The success ofMonster Hunter Risehas had a number of positive and negative waves throughout the fan community, with tons of discussion centering around the game’s console exclusivity. However, the key to shutting down some of this debate among fans could come from Capcom’s previous entry in the series,Monster Hunter: Worldand it’s laterIceborneexpansion.
If the issue is thatMonster Hunter Riseisn’t coming to other consoles, then the best course of action should be to continue supporting the title that is already on PS4 and Xbox One. To take this a step further,Monster Hunter: Worldcan even be brought up to date with the newer consoles to run faster and at higher settings than on previous systems.
Monster Hunter Rise’s Exclusivity
WhileMonster Hunter Riseis currently exclusive to Switch, Capcom has mentioned that there are plans to bring the game to PC, possibly by 2022. It’s a long wait, and is likely tied up with red tape in a deal with Nintendo, but this does at least mean that the developer is already looking at expanding the scope of players beyond the bounds of a single system. This isn’t exactly new for fans only arriving to the series as recently asMonster Hunter: World, which launched on multiple consoles and had a PC port roughly six months later.
LongtimeMonster Hunterfans, however, had been initially doubtful ifCapcom would ever portRiseto PC, since the series has previously been centered on Nintendo consoles in the past. This was mostly due to the Nintendo’s domination of portable gaming, though a number of titles had released for the PSP and PSVita before the developer made the return to home consoles withWorld. So, while the logistics of bringing this newest title to PS5 or Xbox Series X/S might extend the timeline out to roughly a year, it is possible that fans on those consoles will have the option eventually.
Monster Hunter: World on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S
Capcom has already portedMonster Hunter: Worldto PC, and it’s available on next-gen consoles thanks to the backwards compatibility of both systems, with the game having been available onPS5’s PS Plus Collectionsince launch. In this case, Capcom doesn’t even have to port the game, since it already runs on newer systems, thoughWorldcould definitely use an optimization update for players on these platforms. This could be the first step towards giving players a new experience that’s only possible with the strength of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
There’s little need to reinvent the wheel here, since Capcom has already made a strong showing for the series that best utilizes modern hardware to bring the titular monsters to life. Building ontoMonster Hunter: Worldagain, similar to how theIceborneexpansion’s new bossesand region already have, could keep fans on every console satisfied with the series as it is. Even some of the newer features that enhanceRisecan be retroactively added to the previous game the same way that the first expansion brought new mechanics like the Clutch Claw.
Monster Hunter Rise is Still a Work in Progress
Fighting thefinal boss ofMonster Hunter Riseat launch isn’t exactly the end of the story that Capcom has prepared for Kamura Village, as the last hunt ends on a cliffhanger. While there is still a host of things for players to do after reaching the credits, and again when going through the High Rank Hub questline, the game appears to hint that there is more to come. This is most notable when inspecting the blacksmith’s list of buildable weapons, since there appears to be a hidden level of upgrade that isn’t available even after completing the last hunt.
Looking at the way new monsters were rolled out for severalyears after the release ofMonster Hunter: Worldbefore it, the idea thatRisewill have new content unlocking over time isn’t new for the series. In fact, it’s possible that the elongated period before the game is ported to any system could be a result of Capcom keeping the live updates on the Switch, before launching a full release with everything available from the start on other consoles. So, while keeping the previous game supported might keep fans appeased on other consoles, it might spread development of theMonster Hunterseries too thin over these two massive games.
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The Current State of Monster Hunter: World
Not long before the official announcement ofMonster Hunter Rise,Capcom added Fatalis toWorldas the new final boss to the game before development turned entirely to the next game in the series. This fight is not only the most difficult in the game, but also acts as a perfect cap off toMonster Hunter: World, due to the Elder Dragon’s relevance in the series' overall lore. There is nothing stronger to fight than Fatalis in anyMonster Huntertitle, except of course for differently colored and variant versions of the same monsters.
The inclusion of this hunt held a sense of finality to it when Capcom first announced it, and players have mostly understood that this is intended to be the trueending toMonster Hunter: Worldand theIceborneexpansion. This could mean that there are no plans for further support, even though the game has been one of the biggest successes for the series in recent years. That being said, a lack of old lore to draw from doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s nothing else thatWorldcould accomplish after what had originally been considered the end.
Monster Hunter: World is Already about New Discoveries
One aspect ofMonster Hunter: Worldthat sets it so apart from the rest of the series is the way that it used the New World setting to introduce new concepts and monsters to the overall world. With this in mind, Capcom still has plenty of opportunity to introduce more hunts into the game that push the boundaries of the established lore up until this point. Just because huntingFatalis for evil eyes inMonster Hunter: Worldhad previously been the top mark for how strong enemies could get, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.
There are few places in the series better than the New World to introduce something more powerful than Fatalis, or to possibly even reach deeper into the lore of these games. If Capcom doesn’t decide tointroduce new monsters toMonster Hunterthrough updates toWorldin order to keep the game supported and appease fans no matter the console, there is a pseudo canon monster that could use a revisit. This would be the Equal Dragon Weapon, an artificial monster with one of the murkiest backstories of anything in the overall lore of the series. These mythical weapons could be exactly how Capcom can keepMonster Hunter: Worldalive and one-up Fatalis.
Monster Hunter Riseis available now for Switch.
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