 The announcement of Monster Hunter Rise back in September of last year revealed two things to everyone. First, the way I pronounce Monster Hunter without the T and the extra N is apparently hilarious to 50% of my comment section. Monster Hunter. And two, oh, they got puppies in there now? You can tell by watching my reaction that when it comes to Monster Hunter... Madnamalo. Not really a big fan. Never have been. I mean, I had a better reaction to this golf game and that looks kind of horrible. I have tried and tried again to understand the draw to this franchise, with Monster Hunter World being the closest to any resemblance of fun I've had playing one of these games. But to be honest, most of that came down to the pretty visuals and the fact that the cute little cats would make my lunch. Oh, sorry. I'm hungry. Oh, hi. Oh, we're making lunch. Do you want to come? Great. All right. It's not really what I had in mind. The other cats made dango. Here's my thing. What I didn't understand about Monster Hunter games. Where was the loop? That satisfying gameplay loop that gives you a reason to keep playing. I know these games didn't really have a story worth playing for. I knew they had cool monsters, but what was my motivation to go and brutally destroy them all for? Especially when half of them are kind of adorable. I don't even want to hunt this poor little guy in his favorite pun. Also, the combat. What a snooze fist. Clunkier and slower than a Dark Souls game. Which shouldn't be possible. I know I'm being kind of brutal here. Just give me a second. Getting there. But I finally decided that I would stream it on Twitch. In hopes that my chat can help me figure out just what the heck I've been doing wrong all these years. I'm excited. I am excited. I don't want to go over too much negative energy. I just needed you all to know where I was at. I don't want to pretend I'm like the biggest fan ever. And then like not like the game. And everyone's like, well, then I guess it's not a good Monster Hunter. No, I want to be completely open. Type one or type two. Diabetes. All right. I'm going to need a beard. All right. That one's that's actually kind of perfect. Face shape skin skin. I'm widest. I'm wide as heck, man. Oh, I'm already as wide as it gets. Okay. That sounds about right. Wait, do I not pick a cat this time? It's a dog? No, I want a cat. When do I pick a cat? When do I pick a cat? When do I pick a cat? Is it only dogs or do I get a cat? Oh my God. That one's really cute actually. He's so happy. Oh yeah. Here we go. What if it's a girl? I didn't even think about that. I'm going to cry. It's the fun part. Hold on. I need a picture of my cat real quick. Well, he's still sweet even if he looks a little different. I still love him. He blows it up a nose. 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. The game's a 10 out of 10. It's a 10 out of 10, guys. Everyone buy the game. 10 out of 10. That's your eyes. That's your big pick. It's such a big pick. Why am I high-fiving my cat? That's so cute. Like, I like that the dog is like, I want to play. I want to play. Let me in. I'll play. Come on now. Okay. So obviously I was loving everything so far. I never realized how cute Monster Hunter was. It's supposed to be hunting monsters. I thought this is adorable. Oh, hi. Sorry. I'm just out on a Monster Hunt. You know, people often ask me, Wood, when you're out on the hunt, what do you listen to? And I say, well, my own podcast because I'm conceded. And they ask, well, how do you listen to it? And I say, with my Raycons. What's that? You mean you haven't got your own pair of Raycons yet by going to buyraycon.com forward slash beat em ups and getting 15% off your order with a 45-day return policy? What's wrong with you? Raycons have great sound, more bass, a comfortable fit, their noise isolating, plus they come in a wide range of fun colors and patterns like these blue ones that really pop out here in the wilderness. Sorry. I thought I saw a monster over there. They have six hours of playtime, which is extended even further by their carrying case, which acts as a charge bank. Is there anything they can't do? I use mine when I'm on the hunt because I can jump on top of the monsters and stare them in the face. And this thing still won't fall out of my ear. So grab your pair. Go to buyraycon.com forward slash beat em ups and get that 15% off or just click that link below. It's actually pretty cool. Hey, there's one. The overall Japanese aesthetic is so pleasing from the cherry blossom trees to the everything else. The game is gorgeous by far one of the best looking games on switch. Typically I find switch games look much better in handheld mode as the 720p portable screen doesn't try to stretch out or push visuals too far, but Monster Hunter, now I can't unhear it, looks even better blown up on my 4K TV because there's nothing to hide here. It's a proud, beautiful game flaunting every curve and crease it has like I just paid $60 for a Capcom only fans. All of that is apparent, obvious from the get go. But after my stream, I still wasn't convinced. I was worried once I started hunting I would get overwhelmed by the constant tutorial popups. I was scared there would be a difficulty level above what I was willing to persevere before I finally became attached to the game. Yeah, but I was liking it so far and I refused to let myself get discouraged. I sat out on a few hunts, killed a few monsters, gathered a few plants, striked a few poses, drank a billion health potions, got farted on, ate some dango, got farted on again. I found a blacksmith who creates armor and weapons in town and I noticed there were several sets I had unlocked after discovering monsters for the first time. I don't know why it took me until now to realize it. I'm an idiot. But I found a set I thought looked cool. However, I was missing some parts for this set. Those parts came from specific monsters so if I wanted to complete the set, I would need to go back out, kill that monster again, harvest its parts, hope I get the right parts I need to finish my set. That's the loot. Well, a small part of the loot. Killing monsters, using their parts to upgrade and improve your own equipment so that you can go out again and kill bigger and badder monsters and then harvest those monsters to make cooler equipment. I'm a dumb dumb. It's a sadistic, ruthless pleasure