Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Review
About three years ago, Capcom released the Iceborne expansion for Monster Hunter: World, which was a critical and commercial success for the Japanese company. Many fans found the Iceborne expansion to be the pinnacle of the series, adding so much new content and mechanics that it felt like a new entry rather than more adventures. Fast forward three years later, and Capcom’s next Monster Hunter expansion, Sunbreak, is here, but this time for the Switch/PC exclusive Monster Hunter Rise. Comparing these two expansions might be unfair, as Rise and World are two different games, but nevertheless, it’s hard not to, especially since Rise is built off of World’s quality-of-life features that make the both games are approachable for newcomers. For anyone playing Iceborne, Sunbreak’s contents aren’t too different. There are returning monsters to hunt that come from the classic Monster Hunter games, as well as new monsters like Garangolm and the flagship monster, Malzeno.
There’s a new hub area called Elgado Outpost, which is a bit smaller than Kamura Village, but still gives players plenty to do. And, of course, new Master Rank quests have been added, giving hunters a challenging set of missions to complete to see how the story plays out. However, even with the dozens (or even hundreds) of hours players can spend in Sunbreak, it’s not nearly as big or purposeful as Iceborne. It doesn’t have as many new monsters as it should, and many of the quests, especially the early ones, involve hunting down monsters that players have already fought in the base game.
Even after players roll the credits and move on to Endgame, there are many recurring monsters on the hunt list. There are some later quests that players can unlock called Anomaly Quests, and the target monsters are afflicted with a virus that makes them angry, sometimes even performing new attacks. These quests sound cool in theory, but they don’t feel any different than fighting monsters in a normal quest. This adds a bit more variety to the overall package, especially since hunters can get unique materials from affected monsters, but still, it’s not one of the most memorable parts of the Sunbreak expansion. .
As a seasoned Monster Hunter fan, Sunbreak doesn’t check all the boxes to make it feel like a complete and well put together package. That said, it’s still Monster Hunter Rise at the end of the day, which is a wonderful and well-executed experience that deserves praise. Wirebug’s mechanics are as good as ever thanks to the quality of life updates added to Sunbreak, the new Switch Skill Swap adds more variety to a hunter’s moveset, and hunting monsters for New master rank armor sets and weapons never get old.
There are a lot of neat little touches here and there that make Sunbreak a fun experience all around, even without the game-changer Clutch Claw back in Iceborne. For Monster Hunter Rise fans still looking to grind out some armor for dozens more hours, Sunbreak will definitely deliver on that front. But for die-hard Monster Hunter fans out there looking for something a little different than the base game, there’s not much new to catch this time around. Sunbreak feels like DLC for Monster Hunter Rise’s Endgame instead of being a proper full-blown expansion. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is available for PC and Switch. Today Technology was given a Nintendo Switch code for this review. MORE: Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak – Best Silkbind Attacks Added By Expansion, Ranked