The creator behind the NieR games, Yoko Taro, has put out his own ideas on how he would write the story of Monster Hunter Rise. As befits Yoko Taro’s creations, it’s filled with tragedy and no happy endings.
Yoko Taro’s games are well known for bringing out emotions within the audience and having lots of tragic story beats. His works such as NieR: Automata have a major focus on existentialism and what it means to be human. NieR: Automata in particular is rooted in philosophy and has many references to several well known philosophers. The game’s true and only happy ending, ending E, was one of the last things made by Yoko Taro when developing NieR: Automata.
The translation for Yoko Taro’s ideas for Monster Hunter Rise have been posted by Gaijinhunter on Twitter (via Kotaku). His story involves many of the characters dying, with one setting the village on fire. He also had the idea of making a final boss that could not be damaged, forcing the player to sacrifice one of two twin NPCs in the game in order to obtain a weapon capable of defeating it. Finally, there would be a quest where the monster would talk and tell the player the "true meaning" behind the monsters and Kamura village, similar to how plot twists are delivered in NieR. Village quests would no longer be playable due to the village being destroyed and online multiplayer would be the only mode available. The title would be shown at the end of the story, which is similar to the start of route C in NieR: Automata.
Monster Hunter Rise’s story is currently on a cliffhanger, and will be resolved in the 3.0 update. The next title update will bring a new ending to the story, along with several new monsters. The 2.0 update wasn’t so much focused on story as it was focused on enhancing various aspects of the gameplay with the addition of the new elder dragons and weapons. After the 3.0 update, it’s unknown where the story will go from there, and it’s not currently announced if there will be another update coming after it, but given Monster Hunter’s consistent content updates, it’s likely that there will be plenty more Monster Hunter Rise to come.
This story concept can only be described as par for the course for Yoko Taro. Writing tragic stories can be seen as something of an instinct for him. While it's highly unlikely that Monster Hunter would adapt this story format, since the franchise isn't known for taking itself that seriously, it is interesting to see a NieR styled story that would fit perfectly in a hypothetical crossover. Should Monster Hunter choose to take a darker and existentialist direction for its story, Yoko Taro would be the perfect man for the job, for better or worse.
Source: Yoko Taro, Gaijinhunter/Twitter, Kotaku