Monster Hunter Rise get's me hyped

 Let me just polish off my Insect glaive- hmm. that sounded much better in my head...

Within Monster Hunter lies a very simple premise; you have to kill monsters. It's just that simple and plain, and were the games just that I probably wouldn't be writing this blog right now about my feelings towards their upcoming latest entry, which are largely positive. And yet, due to it's title, presentation and very nature; I couldn't help but overlook this franchise for years thinking it to be exactly that. Of course, there was also the natural barrier of this being a game that wasn't all that heavily marketed or even sold in the West, but I've always been close to those with access to foreign games, so it really was a decision, albeit a subconscious one, not to pursue this series. It'll be no news to you, even if you haven't hung around this blog long enough to hear me recount this before, to learn that it was Monster Hunter World which finally turned me around and onto this fantastic franchise, and now these games are the kind that I want to keep playing until the end of my days, because I am ever in awe of the amount of ingenuity, creativity and love imbued in them by their creators.

But what makes this series so good? Well, in my opinion that starts with the design, (which is a bit of a nothing-statement when you really consider all that encompasses) let's start with the monsters themselves. No matter what the fidelity of the console, nor it graphical capabilities, the monsters are the star of the show and they absolutely deserve to be. Capcom's Monster Hunter team obviously have gone to great lengths to realise these monster in painstaking detail, making creatures that look intimidating and feel alive. These aren't you're typical 'RPG enemy' affair that you'll find in your local Dragon Quest or even (forgive for the jab) Final Fantasy, these are animals shaped from the ground up with important factors ever present, such as their environment, food sources and evolution. (I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if at least some paleontological interest had crossed the minds of the designers.) But why is that important? Because it forms the basis of immersive worldbuilding that the rest of the game feeds off. So right away, I can tell you that Monster Hunter Rise has world class enemy design, without even really telling you anything at all. (Because that, as impressive as it is, is just in this series' DNA.)

What really blows me away is how that level of care in the design always manages to bleed into the gameplay, and specifically into the behaviour of the creatures. At the heart of the gameplay loop, the hunt itself, lies a learning curve which asks players to study and learn about the monsters they want to fight in order to pick out fragile parts and weakness, with these, of course, being informed by the design team. They range from the rather simple, flying monster like the Rathalos having their wings be weak, to something wholly more involved and unique, such as the Barroth, who favour territories covered in mud, and who's weaknesses and resistances flip when they roll around and cover themselves in a shield of mud. That's just the tip of the iceberg and it should display the level of creativity on board here, as well as the depth of the systems available for players to lose themselves in, should they desire to.

Monster Hunter Rise is rather odd, as a sequel, as rather than really step up what the hugely popular Monster Hunter World set up, Rise is really attempting to meet it. That wouldn't be quite such a herculean task if it weren't for the fact that Rise is coming to Nintendo Switch, rather than the home consoles of today, an undeniably weaker console. Of course, any who doubt the capability of the Switch to achieve such a level of gameplay should wash out their mouths for selling short the console which currently has it's own version of 'The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt' on it. (Still blown away by that) Still, circumstances being what they are I personally shifted my expectations for what I want out of this game. As such, visually it doesn't quite match 'World', but it still looks absolutely fine and that's worthy enough of praise. Conversely, the team actually managed to copy the large interconnected worldspace of World which made those hunts feel particularly dynamic, and I find that quite impressive. (Then again, the last Hunter game not to come to home consoles hit the 3DS, so maybe my expectations were a little low.)

So now lets really settle on what this Rise game is presenting us with, and I'm already glad to see it's bringing back all the fighting styles of World. For those unfamiliar, this refers to the different weapon-types you can wield, rather than the techniques with which you wield them. However, the art of mastering them becomes interesting because of how widely different they all are in how they play. You have everything from the rather straightforward oversized anime swords, great for whacking creatures in the head and performing the odd interrupt, to the complex Insect Glaive, requiring the user to collect 'essences' from different part of the creatures body in order to power up the tool in various ways, something the player must keep track of because those 'essence buffs' don't last forever, and are crucial. (I was a Glaive main, if you couldn't tell.) If Rise is bringing that level of complexity back into the mix, then Switch players are in for a treat. As well as some toxicity. (A natural by-product whenever a modicum of skill is involved in gameplay) 

