GU vs World vs Rise vs Wilds (rank the games you played)

[Netsa]

Curious what people think of the latest games in the series overall, or more than that if you want to rank more. I started with Tri back on the Wii, I'm only skipping over them for simplicity's sake.

Note, just because a game is at the bottom of the list doesn't mean it's bad. Monster Hunter is a very strong series and hasn't really had any bad mainline entries, including this one.

Gen > World = Rise > Wilds

Generations gave us the Style system, which I hope every day to be brought back even though I know it never will. I just want to shoot Qurupecos out of a barrel, man.

World did a lot more for making the ecosystem and the overall world feel more alive than any other monster hunting game in recent memory, and noticeably did a better job of it than both Rise and Generations. I spent more time than I thought I would just capturing endemic life and placing them in my room.

Rise brought back part of the over-the-top action from Generations, but also added great free-form movement that had never been seen before in this series. Rise made the player so fast that they barely needed a mount at all, and it tailored the maps to accommodate this. It also introduced wyvern riding, which was just great fun.

Wilds is taking a big step towards open world, and even though it's not quite there yet, it's sending the series in a direction that I think we've all been waiting for for a long time. You now live in the Expedition zone rather than having to set one up at the guild counter, form a party, and then deal with a time limit. It's doing more for the series than just removing the loading screen.

That said, I also feel that Wilds isn't leaning into that aspect enough, and some of the great strides we made over the past few entries were lost in its pursuit.

TL;DR
What do you think, how do the different games compare to each other? Feel free to include or exclude expansions, or more of the entries you played than just those four.

[★ Moonlight ★]

I feel like right now Wilds isn't in a great state, but it has the bones to be my favorite Monster Hunter.
I can't accurately rank them because we don't even have the full base game yet. Datamines suggest it was rushed out to make money before the fiscal year end and will be needing the first few title updates to actually be fixed and complete

[NoxJS]

World>Rise>Wilds

[zero]

world>gen ulti>wilds>rise>frontier>tri

though it should also be noted that the first 2 have a full dev cycle of extra content added t them, which wilds has yet to be given, the spring update not even being out yet

wilds does very little wrong, save for performance issues, it just needs time to actually get the content the others did

[Riukensei]

引用自 Netsa：

Curious what people think of the latest games in the series overall, or more than that if you want to rank more. I started with Tri back on the Wii, I'm only skipping over them for simplicity's sake.

Note, just because a game is at the bottom of the list doesn't mean it's bad. Monster Hunter is a very strong series and hasn't really had any bad mainline entries, including this one.

Gen > World = Rise > Wilds

Generations gave us the Style system, which I hope every day to be brought back even though I know it never will. I just want to shoot Qurupecos out of a barrel, man.

World did a lot more for making the ecosystem and the overall world feel more alive than any other monster hunting game in recent memory, and noticeably did a better job of it than both Rise and Generations. I spent more time than I thought I would just capturing endemic life and placing them in my room.

Rise brought back part of the over-the-top action from Generations, but also added great free-form movement that had never been seen before in this series. Rise made the player so fast that they barely needed a mount at all, and it tailored the maps to accommodate this. It also introduced wyvern riding, which was just great fun.

Wilds is taking a big step towards open world, and even though it's not quite there yet, it's sending the series in a direction that I think we've all been waiting for for a long time. You now live in the Expedition zone rather than having to set one up at the guild counter, form a party, and then deal with a time limit. It's doing more for the series than just removing the loading screen.

That said, I also feel that Wilds isn't leaning into that aspect enough, and some of the great strides we made over the past few entries were lost in its pursuit.

TL;DR
What do you think, how do the different games compare to each other? Feel free to include or exclude expansions, or more of the entries you played than just those four.

I personally think MHFU on PSP was the best MH game made.

1. MHF 1
2. MHF 2 & U(the DLC basically)
3. MH - PS2
4. Frontier
5. Base Wilds
6. Base Rise - Iceborne makes World better
7. Base World - Sunbreak was lack luster to me
8. Generations & Ultimate
9. 4U
10. Tri and Ultimate

If we add in Stories which I don't because its a turn based, they would go somewhere around rise and world. Probably above Base world.

