I love portable technology—if you can put it in a pocket or a bag, I’m probably into it. I’ve covered phones and tablets of all shapes and sizes, and reviewed everything from game consoles to laptops in my decade-plus career. Prior to joining PCMag, I wrote articles for Android Authority, How-To Geek, MUO, New Atlas, Tom’s Hardware, and plenty of other tech publications.
Sunbreak is a thrilling Monster Hunter Rise expansion that builds upon the excellent base game by adding new creatures and fun-filled offensive and defensive options.
Monster Hunter is a video game franchise that has stood the test of time. The challenging gameplay, well-designed monsters, and deep mechanics keep fans coming back with each new release, and Capcom's Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak continues that trend. The $39.99 Nintendo Switch game doesn't dramatically alter the Monster Hunter formula, but the expansion adds enough creatures, quests, and skills to make it an excellent purchase for anyone who loves the Monster Hunter Rise base title.
If you haven't played Monster Hunter Rise, check out our review for a look at its mechanics, monsters, and other fun elements. We won't go too heavily into that here, as we want to focus on specifically what developer Capcom added in this Sunbreak expansion.
Capcom has a handle on what fans expect from Monster Hunter expansions. Each game launches with a moderate challenge, and then Capcom releases the G-rank expansion that gets those faint carts warmed up for players of all skill levels. With Sunbreak, Capcom introduces Master Rank, which takes many monsters from the original game and tweaks their abilities to make them more challenging. It's nice to see a game that doesn't increase the difficulty by simply adding more health and damage. Instead, there are fundamental changes you must make to your playstyle to fight the altered monsters.
Of course, the game isn't just built around fighting the same monsters from Rise with tweaks, as there are plenty of challenging new monsters to fight (though many of them have been in other Monster Hunter games such as Monster Hunter World). There are baddies like the vampire-inspired Malzeno, the Frankenstein's Monster look-alike Garangolm, and the werewolf-looking Lunagaron. Capcom also brought back series favorites, such as Gore Magala, Espinas, and everyone's favorite armored crab, Shogun Ceanatuar. There are more creatures, but we'll let you discover the monster roster for yourself as you play through the game's familiar Key Quest progression system.
Unfortunately, you won't meet the new monsters until you progress relatively far in the game. Capcom structured Sunbreak's story in a way that sees you mainly fighting creatures from the base game with their modified attack patterns, before throwing anything new at you. It would have been nice to see a brand new (or at least a returning favorite) right off the bat, but at least knowing they're waiting for you should be enough to keep you going, especially if you enjoy the Monster Hunter combat systems.
It wouldn't be a Monster Hunter expansion without new locales to explore, such as the Citadel and Jungle. Although it's nice to have the new locations, neither really stand out as truly special environments. The same is true of Elgado, the new hub city. Once you get the hang of where all the important NPCs hang out, it's a mostly forgettable location. Longtime fans will appreciate the included Easter eggs, but at the end of the day, the area serves mostly as a place to pick up quests and get a meal before going on your next hunt.
There are new friends, too. Sunbreak received several additional endemic life forms to help you in your hunts. You'll see new Ruby and Gold Wirebugs, Marionette Spiders, Starburst Bugs, Thornytoads, Spearsquids, and Slicercrabs. Each offers different benefits, but we were big fans of the Marionette Spider. Its silk lets you drag monsters or slam them into walls, much like you'd do while mounted.
One of the biggest gameplay changes is the ability to set up two different Switch Skills with the newly-added Switch Skill Swap. It lets you double your available moves for each fight, and truly make each weapon type your own. It's an enormous combat benefit.
Sunbreak has a new dodge mechanic, too. Swap Evade lets you quickly get out of the way of a monster's attack, but it's only available after a successful Switch Skill Swap. This gives you another reason to engage with the swap system, as a new way to dodge devastating blows is always welcome.
To go along with this, each weapon has new Switch Skills. We tested these with the hammer, long sword, great sword, and dual blades, and they added more variety to the already deep combat. However, we didn't find ourselves switching between each set as much as we thought we would; we stuck with the skills that worked well. Still, it depends on how you approach Monster Hunter battles, and that's one of the reasons why this franchise is so loved—the combat freedom
The wirebug has received plenty of love in Sunbreak, with each weapon offering new Silkbind moves and attacks. This adds freshness when you hunt familiar monsters, as you never know when you might discover a new tactic that suits your playstyle.
As is tradition, the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak story is entirely skippable. You move to Elgado to help the kingdom fend off out-of-control monsters. It's a familiar plot, and nothing about it stands out from other Monster Hunter games. With that said, Sunbreak's characters have vibrant personalities, which makes the otherwise ho-hum story somewhat entertaining.
The bulk of your time in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak sees you advancing the game via Hub Quests. You can tackle these missions solo or with other players. Once you complete the requisite amount, as well as two Urgent Quests, you'll move to a Master Rank, and repeat the actions until you beat the game.
The new Follower Quests shakes things up, however. These quests pair you with a key NPC from the game's story. Most of these are optional quests, and can only be played in the single-player mode (with a few exceptions). The AI is actually quite helpful in these fights, as it mounts monsters and pulls off effective moves that help defeat monsters. Thankfully, if the NPC dies, it doesn't count against your total retry count. Even though you can mostly ignore Follower Quests, we wouldn't recommend doing so; these hunts are great fun that let you harvest many useful monster parts.
One of the more divisive Monster Hunter Rise features was the Rampage Missions. They're nothing more than a memory in Sunbreak, and that's a good thing. Although it was nice to see Capcom mix things up with the Rampage fights, they broke from the Monster Hunter combat style that diehards love. If you miss Rampage Missions, you can still fire them up in the base Rise game.
If you're a Monster Hunter fan, you must pick up Sunbreak. It improves the stellar Monster Hunter Rise formula in enough ways to make it a worthwhile expansion. The gameplay is as fun as ever, the monsters and weapons offer deep combat variety, and the grind will keep you playing for hours on end. If you've never played a Monster Hunter title, this is as good a place as any to jump into the action (just know that you must also purchase the base Monster Hunter Rise game).
For more recommended Nintendo Switch titles, check out The Best Nintendo Switch Games and The Best Nintendo Switch Games for Kids. And for in-depth video game talk, visit PCMag's Pop-Off YouTube channel(Opens in a new window) .
Sunbreak is a thrilling Monster Hunter Rise expansion that builds upon the excellent base game by adding new creatures and fun-filled offensive and defensive options.
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I love portable technology—if you can put it in a pocket or a bag, I’m probably into it. I’ve covered phones and tablets of all shapes and sizes, and reviewed everything from game consoles to laptops in my decade-plus career. Prior to joining PCMag, I wrote articles for Android Authority, How-To Geek, MUO, New Atlas, Tom’s Hardware, and plenty of other tech publications.
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