It’s arduous to even know the place to begin with an RPG as deep as Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. I reviewed each Monster Hunter Stories in 2017 and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Destroy in 2021 and, possibly unsurprisingly, a lot of what I mentioned in regards to the first two carry over into my ideas on the third. Monster Hunter Stories 3 has so a lot to do, all of it’s rewarding, and I adored the each one of many 75 hours I fortunately sunk into it. Good adjustments have additionally made it simpler than ever to dig into all its completely different programs with out watering them down within the course of, making for a fantastic bundle that seems like a logical evolution of an already nice collection.
Twisted Reflection is one other turn-based monster gathering RPG spin off of the long-standing, beloved (to me, for the final 22 years and counting) Monster Hunter collection. Somewhat than solely searching monsters to show their components into cool outfits and weapons, right here you’ll hunt them with different monsters by your aspect referred to as Monsties (monsters who’re your besties, after all). Like Pokemon, you’ll be able to have as much as six Monsties in your occasion and swap between them in battle, however in contrast to Pokemon, you struggle alongside them utilizing the weapons and armor which are iconic to the Monster Hunter collection. Twisted Reflection hasn’t innovated on this explicit system a lot, nevertheless it’s a enjoyable sufficient one which it actually didn’t must.
Essentially the most rapid adjustments are to your most important character. First, you play as an grownup reasonably than a toddler this time, which shifts the general tone in the direction of being considerably extra mature. Second, the protagonist has their very own persona and dialogue – that’s proper, for the primary time within the collection, your Felyne side-kick isn’t doing the speaking for you. I do know the Stories collection is usually geared in the direction of a youthful viewers, however Navirou’s over-the-top comedic puns and one-liners match for a youngsters’s present have been at all times only a little an excessive amount of within the first two video games. Your new Palico, Rudy, is far more smart and useful, and he’s nonetheless humorous with out appearing like an over-the-top cartoon mascot. (Sorry Navirou.)
Your hero isn’t just a few no person, both. They’re a full-fledged ace Rider and captain of the Rangers – principally an environmentalist group that focuses on analysis and defending the ecosystems within the kingdom of Azuria. This premise works so effectively with the precise gameplay mechanics, which have you ever taking out Invasive Species and reintroducing Endangered Species to the ecosystem. Oh, and you’re additionally the princess/prince of your kingdom.
As somebody who’s already professional of their discipline, your character wouldn’t want somebody to point out them the ropes. However what about you as a brand new participant? To get round this dilemma, Twisted Reflection handles its tutorial cleverly by making you the one who’s educating a beginner to the rangers, Thea, which is completed seamlessly, painlessly, and shortly – although I do query if it’s sufficient for utterly new gamers. It doesn’t waste a lot time earlier than getting you to the actual motion, too – in the event you don’t get too distracted when the primary map opens up so that you can discover, after all, which occurs very shortly. (Not less than unlock the Ceremony of Channeling earlier than going off script, that’s my recommendation.)
All of those variations have been so welcome and refreshing. Although the earlier Stories video games completely touched on emotional subjects, the tone feels prefer it has shifted from a goofy Saturday morning cartoon to at least one extra like Avatar: The Final Airbender. That mentioned, the story itself isn’t as profound as that comparability. It tells one other slight twist on what I’ve come to anticipate from Monster Hunter: One thing unhealthy (this time, the Crystal Encroachment) is inflicting monsters to run amok, you need to face the affected monsters (this time, Feral Monsters) and save the area from no matter is inflicting it. There’s not less than a extra obvious impression on common folks and a few bigger-picture political turmoil that’s attention-grabbing, however I want Twisted Reflection had spent a bit extra time fleshing that half out.
And whereas it’s not groundbreaking, I nonetheless loved the story. There are moments right here and there that caught me abruptly, made me tear up, and even rewarded me for being a long-time fan with references and cameos from the predecessors with out shoving them in my face. I received’t spoil something, however a few of these even had me shouting enthusiastically as I performed.
Exploring the Huge World
One other advantage of being an ace Rider from the very starting is that you simply begin with a fully-grown Rathalos as your companion, which implies you instantly have the power to fly round Twisted Reflection’s semi-open world. “Flying” is extra like “gliding,” nevertheless it works effectively due to a beneficiant variety of updrafts across the map and sure excessive locations you’ll be able to quick journey to everytime you need.
