Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak's Citadel Map Opens the Door For a Variety of Monsters

gamerant.com:

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak was a surprise opening reveal for the September 2021 Nintendo Direct, but developer Capcom clearly intends to make a major event of its release. After sparse showings at venues like Tokyo Game Show last year, the upcoming «massive expansion» for Japan's most-downloaded Switch game in 2021 received a Digital Event showcase all its own this morning.

While Sunbreak is a big deal for fans, it's roughly equivalent to prior ventures like Monster Hunter World's Iceborne expansion; adding a new hub and the higher-level «Master Rank» (akin to G-Rank quests). Also included are new and returning Monsters, Astalos from Monster Hunter Generations being the latest veteran reveal, as well as expanded mechanics and «new locales» according to producer Ryoza Tsujimoto. Only one of these locales named The Citadel was discussed today, but its diversity offers hope that Sunbreak will be chock-full of monsters from all walks of life.

Everything Revealed at the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Digital Event

Monster Hunter has been a key Capcom property since its first game released for PlayStation 2 in 2004. That progenitor firmly established the series' cooperative formula, in which players take the role of hunters to battle deadly creatures in a series of increasingly difficult «boss battles,» but it also set the groundwork for level design that would persist almost 20 years. Like real animals, Monsters inhabit various ecosystems, and in the original those larger locales were segmented into areas that required loading screen transitions.

More shortcuts between areas and new environmental designs like Monster Hunter Tri's underwater sections and Monster Hunter 4's verticality helped to expand each title, but for the