We finally got it! We were told to expect news in Spring 2022 after The Game Awards last year, and we finally got it! The Monster Hunter YouTube channel gave us a digital event focused on Sunbreak, the huge expansion to the Monster Hunter Rise game. It had information on the new base of operations, locale, monsters (of course) and more. We even have a definite release date for this DLC now. So let’s talk about all they had to show off yesterday, as well as how I feel about them.
New Locale – The Citadel
The Citadel is a new locale that hunters will be able to explore. It has various types of environments within it, such as icy mountains and swampy woodlands, as well as an abandoned fortress at the center. There’s also new endemic life there as well.
It looks absolutely amazing, and it’s probably gonna be the biggest map in the game. The new Endemic Life look interesting too, I wonder how good the Morphed Wirebugs will be. That being said, I’ll be disappointed if that’s the only new locale to come with this DLC. I was expecting at least two new ones. However, The Citadel looks like three locales in one (which makes sense given the environments the new monsters will reside in), so my disappointment won’t be too bad.
New Monsters – Garangolm, Lunagaron, and More
Now let’s talk about the monsters. Although they talked in-depth about four of the monsters, only three of them are new reveals, so I’ll only go over those three here but give my opinions on all of them afterwards. Anyways, they revealed a Fanged Beast called Garangolm. It’s an ape-like monster that’s capable of attacking with both Fire and Water elements when enraged. The other new one is a Bishaten subspecies, Blood Orange Bishaten. It seems to fight the same, but utilizes exploding pine cones and various blast attacks in its kit. At the very end of the trailer though, it was revealed that Astalos, one of the flagship monsters from the 3DS (and Nintendo Switch) titles, Monster Hunter Generations (Ultimate), will be returning. Understandably enough, they didn’t talk about the new Elder Dragon Malzeno much, so I won’t be talking about that monster here.
I can already tell that Garangolm is gonna be my kryptonite. It looks like a blend of Rajang and Brachydios, with a unique double-elements spin on it. Its armor-like plates on its body also give me Durambaros vibes for some reason. It’s a pretty cool design.
Lunagaron is also pretty cool. While the fanged wyvern’s overall design looks kinda simple (I stupidly mistook it as a Tobi Kadachi when it was first shown), the concept of it being an ice werewolf is unique. This one might give me a hard time as well with how fast it seems to be, but I think this one is my favorite out of the monsters shown.
It’s cool that they gave Bishaten a new subspecies here, even if it’s with a bunch of explosions. I was always fond of the armor and weapon designs for the original Bishaten, but I didn’t have much use for them outside of Low-Rank quests. Hopefully the armor and weapons that’ll come from this monster will be amazing.
And last but not least (as the announcer said), I’m super happy that Astalos is returning. I’m not particularly fond of the electric flying wyvern myself, but I can still agree that it didn’t get as much love as its other flagship companions after Monster Hunter Generations. I hope they really make it a return worth remembering, and even give it an Apex form along with Mizutsune.
The World – New Places and New Faces
This DLC immediately continues after the Rampage ends, and a Lunagaron is spotted in the Shrine Ruins. It’s there that you meet a Royal Knight named Fiorayne, who seeks your help in investigating problematic occurrences at her home. This takes you to the new base of this DLC, Elgado, which doubles as a trade port and monster research facility.
Along with Fiorayne, you’ll be aided by the following characters: Galleus, the head researcher of the problem at hand and leader to the Royal Knights, including Fiorayne; Bahari, a quirky yet oblivious genius scientist; Chichae, the Quest “Damsel” of Elgado with more to her than we know; and others, like a new blacksmith and merchant.
I like the designs and voices of all these new characters, honestly (I believe in Monster Hunter language supremacy, so I won’t be enjoying the English voices much). Design-wise, my favorites are Bahari and Minayle, the Blacksmith. While this new cast is already packed enough for me, I hope there’s actually more to find and interact with than they’ve shown, only since they said it’s a “full cast” and we don’t see the new Buddy Handler or anything else yet.
The Three Lords
Thanks to the research done on the threat, it has been concluded that the Garangolm, Lunagaron and Malzeno are the priority monsters to kill. They got a really cool group name as well, being The Three Lords. It gives me a feeling similar to “The Fated Four,” which makes me even more excited to face them.
That’s really it. They showed off a bit of the new mechanics and Wirebug actions in the gameplay, but they really didn’t touch on them much here. For that, please check this link to the DLC’s official website. For now, here’s doggo with a gun before we get into the product information.
Product Info – Release Date, Bonuses, amiibo, and More
The expansion is set to release this year on June 30. Along with being able to download the expansion digitally if we already own the physical or digital version (‘cause of course we could), there’s also a Deluxe Edition to the DLC with new layered armor sets, poses, gestures, cosmetics, and hairstyles. You will also buy the base game along with the Sunbreak expansion in one set.
There’s also a preorder bonus which gives you layered armor for your Palamute and Palico. You can also get layered armor for them, as well as your hunter, if you buy and use the three new amiibo that’ll be released. Preorders for the game will start on March 15th, the day that this event took place.
They also talked about some plans for the base game. To help hunters meet the requirement to begin the Subreak expansion, new weapons, armor, and a talisman will be distributed for free. They also showed that new event quests and content will continue to be released until March 25, which is a bit of a bummer but it makes sense.
Another plan for the base game is an update to it once Subreak comes out. With it, players will be able to access certain content from Sunbreak without needing to purchase it. What that content is, exactly, is currently unclear. However, they did explain that this update will require around 13 GB of storage and it is needed to continue playing online. While it still makes sense, since the update includes some balance patches, that’s pretty wild, and I fear for how much the Sunbreak expansion will be in size.
There’s a Game Trial out for Monster Hunter Rise for Nintendo Switch Online players. It started on March 11 and ends at 11:59 PM on March 17th. Remember, this aired on the 15th of March, so that leads me to believe this digital event was meant to come out days earlier than it actually did. People that didn’t know about the trial prior to the event will only have two days to enjoy it (like myself, even though I already have the base game). I hope they extend the trial by another week, or give out another one later on, cause that’s really unfair. The game’s also on sale for a limited time though, so that makes it sting a bit less, but it still sucks.
That’s all they went over. They left off by telling us new info will be available in the future, giving us a reiteration of the release date, and telling us that they’ll be giving free title updates to the DLC, similarly to how they released them for the base game. I’m absolutely excited about it, but what about you? Was there anything you particularly liked? What would you hope to see in the future? I’d love to hear your thoughts.