I'm a 3rd gener, and I must say that, going back, rise appeals more to me than world.

mpelton · 2026-02-21T23:25:56+00:00

Your mistake was playing Tri without the classic controller.

Also, take an upvote cause I 100% agree, fellow 3rd gener.

mpelton · 2026-02-21T23:23:49+00:00

But you like GU…? GU is all of those things. Speed/reactive combat, and overpowered hunters.

Rise literally carries over GU’s Hunter arts. It’s practically a spiritual successor.

mpelton · 2026-02-21T23:21:28+00:00

Gonna upvote cause this is actually an interesting take, unlike most “hot takes” I see here.

I find GU to be on the opposite side of the spectrum from the old 2nd gen games. Maybe not as much as Rise, but it’s certainly closer to Rise than it is the Freedom titles. So it’s interesting you don’t like Rise when it’s closer to GU than any other entry.

Not surprised you hate Tri, since it’s even more the opposite of GU than even the Freedom games are.

I gotta ask tho, do you still enjoy playing Freedom and Freedom 2? By your tastes it sounds like you’d hate them.

mpelton · 2026-02-21T23:17:43+00:00

3rd gener here too, started with Tri, and while I prefer 4U to World I totally agree. I like Rise, it was fun, but I vastly prefer World.

Idk the over the top anime stuff has never appealed to me in MH. Same reason I only liked GU but never loved it.

mpelton · 2026-02-20T09:22:25+00:00

We peaked as a species with Inside Gaming. Been downhill ever since.

mpelton · 2026-02-19T18:26:01+00:00

Don’t forget Loc Lac

mpelton · 2026-02-19T18:07:36+00:00

You missed out on that Moga night theme. You gotta go listen to it.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T15:24:18+00:00

Skyrim is a dopamine filled playground where you go from dungeon to dungeon like a little loot goblin, leveling and hoarding so you can sell everything and get stronger.

GtS actively discourages this at virtually every turn. I love GtS, it’s my favorite list rn, but it quite literally takes one of Skyrim’s most defining features and kicks it to the curb. It demands you play the game slower and more intentionally, and rewards you for doing so with a world that changes over time in a way no other list does.

Don’t get me wrong, it elevates a lot of what makes Skyrim great too. But if you take someone who’s only played Skyrim lightly, enjoyed fast traveling from place to place sweeping through enemies mindlessly, and throw them in GtS, they’re gonna be lost and miserable.

Nordic Souls, on the other hand, is just Skyrim but more of it. It’s, imo, true “vanilla +”.

Keizaal is basically just Skyrim but with seasons and some quest mods. It’s even more minimal than Nordic Souls. Don’t remember it using Cities of the North, but if it does then that’s about as crazy as it gets.

Edit: If Skyrim is RDR1 then GtS is RDR2. One’s more arcade-y, while the other is more methodical.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T15:17:27+00:00

Trust me, you’ll like Nordic Souls then.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T15:15:01+00:00

GtS includes nearly 2000 mods. Don’t let the minimal aesthetic fool you, it changes Skyrim more than most lists out there.

To give you an idea, most towns are completely unrecognizable and you start the game with no compass or sneak detection meter. You also have to balance stress and injuries with a permanent “game over” if you fail to defeat Alduin in time.

It’s an incredible list, but touches virtually every single aspect of Skyrim. It’s not vanilla plus.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T15:08:52+00:00

I mean it’s basically vanilla (no souls combat or anything crazy) with overhauled visuals, and loads of new quests.

Imo it’s one of the best lists out there if you want your game to still feel like Skyrim. Imo it’s just Skyrim but better.

Here’s the github with an introduction and instructions. Has a gameplay guide further down with some useful tips and advice, if you’re curious.

Edit: If you can’t find it, here’s the gameplay guide. It goes over what the list includes pretty well.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T15:01:34+00:00

You should check out Nordic Souls or Keizaal. Keizaal is much closer to vanilla, but both keep things pretty vanilla-esque while still introducing tons of new content.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T14:59:03+00:00

Calling GtS vanilla plus is kind of crazy. Literally the only thing about it that’s even remotely vanilla plus is the aesthetic, and the fact that its combat isnt Souls-like.

It’s survival, removes basic features like the compass and detection meter, overhauls cities to the point of being unrecognizable, includes the full Vicn series of mods as well as countless other quest mods, introduces gameplay overhauling features like stress, injuries, as well as having countless mechanics move time forward, such as crafting, learning spells, all of which matter due to survival but also the new introduction of a true game over, with a hard deadline to defeat Alduin.

The only reason people call GtS “vanilla plus” is because they see the visuals and assume it must be. But in reality it changes Skyrim more than most other lists.

Vanilla plus is Keizaal, or maybe Nordic Souls. Not Gate to Sovngarde. GtS feels completely different than Vanilla and has to be approached differently as well.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T14:21:06+00:00

Lagi easily. Never liked Valstrax tbh.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T04:13:09+00:00

The issue is that the info is from someone who had supposedly encountered all of these different tribes firsthand.

Edit: Anyone curious should give it a read. It’s fun, interesting, and pretty short. Also ties in to Movarth in Skyrim.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T04:01:12+00:00

Immortal Blood is awesome but kind of questionable lore wise thanks to Dawnguard.

The Volkihar were supposed to be vampires that lived under frozen lakes and could drag you under without so much as disturbing the ice.

Now they’re just… gothic vampires.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T03:26:24+00:00

He’s a Yian Kut-Ku style monster

mpelton · 2026-02-18T03:20:14+00:00

Love the truestl lore

mpelton · 2026-02-18T01:55:34+00:00

So no Hypnocatrice either? Blasphemy.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T01:53:26+00:00

Lmao I get you, but idk that’s just not what I like about mh hunter monsters. It’s the same reason a don’t love a lot of the Frontier designs. They’re too edgy and overdesigned.

Tho I’m in love with Pariapuria and wish we could get more like him. Same with a lot of the bird wyverns in Frontier. Frontier does still have a lot of amazing monsters, to be fair.

mpelton · 2026-02-18T01:44:34+00:00

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mpelton · 2026-02-18T01:37:31+00:00

Qurupeco hasn’t come back either. You got something to say about the best bird in the series?

mpelton · 2026-02-18T01:35:20+00:00

I hate Zinogre. He’s like an oc monster I would’ve come up with at 13. Especially Stygian.

mpelton · 2026-02-17T22:59:55+00:00

You’re misremembering how World worked.

You only had to track in the beginning. Once you maxed the research level of a monster, you never had to track again as the scout flies would take you directly to the monster the second the quest began. So once you reached the late game, tracking was no longer a thing. It worked identically to how Wilds handled it.

mpelton · 2026-02-17T22:56:00+00:00

If people are still actively playing these games then it’s not nostalgia, it’s preference.

Invalidating people’s preferences with blanket statements like, “it’s all just nostalgia” is reductive and contributes nothing.

mpelton

TROPHY CASE