There's going to be some new rides to play around with, which might be indicative of less rigid and maze-like map design. (Honestly, I kinda liked the mazey-ness of some the late game-locations, but I understand the more open appeal to others.) Some of the more classic monsters are returning, such as the Khezu... Yay... Didn't miss him at all.... Oh and was there anything else... hmm- oh right, the ability to ride freakin' Wyverns! I mean, oh good lord that is just the coolest thing of all time, no? I grew up in the age of Eragon (terrible movie, drove me away from the books) and Lair, so any sort of Dragon riding is automatically going to gel with me, but getting to ride the Monster Hunter cast! And riding them into battle against other monsters, no less! That's beyond cool, I can't wait for all the dynamically heart stopping moments that'll bring. Turning around the tide of the fight thanks to a passing Rathalos? Sign me all the way up!

A lot of the other features coming to Rise are more small-scale improvements, but given the nature of a game like this even those have the ability to drastically change the experience. Such as, for example, the new Wirebugs which permit rather freeform movement, supporting vertical navigation that will really prove invaluable to people who have been complaining about messy map layouts and the general inability to hit flying monsters. That's a pretty big one. Oh, and there's there's the new AI partners who can now join a full 4 player squad and bring a veritable army of annoyances into the hunt. I can imagine some of the more AOE-centric monsters really requiring the sorts of baiting tactics this will allow for. But I can sit here and dive into every individual feature all day when the rub is this, Rise looks to be at least to the level of World in most of the important regards, and given the quality of that game, there's room to get excited.

Of course, there'll be a contingent of folk out there who plain aren't interested by Rise and what it has to offer, either due to them not having a Switch or simply wanting a huge step up from World, and that's not really what I'm seeing out of Rise. (So if you count yourself amidst that crowd, I wouldn't encourage getting too excited) Capcom know this, of course, and thus the majority of the marketing budget is clearly going to Resident Evil, even as Rise's release date approaches. Perhaps that signals a comparatively modest launch for Rise compared to it's predecessor, but I think that's what we all sort of expected anyway. But for folk like me, who just want to get into the hunting grind once more, I'm sure this'll make for a perfect stop-gate on the road to the next-console-gen MH which I'm positive is coming. (There's no way Capcom can resist that Raytracing goodness!)

Monster Hunter The Movie

 If in doubt, stop making the movie!

Have I mentioned that I'm a Monster Hunter fan? Probably, but I can't claim that I'm a 'fan' in the same vein as I could for other series'. Usually when I use that word it is to imply that I am something of a series veteran with enough ancillary knowledge to at least answer a basic questionnaire if pressed, whereas for Monster Hunter I more mean it as, I've played one game in the franchise to death and am in extreme reverence to the care and dedication that went into crafting this franchise. The amount of detail and love that is clearly displayed in Monster Hunter World through the meticulous crafting of the natural ecosystem is truly unparalleled, and I'd be amazed if the creative minds behind these games weren't some sort of palaeontologists with the detail on these monsters. And that speaks nothing of the addictive gameplay loop and the mastery of 'David v Goliath'-style showdown moments. Quite simply, MHW is a gem that everyone should get to play at least once. But why make a movie out of it?

I get that when it comes to gaming there's a huge potential market to capitalize through exploitative ancillary content, trust me I know; but what in the world possessed anyone to think a Monster Hunter movie would even hold water? The games themselves are essentially built around the idea of grinding away at progressively stronger monsters in order to get crafting material to make better pieces of equipment, the story is vaguely strung along that premise and I'm left wondering why it is that this screamed 'narrative potential' to anyone. I understand that Capcom are rather lax when it comes to granting licenses for movie adaptations (They let that Yakuza movie happen afterall, and in that the creators somehow managed to put Majima's eyepatch on the wrong eye) but surely there were better Capcom properties to adapt. I mean you have the Reside- oh wait, he already did those. Ace Attor- wait, someone did that as well. Dead Rising? (Okay, maybe just don't make a movie at all then.)

