REVIEW – “Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection” sees the spinoff grow up in scope, mechanical density, and emotional maturity

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a lovingly intrepid take on the series’ conventions. There’s a palpable whimsy to its character-driven moments and punchy, elephantine vigor to its action that rivals the greats.

I went into Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection with the understanding that this subseries, which I haven’t played until now, is a bit of a lighter load than the Monster Hunter series proper. Gone was the stressful, reflexive, real-time action of cage matching monsters that dwarf your character, replaced with turn-based RPG combat and a heavier story and character focus. A strive for fantastical yet stylized realism in the graphics was swapped out with a cartoony anime style that I imagine most of us grew up with in some way, just iterated to perfection with modern tech and artistic advancements. The growing Stories spinoff represents not a dumbing down of Monster Hunter, just a different avenue by which to enjoy its general themes and premises. In short, I’m glad I took this little (okay, big) detour with it.

Well, preconceptions are a mother because this game piles on the complexity and density that I’ve come to expect as a late fan to Monster Hunter starting with World. While it can be argued that Monster Hunter Stories games were produced with the younger consumer in mind, the first game came out almost ten years ago in Japan, the west not too far behind it. It stands to reason that kids who grew up with those games are now well into their late teens if not adulthood and could do with something a bit more… involved. Capcom delivered just that with this one.

So we enter the world of Monster Hunter Stories 3 where the goal is to pet every big lizard you possibly can, either with a big stick or your nurturing hand, and frankly it’s up to the monster itself to determine the method thereof. Well, that was at least my goal. The game’s plot is a fair amount busier than that, wrestling with political intrigue, war, betrayal, environmental apocalypse, the hubris of humanity and its search for power, family and sense of duty, destiny, and a bunch of other complex themes that make an RPG good. I made my character look like a young Sophia Petrillo from Golden Girls and jumped right in.

You play as an heir to the kingdom of Azuria, a prince(ss) who is also an accomplished and talented Rider of monsters (or Monsties as friendly monsters are referred to) just like the protagonists of the previous two Stories games. You’re the captain of a group called the Rangers, a team tasked with interacting with, managing, protecting, and being the human liaison to monsterdom within and around Azuria. The ethos of the Rangers is overall a noble one led by empathy and the goodness of the environment than anything else, similar to Hunters and how they operate as a guild. This all plays into the story as well, and in a remarkably emotional way.

Among your team, and surely the people you spend most of your time around, is your Palico cat and royal servant Rudy. Early on, he grated on my nerves with his high voice and dramatic, bratty attitude but was otherwise a useful kitty with tips and information that I warmed up to over time. Among the humans, Simon is your long-time best friend, someone you can count on ’til the end with a measured and warm personality, even if you feel like you don’t know him that well. Ogden is the veteran of the group, knowledgeable and friendly, and seems like an exemplary hug-giver. Kora is a tough woman as stalwart as the Gunlance she wields, but has a heart of gold and is somewhat of a mother figure to the Rangers. Gaul is stoic, no-nonsense, and a bit prickly, but means well. Lastly is Thea, an eager, gifted, young girl with a connection to Monsties interested in becoming a full-fledged Rider.

For those a little resistant to slow starts in RPGs, Monster Hunter Stories 3 gives you the keys to a whole suite, a veritable plethora, a cornucopia, a bushel of options right from the start. Like, the first few battles are almost overwhelming with all of the things you can do. You have multiple weapons and Monsties to utilize, and each weapon and Monstie has their own executable skills based on type just like traditional MH. Of course, you’re funneled to certain attacks and skills based on the battle or situation if you want to secure victory quickly, but adjustments and transformations during battle means you will have to switch up your strategy to other options and stay flexible.

You also start with a full party made up of you, your monstie(s), your pal Simon, and his monstie. Other Rangers join quickly and in bulk not long into the story. You can only exert direct control over yourself and your monstie, though it’s best that it acts on its own as it builds the Kinship Gauge faster allowing you to ride it and perform joint world-ending nuke attacks that would make Super Saiyans blush. Those Kinship Skills along with the Head-to-Head clashes during battle and the rock-paper-scissors system of Power/Technical/Speed attacks all return from earlier Stories entries. You also have the new Synchro Rush party attack, performed when you overwhelm and Topple a monster. It’s like watching a monster get jumped by everyone in your party, just like the good old days.

