Sunbreak is an endgame and a half for Monster Hunter Rise

There's also a vampire dragon

Monster Hunter Rise’s biggest problem was the Covid outbreak. The best Monster Hunter I’ve yet played rolled credits abruptly in the middle of the story, its progression clearly truncated by circumstances beyond anybody’s control.

As a player I don’t know anything for sure, but I think it’s fair to speculate that an unprecedented global health crisis had something to do with the condition of a major AAA video game produced by a small army of office workers.

And despite strong support after the release— including a proper final boss— the game didn’t quite feel done, even 200 hours in. Strapped for in-game cash and with few enticing options, I eventually got bored of optimizing my hunter.

Even with the understanding that every Monster Hunter is released in two parts, Rise felt like a uniquely unfinished first half.

The Monster Hunter team was probably aware of this, and so the Sunbreak expansion checks every box for the endgame Monster Hunter player, along with a few that players probably didn’t realize existed.