PC REVIEW | Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

The Monster Hunter series always caught my attention for the adorable way they turned fierce monsters into your new best companions. From the front view, the game is colourful, bright, and an ADHD’s dream of, “Wait, what’s over there?” But beneath its skin, you’ve got a compelling storyline with voice acting that grabs your attention, but that’s all in the first few minutes… So does it hold up long term, can it keep my short attention span? In a world in the future where “Monsties” are going endangered, you, as a ranger, need to restore habitats, hatch Monsites, raid dens, quell feral ones, oh, and on top of that, you have to keep the kingdoms on the brink of destruction, where a Rathalos egg was found after they were thought extinct, and bore twins with markings, an ill omen for the world based on a 200-year old civil war.

I livestreamed the game before its release, and the community joined me on my live streams. But not just any community, it was one of the friendliest accepting and helpful I have ran into in a while. Each user that joined all started out the same with disbelief that it was the full version but changed their tune after seeing I was beyond the story and level limit of the demo. Instead of being upset or mean they educated me on so much of this game that I thought I understood but was nothing short of a novice about, which really got me into it much more than I already was. It has a larger and more dedicated following then I ever expected, where some users had hundreds of hours on the demo alone, and even defeated Elder Dragon bosses and more things you shouldn’t have, at a lower level than I was (I was at level 29 while the demo limited to level 10) which was insanely impressive at the ingenuity and determination of them. They shared info data and stats with each other and me while I did my best not to venture too far into spoiler territory as some of these people were waiting for this game as if it was their life. I want to thank them all for helping me out and treating me like part of their MHS3 family!
Shout out to Oya and Neon!

Things I liked!

• Battle System | When you and your target face off, you can select several options to execute before the enemy gets its turn. Since you don’t know what the opponent is going to use, careful consideration should be taken before choosing. Additional QTE damage can be done with the wyvern soul gauge, but once depleted on your foe, a gauge which may or may not change to a stagger gauge may allow you to topple the Monstie. If toppled, you can do a quick time event to do a chunk of damage, or leave it on the ground and curb stomp it for a short bit. As for you and your team, there is a three heart life system which revives you if you run out of HP, and is shared for you and your Monstie. Lose all three? Game over/respawn to nearest location with no penalty besides sadness. Your teammate also has three lives, but they never actually hit a game over, they simply return after a few turns. In the end, you’re the only one who truly pays the price for running out of lives.

• Crafting Mechanic | Monster Hunter Stories 3 has quite an in-depth crafting mechanic. After about 6 hours of gameplay, I hadn’t used it because I was so entertained by everything else. But once I did, I was sure to keep using it, as it played a much larger role in my needs than I initially realised. The further I got in the story, the more important it became. As it sits now, I feel like my inventory is just forever expanding like a hoarder. However, rarer and better items get found progressing through the vast landscape of the kingdom quite often, so crafting is definitely useful for earlier game progression. Of course, the game also includes the ability to upgrade at a smithy using a points system based on several types of items that you want to sacrifice to the smith.
  
  
• Music & Visuals | The appearance of Monster Hunter Stories 3 grabbed me right away, along with the great intro camera work. The music? It’s perfectly fitting for every area and environment I visited, each new track made me stop and listen for a moment. While not the most memorable or emotional soundtrack, It’s consistently pleasant. The voice acting is very well done and fits each character, even if the mouth movements don’t move with the words. The music definitely was a nice touch and fitting to each situation, though maybe not a buyable soundtrack, it was making the gameplay and traversal better, like a nice road trip as you ventured out into the open world.
  
  
• Character Customisation | Monster Hunter Stories 3 offers some fantastic options that all fit the stylings of the game’s atmosphere. All hair and eyelash options can be anything in the rainbow. You’ve got eye shapes, sizes, and highlights that can make you look from happy-go-lucky to absolutely dead inside. It came with an abundance of hairstyles which cover the front or the back with a mix and match style, so you can have party in the back while, when someone talks to you, all business, with variations for almost all. Hair dual colour with gradients available. Typical cosmetic styles of customisation of blush, eyeshadow, scars, and tattoos, and you can change everything at any time from within the game. Rudy (I love him!!!) The sheer amount of adorable outfits for your Palico buddy Rudy has is nothing short of AWWWWW, one is locked behind a Capcom ID if you so desire it.
  
