Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak gives us a few new locales to hunt in. The Citadel is an amazing map with many varying landscapes and secrets to discover, and the Jungle was perfectly remade from Monster Hunter 2 while preserving its identity. There was also a new map that came with the first free title update for the massive expansion, which is also a returning map, the Forlorn Arena.
The Forlorn Arena used to be called the Tower when it was first introduced in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (which is something Arena Master Arlow acknowledges). It was previously a part of many sections of a larger-encompassing structure built above the clouds. One of those sections eventually became separated as its own locale and was renamed to the Forlorn Arena in Monster Hunter Generations. Now, in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, the map has been remade, and it’s better than ever.
This should go without saying, since this locale was remade in a game with much better visuals, but it’s going to be said anyway: Sunbreak’s Forlorn Arena is gorgeous. This beauty is much more apparent when you go to the map at night. The developers have added great details to the sky, such as the stars and comets. The colors of the sky also pop out in a much more beautiful manner. You can’t help but admire it for a while when you load into the map for the first time.
Even when it’s not at nighttime, the map has plenty of other things that make it look great. They cleverly use ruins to line the border of the area that players can’t breach. Those ruins are also detailed with plants and vines that give the locale the air of a once abandoned area slowly being reclaimed by nature. The low fog lining the floors of the arena is placed in such a convincing way that you really do feel like you’re in a structure above the clouds. While the sky isn’t as beautiful during the night, there are details like the dark clouds and the rays of sunlight that add to that feeling. These elements provide more for the identity of the locale while preserving and amplifying aspects that it already had.
In previous Monster Hunter games, the Forlorn Arena was a very wide space. In some cases, it made sense why the area would be so large. It would be a bit of an inconvenience to hunt a monster like Gammoth when you can barely see her. However, the huge space didn’t really make much sense most of the time, and it caused some issues. You’d often have to chase long distances after monsters that moved around a lot, like Kirin or Deadeye Yian Garuga. For the monsters that didn’t move around as much, the huge space could’ve been taken advantage of by running to opposite sides of the map and having the monster chase after you instead. In either case, hunting in that locale was a bit of a hassle.
In Sunbreak, the area you face monsters in is much tighter. The smaller space makes it easier to catch up to mobile monsters (which already isn’t an issue due to Wirebugs). This also discourages running far away from monsters in the area since they can catch up to you easily. There are also quests where you have to hunt two monsters in the Forlorn Arena at one time, so monster knowledge will be more important in this area than it was before.
Besides what you’d bring along with you and what would be in the supply box, you’d be on your own when hunting in the Forlorn Arena. There wouldn’t be any items that would give you a stat boost or anything. Preparation is always important, but this made bringing the right items imperative. If you didn’t, the only other option for you would be to quit the quest and remember to take them next time.
Now that you’re able to access your tent full of items and equipment at the camp this time around, it’s not the end of the world if you forget something since you can just… get it from inside the tent. Even if you don’t wish to do that, there is Endemic Life around to help you complete the quest a bit easier. Of course, Endemic Life wasn’t a thing back in the previous Monster Hunter games, but the Forlorn Arena of the past could’ve at least had a Might Seed or two lying around for players.
The Forlorn Arena was a fine location in the older Monster Hunter games. It wasn’t anything great, but for what it was and what it needed to be, it was passable. Capcom didn’t have to add this map back for Sunbreak, but they did and remade it into something truly amazing. Despite how minimal the map is in size, it’s still one of the better maps in the game, and Sunbreak’s iteration is arguably one of the best-looking in the entire series.
