For those of you who have played both Sunbreak and Iceborne...

[Ruby Rose [ITA]]

What are you considerations on both games? Did you like World more than Sunbreak? Did you like Sunbreak more than World? Why is that?

What did you like more in both games?

[y u do dis Fromsoft?]

what i personally prefer in iceborne: music, art style, level design, feel of weapons (i mean how strong hits feel, not how powerful a weapon is or how its moveset is better/worse), no wirebugs, i prefer the deco rng over the talisman + qurios crafting rng, set bonuses (i don't like how pieces of armor have no special skills anymore, making them feel less special since nearly everything can be crafted onto each armor piece)

what i prefer in sunbreak: selection of monsters (i do still miss some monsters like nergigante though), afflicted/risen are more fun than tempered monsters (still not perfect), no clutch claw, switch skills (needs better balancing though)

stuff i don't like in both games: pretty poor weapon balancing and for some weapons poor balancing of play styles
while i prefer the deco rng, both rng systems are ♥♥♥♥

stuff i can't really generalize: weapon movesets, for some weapons, i prefer how they worked in iceborne, for some i prefer the sunbreak version. i really don't like the strong focus on wirebug moves of some weapons, makes them less fun if the most efficient way to play said weapon is to spam the same move all the time.

all in all, while i personally prefer iceborne, sunbreak is still fun

[Ruby Rose [ITA]]

Originally posted by y u do dis Fromsoft?:

what i personally prefer in iceborne: music, art style, level design, feel of weapons (i mean how strong hits feel, not how powerful a weapon is or how its moveset is better/worse), no wirebugs, i prefer the deco rng over the talisman + qurios crafting rng, set bonuses (i don't like how pieces of armor have no special skills anymore, making them feel less special since nearly everything can be crafted onto each armor piece)

what i prefer in sunbreak: selection of monsters (i do still miss some monsters like nergigante though), afflicted/risen are more fun than tempered monsters (still not perfect), no clutch claw, switch skills (needs better balancing though)

stuff i don't like in both games: pretty poor weapon balancing and for some weapons poor balancing of play styles
while i prefer the deco rng, both rng systems are ♥♥♥♥

stuff i can't really generalize: weapon movesets, for some weapons, i prefer how they worked in iceborne, for some i prefer the sunbreak version. i really don't like the strong focus on wirebug moves of some weapons, makes them less fun if the most efficient way to play said weapon is to spam the same move all the time.

all in all, while i personally prefer iceborne, sunbreak is still fun

Are you a veteran MH player? Or was world your first one?

It's not to invalidate your opinion, take this as some sort of survey :)

[Qua2ar]

Ib4 JPM comes and writes another tirade of hate:

They are both good games and when it comes to competition they are leagues above wild hearts. Not to mention all those other MH clones/wannabes.

Between the 2 games it's simply a matter of taste, for example the artstyle is different, rise has brighter more vibrant colors, world on the other hand has a bigger focus on immersion and what the world of MH would realisticly look like, especialy the ancient forest.

Alot of folks around here want to talk down on world, wich is weird since it's part of the same franchise, this is the case for both though, you will see the same in the world forum, just in reverse.
There are claims that the colors in world look washed out, wich is only true if you mess up your settings, that's not the games fault though, it's not as vibrant as rise but in real life it's the same, not everything is vibrant and colorful. I like it though.

The balance is bad in both games, there are some weapons and armors that are strictly better than others but I never found a problem with that, some people enjoy feeling powerful, some think it's unfair, in the end the devs get to decide, I never felt as though they missed their mark though, the balance is never much of a distractor of the fun gameplay each game has and I think that's the most important part. But again to each their own, you can choose to not play with op gear.

When we ignore numbers and armor skills, each weapon feels fun based on the moveset alone, there is alot of choice when it comes to playstyle.

When it comes to critiquing subjective themes it's not easy, the only thing you can do is meassure the general opinion of other iduvidials and as it stands, plenty liked world.

