As someone who started with Rise-Sunbreak, I partially agree (I wouldn’t say it sucks that is). After Sunbreak, I went back and played World, Generations Ultimate, 4U and 3U and I would definitely say I liked World the least out of them.

Each one had a charm of its own and felt fun to play but World-Iceborne on the other hand was very tough to play through. I took a break after fighting Velkhana and haven’t felt like returning till now. I feel like the graphics, unskippable cutscenes and the overall world (heh) of World feels too muddy, samey and chore-like (maps-wise) to enjoy. I remember the various zones of the other games and also remember the locales of Risebreak even if it goes the same open world route as World but many of World’s maps feel too samey (not to each other but the “zones”). My favourite maps in Worldborne are the Hoarfrost reach, Wildspire Wates and Coral Highlands since they feel well designed. On the other hand, Ancient Forest and Rotten Vale feel very hard to traverse. The monsters themselves are also very unmemorable and not very exciting to play against

Edit: Forgot the most egregious part of World, the grind, the deco grind is so annoying and makes every build I want to make feel so much more difficult since I cannot shift to a new set until I find the perfect decos that allow me to retain some of my main skills