With one exception, you cannot just consistently mash a button and lightspeed menu through battles to grind let alone progress through the story. Even the simpler battles with small monsters require attention. If you know a particular monster favors Speed attacks, you need to counter with Technical ones in the event of a Head-to-Head. Same with element resistances, you best switch to your weapons and monsties that are attuned to that element. If you’re fighting monsters much weaker than you, you can perform a Quick Finish any time in the battle that immediately kills them and saves you the time while still rewarding monster parts and experience points. My favorite thing to do is to bash a monster in the overworld with my monstie who’s much more powerful, killing it on the spot and yielding monster parts and rewards as if I had battled them properly, but no EXP is granted.

There’s a Pokémon vibe here as one might expect, except it’s “gotta hatch ’em all” with all the stealing rescuing of eggs in the name of conservation and environmental rehabilitation. A few hours into the game, you can engage in Habitat Restoration by releasing monsters into specific regions, therefore repopulating them and strengthening the traits and stats of future eggs of that species. This is especially important for endangered monsters who can be hard to come by otherwise. Aside from the short, mandatory introduction of this mechanic, it’s mostly optional, but I’d highly recommend playing with it if you want some S-tier monsties or cool mutated variants of them with wild stats and skills. If you end up not liking the monstie itself, but it has valuable skills or passive traits, you can transfer them to others via the Rite of Channeling at your camps at no cost!

Speaking of Hunters earlier, I can’t go any further without discussing the weapons and armor. Monster Hunter Stories 3 keeps all the fun of hunting monsters for their parts and bringing them and other materials to a smithy to forge you new toys, albeit with the limitation of only six possible weapon classes, pared down considerably from Wilds‘ 14 options. This gameplay loop central to MonHun is well intact here, rewarding farming and time investment with high-tier, tougher equipables to give you a leg up on future foes. I still felt the tinge of elation when I knew I had enough parts to forge a weapon upgrade or finally make new armor that gives me an elemental resistance I didn’t yet have in my collection, though I missed being able to flag weapon or armor recipes to track its ingredients and be notified when you collect all you need. It pays to engage with this often so you’re prepared for anything the world throws at you, just don’t forget to swap out things before key battles!

You’ll want to experiment too. If you’re a MonHun vet, you’ll be at home with how the weapons function even in a turn-based format. Bows still have coatings to manage, Great Swords can be charged up for galaxy-shattering damage, the Hunting Horn is still the Hunting Horn with tons of buffs for your team, and so on. I really liked how my traditional MonHun favorite, the Long Sword, functioned with its sheathe stances, flowcharting through to multi-hit attacks and/or retaliation strikes if your party is hit. Pair with the right element for the situation and it’s a wrap for most monsters in a few turns. The only thing you don’t have to worry about anymore is sharpening with whetstone. This is good because it’d probably slow combat down a bit too much if you had to dedicate turns to getting your weapon right while a big monster fires an elemental beam into your solar plexus.

My first ten hours of the game were a fine mixture of learning, exploring, building an army of Monsties by ransacking monster dens for eggs, and taking on most fights that I could to bulk up my team. The area around Azuria is downright beautiful with lush green hills, shimmering lakes, and chilly hikes through the surrounding mountains that are frosted over by the Encroachment, a corruptive force that manifests as shimmering crystals on land and turns monsters feral. And this is just the first major area! It’s fun just to look at the game and see what’s out there. RE Engine does this game great justice and not even in spite of its anime art style, I think it’s in service to it. Colors pop more, animations save for lip syncing are smooth and kinetic especially during action, it’s all so vibrant and pretty, reminding me of a shinier Studio Ghibli feature at times. I have to say, as much as I liked Wilds, Rise, and World in the mainline Monster Hunter series, Stories 3 is beating their asses in terms of artistry and design.

Like those other Monster Hunter games, I will say that I never felt totally dominant in the game. It fights you all the way, challenging what you’re capable of, regularly filtering you with bigger monsters that can one- or two-shot you with ease. Tougher boss-like fights often felt like they were won by the skin of my teeth. One in particular against the boss of game’s second chapter was not only the biggest monster I’ve ever seen in a MonHun game at that point, but also one of the toughest, forcing me to rout for an hour and a half until I found the right tweaks to my team and equipment that allowed me to scrape by. As my pal Danreb said in his preview piece for this game, this isn’t your dad’s Monster Hunter Stories.

