Monster Hunter Rise will soon be available on PlayStation consoles, roughly two years after its initial debut on the Nintendo Switch and about a year since its release on PC. In the interim, Capcom opted not to fix what isn’t broken. As such, Monster Hunter Rise on PS5 (as well as on PS4) perform perfectly well, as one might expect from the major leap in hardware capacity afforded by both consoles over the Switch.
Fans who want to see how the game performs prior to release on January 20, 2023, would do well to take a look at the PC version. Monster Hunter Rise on PS5 appears much the same way as it does on PC, and includes an expansive list of graphical settings options players can tweak to adjust the game’s performance to their liking.
That said, things aren’t exactly the same as on PC. The graphical options aren’t quite as granular – for example, you can’t select your resolution – and like recent cross-generational titles, if you’d rather not get into the nitty-gritty of option-tweaking, you can just choose to have the game “prioritize graphics” or “prioritize framerate” broadly. The “graphics” option will render Monster Hunter Rise on PS5 at up to 4K resolution with a framerate of 60 FPS. The “framerate” option turns a few settings down and aims for up to 120 FPS at 1080P resolution. This is all, of course, dependent on if your TV or monitor can support the relevant modes.
For my part, I only had a 1080p monitor attached to my PS5, so I couldn’t test the game’s performance at 4K. However, Monster Hunter Rise definitely ran at a smooth and locked framerate, and didn’t drop any frames in a way that I noticed playing normally. It should be noted that the cutscenes still seem paced for 30 FPS (as on the Switch), so you may see a bit of “slowdown” during these moments, but they’re not because of any particular hardware struggling. Other options from the PC version, like the visual and color filters, are also included, though they’re fairly impractical to use unless you’re looking to take photos.
On PS5, Monster Hunter Rise also supports a few of the console’s more unique bells and whistles. The DualSense controller’s haptic trigger and rumble features are supported. Sure enough, you can feel a bit of extra resistance when letting off shots with the Bow and Bowgun weapons. Melee weapons with a shield like the Lance, Gunlance, Charge Blade, and Sword and Shield also give a little “kick” when blocking a monster’s attack. The game also supports the PS5’s Tempest 3D Audio. With a headset, I found the sounds of a hunt quickly drowned out much of the background noise. I even accidentally checked behind myself in real life when I heard a pair of Jagras approaching from behind my character.
That much was to be expected from Sony’s newest machine, but in fact a PS4 Pro works almost as well at running Monster Hunter Rise, too. Even set to its 4K graphics mode, the game is eminently playable, running more smoothly than on Switch (though with a few noticeable framerate drops while looking at wider vistas). Additionally, the PS4 Pro was working its fans quite hard to render the game at 4K, and during even short hunts it sounded like a jet engine spinning up.
One other benefit of being on the PS5 is the machine’s use of fast SSD storage. This cut down loading times to a fraction of what they were during my PS4 Pro tests. A load into Kamura village that took 20 seconds on PS4 Pro took 5 or 6 seconds on the PS5, so fast that I couldn’t even read the loading screen tips before the screen changed. If the choice is available to you, I’d recommend the PS5 over the PS4.
Even PS5 users won’t miss out by sticking with the bigger machine, since the game supports cross-platform matchmaking for PlayStation platforms. They will, however, miss out on cross-save. The PS4 and PS5 cannot share Monster Hunter Rise save data, which means for the testing, I went through the first few hunts again on my PS4 Pro before continuing on my “main” PS5 save. It’s a little annoying not to be able to take advantage of having both consoles to play across screens and, to a limited extent, replicate the convenience of the Switch’s “get up and go” portability. Given that the Xbox One and Xbox Series versions of the game will support cross-progression, I can’t help but wonder what issue prevents Capcom from making it happen on PlayStation.
That relatively minor issue aside, the PS4 and PS5 versions of Monster Hunter Rise meet all expectations, making for a perfectly good version of one of Capcom’s best Monster Hunter entries. About the only way it could disappoint is if some player was still holding out hope for a more substantial graphical overhaul.
Monster Hunter Rise is available on PC and Nintendo Switch. The PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S versions will launch on January 20, 2023. The Sunbreak expansion will launch on PlayStation and Xbox in Spring 2023.