[Terron]

Man I would love to play 4U. I have a 3DS but I cant deal with playing on a small screen like that. Was so happy when GU got ported to switch. (I play my switch docked) I aint into the emulation scene so heres hoping with all this monster hunter success between world, rise and now especially wilds we may one day get remasters or just enhanced ports of some of the past portable only entries. :)

[★ Moonlight ★]

引用自 Terron：

Man I would love to play 4U. I have a 3DS but I cant deal with playing on a small screen like that. Was so happy when GU got ported to switch. (I play my switch docked) I aint into the emulation scene so heres hoping with all this monster hunter success between world, rise and now especially wilds we may one day get remasters or just enhanced ports of some of the past portable only entries. :)

Honestly the 3DS XL screen is big enough, but if you have a regular one yah it's a bit small for something like Monster Hunter

[Yu Ryujin]

Too much weebing around, its a bit sad and dissapointing. But everyone 's diff I guess.
Also lots of MH games are just same entry game with new stuffs on it and adjustments.

World>MHFU>MHDos>GenU (didnt played/fancy that one but some fights look pretty challenging alas weeby arcade as f, but I must be sincere and put it here)> Wilds>3rd> Rise

I always wanted to try frontier but couldnt do it.

World has some bs around and the clutch with dlc kinda sucked, but the game does some things sooooo great, and started to get some pretty cool ideas that makes me put it in 1 place. and Overall masterfull experience. best thing about world, they managed to unite the weebs, the nintendos, the pspers, the hunters, the butcherers. everyone for a good experience.

[FastFood]

Tri > Iceborn > Wilds > World > Sunbreak > Rise

[The Debauchery]

Fine.... here is my full Monster Hunter experience breakdown... ranked from best to worst.

#1. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
#2. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
#3. MHW: Iceborne
#4. Monster Hunter Stories
#5. Monster Hunter Stories 2
#6. Monster Hunter Rise (Base Game)
#7. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
#8. Monster Hunter Wilds
#9. MHR: Sunbreak
#10. Monster Hunter World (Base Game)

Or to describe my opinions in order:

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate was my intro to the series. Found a game where I could fight underwater. It was all new and wonderful. Loved it to death.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate disappointed me. Partly because it was 3DS exclusive and tiny little handheld screens with tiny little handheld controls are utter garbage. Partly because they removed underwater combat, which is what sold me on 3U in the first place. ALSO there was no good armour set for Bow, and I'd got used to the Green Narga set in 3U. Having Palicos was nice though.

Since I didn't get Generations, between 4U and GU I played Monster Hunter Stories. Not sure what needs to be said there. I liked it, though I didn't care for "Ratha". That stupid one-eyed Rathalos got basically ghosted by me despite the game's constant attempts to force me to use him. I just pretended I had a 5-slot party until it let me box him. Still, great fun. Such awesome variety, good music, lots of fun gene-mapping the ultimate monsters, etc.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate was a massive high for me... mostly because I'd refused to get Generations because I refused to EVER play another handheld-exclusive after 4U, and at that point I also refused to get "incomplete games" (i.e. without G Rank)... so I told everyone I was going to wait for MHXX to be converted to MHGU for the west. It took YEARS. World came out on PC (after its own long exclusivity on console) and everyone else had given up. Basically I was the only one left who still believed.... and then it happened, and I was vindicated. It was the best thing ever. The game too. So awesome. So wonderful. I played it with my at-the-time girlfriend for over 1200 hours together. Also Prowler Mode. Why can't we get Prowler Mode back? I WANT TO BE A FELYNE AGAIN!

Yeah anyway... I played World. I was convinced it ruined everything. I hated it. Absolutely hated it. They'd dumbed down everything, ruined all the weapons, and all the new monster designs were utter garbage. Nergigante in particular was the worst flagship in the entire series and still is. PLUS it had no G Rank, and as previously noted I hate incomplete games. Also no Brachydios. Also no Prowler Mode nor Hunter Arts. ALSO pointless crossover monster fights that were abominations (Behemoth & Leshen). Plus all the casual trash flooding in from everywhere because Crapcom had finally succeeded at dumbing the series down enough that everyone and their grandma was playing it.... so the game was full of ignorant n00bs demanding to be carried and basically acting like entitled little snotbags through the entire game. I mostly just went back to GU and played that religiously until...

Iceborne. World's redemption in my eyes. Not only did it add G Rank (though called it Master Rank for some reason), but it brought back my precious Brachydios, and the new Iceborne monsters were way cooler than the crappy base World monsters. Everything was right again with the world... except the clutch claw and the lack of underwater combat. Actually I think what most sold me on Iceborne was that I was able to find a load of mods to make my hunter look PERFECT. For once I could customise my girl in all the best ways. Everything bounced and life was good again.

