'Monster Hunter Rise' is a grand Japanese homecoming, made by a more confident team

It's not widely known that 2017′s "Monster Hunter World" became the best-selling game in publisher Capcom's history, no small feat with an oeuvre that includes the Resident Evil, Street Fighter and Mega Man brands. But that game came with a lot of aesthetic changes that enabled its success. It was the first game to release with high-budget graphics and effects, releasing on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One before a later PC release that pushed sales and broke Capcom records. And while the series always featured out-of-the-box, eclectic monster designs, the ones in "World" centered around dinosaurs, globally recognized but creatively a bit stale.