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.
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.