tenderizing spots just meant they increased health on all monsters by a flat percentage, not really fun.
Out of my 200+ hunts, I only have one hunt with hammer, and one with sns, so I can't comment on really how not lance feels, but lance feels good. I think they just did some flat damage increases, because looking at what other weapons do, damage wise, I don't feel too under-powered in the damage department anymore. Sure greatsword can do 1500 in one hit, and my average hit is anywhere between 60-110, but "dps" wise, it feels pretty fair to me. Shield bash feels better than the parry in most situations, so you kind of just ignore what the monster is doing to attack more.
Playing a lot of the "follower quests" which are the single player component. They are pretty cool from a fluff perspective, and the AI of the followers are pretty good. I was combat carving a tail, the monster was about to divebomb me, and the follower flashed it out of the air. They also use endemic life, traps, the lance follower uses the endemic life that "draws aggro" towards her, it's all really cool. They also can go missing for a second or two, come back riding another monster to help with a knockdown. There seems to be a lot of these quests, and you can unlock weapons/armor/misc stuff through them. Do all the missions for one follower and it seems like they become pickable on the follower "surveys", which I haven't played, but I assume they are like follower missions in which you pick whichever followers you've unlocked. So if you wanted even MORE single player only stuff, it's easily 20...with surveys probably well over 30-40+ hours for this TOTALLY OPTIONAL part of the game alone.
I do think I am starting to feel some hunting fatigue playing so much in so little time, but at the very least this feels like a complete product, and the base game while robust, was an unfinished game at launch.
Still think I overall enjoyed mh world more, could have been the time I played it, maybe I am more sensitive to graphics/music than I want to admit, but world had some magic to it that I think only world could have. Rise is the second of the "modern" monster hunters, so I guess it would make sense that you can't capture lightning in a bottle twice, even if it is better in 8 areas out of 10. Not a knock on the game, it is made by a different team, on an under-powered platform, but world man...that game might crack top 10 all time favorites for me.