  
• Graphics | Monster Hunter Stories 3 is very different from its main-series big brother. It all looks so simple yet retains very high-quality textures and art with very little noticeability of issues. The cel-shading is beautifully done and is matched worldwide in every facet of the world. From the open world to the cutscenes, everything is almost seamless (it unloads stuff partially offscreen that you may notice), the game, according to the minimum requirements could run on a toaster with as low as a GTX 1660, and recommended 2060, meaning even generations behind should be able to run this game beautifully! The cooking system/cutscene is adorable, though admittedly not as detailed and realistic as normal Monster Hunters, it has a nice homely charm to it. The food still looks so delicious and causes me to want to lick my screen.
  
  
• Unable to get Lost | Monster Hunter Stories 3 has great map indicators and storyline progression indicators, making you never able to get truly lost. Multiple types of colours and symbols make it easy to know everything from optional quests, side quests, and mainline quests, to egg dens (normal and rare coloured differently). This made the navigation and locating what to do next simple for even the most inexperienced player, to be able to always get back on track no matter how distracted they may become from shiny things. In short, there is no lack of things to do with quests, all seeming menial for the most part but getting you more and more goodies which is a huge plus, for crafting.

Mixed & disliked!

• Repetitive Voice lines | There is no option for this at all: constant one-liners and characters complaining you’re not going the right way, or victory screens every twenty seconds. It started as soft toilet paper, but within almost no time it felt like the grittiest sandpaper on my psyche, hearing them for hours after I stopped playing. Just this alone makes me play less of the game than I want; it’s an uphill battle, as I was enjoying the game but ready to turn off all voice lines entirely, but there is no selection between story voice and everything else, causing you to suffer while playing. They like the term “Monsties”… and this is a term that QUICKLY loses its charm. I understand the desire for the cute appeal, but that just sounds like a toddler never grew up to learn the real word and the whole world caught on.

• Repetitive Animations | Monster Hunter Stories 3 loves showing off the same animations over and over again. Creature attacks trigger, then quickly revert back to the start; it doesn’t have a flow to it. It’s the same with character animations. Characters act like they have been hit with water and shrug off these attacks with ease. If there was consistency and variation, a contradiction, I know but I am meaning a constant flow without the instant single-frame jumps back to the normality of the main combat screen.
  
  
• Auto Text Advancement | Monster Hunter Stories 3 text speed needs some work. It’s good that it works for voice-acted scenes but bad when there’s no voice acting. The auto-advance allows for a click-free audio storyline! Downside is that it needs to be toggled on and off for the non-verbal lines, making it a minor inconvenience). It is extremely useful for you to be able sit and watch the long cutscenes like a movie, which gives a bit more immersion than I originally thought. Having to toggle it off for text if you are a slow reader is a bit of an inconvenience.
  
  
• No Post Battle Fatigue | You don’t have to maintain HP and stats after or in between battles, you just always fully heal after every fight, making grinding almost just a matter of time, not strategy, making me wonder if you can over level and just half-ass the entire thing. For me, this takes any challenge out of the battle and making it more of a chore just to make your level numbers go BRRRR. With the ability to make potions and such at will out of battle, I would have assumed they would have more use outside of battle. Though since you get 100% healed from all ailments and damage, it’s rather useless until later, more difficult battles.
  
  
• Gathering Items | During my time with Monster Hunter Stories 3, I had to button mash to pick up everything. Items give experience points and provide you with supplies you need and want, so I found myself picking up everything. As the resources are everywhere, I found that a simpler system of distance-based auto loot would have been better. This is because you will spend a lot of time crafting and spending your resources at the smithy, upgrading weapons and gear. As a result, this would have worked better since you would be spending time inside your inventory, organising and spending resources anyway.

CONCLUSION

Score: 85/100

Monster Hunter Stories 3 manages to scratch several itches all at once, all in bite-sized, manageable amounts. With a renewed focus on story than other elements, it provides a focused, well-structured challenge that fans of the series will appreciate. Getting lost in its beautifully crafted world is never an issue, since there is always something to do. If you can ignore its minor quirks and slightly outdated systems, Monster Hunter Stories 3 will offer you countless hours of fun.

Aaron

Gaming is in my blood.  Be it handheld games, Xbox, PC, Switch or Playstation, I am all over it.
I make my own games as part of my profession and love playing co op games with friends in my spare time. Avid dog lover and camper van enthusiast.