After ~60 hours and as a big appreciator of the earlier games in the series, I think I can confidently say that I prefer Rise over World at this point - the later of which I've put ~250 hours into. It just feels better to me in general, including how the weapons feel. I actually don't quite understand where a lot of the criticism towards the weapon-feel comes from in the first place, but I'm assuming it's a matter of a lot of people having World as their first MH. Every weapon type I've used so far has felt great. I would say the difficulty while doing solo hunts without any palico or palamute assistance is on par with a lot of what you'll find in World, and the multiplayer is just about the same (ie multiplayer in both Rise and World can be insanely easy at times). Could definitely use a bit more challenge even in the late game, but Sunbreak is going to provide a good deal of that G Rank challenge we're looking for from the sounds of it. I actually like the wirebug mechanic, and don't feel like I'm shoehorned into utilizing it mid-combat by any means. I primarily use it as a form of traversal, occasionally working it into combat with wire-falls and the like. While it can speed up traversal in interesting ways, it doesn't negate the slower, more deliberate movement the series has always been known for in the midst of a combat situation.
Beyond the straight-up gameplay aspects, I also prefer the presentation of Rise, including the graphics. While World technically looks better, Rise has much less intense clutter all over the screen while still bordering on a bit too much with the flashy weapon effects. Even the menu UI and HUD is more appealing to me, not to mention the beautiful monster portraits.
Now the number one thing that pisses me off about Rise is that the actual HUNTING mechanics of the Monster HUNTER game have been completely neutered, which makes me really sad. They were already casualized to shit in World, but they just outright removed them in Rise, which is baffling to me because it's cutting a big part of the series identity right out of the game. Rise would be so amazing if you had to actually track your prey, and if they had expanded on that element even further in the process. I mitigate this terrible design decision slightly by using the "detailed" hunting map, so I can't just immediately locate my target right at the beginning of the hunt, but it's a band-aid rather than a cure.
Anyway, Rise gets a bad rap I don't think it really deserves. I've had a lot of fun with it so far, and am sure I'll have a lot more while I'm finishing out the base game content, and of course jumping into Sunbreak's offerings. You can see a lot of the Portable 3rd influence shining through, and I ultimately think that's a good thing.