Live and let live, is a saying that's not respected in the MH community, not here and certainly not on reddit, it's sad.

[y u do dis Fromsoft?]

Originally posted by Ruby Rose ITA:

Are you a veteran MH player? Or was world your first one?

It's not to invalidate your opinion, take this as some sort of survey :)

world was my first mh game.

[Ruby Rose [ITA]]

Originally posted by Qua2ar:

Ib4 JPM comes and writes another tirade of hate:

They are both good games and when it comes to competition they are leagues above wild hearts. Not to mention all those other MH clones/wannabes.

Between the 2 games it's simply a matter of taste, for example the artstyle is different, rise has brighter more vibrant colors, world on the other hand has a bigger focus on immersion and what the world of MH would realisticly look like, especialy the ancient forest.

Alot of folks around here want to talk down on world, wich is weird since it's part of the same franchise, this is the case for both though, you will see the same in the world forum, just in reverse.
There are claims that the colors in world look washed out, wich is only true if you mess up your settings, that's not the games fault though, it's not as vibrant as rise but in real life it's the same, not everything is vibrant and colorful. I like it though.

The balance is bad in both games, there are some weapons and armors that are strictly better than others but I never found a problem with that, some people enjoy feeling powerful, some think it's unfair, in the end the devs get to decide, I never felt as though they missed their mark though, the balance is never much of a distractor of the fun gameplay each game has and I think that's the most important part. But again to each their own, you can choose to not play with op gear.

When we ignore numbers and armor skills, each weapon feels fun based on the moveset alone, there is alot of choice when it comes to playstyle.

When it comes to critiquing subjective themes it's not easy, the only thing you can do is meassure the general opinion of other iduvidials and as it stands, plenty liked world.

Live and let live, is a saying that's not respected in the MH community, not here and certainly not on reddit, it's sad.

You talk like a veteran of the MH Franchise, are you? Or was world your first MH?

[Pook and Pie]

I like both.

World had flaws that I found dramatically improved in Iceborne, but I spent 2k hours in Iceborne across PS4/PC and Fatalis distilled build diversity to the extent I quit crafting new sets (which is kind of my aim in these games), so I fully embraced Rise when it released. I have spent enough time in Iceborne.

Rise released also with a ton of flaws, and Sunbreak continued several of my largest quibbles (I still don't like gathering spiribirds so I'm not at one shot range as a bow/gun player, but what can you do), but I still love and am enjoying Sunbreak. Element being so viable for so many things has kept me rampantly crafting throughout all the title updates.

I started with Freedom Unite, before you ask, since that seems to be a thing this thread's going to do.

[Ruby Rose [ITA]]

Originally posted by Pook and Pie:

I like both.

World had flaws that I found dramatically improved in Iceborne, but I spent 2k hours in Iceborne across PS4/PC and Fatalis distilled build diversity to the extent I quit crafting new sets (which is kind of my aim in these games), so I fully embraced Rise when it released. I have spent enough time in Iceborne.

Rise released also with a ton of flaws, and Sunbreak continued several of my largest quibbles (I still don't like gathering spiribirds so I'm not at one shot range as a bow/gun player, but what can you do), but I still love and am enjoying Sunbreak. Element being so viable for so many things has kept me rampantly crafting throughout all the title updates.

I started with Freedom Unite, before you ask, since that seems to be a thing this thread's going to do.

Freedom unite was such a good game!

Yep, i was going to ask that because as i said this is more like a survey than anything!

