how does mhgu compare?

GU is an anniversary celebration title for old gen games. It is a culmination of near everything pre 5th fleet (Worldborne/Risebreak). The slowness you feel is what old games felt like. And GU is actually still faster than that with most styles since that was the mobile team's prototyping of switch skills and silkbinds in RiseBreak. It would be fair to say Rise is a "big big upgrade" since it is 2 full games later. A whole generation and new game engine later. If you started on 5th gen, especially Rise, MHGU is probably the best old gen to go back too since you'll see similarities.

Rise is indeed a different beast entirely. It plays much faster, especially with the addition of Wirebugs for whipping around the environments through the air. Palamute riding is also a game-changer. I tell people that Rise is much more "playable" than past installments.

In GU there's a higher need for material gathering during hunts and item preparation before hunts. Rise took away the need for cold and hot drinks. Whether or not that was a valid quality of life change, it is a necessity to keep in mind in certain maps in GU. Whetstones, bugnets, and pick axes also break.

Combat has more emphasis on animation commitment, timing, and placement. GU has a certain turn based sort of rhythm in combat. Punishment for breaking the rhythm is higher since there aren't wirebugs to gain distance after getting slammed. I haven't played in a year, but I do remember fights lasting longer than Rise. Some can go on for 20-40 minutes the first time you face a new monster. There are a lot more monsters in GU than Sunbreak. It looks like GU has 93 large monsters vs Rise with 46, Sunbreak with 27, so 73 total. One criticism I've read about GU is the pacing and lack of story. Since it's a generational celebration and there are so many monsters, you don't get the handpicked progression of power that's present in older titles. Rise has a more coherent story, with monsters relevant to it's progression. They missed out bringing back a few monsters, but overall Rise Sunbreak's roster is really strong. With GUs monster roster and weapon skills, there are so many monster vs weapon/skill matchups to master that you basically have near endless content.

Another difference between games is that GU has the old school map areas that you load into, meaning you can get juggled out of the area you're hit multiple times near the edge of the map. I've been juggled out of the area from multiple hits on high rank monsters a few times. It's kind of cheesy, but it gives you a moment to heal or sharpen if needed. In Rise you can wirebug to a higher area or ride your palamute to do the same, so it's different implementation of refreshing mid battle.

GU was my first view into aspects of the old school Monster Hunter games. After playing 150 hours it solidified Monster Hunter as my favorite game franchise.

It's supposed to feel slow. Rise is an aberration for combat, even the fastest monsters can barely hit you because the Hunter has far too many movement options, and even if they did hit you it does nothing because you have access to 9999 Ancient Potions back at camp (yes, they did that).

GU is probably one of the best old games, but it is no way perfect. Still, it did things that newer games can't do or won't do — or even retract on doing: GU has Lagiacrus, which was promised to us along with underwater in the World promos, but were both removed for the final, and even if it is a vastly gimped Lagiacrus in GU because GU has no underwater either, at least we get the fight. One thing GU does lots better than the newer games is the companion system, since your cats can more actively help in battle (even sending you items mid-quest) and you can actually play as a cat.

It's defo good that you got it in sale! Having two or more MonHun games to play helps stave off "playstyle boredom" a fair bit.

MHGU is a tad slow but, I absolutely loved it back in the day.

Altho now that I'm used to MHR (especially cause I'm doing 60fps on Steam Deck), going back to GU is really hard haha. Great game anyway but, gotta adjust to losing lots of qol improvements