The Monster Hunter series has been a mainstay for Capcom for many years. Hunting large monsters with your friends is a fun time. But for those looking for a game with more story or less action combat, the mainline games wouldn’t necessarily appeal to them. Hence, we have the Monster Hunter Stories series. While not as bombastic as the mainline games, the Monster Hunter Stories games have settled into a comfortable place in the JRPG sphere, garnering their own audience. And with the release of Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, fans of the last two games are in for a treat as always.
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection opens up with a group of rangers exploring a snowy mountain. They stumble upon their query, a frozen Rathalos egg, which they bring back to their country. However, the good news quickly turns sour when the egg hatches and reveals a set of twin Rathalos, an ill omen. Ancient custom dictates that one must be killed. From there, the story takes a time jump, and you are playing as the prince of Azuria and the leader of the rangers, who are in charge of researching the Enchroachment Rift War, dating back two centuries ago, when the crystallization of monsters began. But things won’t remain that simple, as relations between Azuria and their neighbor Vermeil are quickly eroding with the encroachment worsening.
The story in general is your quintessential JRPG journey, for better and for worse. The action starts up quickly, and a wide cast of characters is available for you to get to know. You’ll be bouncing from one location to the next, taking in the sights and the different Monsties. The storytelling feels a bit juvenile at times, suited for a younger audience in terms of its tone and how story beats are revealed. It’s very akin to your typical shonen anime. However, the themes that the game tackles are heavy in general, such as the environmental consequences of the encroachment and how it’s affecting both the humans and the Monsties, and the consequences that later generations face due to actions taken by their predecessors.
Along with the main storyline, there are both side quests and side stories to take on. The side quests are your typical RPG quests, where you have to do a specific task for someone and report back once that task is done. While some of these quests are interesting and do help with getting you to explore more of the area, they are simplistic in nature and don’t add a ton to the story. The side stories, on the other hand, are more expansive in nature. These stories star the side cast, with each character having their own dedicated quest line to complete. However, they also aren’t that intriguing in terms of story content. They do help with establishing who each character is and what their motivations are for being in the rangers. But besides that, there’s not that much to really chew on.
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a turn-based RPG where you use your team of Monsties to battle against wild monsters. You’ll pick up eggs from dens that you find from exploring around and hatch them to add more Monsties to your team. As you explore around, you’ll find areas where invasive and feral monsters are affecting the local ecosystem. Using your ranger wits, you can help repopulate the local area with endangered species using eggs that you find.
The combat in the game is turn-based and operates using rock, paper, scissors gameplay (in this case, power, technical, and speed). Each monster has its own type as well as an elemental type that can further affect the amount of damage dealt. When it’s your turn, you control both your Monstie and your own character. You can hold up to three weapons, changing between them at any point during your turn. When attacking with your character, you can choose to use a regular attack or a skill. You’ll want to use your regular attacks when your stamina has run out (which means you can’t use skills) or when you see that an enemy is going to attack you with their own regular attack. If you and the enemy clash in battle, you’ll go into a head-to-head battle. The person who’s typing comes out on top will deal a majority of the damage. A great way to overcome the minimal damage that you take from a head-to-head when you win is to make sure your Monstie is also attacking the same monster with the same typing as you. In this case, you’ll enter a Double Attack, where the enemy isn’t able to attack, and you deal increased damage and gain a boost in your Kinship gauge.
Your Kinship gauge increases with every attack dealt, with certain actions earning more, such as winning head-to-head battles. Once the gauge is full, you can ride your Monstie, giving both of you an increased health and stamina gauge. While riding your Monstie, you can use your Kinship skill, which deals a large amount of damage. And if your party member is also riding their Monstie, you can double attack with them. If your partner happens to ride their Monstie before you, they don’t tend to use their skill in the first turn if you’re aiming for the double attack strategy. Something to keep in mind, though, is that each individual Monstie has its own Kinship gauge. So if you switch to a different Monstie in battle, you will have to build up its gauge.
Combat in general isn’t difficult in Monster Hunter Stories. So long as you keep on top of your levels and are upgrading your equipment whenever possible, the only difficult spots will likely come from the occasional boss battle. Boss battles operate just like regular mob battles; toppling a boss takes longer, and they will usually change their skill type. When this happens, it’s usually easy to figure out what type they’re likely to change to, although there are times when it’s not as easy to pick up. So with combat not being too difficult, battling against mobs can end up being a bit dry at times. This can sometimes be combated if you’re at a much higher level than wild monsters, as the game gives you the option to skip the battle altogether. But while you can run away from battle where this isn’t the case, it’s usually better to fight all the monsters you can to get the experience and material drops.