[JPM岩]

Iceborne was good, it did a good job bringing World back into form of older titles, and focusing on fighting monsters more than World did. Ecosystem is great, i love lore and story in MH titles (granted the story is rehashed every title), but World really forced it in your face. I wanted to see a cool cutscene of a barioth or what have you, I didnt care about some old lady possibly dying. Even the cutscene before Shara where the Handler is hyping up the hunter, I didnt care about, I wanted to see shara do a shara thing.
Sunbreak does a much better job with bringing 5th gen back into form. The world is enjoyable to fight in, without being bland. You can fight monsters in any area (I've fought mizu up in the lost nest in the Shrine), vs World where everything is hard scripted, to the point monsters will forcibly leave an area they "shouldnt" be in. The areas are also cluttered, and numerous players have complained about how hard it is to see the monster because of visual clutter.
Iceborne expanded fights more, actually bringing in a few Frontier moves for monsters (Raging and Furious), and Sieges were a good attempt at trying to bring together the community like Raviente did. They did fall flat on their reward system, and I hope if they were to give Seiges again, theyd tie them with Rampages or something similar, and give you much more freedom than Safi weps allowed. Sunbreak really gave diversity to fights, Almudron and Magmadron felt like very different fights vs Pukei and Coral. They decided to go the more free route with changing things, instead of being hardcore realism like World tried, they went the route of "oh yeah we're fantasy, we can do more with what we have". I also personally enjoyed Alatreon's DPS check, and I hope we see more quests that require players to hone in on their skills.
The end game of IB, the Guiding Lands, was fun, but got repetitive because it was the problem monster funneling, aka, 2 or 3 monsters are all you grind to do anything. Plus, issues with the GL, not allowing users to level more than one locale at a time was bs. SB's endgame is very "MonHun", you just kill stronger monsters over and over again. You really dont even need to grind a specific one, and more monsters keep getting added to that pool, like Risen Elders now, and it's just the grind for hunting. You just pop into SOS, join a random Anomaly, and then wail away. Plus, it allows for the community to gatekeep itself, it allows for players to play with others at the same "level", rather than SOS allowing some joe schmo MR12 to hop into a late game grind.
All in all, I feel Sunbreak is the better MonHun expansion, because it basically just follows the soul of MH, which is kill to make boots to kill something else. Iceborne was more flashier and "look at how cool of a world we can make" that ultimately missed the appeal of MH, which is emphasis on fights. It's a great game, but I dont think a spectacular MH game.

[Ruby Rose [ITA]]

Originally posted by JPM岩:

Iceborne was good, it did a good job bringing World back into form of older titles, and focusing on fighting monsters more than World did. Ecosystem is great, i love lore and story in MH titles (granted the story is rehashed every title), but World really forced it in your face. I wanted to see a cool cutscene of a barioth or what have you, I didnt care about some old lady possibly dying. Even the cutscene before Shara where the Handler is hyping up the hunter, I didnt care about, I wanted to see shara do a shara thing.
Sunbreak does a much better job with bringing 5th gen back into form. The world is enjoyable to fight in, without being bland. You can fight monsters in any area (I've fought mizu up in the lost nest in the Shrine), vs World where everything is hard scripted, to the point monsters will forcibly leave an area they "shouldnt" be in. The areas are also cluttered, and numerous players have complained about how hard it is to see the monster because of visual clutter.
Iceborne expanded fights more, actually bringing in a few Frontier moves for monsters (Raging and Furious), and Sieges were a good attempt at trying to bring together the community like Raviente did. They did fall flat on their reward system, and I hope if they were to give Seiges again, theyd tie them with Rampages or something similar, and give you much more freedom than Safi weps allowed. Sunbreak really gave diversity to fights, Almudron and Magmadron felt like very different fights vs Pukei and Coral. They decided to go the more free route with changing things, instead of being hardcore realism like World tried, they went the route of "oh yeah we're fantasy, we can do more with what we have". I also personally enjoyed Alatreon's DPS check, and I hope we see more quests that require players to hone in on their skills.
The end game of IB, the Guiding Lands, was fun, but got repetitive because it was the problem monster funneling, aka, 2 or 3 monsters are all you grind to do anything. Plus, issues with the GL, not allowing users to level more than one locale at a time was bs. SB's endgame is very "MonHun", you just kill stronger monsters over and over again. You really dont even need to grind a specific one, and more monsters keep getting added to that pool, like Risen Elders now, and it's just the grind for hunting. You just pop into SOS, join a random Anomaly, and then wail away. Plus, it allows for the community to gatekeep itself, it allows for players to play with others at the same "level", rather than SOS allowing some joe schmo MR12 to hop into a late game grind.
All in all, I feel Sunbreak is the better MonHun expansion, because it basically just follows the soul of MH, which is kill to make boots to kill something else. Iceborne was more flashier and "look at how cool of a world we can make" that ultimately missed the appeal of MH, which is emphasis on fights. It's a great game, but I dont think a spectacular MH game.

