Monster Hunter Fans Cry Longsword Favoritism After Sunbreak Preview

Monster Hunter fans are riled up, claiming unequal treatment for different weapons in the Sunbreak expansion for Monster Hunter Rise after the release of the recent Longsword and Lance preview videos.

Over the past few weeks, Capcom has been showing off the new moves that each weapon receives in the Sunbreak expansion for Monster Hunter Rise- but fans have noted that the fact almost every weapon got some sort of counter-stance makes it an awful lot like the Longsword weapon.

Worse still, the Longsword video finally came out- and the weapon’s kit seems to get moves that would have been really good for other weapons, with a skill to enhance the weapon’s own counters, as well as a charged slash a la Greatsword.

On YouTube, the video is sitting at 4800 dislikes, catching up to the 6000 likes (viewable via a special plugin).

“So lemme get this straight. [Longsword] now has a built in buff, an active buff, charging attack, multiple counters, arguably the best range of the meele (sic) weapons, pretty good elemental and physical damage, a combo that has built in minds eye… am I missing anything?”, writes John Venoski on YouTube.

Adding fuel to the fire is the weapon the video was paired with, Lance. Largely seen as one of the more underwhelming weapons in Rise’s catalogue, the Lance video did little to dispel that feeling- in fact it’s stronger than ever put next to the Longsword’s counter-field, something Lance mains could have used.

The Lance video was hit much harder than the Longsword one, with 6,300 dislikes to 3,100 likes.

“As a lance main that is exhausted with it’s additions since GU this is still underwhelming, we knew already that we get this dragoon ish jump, I hoped it would be a counter tho – also the shield bash really takes up a slot for the second one? Very disappointed while LS gets it all again”, writes one commenter, Rail.

Over on Reddit, some people are more clear about their criticism with the game- they feel that Capcom has a clear bias towards Longsword by giving it the bests moves.

“Is more like they (Monster Hunter Devs) claim all weapons are treated the same while the videos reflect clear bias/favoritism of some weapons over the others”, writes redditor NeonArchon.

It’s not just other weapon mains either- some Longsword players themselves are saying the weapon had seen a lot of its risk/reward watered down with how forgiving its controls had been in recent Monster Hunter entries.

“This is coming from someone who put over 1000 hours into world/GU LS. Rise has basically gutted any semblance of positioning and skill from the weapon beyond “can you hit zR as the monster hits you.”, says drfiz98. “I understand they want to make LS easier for people new to the game to learn, but they could have done that just by adding Sakura slash and serene pose. The way they’ve changed longsword just made me stop playing it halfway through Rise’s story because it just didn’t feel tactical or fun anymore – it felt like one trick pony.”

Repping Your Weapon

Monster Hunter fans are quite defensive over their weapons, largely because of the game’s PVE nature- things like tierlists don’t matter unless you’re part of the speedrunning community, and every monster in the game is technically balanced enough to be fought with any weapon.

As such, the idea that Longsword users have gotten a significant buff via Sunbreak can be seen as insulting- especially since the upgrades weapons perceive as “underappreciated” like Lance weren’t nearly as good.

Monster Hunter Rise

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 2021-03-26

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