just as grand and complex as MH Wilds

For a long time, I just couldn’t wrap my head around Monster Hunter. With its flood of complex systems and overwhelming UI, Capcom’s action RPG series felt completely foreign to me in a way that few games do. It wasn’t until I played 2021’s Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin that I began to see the light. Yes, the kid-friendly, turn-based RPG was a completely different beast than 2018’s mainline Monster Hunter World, but it still helped me understand the underlying fundamentals of the series in clear and intimidating terms. I’ve since graduated to the mainline games, but I’ve always appreciated the role Stories plays for the series.

That role might be changing a bit with Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. Set to launch on March 13, Capcom’s latest is a larger sequel with an even bigger emphasis on story and more complex combat systems. It’s still brightly colored and full of whimsy, but based on the sizable chunk I’ve played so far, it may no longer be the friendly entrypoint its predecessors were. Monster Hunter Stories 3 feels as grand and deep as Monster Hunter Wilds so far, and that’s not so much negative or positive as it is different.

Structurally, Monster Hunter Stories 3 isn’t all too different from its predecessor. It’s another turn-based RPG where you’re let loose into open areas and given the freedom to fight creatures, gather crafting resources, and steal eggs from dens to build up your own stable of Monsties, Pokémon-style. (Gotta catch ‘em all? More like gotta steal ‘em all.) So far, I’ve gotten to feel the loop play out in the game’s first two areas: Azuria, a pastoral area that wouldn’t look out of place in Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule, and Cataracts, a typical Monster Hunter canyon with some welcome verticality.

In my first dozen hours, I’ve gotten the hang of how it works. When I’m not watching cinematic cutscenes that make me feel like I’m watching a full Monster Hunter anime, I’m casually exploring the world in a way that doesn’t feel so dissimilar to Pokémon Legends: Arceus. It’s not just that I’m completing fetch quests, gliding and climbing walls with my mounts, and filling out my monster collection; I’m nabbing as many eggs as I can as a form of research. Any duplicate monsters I hatch can be released back out into the wild. Doing so repopulates the species in the area, meaning that the next eggs I get may hatch an even more powerful version of that creature. There’s a grand story to follow, but there’s also a very chill loop of amassing eggs, hatching creatures, and trading traits between Monsties to breed the best fighters possible — all while crafting better armor and weapons, as is customary for Monster Hunter.

As relaxing as that loop can be, Monster Hunter Stories 3 is also significantly more complicated than its predecessors when it comes to combat. In Monster Hunter Stories 2, battles flowed through a straightforward rock-paper-scissors system. Three kinds of attacks — power, speed, and technical — each had an advantage over one and a weakness over another. It was always simple to deduce what attacks a monster would use based on its design. Speedsters, for instance, tended to be small and slick raptors. The puzzle came when those monsters would change forms. If a fast monster became enraged, it might start using power attacks. With a little observation, even younger players could work out the best counter for any given monster.

The creatures in Monster Hunter Stories 3 are far harder to predict, though. Or that’s how it feels right now, at least. 12 hours in, I’m still left feeling like I don’t always have a grasp on even basic monsters. Their attack types switch up more often and it’s harder to pin down what they’ll do at a glance. It’s an unexpected change of pace considering that I breezed through Wings of Ruin’s fights.

But it’s less that the attack wheel is more complicated and more so that it’s surrounded by so many other systems that make it harder to focus. There are double attacks that are performed when my Monstie and I use the same type of damage at once. There are Kinship attacks that I can unleash after mounting my pal, and if I happen to use them when my companions do, then we’ll perform a superpowered ultimate ability, but good luck coordinating with your AI-controlled partners. There are Synchro Rushes that can be performed when you break down an enemy’s stagger bar. There are elemental damage types in addition to regular attacks, which create another layer of weaknesses. Your ranger can carry three weapons into battle, and those two have certain strengths and weaknesses. And amid all that, you can still target certain body parts to chip parts off of enemies.

Image: Capcom

I’m of two minds when it comes to all this. On one hand, it makes Monster Hunter Stories 3 a much juicier RPG. Wings of Ruin was elegant, but its battles did often feel predictable and telegraphed. Twisted Reflection addresses that by keeping players on their toes in each fight rather than pushing them to set the right attack type and fight on autopilot. I’m more engaged moment to moment, and I’m paying much closer attention to my party composition and I try to figure out how I can have a counter for everything.

On the other hand, it makes Monster Hunter Stories feel less like a welcoming entrypoint to the broader series. If I’m scratching my head from time to time even after finishing Wings of Ruin, I imagine that total newcomers might be a little lost if they choose to jump in here. I especially wonder how younger players will take to it. Wings of Ruin felt like a perfect stepping stone for kids. It was light and Pokémon-like in its combat. Twisted Reflection feels more tuned to older RPG veterans.

Image: Capcom

That’s not just in the gameplay, but its presentation too. The production value is sky-high and the cutscenes, full of fire and destruction, are occasionally dark — closer in spirit to a Fire Emblem game. Everything feels bigger, and that seems to be coming at the expense of performance too. Monster Hunter Stories 3 is playable on Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch 2 at the moment, but in a notably unoptimized state. This is a true PC and console game, reducing the options for those who crave a less involved Monster Hunter game that’s great for casual portable play.

It feels like Capcom’s goal is to elevate Monster Hunter Stories, a series that began as a humble Nintendo 3DS spinoff, clearly positioned as a B-game compared to the main series. Monster Hunter Stories 3 sheds that feeling and instead presents something that’s as grand and complex as any modern Monster Hunter game. It’s feeling like it could be a bigger hit with RPG enthusiasts based on what we’ve played so far, but don’t expect it to demystify an intimidating series. It’s in the big leagues now.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection will be released March 13 for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.