Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection Review – Review

The level of ambition present throughout Monster Hunter Stories 3 is impressive. This Switch 2 game (also available on PS5, Xbox, and PC, but not Switch 1) has huge open spaces with monsters roaming around. It has an epic story about two warring kingdoms and ancient prophecies and such, all told with oodles of cut scenes and voice acting. There are so many gameplay mechanics that it often feels like you’re continually unearthing a nesting doll of gameplay elements. The ambition is admirable. Monster Hunter Stories 3 swings for the fences and doesn’t totally strike out, but I’m not sure if it’s ultimately winning the game. I appreciate a lot of what Monster Hunter Stories 3 does, but to a degree I just wish the foundations were firmer over the course of the lengthy adventure.

The game is subtitled Twisted Reflection, largely because at the heart of the story are two warring kingdoms: Azuria and Vermeil. They both have a Rathalos, a popular and powerful creature thought to be extinct. Each kingdom hates the other one, but maybe they’re not so different. Maybe they’re some sort of…twisted reflection of each other. I initially thought the story was drawn out and not all that engaging, but once the conflict starts to get going, the wide cast of characters gets more development and time to shine and there were enough intriguing story beats to keep my attention. In addition to the main story, all those side characters also have their own stories you can complete, which both make those party members more powerful and deepen their story. While the presentation of the game makes it seem like the story is the full draw, the monster collecting, exploration, and combat is where the bulk of the action lies.

You initially start off with just a precious Rathalos, but quickly you’ll build a veritable army of monsties (the pet name for monsters in this game that made more sense when it was a 3DS Pokemon clone) of all different types. All of these critters have functionality in the overworld, where you can fly, swim, climb, and more. The acquisition of them is most often done by finding monster dens in the overworld and sneaking in to get an egg. While you have ways to tilt the scales in your favor and streamline the process, collecting monsties regularly felt more chore-like as I burned through a lot of duplicative and/or weak creatures. The monster dens are no longer repetitive mini-dungeons, which is nice, but they’re also like little slot machines as you try to press your luck to get the right egg type you’re looking for. The new Habitat Restoration mechanic tries to solve some of my complaints, but it’s just an onslaught of extra layers to the process. You now need to collect eggs, hatch them, release different monsties into the wild, fiddle with the ecosystem ranks, and then eventually get better eggs and monsties to replace all your crappy old ones. You can also do some kind of gene therapy the game calls the Rite of Channeling where you try to transfer different skills and buffs of the same color to your creature’s 3-by-3 grid. Also you want to try to win at tic-tac-toe while doing that, too. If this sounds overwhelming, that’s because it is.

A lot of my issues with monster collection would be less of an issue if the battle system was better. I’ll be clear to any fan of the Stories series’ combat: if you like Monster Hunter Stories 2’s combat, you’re probably in for a treat. I’ve learned over the course of this game that this battle system is not for me. It’s a largely passive system where you watch battles play out with minimal direct interaction. You’re mostly just influencing things. Battles involve you, one of your monsties, and then a computer-controlled partner and their monstie. You primarily only control your own actions and then attempt to read your enemies to deploy the right monstie (from your active team of six) at the right time. I do appreciate how the game maps mainline Monster Hunter concepts to a turn-based battle system, as you need to swap between weapon types and be tactical about what body parts on a baddie you focus on. It is par for the course with this game, however, that the battle system is riddled with different systems and ideas and just doesn’t coalesce together.

The exploration throughout the game’s various open areas is enjoyable. Calling this a full-blown open world wouldn’t be fully accurate, but it exhibits some of the modern open-world trademarks. You climb to the top of towers to better see the map. You find Korok-esque Poogies hidden in nooks and crannies for rewards. Unlike the routine of egg harvesting, the overworld exploration doesn’t fall into overcomplication. It’s fun to run around and explore. It’s even sometimes fun to go into some monster dens and fight some battles. It’s less fun when the framerate chugs in the wild on Switch 2. The game overall looks acceptable on Switch 2, but the framerate appears to be uncapped and varies somewhere in the 30-40 fps range with the occasional dip. It’s a fine port, just maybe not an impressive one.

Monster Hunter Stories 3 tries to be an epic RPG, but it’s bogged down by so many systems and ideas that it starts to take on water as you progress deeper into it. The story wound up being a highlight, but even the streamlining of monster dens couldn’t solve the heavy-handedness of monster collection and enhancement. If you want to painstakingly tweak the dials on habitats and splice monster genes while dealing with an acquired taste of a combat system, you’ll find a better time than I did in this game. Maybe at the end of the day, the twisted reflection was a metaphor for the entire game.