Highlights
- Monster Hunter Rise benefits from a rich selection of monsters, addressing the earlier games' issues and ensuring a smoother experience for players.
- While future Monster Hunter games may streamline their weapon lineup, the Great Sword and Dual Blades should remain due to their iconic status and unique playstyles.
- The Light Bowgun and Insect Glaive offer distinct combat options, with the former providing ranged versatility and the latter emphasizing verticality and aerial attacks. The Hunting Horn also adds variety and support for cooperative play.
A strong stable of monsters alongside the weapons used to hunt them have been at Monster Hunter's core since the very beginning. Monster Hunter World had to address that formula's growing pains by drastically decreasing its initial monster count, ensuring they could all be smoothly remade for their big HD debut. By the time Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's post-launch support finished, there were more than enough monsters prepared for Monster Hunter Rise to avoid MH World's issues, and fans are confident that the next mainline game will benefit the same.
That leaves the weapons, which have belonged to the same 14 families in the mainline games since the Japanese 2013 release of Monster Hunter 4. It's unlikely that weapon types will be lost at this point, but there are some redundancies in their lineup a future title could temporarily remove to rework. If the next mainline entry, rumored to be Monster Hunter World 2, takes this approach to streamline its gameplay and character progression, it needs to keep five specific weapons in play.
Great Sword
Ever since the first Monster Hunter's box art, Great Swords have stood as the face of the franchise's eclectic weapons. These humongous blades are specialized to be the heaviest and slowest weapons in any Monster Hunter title, even if they make no physical sense. However, that doesn't mean they don't have a high skill ceiling, and veteran hunters can fling their quarry around like they themselves are massive beasts. As the epitome of the series' trademark weighty combat, it's impossible to imagine any future Monster Hunter games leaving Great Swords behind.
Dual Blades
Similarly, the Dual Blades represent Monster Hunter's combat at its most frantic. Beyond even that of the Sword and Shields and Long Swords, the Dual Blades are all about building momentum until the player is a whirlwind of death. If a new Monster Hunter title were to streamline its weapon types, Dual Blades and Great Swords would likely remain as both iconic parts of a hunter's kit and support for the two extreme styles of melee weapons.
Light Bowgun
On the topic of iconic weapons, before the franchise even had regular Bows, it had Bowguns. These anachronistic firearms remain one of the biggest holdouts from classic Monster Hunter's days of making the player craft every consumable item. Bowguns, unlike Bows, use finite ammunition, allowing them to change attack types on the fly while making mismanagement more punishing. Still, that means a clever Bowgun user, especially with the flexible movement of the Light Bowguns, can thrive in solo or team play at any range, something no other ranged Monster Hunter weapon can boast.
Insect Glaive
Not every Monster Hunter weapon fills an obvious role on the battlefield. Insect Glaives may be the best example of this, having been introduced to emphasize MH4's newly vertical environments and jumping attacks by allowing users to vault into the air at any time. Complete with the ranged Kinsect system for buffs and DPS, Insect Glaives are one of the more unique ways of interacting with Monster Hunter's enemies and environments, and it would be a shame to see them go.
Hunting Horn
Even more unique among Monster Hunter's fantastical armaments are the Hunting Horns, massive clubs equipped with buffing songs for up-close support. Their single-player outings have historically been less useful than in hunting parties, but Monster Hunter Rise made Hunting Horns significantly stronger, alongside giving their active buffs more ways and rewards for keeping them all applied. Now more viable than ever, these hard-hitting instruments should stay in players’ hands to emphasize Monster Hunter's variety, light-hearted tone, and sense of camaraderie.
Monster Hunter World is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