ripping apart one of these goliath creatures that I destroyed with my bare hands, harvesting its guts and skin and using all of it to make myself look like a featherman. Then with the leftover scraps from crafting, you can create matching outfits for your little pets and oh my god, we match. It's like on the one hand, it's so ruthless and brutal. On the other hand, it's like so adorable. How can it be so much of both? The more I set out on hunts, the more I began to appreciate the real stars of this game. It's not me or you or any of the human characters. It's the monsters. Oh, okay, and the pets. The first time you hunt a monster, you'll see these Kabuki Theater inspired intros revealing the next terrifying creature you're about to wail on for the next 15 minutes. I highly recommend switching to the Japanese audio for these. Even though the English voice does a great job, I mean, it can match this. The monsters themselves are so highly detailed and fantastically animated with these organic realistic movements and flow. They feel alive. Their unpredictable nature adding to the realism and challenging you to adapt to their behaviors throughout the fights. These brutal battles being the highlights as every moment leading up to them is planned out and strategized. From what items and weapons to bring to the hunt, down in the last minute, dango treat for some added bonuses, setting out and tracking down your kill. Then another monster in the area will get all pissy about you fighting on their turf and they'll come over and start picking up the other one and slamming it into the ground, ripping and biting into each other. You just got to stand there like, what the heck do I do now? If one of them gets knocked down, you can jump on its back, and go old Jeff Dunham style on it. HULP! And forget slow and clunky monster honor. Monster honor rise really up the pace with the inclusion of wire bugs. These little buggers saved the franchise for me. You can use them to whip around the levels enhance your attacks with these big WHITCHARD. If you whip into a wall, you can run up it making getting around super easy. You aren't just limited to dodging in fights. You can WHOOP! See you later! It's such a fun smooth mechanic and I can't imagine ever playing a monster honor game again without it. I like your horse. And by horse I mean dog. Whose his or mine? Yours, it's cute. Guess what I named it? What? Buffy. Okay, I'm gonna make cats cook for me now. Do you skip that cooking cutscene or do you watch it? I watch it when I'm alone. Which sounds kind of creepy. No, I watch it every single time. I don't skip it. Oh, get him! You're on it! Get him! Come on it! Get him! Oh god! No, not me! This is my monster honor! I don't- I don't want him! Get away from me! Ease! I'll give you both thumbs up. Good job. I will give Miss Click a thumbs up. Thanks! Yikes! What do the thumbs up do? Uh, it levels up your friend or anything. We're 30 points more friends. Do you feel it? Do you feel 30 points more my friend? Are you feeling it now? Feel the love. To not. Wait, wait. Oh. Okay, go! Yay! Come on! Oh, there you go! So, I would get lots of health items because we're doing a level five. Are you- Yeah, you go. Oh, level one! Oh god. Yeah. All right, now I haven't had much time, but I- I have more experience than you would. It's okay. It's all right. Okay, we'll see. I started playing Monster Hunter when I was 10 years old. I started playing when I was nine years old. Yo, I'm going to be- When it goes into like rage mode, I'm literally being one-shotted. Do you guys have an issue with how I say Monster Hunter? Uh, Monster Hunter? You mean like, Monster? Like, like, Monster Cheese or the Monsters, the television show? Okay, the monster part wasn't even the part people make fun of me for. I don't know why you all went to that. I think we're doing a fantastic job. Yeah, I'll be dead in no time. What? I got- I sat on me! He sat! Okay, you know what? You did ride him without permission. I like how it killed misclick and then just decided I'm done. I just got to jump out of here. I'll go- Oh, no, he ate me! It's, yep. We're going to kill him. Yep. You're going to kill him, but I'm not there. In my 20 years of experience, I've never fainted. First time for everything would. It's for the video. He's trying to make it dramatic. Oh, we're down to the last bait. In rage form! I'm trying to avoid it when it's like this. No! Wow! Okay, carry me, John. Carry me. My dog is so ashamed of you right now. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it. When our level one didn't faint at all, I'm just right. Getting some friends together, each with your own play style, weapons and armor sets, it's a blast. And yet, okay, I do really like this game. I did it now. I even tried to make my own dango at home. And that went just about as expected. Hi, welcome to Beat'em Up's Kitchen. Today, we're making dango. Shouldn't he be making it? Okay, there's the ingredients. Make me dango. Currently, you're supposed to mix it to the consistency of an earlobe. If it feels like an earlobe, you got a tasty treat on your hands. This is really not working out. This is supposed to be green. I don't know why it's gone P in the snow yellow. I mean, this one looks cool, even if it looks wrong. It looks like a face. There's like a mouth and some eyes. Now, when these float to the surface, they're done. If they're going to float to the surface, it's a whole nother thing altogether. They might be way too heavy. I don't know. I don't know. Don't make me happy. Okay, you have to do the stick part. You got to like throw it at the wall and then catch them and they like stick into the thing. Can you do that? You do that? I thought that was his time, where he stopped eating. Well, I hope they taste good because they look wrong. They're so slimy. I hope they're supposed to be slimy. I think they are. I mean, it's not. All right, hunters. Your slimy balls are ready. Good news. They feel like earlobes. This one gets you prepped up to kill that monster. If you can handle one of these, you can handle anything. All right, and now all that's left is for Kim to try it. Me? Yep. What about you? I don't think I did it right. Now, this was absolutely a fail. Wow. This was a failed hunt. I can't make dango, so I'm not a cat. What do you want from me? I do it on the internet. Links down below. Love you all. Bye.