It's a very interesting analysis to be fair, as i asked the others i'm curious, are you a veteran too? Or was world your first MH?

[Zelph]

Sunbreak. Progression is mostly the same, but the end game actually feels like a game, rather then 4 or 5 creatures.

[RoséGod]

For me personally MHW and MHR both stand as the best games in the series. The upgrades to the general gameplay, armor, environments, camps, etc, just make it too good for me to go back to the older games.

That said, I love World and Iceborne with all my heart, I really do, but MHR and Sunbreak have even more amazing QoL on top of that that keep me going back to them over and over. I'll try to break down my feeling on each;

World and Iceborne have a much more superior world and set of environments, it feels like you're really trudging through the hunting grounds. And watching how all of the endemic life, small monsters, and large monsters interact and react to one another is truly magical. And stuff like having endemic life as pets, decorating your house in Iceborne, and the weapon pendents.. those are all icing atop this beautiful cake of a game. Extra layers of enjoyment and personalization that make you love the game even more. The main downsides I would say would be how slow the game feels after you've gotten used to Rise, I feel slow as molasses when I play now. And the last issue for me is certain endgame monsters being either locked to online sieges (aka being unable to be soloed), and other endgame monsters having unnecessary challenges like DPS checks, oneshot moves, and shortened timers.

Rise and Sunbreak on the other hand have weaker, linear environments for me. Endemic life just sits there like items, small monsters usually vanish out of existence when a large monster comes around, and large monster interaction exists for the sole purpose of free wyvern rides. But on the flip side of that, while the world feels less detailed, the combat and the ability to move around is almost addictive to me compared to World. I can pretty much zoom around maps now, and the polishes to combat and palicos make fighting feel very enjoyable to me, which.. is really important since that's a core aspect of the game. And the most recent reason why I find myself unable to go back to World is followers. In general MH endgames have always been some sort of slog. And yes, Sunbreak's endgame feels much more sloggish than Iceborne's, but having 2 NPC followers that actively attack, heal/buff you, use items like traps, flash bombs, and endemic life, and will wireride monsters in nearby areas to help.. it's just so amazing. Before followers I hated Sunbreak's endgame and avoided it, and now I've been blasting through it and having so much fun because of that feature. I just can't get enough of hunting in Rise and Sunbreak ^^

[Valentine (Lunaticus)]

I just wrote basically what came to my mind as I wrote this. I didn't bother to use that much time to organize it in a better order. And for the rabid Rise fanboys (as I have a lot of criticism for this game), obviously these are opinions, most of the stuff discussed in this topic is.

I started in 3rd gen and played every game that came to west from there onwards, expect GenU. Put this here since you seem to be interested of this stuff.


The biggest things in World has to be the world (pun intended), and the combat feel. The combat was good enough for me to consider it my favorite game ATM. I even have to go out of my way to avoid watching videos about World as much as possible just so I can continue to enjoy Rise without constantly lamenting that the combat doesn't feel as good.

There are some things I like more in Rise of course, but those are mostly QoL stuff. And then there's the countless gripes I have with it, like the horrifying AR grind. It still astonishes me how insane the grind is.


World really is an experience, while Rise is just a go fight monster quick video game. Rise's design teaches you to be impatient with everything to the point that just moving to another zone to follow a monster becomes a slog. Basically, on every map you just go get the birds you want (if you can be bothered to, which you probably want to in stuff like anomalies) and then go fight the monster.


