Monster Hunter Rise Needs More Elder Dragons

Boss battles can range anywhere from being a slight break in the repetitive gameplay loop in some games, to being the centerpiece of combat and progression in others. In the case of Monster Hunter Rise, boss fights take the latter option, with almost every single monster worth fighting in the Monster Hunter series essentially being an elongated boss encounter.

Given how important the boss fights in the games in this series are to the core gameplay experience, it's strange that the most impressive class of bosses haven't had much of a showing in Monster Hunter Rise at launch. In other entries in the series, the Elder Dragons are the ultimate test of both gear sets and player skill, but these fights are mostly missing from the most recent title on Switch.

A strong place to start for the prevalence of Elder Dragons in the Monster Hunter series would be the game that introduced the majority of worldwide players to this type of enemy. Not only do Elder Dragons make up many of the final bosses, like Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's Shara Ishvalda, but also the bulk of the late and endgame content. Hunts against enemies like Teostra and Vaal Hazak make up the final stretch of both the high rank missions of vanilla Monster Hunter: World as well as the master rank that eventually appeared in later DLC.

In addition to the Elder Dragons that appeared in the launch version of Monster Hunter: World, others monsters like Lunastra and Kulve Taroth were later added in free title updates. This eventually lead to one of the strongest Elder Dragons in Monster Hunter, Fatalis, eventually being added as the final update before Capcom moved from World to Rise. As a result, players now making the move from Monster Hunter: World to Rise are running into a lack of this meaningful endgame content as they come up against the strongest monsters the Switch title has to offer.

Now that Monster Hunter Rise is selling like crazy and more players jump into what Capcom has ready for the next title in the series, many are finding that the endgame empty when compared to World. Not only do the credits begin to roll before even reaching high rank, but this next step of the game's content only has two new enemies that aren't normally available in low rank and village quests. That isn't to say that fights against the endgame enemies that are currently available like Magnamalo or Goss Harag are underwhelming, though.

As of the time of this writing, there are currently two Elder Dragons in Monster Hunter Rise, the final Rampage boss Ibushi, and the high rank's final boss Narwa. This essentially means that players aren't given too many chances to test their skills and builds against the new systems available that Capcom has introduced to Monster Hunter Rise. Both of these fights also take place in their own versions of siege combat that gives players ways to speed-up the fights a bit with special weapons that aren't available anywhere else.