Although Capcom's latest installment in the Monster Hunter series is only a few weeks old now, Monster Hunter Rise has proven to be quite the success on the Nintendo Switch, quickly becoming one of the console's best-selling games overall, as well as the Switch's best-selling third-party title outright. Monster Hunter Rise has introduced fans both new and old to features like the agile Wirebugs, the Palamute companions, and the all-new Rampage mode.
Being a game centered around the creatures hunted by players and the environments they set out to explore, Monster Hunter Rise takes fans to a variety of locales as they discover and hunt a slew of unique and dangerous monsters. Players can explore abandoned ruins, a desert wasteland, and a frozen tundra among other areas, and now, new concept art featuring the Lava Caverns locale has been revealed.
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Over on Twitter, the official Monster Hunter account posted a tweet containing 4 never-before-seen images of Lava Caverns concept art, which show off the different areas within the locale, give a sense of the scale and diversity of the area, and even show glimpses of some of the monsters that reside there. Perhaps the most interesting part of this newly-revealed concept art is what looks to be an early version of the enormous Rakna-Kadaki, one of the staple monsters of the Lava Caverns area.
The art featuring an early Rakna-Kadaki seems to show a hunter on their Palamute as they first encounter the giant spider-like monster. The monster's Rachnoid offspring can also be seen, which Rakna-Kadaki uses in its fight against players in Monster Hunter Rise. The Lava Caverns area features both luminous bodies of water and searing, flowing magma, as shown in the concept art, which also shows a hunter waist-deep in water as what seems to be a Ludroth swims past. The Lava Caverns concept art looks to be highly stylized, making fans on Twitter clamor for something like a Monster Hunter animated series.
Leading up to the game's release, the Monster Hunter Twitter account released a plethora of concept art for fans to enjoy, including the fluffy Stinkmink, which fans found adorable. However, what seems to have really caught the eyes of many this time is the early Rakna-Kadaki, which players expressed relief over when comparing the early design to the final product in Monster Hunter Rise.
Though the game is still fairly new, Capcom has already announced a major update for Monster Hunter Rise, which will bring Chameleos and the highly-anticipated Apex Rathalos to the game. The upcoming 2.0 update coming late April is set to also unlock the Hunter Rank cap for players, as well as add even more new monsters to the game which have yet to be revealed.
Monster Hunter Rise is available now for Switch with a PC release coming in 2022.