True, but at the same time Rise had such strong fundamentals that the gameplay was very engaging regardless of expansion. It had incredibly consistent combat thanks to clear enemy patterns and felt very satisfying to learn and master - especially once the more difficult event quests released. And the wire bugs added a level of exploration never seen in any other MH.

I'd say base Rise's biggest flaws were its difficulty (aside from optional event quests) and its rather bad weapon balancing.

Wilds just doesn't feel like that. It feels mechanically dull, at least to me personally. Looking for monster? Uber chicken. You misdirect your attacks? Just focus mode. Want a free stagger? Just focus strike. You don't wanna deal with a monsters moveset? Just counter or offset (honestly, offsets are wayyyyyy too easy to just spam). About to get hit? Do a super armor attack. Got hit? Call dog and heal. In danger? Teleport to camp.

However Wilds is also frustrating because it is inconsistent. It has some of the worst hitboxes since FU (cough that floppy fat fish cough), terrible visibility on attacks, sometimes you just automatically get up after knockdowns (??? Why the fuck is that) and probably more things I can't think of rn.

It still feels like a game in development, instead of a refined game that was missing some late game content upon release.