Nevertheless, Paul W.S. Anderson decided he needed another vehicle for his wife, Milla Jokovich, so after stepping away from an entire Resident Evil franchise wherein he rewrote the stories so that an original character played by Milla could be the protagonist, he's taken aim at Monster Hunter. In which he appears to have reworked so that his wife Milla could be the protagonist. (Diabolical) I'm not saying that there should never be another movie adaptation of video games in the world, though I fundamentally do not understand why there are, I'm just saying that it really doesn't help for the film to strive so far from the source material. Practically universally the films turn out better and are more positively received when things try their darndest to stay faithful, but I guess every director out there thinks they know better than the Developers who made the game's popular to begin with. (Just see how that mentality has worked out for them so far)

So a good many moons back a screenshot and premise for this movie leaked and I know I wasn't the only person left their scratching their head. On one hand the person who wasn't Milla seemed to be wearing game-accurate armour, even if it did look a little better than cosplay, but on the otherhand the premise we were reading seemed almost lazily generic. I mean they could have done anything, but this seemed to rely on some of the weakest Hollywood tropes of all time there was no way that this would ever make it to the final dra- then we got a trailer last week. I'm not sure if it's that Hollywood holds a disdain for gamers or just the general movie going audience altogether, but they decided to roll with it and make it happen. So just in case you were lucky enough not to have seen the trailer, allow me to summarise: Milla Jokovich is a US military officer who's squad gets swept up in a mystical storm and they get Isekaied to the Monster Hunter world. Yes, this is the exact premise of 'G.I. Samurai' and a million other low-effort B-movies! 

Why, why, why can't Hollywood make a movie of characters who operate within their own damn worlds? Can't they see how much more interesting that makes the story and environment to the viewer? I mean for one it means that the entire plot can be literally anything other then "ooh wee, I've got to find a way back home!" How much more engaging was it to be introduced to 'Detective Pikachu's' Ryme City than to 'Sonic: The Hedgehogs' middle of nowhere America? And yes, at least they didn't go the wholly lazy route and bring the monsters into our world, but this way is only marginally better as it will not allow the world of MH to be the focus of the plot. And again, why not? We're talking about an entire ecosystem that's comprised of prehistoric monster-like beings who keep each other in line with a fragile balance that the Hunters have to help maintain, else risk disaster. That's enough material for a plot right there!

Instead we've got a trailer chock-full of things that no one wants in a Monster Hunter movie; military weaponry. Yep, instead of the crazy, silly weapons of the franchise, (Which are often scavenged from the bones of other monsters) we have impact-empty shots of military guns firing at CGI monsters. (Oh look, they even recreated that scene from Jurassic Park with the runaway car only this time the car has a gun on it and the scene is in the desert, thus lacking all the claustrophobia which make the JP scene so tense. Cool.) Even by the end of the movie, because this trailer clearly shows off the entire breadth of the movie, we can see that Milla dons some sort of armour, but nothing as garish or ostentatious as you'd actually find in the games; because that would run the fear of actually being passingly cool for half a minute. (Can't have that!)

As for the actual monsters featured in the trailer, all we've really seen in detail are what looks to be a Rathalos and the Black Diablos from the poster. Solid picks, but there are a lot more varied and interesting monsters which would have made this trailer look a lot less generic. Heck, even a standard garden-variety Jagras would have been cool. What about the ever-popular Kirin? The deadly Odogaron? The saber-toothed Barioth? Heck, what about a Behemoth? I know they're technically a cameo from Final Fantasy but I just want to see a Behemoth rendered on the big screen, is that too much to ask? To their credit, at least no attempt was made to redesign the monsters from what I can tell, which is appreciated. I doubt the team have the creativity to design their own monster anyway, considering the distinct lack of such which is displayed in the basic plot of this movie, but I'll take what I can get.

So we have a Monster Hunter movie coming our way and it looks terrible. Are you really surprised? Honestly, 2020 has delivered every other kind of calamity so why not hit us with this finishing blow to truly end things with a whimper? Oh, and you can bet that Paul bent over backwards to make sure that this film made it into the end of the year so that it can be another 2020 garbage fire, it's tucked in there on the 30th of December. Does this movie have the chance to be good? I'm going to go ahead and say 'no' on that front, but it may just be dumb enough for mild entertainment value. (Although it could have been so much more) My utmost hope out of this is that Paul somehow manages to make this successful enough to worm a full adaptation of the Yakuza franchise out of Capcom, so that we can somehow watch him sneak Milla into it as the main character. ("Check out Kiryu's adoptive sister: Kira-Chan!")