Monster Hunter Rise

Demo's out on Switch, played it a bit. Lots of weird stuff going on: Mounting got completely changed, wirebug system gives vertical mobility for all weapons (when sheathed), some sort of bugs you can collect to increase your max health for a quest. Mizutsune's still fun though, has some new moves that interact with the verticality stuff a bit. I'll probably play some more later to figure out what I think.

I'm looking forward to your impressions (I have no Switch but I expect to play the game on PC one day).

I am not a MH guy. I played a bit of world solo, which was no fun, gonna play more with my SO one day.
With my limited knowledge here are my impressions.

The wire bug system is fantastic. Gives a lot of mobility to all weapon types. Can be used as a gtfo move, or used offensively. It's one of those additions where you wonder how it wasn't in every game since.
It also basically gives new attacks to every weapon type, so it is more than just doing spider man moves.

The mounting in MHW was confusing as a noob, but I saw the potential in that game. There were attacks that could launch you up walls, slam down on the monster, then you were mounting.

Here they made it much more binary, hurt the monster or use an item, then press button to go into a mounting mini game. You can do a move where you jump of and launch them at an object, this can be chained for multiple slams. There is a finisher as well that you use when a bar is filled.

All of the weapons from MHW are there with some slight changes as far as I can see.
Framerate was great on switch, saw no drops. Game is rather ugly, except the monsters which animate and look great.

Some more impressions:

• Wirebugs are implemented pretty decently, they give you a lot of mobility but can only be used while sheathed. Wirebug attacks (basically Hunter Arts) seem way less busted than the GU ones.
  
• Mizu's new moves are good, can dodge a lot of them via iframe, wirebug, or just staying close.
  
• Gameplay is still basically World, with all the downsides (at least for me) that comes with that.
  
• Potions are completely busted, they have all the buffs they gave them from World (potion walk/run, roll cancel) while healing the first 50% instantly. WTF were they thinking here?
  
• Zones are good, I haven't even had to think about ledges which is a huge upside from 4U, GU, World.
  
• Wyvern Riding (rework of mounting) is gimmicky, it's not a huge deal but it doesn't really add anything to the game, basically wasted dev time from my perspective.
  
• HH got completely changed, new move system is cool but songs are way, way too easy to play. Damage is also pretty high. I was hoping they would build on the Iceborne HH as I thought it was pretty good, but oh well.
  
• Hammer is actually sick, basically splits the difference between World Hammer and GU Valor Hammer. No Valor meter (thankfully) but a few moves got incorporated. You can Valor sidestep out of Power Charge and it keeps your charge level but kicks you out of Power Charge. The Valor superpound is now part of Power Charge as lv3 forward+X. This weapon seems to always be fun in each MH game, something I wish I could say about LS.
  

Overall it's World 2 with cool movement options, better maps, and hopefully better monster designs. Still has most of the core problems of World though, unfortunately. I'll probably get it on PC whenever it comes out there, probably 9 months or so from now.

Been playing a ton of the new expansion Sunbreak recently, a vast improvement so far and easily the best 5th gen MH game. There are still problems but a lot of shitty stuff from base Rise got fixed (also it's by a different director LMAO). It doesn't play like Freedom Unite, it's still more reactive than older games, but they've upped the monster speed and moves enough that if you accept it then there's fun to be had.

Sunbreak (and 5th gen in general) only really shine with challenge runs though, you can steer around most of the balancing/design fuckups and get to the good stuff. Mostly playing Gunlance right now, here's my current ruleset:
* No restocking items at camp
* 20 potions only
* No using armor spheres to upgrade armor
* No wirefall
* No wyvern riding (you can turn this off in options now)
* No evade window, 1 point max of evade extender
* No points in guard (this one is not that necessary, I just like it)
* Avoid the broken wirebug moves like Impact Crater for hammer, etc
* Maybe some minor things I'm forgetting

Biggest issue is still weapon balance, but it's not as bad as before. IMO this expac completely obsoletes the base game, basically everything was improved.

I've been interested in getting into the series for a while (only played a bit of MHW and liked it), but I also know the games are a huge time sink etc...

Would Rise + Sunbreak be a good entry point into the series? FWIW aside from MHW I can also emulate the PSP entries on PPSSPP, and I also know they are playable online via Hunterverse.

Sort of, it's probably the best if you want to get into the more reactive 5th gen, but it doesn't really play like the old games. For old MH I would recommend FU or P3rd on PPSSPP, P3rd is easier and more polished but FU is better overall. Hunsterverse and such will work if you want to do online, but you don't need to do MP if you don't want to, personally I enjoy solo much more.