Monster Hunter Rise... I liked it. Sort of. I mean I kinda appreciated that different Bow shot-types came back after World screwed up how Bows worked. Other things remained the same as World. I didn't mind wirebugs though I mostly used them for navigation and just utterly ignored the special moves they introduced. I was also willing to ignore that it was essentially just a remake of Portable 3rd, even if I never played that (it was just before 3U and the only 3rd generation game without underwater combat, so screw that). Monster Hunter didn't need more than one sakura blossom village in the mountains with 3rd generation (P3rd with no underwater) maps, a four-legged beasty flagship, a giant storm dragon boss, etc. But yeah... I kinda liked Rise, but didn't really love it.

About here I played Monster Hunter Stories 2... which was almost identical to the first Stories.... so.... nothing new. It was kinda fun, but I hated having forced human companions most of the game utterly ruining my fights for me. That was a downer.

Anyway... Sunbreak came out for Rise and.... well.... it didn't sit right with me. I had high hopes, but it was the first complete G / Master Rank game with NO BRACHYDIOS... and Malzeno felt like a cheap bullsh!t monger to fight, especially since all the new wirebug mode switching crap was so annoying I refused to do it... but it got worse. Since Rise had made Capturing monsters so easy, I'd gone through the whole of Rise with a 100% perfect capture rate for every capturable species. Then after the big boss we got Qurio-infested monsters.... that couldn't be captured... but still counted as their base species. It was like they existed exclusively to ruin perfect Capture records. I hated it SO damned much that after I pushed through it JUST to unlock the endgame monsters like Lucent Nargacuga, I used Cheat Engine to edit my Guild Card to erase all other evidence that I'd ever progressed past the big final boss, erased all my Qurio kills, reduced all the relevant hunt numbers making sure to keep the maths consistent, lowered the investigation levele back to zero, etc. Then I fought all the final end-game monsters outside of Qurio investigations with Non-Qurio-Upgraded weapons and armour..... which was insanely difficult. Like I might as well have been doing G Rank with High Rank gear. Yeah... I hated it.


And that brings us to Wilds.... which is.... well.... I'm not enjoying the graphical crap, not enjoying that it is basically World 2, hating the railroading.... but it is still Monster Hunter, and admittedly I like some of the new monster designs (and hate others). It is being a very 4/10 experience for me so far.... but it can't quite match up to my utter loathing of World at release, nor my sense of absolute betrayal with Sunbreak... only barely marking itself as worse than 4U's squinting and hand cramps.

There. Essay done.

[RoosterSuplex]

MH1>MH2>MHWorld, everything else is

[MeteoImpact]

I realized from various posts on this discussion board that I don't think I played GenU (just base Gen), so now I've powered up my Switch and have it downloading. 75% off, seems like a great time to take a look back.

[Netsa]

I do like how different all the lists are. Guess it really depends on player priorities.

引用自 The Debauchery：

#4. Monster Hunter Stories
#5. Monster Hunter Stories 2

Eeey, someone who played Stories. I still haven't finished it myself. I kept getting halfway through Stories 1 and then losing interest. Nothing wrong with the game that I can remember (though the cat was a little cringe), that just happens when I try to finish turn-based RPGs most of the time.

I should really pick it up on Steam next time it goes on sale.

Also, someone who liked 3's underwater combat. Kinship.

引用自 The Debauchery：

Also Prowler Mode. Why can't we get Prowler Mode back? I WANT TO BE A FELYNE AGAIN!

I forgot all about Prowler Mode. Now I'm sad.

[Dragonmaster]

Far too many comparisons to full game vs just launched. Base world at launch was fairly easy as well and only had 1 more monster the wilds. I mean no doubt if you compared essentially complete world now with complete rise and launch wilds, it’s easy for them to be rated higher. Bigger question will be when wilds is complete before the dlc and master rank.

[Mini]

World —> GU —> Rise —> Wilds

(Do note that Wilds runs like hot garbage on my PC so take that placement with a grain of salt)

[Netsa]

引用自 Dragonmaster：

Far too many comparisons to full game vs just launched. Base world at launch was fairly easy as well and only had 1 more monster the wilds. I mean no doubt if you compared essentially complete world now with complete rise and launch wilds, it’s easy for them to be rated higher. Bigger question will be when wilds is complete before the dlc and master rank.

Hot take, but I think it's very fair to compare the launch state of Wilds (outside of bugs, perhaps) to the finished state of pre-Iceborne World. They don't add enough content in the title updates to make anyone go from hating the game to loving the game, so I think it's reasonable to assume that no one's current opinion of Wilds after playing the full game will be swayed in the future.

It's not impossible, sure, but the past two entries didn't move the needle much besides adding more difficult monsters. Not a lot of people in this thread based their opinions on game difficulty.