A big part of Monster Hunter Stories, outside of battles, is actually exploring the lands open to you. You are able to walk around normally or ride your Monstie. Each Monstie has unique traveling abilities, such as Rathalos being able to fly, Tobi-Kadachi being able to scale specific wall fixtures, or the Royal Ludroth being able to swim in water. Having a variety of Monsties on your team opens up the areas that you can get to and also increases your travel speed in general. Along with travel benefits, they are also able to attack monsters and cracked rocks (which hide secret passageways) and can intimidate weaker monsters to keep them from attacking you.
While you’re traveling around, you’ll come across caravan stands, which act as your save points and also your quick travel locations. As you pass by them, you’ll need to activate them in order to use them. They are visible on the map even without being activated, making it easy to locate them if you happen to be nearby. Along with caravan stands, you can also locate monster dens, which are going to be your main source of getting new Monsties. There are different rarities of monster dens, which can affect the genes you get with monsters once they hatch. Regular dens usually pose little threat when it comes to monsters, but as the rarity increases, the chance of running into a much stronger monster does as well.
As you wander around, you’ll sometimes come across feral monsters. Defeating these monsters allows you to set up camp, which can give you another location outside of major cities and encampments to manage your party and character. Along with the main storyline, there are feral monsters spread across the map that you can face at any point. Along with feral monsters, there are also invasive monsters, which are guardians of endangered species dens. To face them, you’ll have to collect monster tracks in the immediate area to learn more about their battle tactics. Once you’ve collected them all, you can go into battle. If you perform the right tactics in battle, you’ll force the invasive monster to leave, opening up the den for you to take an egg to hatch. While you can go and then face the monster in an actual battle, they are very high level, so you’ll want to hold off until you’re at a higher level first.
Monsties are specifically the monsters that you have under your control. You can have up to six Monsties in your party, and the more variety you have, the better. It’s always good to have at least one of every skill type in your party to cover any weaknesses. But along with that, being able to have multiple skill-type moves on one Monstie can make battles smoother as well.
Every Monstie has a 3 x 3 grid with slots available to place genes. Some slots are empty while others are filled by default. The genes will have different colors, and if you match these colors diagonally, horizontally, or vertically, you’ll get a bingo. The more bingos you have, the more powerful your Monstie will become. You can swap out genes using the Rite of Channeling, where you take two Monsties and transfer one gene between the two. Some gene slots are locked based on level, so you’ll want to level up your Monsties as you’re going through the story. All Monsties gain experience in battle even if they don’t participate, so swapping your team up every once in a while is always a good idea.
There are multiple ways that you can upgrade both your character’s gear and your Monstie. For your character, you can equip up to three different weapons. There are multiple weapon types, and while some weapons hit harder than others (the hammer vs. the bow), they’re all viable in their own way. What you end up choosing to go with will end up being based on your offensive strategies (as well as the weapon types you notice enemies being weak to the most).
Both your weapons and your armor can be created and then upgraded up to three levels. Each level will require a certain subset of materials, which you can get from gathering out in the field or by defeating monsters in battle. Higher-level weapons and armor will require better materials. That’s the big reason why battling against every monster you see is a good idea.
Monster Hunter Stories 3 takes the visual style that they perfected in 2 and cleans it up. It’s still very much leaning into the anime art style, with bright and vibrant colors. The UI has gone through a big upgrade, moving away from the list format when displaying options in battle, for instance. The game looks really nice, both in cutscenes and outside while you’re playing. There are a few moments where the game does tend to lag out in the field if there is a lot of activity happening in an area, but outside of those moments, there aren’t any major issues with performance.
The game is partially voice-acted, with most moments outside of cutscenes not having voice lines. Both Japanese and English voices are available, and both sets of performances are pretty good. And just as good as the voice acting is the music. Monster Hunter in general has always had good music, and the Stories games are no different. The real meat and potatoes are with the boss, feral, and invasive monster battles, with these songs not just defaulting to your typical orchestral big band sound.
Overall, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a pretty fun JRPG. Of course, if you don’t have much tolerance for “anime-esque” games, this game won’t appeal to you very much. It leans into many tropes regularly found in both JRPGs and anime. But if you don’t mind that, you’ll find a fun game with a lot of heart packed into it. It’s fun to run around on your favorite monster and find new eggs to hatch and build up your team with. It’s worth giving this game (and the series in general, if you’re dipping your toes into this series for the first time) a try.
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection gets an 8/10.
