Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak (DLC) by developer and publisher Capcom—Nintendo Switch review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes.
Hello fellow Hunters! It's finally time for Monster Hunter Rise to get the G Rank, er MASTER rank expansion you've been expecting! Following after the Monster Hunter Rise review and beginner's guide, we now get to talk about the expansion: Sunbreak!
Alright then Hunters, here we go! Since Sunbreak is an expansion to the already existing Monster Hunter Rise, a title we covered when it first released, I'm assuming that all of y'all here have already played the base game. I'm also assuming the majority of you here aren't long time Monster Hunter fans, as you'd have already bought the expansion anyway (trust me, I would have too).
As such, the vast majority of you reading this have probably played base Rise, maybe it's even your first Monster Hunter title, and are wondering if the expansion is worth it or not. So, long story short, is it worth it? Well yeah, I certainly think so, but it depends a little on your time with base Rise. For the most part, you can probably expect to roughly double your time from the base title with a slew of much more challenging creatures, some of which are new to Sunbreak, so if you didn't spend a lot of time in the base game, or found it too challenging, you may want to make a careful consideration of Sunbreak.
So! Let's discuss some of the new elements to Sunbreak. First off, you now have access to Master rank. For those who know the franchise, this is basically G Rank. For those new to the franchise, Master Rank monsters are tougher, healthier, and have new moves added to their move set. I also personally found them to be far more aggressive, but that may just be me. You also have access to more switch skills, as well as the ability to swap between switch skill sets on the fly, a really cool way of loading out different playstyles and being able to swap between them. Some new monsters even make use of this with special skills associated with the monster.
Sunbreak offers two new areas to hunt in, some new endemic life and records to find, lots of challenging Master Rank monsters, both old and new, as well as some quality of life improvements. You'll enter a new hub area once you've progressed the base Rise story enough, where you can begin fighting creatures that are probably significantly tougher than you were expecting. No, really, it isn't all that unusual to see 80% or more of your health disappear in a single move. Well, that's kind of part of the challenge though, so have fun and remember your defensive buffs!
So let's talk a bit about the new monsters. I won't spoil any for you if you want to go in blind, but I will talk a bit about the new monsters and returning monsters. First up the new monsters. I honestly loved fighting all the brand new monsters added in Sunbreak, especially the flagship monster and the "last boss". The fights were really fun and had the perfect combination of "Oh sh*t" and "Yeehaw". There weren't any particularly awful attacks or patterns, the monsters were reasonable but challenging, and they all looked pretty cool.
For the returning monsters from other titles, I admit some of them made me question who coded the hitboxes on them. I mean, there aren't any hyperspace plesioth tackles, but a number of times I was really confused about why a hitbox extended to where it did. Nothing really all that different from normal though.
Even after you complete the main campaign there is more to do, more quests to take, more sidequests to fulfill, and more guild card achievements to acquire, so don't think beating the last boss is everything the expansion has to offer. But what is the biggest thing that Sunbreak has to offer, in my opinion? Is it the cool new monsters and armour you can craft? The added challenge? The little Easter eggs you can find in the new hub? No, it's gotta be the follower missions.
Guess what hunter, you can take select NPCs on missions with you now. Yup, I'm pretty sure this is the first time in Monster Hunter history, but you can bring fully fledged help in the form of NPCs, only on select missions though. Still! It was really cool to see the Kamura sisters fighting for you outside of Rampage quests. As a wonderful added bonus, the followers getting KOd doesn't count as a cart, lucky you! The AI is also surprisingly solid, offering timely help, mounting other monsters in the area, or releasing powerful moves on the enemies to help you out.
Summary
All in all, I have to say I had a lot of fun with the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak expansion. The challenge was great, the new monsters were fun to fight, and the new additions that were added really help to enhance the game. Being able to take ally NPCs on quests is also a major new function, and I really enjoyed being able to do so, even if it was a somewhat limited capacity.
While the price point may be a sticking point for some, I believe that if you had fun with Rise, you'll certainly get your enjoyment out of Sunbreak.
Score: 9 / 10
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