It feels like they tried to make the maps interesting to explore, but they're just not. I think the increased movement capabilities actually makes it less interesting to explore. When you can just freely go wherever you want without any effort, it's just loses the wonder of discovery. Getting on top of a high place isn't anything special when you can just go there just like that. Of course not helped by the maps and the looks of the game just not being that interesting to look at in the first place. One place I can think of that is interesting is the pyramid they added to Flooded Forest, but you don't see that place unless you go out of your way just to see it, a huge missed opportunity for an area to fight monsters in.

The volcano map especially disappoints me. This game has already so many maps with water as a huge element, and then they go and make like half of the volcano map also water? WTF? I really wish half of the map was something else instead, like maybe have the cave part just be a dark cave with very little or no water at all. Then have the outsides be a forest or something. In general it also feels like there's just not enough fighting on the lava/hot areas areas. The lack of cool and hot drinks just reinforces that these areas are not special or dangerous or anything, everything's just an area to fight the monster and that's it.

And don't get me started on Magma Almudron that for some reason seems to spend most of the time on those water areas where it makes no sense for it to be in the first place. It's like the game spitting on my face for wanting to find it even the slightest bit believable for a second. I feel like in the end these issues are worse than the combat feel. This really is the least MH like MH game.


Oh yeah, forgot about wyvern riding, this thing makes the monsters a joke. It's one of those design features that adds to the arcadey and gamey feel of Rise. In past MH games, monsters were something to revere, something to fear. Doesn't also help that these supposedly mighty and intelligent elder dragons that aren't fooled by traps, can be ridden just like that without any issue. Not being able to trap elders doesn't serve any purpose in this game anymore.

Almost forgot about this too. The spiribrids and other wildlife. They're just video game power ups and tools, they don't feel like animals. Spiribirds are like the rings are in Sonic games, and the other wildlife are just tools waiting for you to pick them up and use at your own leisure.



Now to criticize World in return. The RNG crap, the rare decorations and RNG weapons. The decorations were fixed in Iceborne where they were easily accessible, and the RNG weapons were just easy to ignore from the start. They were just maybe a bit better than stuff you could just get from regular monsters.


Then there was guiding lands, a pretty annoying grinding of different regions just to get the stuff you want, or even just access some monsters for the first time. Of course in hindsight, I don't mind guiding lands much anymore now that I've experienced Rise's equivalent that is so ridiculously grindy that it's ridiculous, and Rise's RNG crap isn't so easy to ignore like World's was. They did at least improve talismans with the new melding, allowing you to get good talismans easily. However, unlike World's decorations which were fixed stats, talismans had variable stats and you'll end up with loads of them just in case they might be useful if you need these very specific skills.


Then of course the biggest complaint everyone has; the clutch claw. An annoying feature that brought a new state to the monsters, and a mechanic that made a part take more damage and made it look stupid. But the thing with CC is that you could really just ignore without much issues. They did also update it so that it lasts longer and made a decoration that lets light weapons weaken a spot with one attack.


I guess this is enough, I didn't bother to mention some stuff, like base Rise and how it launched, there's enough stuff here already. Also, if I really talked about everything, I might as well go write a book about it instead.

[Rusted Metal]

I hate snow levels so.... sunbreak. but i wish this game had a guiding lands.

[kl250d]

If you plan to play solo, either or, though i guess world has more "high end" monsters than rise does currently.

If you plan to play exclusively with friends, during the game: rise, post game: either or. This is just because of the mandatory unskippable cutscenes in world

If you plan to play multiplayer with randoms on the internet: world just because of the 16 player lobbies and live active quest search.

[The Magnate]

I love Rise and how quickly it throws you into the combat (which is probably the one thing it does better than World), it's great for nowadays when I have less time to game and can get plenty done in short sessions.

However World will always be my favourite, I miss having scoutflies, actually having to track down the monsters was so much more immersive, just a much more epic experience in general whilst playing World. Can tell Rise is merely a side game in comparison, can't wait for World 2 or whatever they do next.