As the sun finally sets on Monster Hunter Rise, I'm left with feelings I've rarely experienced before.

Back in March 2021, I had fun with the base version of the game on Switch but was ultimately left a smidge disappointed due to the lack of content on launch as well as poor post-launch support after Ver.3, but Sunbreak has not only managed to turn the tide around, it exceeded my expectations in ways I could have never predicted, turning this unique take on Monster Hunter into the single best entry I've ever had the pleasure to dump 700 hours into.

This game has it all for me: A godlike monster roster, a combat system so deep and complex coupled with insanely fun and varied armor skills/switch skills that allow for multiple playstyles for each weapon, fashion through the roof, an endgame system that takes the best elements of MHW Investigations, MHGU Hypers and MH4U Guild Quests and smashes them into one comprehensive grind that keeps me going back for more everytime.

For a long time, I considered MHGU my favorite in the series for the exact reasons stated above, but Sunbreak dethroned it with style, and I don't think there will be another MH like this one.

This game has been here for me through some of my lowest points and helped me cope with a lot of ♥♥♥♥, so I can never be grateful enough. I'm so incredibly lucky to be born in this specific time period where I can experience this absolute gem of a game.

UPDATE: I felt like I should add an extra paragraph to detail my experience achievement hunting, having recently gotten the platinum
It's a mixed bag, honestly. On one hand, it made me discover rare endemic life so full of personality I genuinely enjoyed interacting with them, especially considering they react to your emotes. I also very much enjoyed looking around for the relic records in all the maps, not necessarily for the lore but for discovering areas of the maps I never thought existed in the first place. Most of the other achievements were done passively throughout my playthrough so I didn't really have to worry about it all that much.

However, there are a couple outliers that just made me want to tear my hair out.
First, the Rampage achievement, requiring 50 completions to unlock. Whoever thought it was a good idea to lock an achievement behind FIFTY ♥♥♥♥♥♥ RAMPAGE QUESTS deserves my boot up their ass. Thank god for Shrapnel ammo & the Espinas LBG making this process somewhat manageable, but very boring.
And then there are the crowns. Luckily, by the time I started focusing on crown hunting, I already had most of them just from hunting so much, and the rates at which you get them are increased in Master Rank. On top of that, certain event quests guarantee crowns, but there will always be that one monster you get stuck on hunting over and over and over and over again just not getting lucky at all and honestly? That ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks, I would much rather have to do an extremely tough quest but with a guaranteed crown at the end instead of relying on ♥♥♥♥♥♥ RNG for the nth time

Regardless, my feelings for the game haven't changed, it's still my favorite of them all and I'm still gonna play it for years to come even after Wilds drops because I don't think they're gonna make one like this in the future.
Crown hunting can suck it though.

UPDATE 2: Just hit MR999, thought I'd update my review to reflect on the MR grind experience.
Grinding for MR can be a bit tedious if all you do is focus on that, cuz that'll just make you play the quest with the highest MR gains over and over and over again, and that can be monotonous as ♥♥♥♥.
Luckily, anomaly investigations are a thing that exist, so I made sure to focus on those instead, as my MR rose in the background. I mainly set my focus on augmenting my weapons, since that allows me to hunt a variety of monsters. Also, swapping weapons between hunts keeps everything fresh, so overall the grind wasn't a pain at all, and I think it would've been a lot worse had I entirely focused on solely grinding MR
So yeah I beat the video game, still amazing even almost 4 years in