Nothing frustrates me more than not being able to pause for no seemingly good reason. I'm playing Wild Hearts right now and even though I never play online I cannot pause for some reason. To simulate pausing, I can turn off the xbox and the quick resume feature makes it look like the game was paused when I turn the console back on.
Other games guilty of this are Fromsoft games: Dark Souls, Elden Ring and so on.
Obviously all of these games have an online component. Not allowing pausing when this component is activated makes sense. But if I am playing completely online why cannot I pause? In Soulslike the worst exploit I can think of is switching equipment on the fly but is that really that bad? When stuff comes up in the middle crucial moments it frustrates me a lot.
Funny to see this happen in a Monster Hunter-like. The recent Monster Hunter game (MHRise) allows you to pause in "offline mode"/singleplayer.
As always, the OG Monster Hunter keeps winning 🫡 🫡
Probably has more to do with the primary target platform being the Switch. I don't think Monster Hunter World allows for pausing, for example.
MHWorld doesn't, but neither does MHRise if you have multiple players ingame.
I don't see a correlation between allowing pausing just because MHR's primary target is switch. I wonder if Monster Hunter 6 (aka MHWilds) will allow pausing in Singleplayer too. (It should, it would be stupid not to after they implemented it in the spin-off game)
The PSP and 3DS titles also had pause. Pause is more likely to be a key feature on "handheld" games since you're more likely to play in "bursts," and the Switch is a handheld" system.
Moreover, as I understand it there are two Monster Hunter dev teams - a primary team that works on the the "mainline" (previously numbered) games that tended to target console, and a secondary "handheld" team that would handle the handheld spinoffs and ports. Rise was developed by the secondary "handheld" team, World and Wilds are being developed by the primary "console" team.
That being said, I'm with you - I like to be able to pause while on a long hunt to go get a drink or take a quick break.
I never noticed that in Rise. That's great to know.
Well it is hidden in the game menu. You gotta press start to bring it up, go to the settings(?) tab and there you'll find the option to Pause Game.
I think you can also only do this when you're out hunting too. Makes sense because there's not much that goes on in the Village/Gathering Hub.
There's also no real reason to pause for inventory purposes in most MH games due to the way the menu and item swap works. Those games are designed to not need to be paused for that stuff. Or at least, not need it as badly. The pause feature is pretty much entirely for a "I have to step away for a moment" scenario, which is still great they put it in there.