Your victory is all in your hands and the game is very fair. Since it’s turn-based, even more so — strategize, be flexible, and get ready to fail a lot at certain points. I found success in focusing on attacks and skills that wore down a monster’s Wyvernsoul Gauge which, when depleted fully, allows you to do an aforementioned Synchro Rush which can pile on hundreds of damage on it. You will also need to find elemental and status weaknesses for the bigger boys to succeed, and breaking monster parts with persistent pummeling continues to yield great results, but high Wyvernsoul damage is key! Just make sure you’re tuning your attacks to the right type or they will backfire and most attacks from large monsters do at least a third if not half or more of your health in one sweep if you’re fighting something on your level, even with good armor.

It was incredibly enjoyable to let Monster Hunter Stories 3 unfold around me. Its characters are multi-dimensioned with secrets and pasts to uncover that’ll endear you even further to them. My favorite by far was Kora, lovingly voiced by the awesome Anairis Quiñones (Aida in Wilds, Kimberly in Street Fighter 6). She was a mainstay in my party and her optional (though highly recommended) Side Story that you unlock more of throughout the game is very touching. I also love the arc that Eleanor has in the main story. She’s a princess and sister of the queen of the neighboring kingdom of Vermeil, a region ravaged by the Encroachment leaving many in destitution without a home, job, or food. What I thought was going to start as a hackneyed frienemies subplot with the main character just became yet another avenue through which the game’s empathetic soul shined brightly. Damn, this game’s great.

It all makes up for the minor frustration I felt in the back half of the game where I realized, painfully, that I should have been doing more sidequests and optional stuff around the story because, hoo boy, did I hit a wall. My side-quest plate was a little light apparently because the bigger monsters starting at the end of chapter 3 were ragdolling me with ease. One decent attack from them and my party’s health was wiped and left with only one heart out of three you get that are basically your “lives” per battle, just like how you could faint during a hunt three times before being jettisoned back to your camp in traditional MonHun. Some fights were like getting RKOed from the top of a skyscraper and liquefied on the ground below by a monster the size of Texas. I had to do some considerable leg and arm days in the gym to get right, around 15 hours’ worth, so I could bring the fight back and turn my Monsties into ballistic missiles and forge my sword arm into a cast-iron bonk dispenser.

In retrospect, I should have known better – many RPGs expect you to engage with some side quests and missions to stay competitive with story offerings, but Monster Hunter games absolutely want you to do that. You can’t really power through story hunts without the side hunts, learning about new monsters, harvesting their parts to craft better weaponry for the ones ahead, not to mention farming materials to make sure you’re stocked up on potions, antidotes, and other items. Be warned: this is not a quick 30-hour romp of an RPG like Sea of Stars. My ending time at the credits was a bit over 60 hours which got me to level 72. A lot of RPG fans might scoff at that as rookie numbers, but it’s certainly a fair bit more than I thought I’d have to invest to reach the finish. I legitimately think it’s virtually impossible to beat it otherwise, anything less would qualify as a challenge even the biggest RPG masochists and sickos like Seer would attempt.

Still, aside from those tougher moments that ruffled the regal, soft feathers of my bird wyvern sometimes, it’s hard to find any genuine fault within Monster Hunter Stories 3. It’s Monster Hunter through and through, impeccably designed and presented. I know we’re talking about Capcom here and that in and of itself should spell out an expectation of quality, but it’s still surprising that I went through this whole game with nary a noticeable glitch or technical problem. It even runs at a locked and confident 60 frames per second on a base PS5 with no variable or dropped frames that I could detect. The only thing I could say was anywhere close to “off” was how I noticed a couple voice lines didn’t match the subtitle perfectly. For shame.

By the end of my time with Monster Hunter Stories 3, many a wyvern were pet by me (literally, there is a Pet skill you can get that helps raise your Kinship Gauge in battle), even more were stomped out by myself and my trusty Ratha, and a semblance of order was returned to this world. It made for an invigorating playthrough, one marked by a heartfelt story, tense and attention-wrestling combat, immaculate visuals, epic music, and tons of content to chip your incisors on. You want to take on Calamitous Elder Dragons? They’re there. For you, not me. I’ll be in the back watching with a dustpan and broom for whoever gets turned to ash in the ensuing fight. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a lovingly intrepid take on the series’ conventions. There’s a palpable whimsy to its character-driven moments and punchy, elephantine vigor to its action that rivals the greats. All series fans need to give this a go, even if you were repulsed from the spinoffs before. Oh, and no monsters were actually harmed in the making of this review.