Review: Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection - Hunters Having Fun

There's no denying it—Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 changed my brain chemistry, and today I look at turn-based RPGs in a completely different light. I also really loved Monster Hunter Wilds, and that was my first real dive into the world of MH after dipping my toes in with World. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is the combination of both, and let me tell you just one thing - I can't wait to get back to playing.

How to Train Your Dragon

In the game, you take on the role of the heir to the throne of the kingdom of Azuria, dealing with a phenomenon of "crystallized" monsters that have begun appearing in the area, presented as wilder and more dangerous versions of the familiar and beloved monsters of the Monster Hunter series. At the same time, the kingdom is facing the threat of invasion from the neighboring kingdom - Vermeil. From the very first second, you can tell that the tone of the story is pretty goofy and cute, something that felt a bit odd to me after my experience with Wilds and World, but over time I understood that the whole essence of the series is its lightheartedness, and that only the recent games were a bit more serious and dark. So I decided to come in with an open mind and go with the flow of what the story offers here, and I have to say it's simply charming.

Every character you meet is unique, interesting, and colorful in its own way, just like the world surrounding you, and even if the way everything is presented is very "anime" in its essence, which is something that might turn off people looking for something more mature from the game, the story is full of heart and childlike charm that I was able to connect with. The story jumps between the two themes of the wild monsters and the invasion in a dynamic way that helps develop the mystery and questions behind each storyline while the game teaches you all the systems you need to know, and as befits a JRPG title - there are quite a few of them.

The first system you'll come into contact with is, of course - the character creation system, which presents a wide range of options for creating simply beautiful and unique characters. There are all the standard choices you'd expect to see in a game of this type, with tons of options for facial features, hair, eyes, scars, accessories, and so on. Those of you who just want to start the game and worry about your character's appearance later will be happy to know that the game allows you to completely change the design at any stage of the experience.

Gonna Catch 'Em All?

From here, you head out with your character into the colorful world of Azuria and various other locations, where at every corner you'll find a huge variety of quests to complete, different monsters to hunt, and the most significant and important part of the game - monsters to raise. Unlike the main series games, Stories distinguishes itself by giving the player the ability to find monster eggs that they can bring back to their home base, hatch the eggs, and use the monsters that come out of them. You start the game with a limited set of monsters already in your possession, and across the map you'll find monster dens from which you can take eggs and add them to your team.

This is a deep system that encourages exploration and also a bit of luck, because every time you pick up an egg, the game will tell you what type you picked up and give you the option to return it and choose a different egg instead. Once you've decided to do that, you can't regret it, which might leave you with an egg of a monster you already have or one you're not interested in. If you're lucky, sometimes you'll pick up a rare egg that will grant you a monster with a higher rating, which will directly affect its stats like health, damage, abilities, etc. As you progress through the game, new monsters and new areas will open up along with the ability to go out into the field at night, which will present rare dens and "invasive monsters", stronger monsters that hold eggs of extinct species monsters in their dens, making them highly valuable.

But that's not the end of this system, because once you've found an extinct species monster, or if you have several monsters of the same species, you can release them into the wild to restore the ecosystem of that area, which will raise its habitat level and in return present monsters at higher levels and rare monsters (like the possibility of finding a monster with two elements instead of just one). I spent a considerable amount of hours just searching and collecting eggs of specific species that I wanted to raise the habitat level of in order to find the best version of that monster, which rewarded me significantly later on when I started upgrading that monster to higher levels.

Wild Hunt

The game's combat system is probably the pill that was hardest for me to swallow due to how loaded it is with mini-systems and explanations at the start of the game. But as I said at the beginning—Expedition 33 opened my mind to games of this type, and I honestly think I've become a fan of turn-based combat - as long as it's done well. So yes, there's no satisfying Parry system here that lets me get through entire battles without a scratch on me, and I had to deal with the fact that my character would take damage and there was nothing I could do about it, but the combat system does an excellent job of making you understand the basics and sending you on your way with a dynamic change in the difficulty of the battles you enter. The game feels very easy at the start, and you'll spend a large number of hours where you can eliminate every monster in one hit, especially if you're like me and love to power up between main quests. But once you start wandering around and exploring the world outside and encounter a monster that's too strong for you—you have no one to blame but yourself.

When the moment arrives and you find yourself in a head-on battle against some monster, you'll be able to control the actions of your character and the monster assigned to you at that moment, which can be swapped at any given moment in battle. You can choose between three different types of regular attacks with your weapon - Power, Speed, and Technical, alongside special attacks with your weapon and with your monster that consume your stamina meter. Before each turn, you'll be able to see who the monster you're facing is going to attack. If it's attacking you and you choose to attack it with a regular attack, a game of "rock paper scissors" (or "head-to-head" as the game calls it) will begin, so if you chose to attack with a power attack and the monster facing you attacks you with a speed attack, the monster will win, whereas if you had chosen a technical attack- the head-to-head victory would be yours, which causes much greater damage to the losing side.

In terms of monsters, you can swap at any given moment to a monster assigned to you for battle, each with its own special attacks and different elements that you can use to your advantage. A water attack from one monster can lower your opponent's immunity to electricity, giving you an opening for an electric strike with another type of monster you can use on the next turn. This admittedly sounds exactly like how Pokémon games work, both in capturing monsters and using them in battle and also in the strategic side of battles, but I have to say that MHS3 simply does everything better in my eyes. The battles are much more cinematic, with tons of detail, changing shots that make everything feel very fast, and animations that I think even ten years from now we won't see Pokémon reach. An ability that unlocks during the longer battles will allow you to ride your monster and perform a special attack that in an amusing way reminded me a lot of the Ultimate attacks in the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games - incredible cinematics with exaggerated effects that were so much fun to watch and only made me yearn for the day when Nintendo's flagship brand would want to reach these levels.

When Anime Meets Capcom

As mentioned, I'm a new player to the Stories series and therefore the prior knowledge I had about the series was purely from YouTube videos, and this applies to its visual side as well. The previous game in the series came out "only" five years ago, but its visuals simply failed to attract me. They look very dated even by the standards of the time. Where I'm not a new player is in Capcom games, which just a few weeks ago delivered Resident Evil: Requiem to us with stunning and very realistic graphics. So what happens when a studio so associated with graphics of that type goes in the anime direction, and this time does it well? You get Stories 3. I already mentioned at the beginning of the review that from the very first moment in the game you understand the direction its tone is going, also very anime, but in terms of the game's visuals, this is among the most beautiful games I've played in this style. The varied colorfulness at every corner, the different characters, the monster designs translated from the semi-stylized semi-realistic style of the main games to a completely different style - everything is simply a feast for the eyes.

Break on the Steam Deck

I played the Steam Deck version both before and after launch and the performance remained the same—30 frames per second (if not less in busy sections or when switching areas) on the highest graphics settings (with Motion Blur off, this setting can go die in a ditch) and FSR set to Balanced mode. The gameplay experience is excellent and this is definitely a title worth playing on the go, though I did hope to somehow push it to 40FPS because that's really the seal I need to know the game is running perfectly on the device. Frame drops here and there happen quite frequently but not to a level that makes it unplayable, but if you're planning to run through the game and will be playing most of the time on the SD - you should come prepared for this.

The Bottom Line

I really have no logical explanation for how Capcom keeps doing this at such a fast pace, but Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is another success and not a small one at all for the studio. With addictive gameplay that sucked me in for hours, stunning graphics, and tons of additional systems to get lost in - this is the most enjoyable role-playing game I've played this year, and further proof that you shouldn't be afraid of turn-based combat - otherwise you'll miss out on a gem that's no longer hidden.