The Monster Hunter’s formula hasn’t really changed in all these years. You are a hunter in a village who sets out – alone or with friends – to defeat huge monsters. These monsters are usually some kind of fanciful versions of dinosaurs or other large beasts, each with its own behavior, weaknesses and other traits. When you defeat a monster, you can ‘harvest’ it, which means that you take out bones and other intestines. These are the parts that you then use to upgrade or renew your weapons and armor, allowing you to defeat larger monsters in other areas.

Interesting about this is that better weapons and armor mainly ensure that you are able to fight bigger beasts, but that it does not guarantee a victory. For monsters of lower ranks yes, but the balance of the game is designed in such a way that the best weapon ensures that you can defeat the next monster. This simple loop of defeating monsters to defeat bigger monsters is the engine behind a game that can spend many hundreds of hours. Especially since that engine consists of so many parts that provide a lot of depth and invite you to experiment.

Monster Hunter games are not so much sequels to each other as new versions and refinements of the previous game. That sounds a bit thin, completely unfairly. It is clear that the creators build each new game with a lot of love and attention to detail, preserving the essence of the series while still finding new ways to improve or deepen the game. That’s certainly the case with Monster Hunter Rise.

Rise continues in a sense where Monster Hunter World left off, but the gameplay is quite streamlined. This is partly due to the addition of a new type of ‘buddy’. Since the beginning of the series you have been accompanied by a kind of cat person, a Palico. In Monster Hunter Rise, a kind of dog is added, which not only helps you fight, but you can also ride to speed through the game world. Another refinement is the absence of ‘paint balls’ to mark samples. In previous games, you first had to find the monster you had to kill for your mission. When you found it, you threw a paint ball on it so that you could always see where that monster was through the map. Since monsters often flee during combat, this was no superfluous help. In Monster Hunter Rise you don’t have to mark monsters: they are already marked on the map with a question mark. When you make contact, the question mark changes to a specific icon that indicates which monster it is. That way, the game avoids frustrating searches for the right monster.

The faster pace of play in Rise is partly due to the return of a seamless, open world. Where in the classic MH games the map was divided into numbered zones that were separated from each other with a short loading time, since Monster Hunter World there has been no transition between ‘rooms’ on the map. Those ‘rooms’ are still there to a certain extent and are numbered just like in the original, so that you can quickly tell your teammates where something is. The game world looks beautiful with a lot of details. That also means that the Switch is pushed to its limits here, which occasionally results in short frame rate hiccups. Fortunately, it is rare and never gets in the way of gameplay.

Another new addition is the Wirebug, an insect that always flies with you and where you can shoot a kind of line and swing at it. This allows you to quickly shoot yourself into the air, for example to avoid an attack, but also to get to places that you otherwise would not be able to reach.

The Wirebug can also be used to attack monsters and even ride them. When you climb on a tired monster, you can not only control the giant, but also use it to attack other monsters. This quickly results in surprising moments where you sometimes even zip from one monster to another and let them attack each other. It is also satisfying to have a monster run at high speed against a rock and do a lot of damage with it. These are fantastic add-ons that add extra dynamism to combat.

Using the Wirebug feels awkward at the beginning of the game, until you realize you’re should not use him as Spider-Man, but as a kind of drone that is always nearby and that lifts you up for a moment. It is difficult to describe in words, which also means that you have to experiment in the game before the system really clicks.

That click search is, in fact, also the biggest criticism of Monster Hunter Rise. This series is truly a unique creature. For newcomers it is all very inscrutable at first, with a lot of choices. For example, it is not clear that you can freely use all basic versions of weapons in the game to discover which one suits you best. Each weapon is so unique and so different that it virtually changes the entire game. Where the Dual Blades, for example, are fast and flashy, the Long Sword is very slow and you cannot change direction once you have started your shot. If the monster moves after you start your swing, you don’t hit it. Firearms such as the gun bow have their own draft in the form of all kinds of different types of ammunition with special effects.

There are also numerous systems (new and old) that really take time to understand. From collecting ingredients to make potions and tools, to all kinds of ‘buffs’ present in nature that give you some extra power temporarily and basic things like stamina and the sharpness of your weapons that are both subject to wear and tear.

Monster Hunter Rise fails to explain all of these systems. At the beginning you are overloaded with information screens, sometimes even halfway through a fight, which tries to teach you all kinds of nuances. It’s quite a challenge for a newcomer (and even a veteran) to take in all that information. That results in the necessary frustration and perhaps quite a few searches on Google to still discover how the hell you can mount your dog buddy.

However, the reward for go-getters is great. Once you’ve mastered the basics of controls and fighting (count on an hour or two of tinkering before everything is really clear), the beauty of the game unfolds. Then it becomes clear that Rise is in fact a sequence of interesting and thrilling boss fights. What helps enormously is that combat is a lot smoother to control than in its predecessors. This is also because certain systems have become a bit more lenient, such as endurance. In previous games, that gauge was quickly used up by dodging and attacking, often requiring you to drop out halfway through a fight to literally rest before you could continue fighting. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. Stamina still plays a role, but it is no longer the handicap that used to be. Again, this keeps the momentum going.

These eases don’t make the game any easier. The fights are nerve-wracking, thrilling pursuits that can easily take half an hour or more. When you eventually see such a giant fall to the ground alone or with a few online friends, the euphoria is enormous. Because Monster Hunter is first and foremost about your skills and reflexes, a defeated enemy really feels like a victory, not the result of a better weapon.

Monster Hunter Rise is a great game that improves almost all points on its predecessors. Despite the high learning curve at the start, this is the most accessible game in the series, making this survival hunting game worth playing for pure action enthusiasts.

Monster Hunter Rise Releases March 26 for Nintendo Switch .

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