Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection - Review
The Monster Hunter series has its die-hard fans, those who play every game that releases, the Stories sub-series however is a little less well known. What started out as a Nintendo 3DS game and then got a Nintendo Switch sequel, is finally launching on all platforms at once. Is the third time the charm for this RPG focused adventure, or is this nothing but a tall tale?
The game starts out with the Queen of Azuria reclaiming a monster egg trapped in what appears to be ice, but is actually a crystal. Upon returning it to the castle, the egg soon hatches and from within comes a Skyscale Rathalos, but after it emerges, a second also bursts free. This sets off events, which result in the Queen vanishing and your character left to grow up without her. You are the heir to the throne of Azuria, but also the captain of the Rangers, a group of riders who go about the land doing what they can to help the monsters of the land thrive, they are also researching the crystalisation of the world. Yes, the world is slowly being taken over by crystals, many of which are twisting the landscape, but some are infecting monsters, turning them feral, which is causing all sorts of issues. If that was not enough, the Vermillians from the south are also causing chaos on the border, and while they send Eleanor to negotiate, she opts to stay as a guest in order to work further. Sadly events do not work out peacefully and tragedy strikes, which gives your character a kick in the pants to break a royal decree and leave the land to discover what exactly is going on.
If all that sounds like a lot, it takes place in the first 8 hours or so of the game, there is a lot of story in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, but there is no desire to speed through it. In fact, there are moments when you can forget about the story entirely, thanks to the side quests and other gameplay elements. That is not to say the story is bad, it isn’t, but for all their sense of urgency, no one among the Rangers seems all that worried about spending time gathering resources or such. One of the stronger elements to the game’s story are the characters that ride alongside your character. As you move from location to location, you can enjoy a side story with each character, giving you more insight into them, like why Kora is in the Rangers or why Ogden loves all things monsters. Some of the characters do fall into a bit of a stereotype role, but they don’t lean into it, which I liked. The only character that I disliked was Rudy, which is an apt name as the Felyne is as rude as they come, if anyone speaks out of turn to your character, they demand everything, often putting their paw in their mouth as a result of it.
Story aside there is a lot to do in the game, like a lot. At the core is the RPG system that has been in place since the series began, but beyond that there is a lot to do. If you are like me, then there are going to be things you do because the game is teaching you about them, and then never touch them again. Outside of the battles, you can explore the world and gather resources, which can be used to forge or upgrade your weapons and fear. You can also raid monster dens to take their eggs, under the idea of restoring monsters to the world, there are no omelettes to be made here. You can also engage in a little genetic manipulation, transferring skills from one monster to another, letting you create some truly epic monsters. Then there are the side quests, people in each area needing help, their reasons are often silly, but if gives you a chance to explore the maps better.
Exploring is perhaps the second most repeating thing you will do, as within each region are multiple zones and then if you are lucky, you might find hidden cave networks or large fields full of things. As you explore each region, you will come across a feral monster, whose insane behaviour has caused the other monsters to clear out from the area. Taking them down, which is a lot more of a chore than you might be thinking, will then let you release monsters into the wild. The more of a single monster you release, the strong or varied they become, which in turn mean better eggs and that in turn means better members of your party. You can have with you at any time six monsters, which you can use in battles or in exploring the world, some monsters can glide, some can climb and other swim. Notice I said glide there, not fly, that is because when not in a cutscene you Toy Story, which is falling with style.
Now battles are the most repetitive element to the game, you will battle a lot. Enter a new area, it is time for a battle, meet someone new and likely time for a battle. Even walking through a narrow path can result in a battle if you are not paying attention. The game uses the same system from the other games, so each monster has an attack type, power, speed or technical, and if you attack with the stronger type, you can do more damage. The flip side is that if you use the weaker type, you can see yourself done in and with each new monster or variant of one, you need to learn what type and attacks they have. This does not take into consideration that when a monster gets aggressive, they will change their type and you have to work out their new type to counter it. Layered on top of all of that is that monsters have elemental effects as well, some shoot fire, some have poison and so on.
The games biggest issue, apart from the many mechanics you have to juggle in a battle, is that it often spikes in its difficulty. I would spend time running to a destination, encountering every creature I could and fighting them, only to then get into a boss encounter and then get wiped by them. There were more than a few times I would encounter a creature that was so far beyond me, that I would have to go and clean up any extra quests and grind for XP to level up, in the hopes that I could get stronger. This may have been something made easier if the game let me upgrade most of my gear. Each time I would enter a new region and find new monsters, I would get new items I could forge, which was great, but after the third and then fourth area, I was getting annoyed at not being able to upgrade items I liked to a second tier because some item was unknown to me. Which meant I had to keep grinding, just to get my health up, as my weapons were not getting strong to match and it was a cycle that kept repeating the near 40 hours I put into the game.
Thankfully, the game looks pretty damn good, especially on the PlayStation 5. From the moment I created by character, Prince Haha (he needed a silly name) to the end, the game kept surprising me with how much attention to detail I was seeing. Characters, even the background ones, looked great and the locations were just as impressive. I am talking about the city locations like the Castle where you begin the game, others you will discover in turn. The world itself is pretty, most of the time, with vibrant green hills, dense jungle landscapes and more. The crystalisation, which is a danger to the world, also looks pretty more so when you get to run across it and enjoy how it reacts to you. Your character can change their look at their main base camp, which is nice and you can also swap outfits for your friend.
The monsters are mostly ok, I think they are the weakest visual element, not in their design or such as Monster Hunter has always had great designs, but just in how much they repeat. As you restore regions and more monsters come back to the land, you will see more of the same type, just with a different colour, like pink, green or purple. There are stronger variants later on that do look a bit different, but by then you will have encountered so many of them, the look loses its appeal. One thing I would have loved to have been able to do is turn off attack animations, because of all that grinding, the number of times I had to see Kora throw a barrel or Thea summon a Poogie hoard was insane. The game does let you play battles out at two-times speed, but that literally only impacts the speed, all those animations still play out.
One area that I really can’t fault is with the audio work, as both the soundtrack and the voice work are amazing. The music has many of those familiar Monster Hunter melodies, but they are a bit more light-hearted here than in the main series. That being said, if you don’t like the main melody you are going to get sick and tired of it after a while, as parts of it play out after every fight you win. The voice work feels good, while some characters had moments I cared less about, I never found myself tempted to skip those story beats, because I was investing in the actual characters and that was due to the voice work. Honestly, if they made a new anime using this tech and cast, I would be down to watch it.
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a game of contradictions, one on hand it is a stunning feast for the eyes, with incredible locations and characters, which could easily be mistaken for a Saturday morning cartoon. On the other hand the grind is so hardcore that even the most devout RPG player might get annoyed at how many fights they have to do. Beyond that grind, there is so much more to do, that if you take your time, I could easily see you getting 80 or more hours from the game, there is just that much to do. If Monster Hunter Stories 2 did not do much for you, then I highly suggest you give this game a go, a lot of the issues that game had have been worked out and while it can be unforgiving at times, if you are willing to put in the time, you will be rewarded with a pretty amazing experience.
The Score
9.0
Review code provided by Capcom
The Pros
The game looks incredible, characters, monsters and the world embrace the anime look and do so near flawlessly
There is just a lot to do in the game from battles to egg hatching and beyond…
The Cons
… which is a good thing as there are some story beats that will bring your progress to a halt until you grind away
Rudy is just annoying, they are either insulting to everyone they meet or they accuse everyone of being rude, when they are, I mean it is in their name after all
