Soapbox features allow our individual writers and contributors to express their opinions on hot topics and random things they have at heart. Today Tom goes online and finds lots of sweet, friendly, helpful people …
There are a majority of very normal, charming people who love video games. Of course, you would not necessarily know this if you spend too much time on social media, where the tendency is often to find the worst examples of humanity, quote-tweet, and lament the irreversible decay of society. It’s human nature, and it certainly makes Twitter’s algorithm overlords happy.
Also, to be fair, taking this wonderful hobby online can diminish faith in humanity alone. You could end up with someone sending you shocking messages or throwing inconveniences around in voice chat leading you to the settings to turn off communication. On top of that, it’s undoubtedly a hundred times worse for some players than it is for me.
So it’s not always a bed of roses in our gaming world. Just as in the wider world, the actions of some can be so reprehensible that it undermines our confidence in the majority, which is always a worrying situation. For my part, I have always kept my online activities to a minimum; when I do not get paid to write about games, I keep a relatively low profile on social media, am not involved in any groups or clans for online games, and generally stick to singleplayer games (with a little local multiplayer occasionally). Maybe, though, I miss what my recent experiences with Monster Hunter Rise has emphasized.
There are other wonderful online experiences that I occasionally participate in – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, mainly where it is actually necessary to be (non-verbally) toxic to other players to win the race, and the slapstick humor makes it more like a child’s play than adults encouraging each other. But I’ve only discovered in the last month or two that Monster Hunter Rise has online functionality that suits me – and anyone with similar online habits – perfect. Putting aside the lack of built-in voice chat, which makes it unnecessarily cumbersome to play with friends (and which we can mostly blame Nintendo), Capcom has provided an uplifting and positive way to collaborate and play online.
I’ve been playing the MH series since Tri on the Wii, and I’ve really fallen in love with the franchise in its 3DS / Wii U era. However, I would mostly play solo with occasional (very rare, in truth) online sessions carefully organized with a few colleagues and friends. Playing online was a bit of a hassle, and even though I wanted to play with random players, it was a pain to set up a lobby, get everyone on the same page and into a quest; it was like herding cats.
With Rise, I spent so much time from launch launching Village Quests to the story – these are offline and you hunt with your Palico and Palamute. Sometimes it would give me a ‘challenge’ mission to upgrade my HR (Hunter Rank), which I would do, and I kept playing until I got some sort of ending.
The only real criticism I have of Rise is its course of history. I had not read much about the game, so it surprised me when it said that I should move on to the ‘right’ conclusion, that I should do ‘Hub Quests’ – these are really designed to be performed online, but in theory, you can tackle them solo. However, taking them alone is a grind, especially when you have already worked through many similar quests in the Village area. I’m not sure why Capcom structured it this way, but I knew there was a better ending waiting for me if I worked through the Hub. On top of that, the upcoming ‘massive expansion’ – Sunburst – requires you to reach the ‘other’ end to unlock it. There was no choice I had to go online.
The monster that is so snarling and confident as I drove in alone on my Palamute is now struggling to escape, while four players engage in ballet chaos to knock it down.
I hadn’t really researched how it worked in Rise, so I imagined the painful dance by opening a lobby, waiting for strangers to show up, trying to get them all signed up for a quest, and so on. However, clearly having learned from people like Dark soulsand continues an approach I seem vaguely to remember in Monster Hunter: World, that’s not the case at all. In fact, in the last few months, I have found that it is the most seamless and enjoyable online experience I have come across in years.
When you select a task in the Hub area (still offline, no lobby), you get the option to have a ‘Join Request’; you prepare, eat a meal, etc., and just jump in. When the hunt starts, Join Request opens, but nothing changes and you just start your quest. So, almost without error, if you play at the right times (weekends, British mornings to get the impressive Japanese player base involved), other hunters just show up. Up to three other players arrive in the mission and you can see their little arrows on the map coming towards you.
Sometimes other players arrive before I even reach the goal, or on other occasions my heroic Palamute and I have already started the fight when they arrive in the style of Gandalf in The two towers, to reverse the course of the battle. They smoke up in amazing armor, and often use other weapons than me (you do not see many Insect Glaives), and set about helping you. The monster that is so snarling and confident as I drove in alone on my Palamute is now struggling to escape, while four players engage in ballet chaos to knock it down.
Through all this, Capcom has set it up as a positive experience – some text messages and voice lines are automated. For example, when someone climbs another monster to start a Kaiju-style battle with the target, all other characters say ‘Fantastic!’. The closest I’ve seen to negativity is someone who had set their text to say ‘wow’ every time someone was knocked out, but 99% of players leave it to the standard ‘No worries!’.
When the hunt is over, there is the next elemental and lovely touch – you can choose to “Like” the other players, which everyone inevitably does after a successful mission. This leads to some rewards in the game, but also means that you can find these players in the ‘Connect’ area if you want to try an invitation or jump in and help them with their quests. Then you all go your own way, I fall back into my own hub and keep an eye on the next mission, where three more strangers are likely to look in to help. It’s a short meeting, 15 minutes of chaotic monster hunting, but everyone who simply enjoys the game. Maybe the search helps them hone specific parts, or they’re trying to boost HR just like me – maybe it’s just for fun.
It’s such a fast, humane way of getting through the online part of the game, very reminiscent of the aforementioned Dark Souls approach (or the way summoning works in Elden Ring, if you want the newer example). Wrapping this approach seamlessly into a Switch experience with the quirky Monster Hunter vibe is such a nice thing that came as a very welcome surprise to someone who has actively avoided online modes in the past. I reached the required level a while back to unlock ‘Sunbreak’, which seemed like a long shot before I actually explored and gave the Rise online game a try.
And you know what? I have kept going. Right now, I’m most of the way to the HR50, which apparently should unlock the third and ‘correct’ ending. Then I continue to go to HR100 to unlock a particularly tough challenge. Why not? I love Monster Hunter and it’s a pleasure to do the virtual response to hunting with and then high-fiving like-minded strangers. I even go through all the Event quests I had avoided – one of them played Mega Man music during an Arena match, why not?
Sometimes people are amazing.