Driving your Monsties round is simply plain enjoyable usually, and switching between them whereas driving is totally seamless. Every monster can have a number of Driving Actions, too, together with the aforementioned Flying and issues like Swimming or Climbing. There are additionally much less movement-oriented choices like Roaring, which stuns monsters within the overworld so you’ll be able to experience proper by them, and Breath Assaults, which may knock monsters over or out of the air! Having a number of Driving Actions per monster made it a lot simpler to place collectively a crew so I may discover totally, even early on. It’s an enormous enchancment over Stories 2, the place I felt pigeonholed into selecting monsters based mostly totally on Driving Actions.
Variable Battles, Fluid Techniques
The battle system in Twisted Reflection is far more intricate than numerous different turn-based RPGs I’ve performed. Monsters have three assault sorts – Energy, Velocity, and Technical – that work like rock-paper-scissors, plus elemental weaknesses and resistances on high of that. Your Rider then additionally has three weapon injury sorts throughout six weapons to select from, all of which have completely different mechanics. Monster components could be focused individually and are weak to particular weapon injury sorts, and you’ll swap freely between three weapons in battle so as to finest exploit these weaknesses. It feels like lots, however the selection I knew I’d encounter inspired me to at all times have a variety of upgraded weapons readily available, which saved battles contemporary all through.
That is all similar to Stories 2’s battle system, nevertheless it’s been expanded upon. For instance, you nearly at all times have an entire crew of allies and their Monsties to select from when deciding who will accompany you, every of whom has completely different methods and objects at their disposal. Your Kinship Gauge is now separate out of your Stamina, so you should use abilities with out taking away out of your “final assault”– an incredible change, particularly as somebody who likes to rock the stamina-eating Looking Horn. Enemy monsters now even have a Wyvernsoul Gauge – weapons and assaults have completely different injury values for Wyvernsoul, and depleting it’ll stun after which stagger the opponent, basically skipping their flip. That well provides one other layer of technique past simply selecting the perfect half to assault with the perfect weapon for the job, as generally focusing on Wyvernsoul as an alternative is the technique that ensures your occasion will survive.
It’s lots to consider, nevertheless it means the battles don’t ever grow to be a easy race to spam your primary assaults. Although they take some time to get by, fights hardly ever felt too lengthy for me, particularly since you’ll be able to double the battle animation pace. And simply when battles started to really feel like a bit little bit of a chore, I used to be capable of begin one-shotting weaker monsters within the overworld, which nonetheless granted supplies and expertise factors with out having to play by an excessively straightforward struggle. The truth that I by no means felt like I wanted to grind for the sake of grinding helped lots in holding me from getting bored with fight. As an alternative, doing missions, tackling some elective duties, and following my pure curiosity to struggle each new monster not less than as soon as saved me leveled appropriately.
The Good Ouroboros
Twisted Reflection’s story and exploration are the driving forces that introduce mechanics and places to you, however the loop of den diving, searching, and upgrading is the place it actually shines. The varied programs are all interconnected completely to create an ouroboros of a gameplay loop that feeds into itself, with micro-dopamine hits each single step of the best way. I spent practically 20 hours within the first space alone as a result of I wished to do all the things I may earlier than shifting on, and nearly all the things I used to be actually into was technically elective. However possibly that’s why it was really easy to get engrossed – nothing was spoon-fed to me or pressured down my throat. As an alternative it merely launched me to how issues labored after which mentioned, “Go forth.” And go forth I did.
In case you don’t know Monster Hunter Stories, it really works a bit in a different way than most conventional creature collectors. As an alternative of discovering a monster within the overworld or in a random encounter, after which having to catch it or make it drop one thing, you as an alternative search inside dens for eggs. There are a number of layers of “gacha” on this Stories system, with den spawns, eggs inside these dens, and the abilities Monsties hatch all being considerably randomized, nevertheless it all works extremely effectively reasonably than feeling obnoxious.
Every microclimate throughout the big, open maps is inhabited by particular monsters, that are the species you’ll be able to then discover contained in the eggs there. There are three rarity ranges of dens to search out within the overworld, which result in three rarity ranges of eggs. The eggs you “pull” from the nests contained in the dens have patterns to establish the species, however hatching them into Monsties is the one strategy to be taught what genes they’ve, which decide their lively and passive abilities. The rarer the egg, the higher the three-by-three gene board that Monstie will probably be born with is.
Tally that every one up and you’ve got 4 completely different moments of randomized pleasure. It’s an extremely well-implemented variable reward system, which is an idea fittingly utilized in precise animal coaching as effectively (and to maintain folks doomscrolling on sure social media apps. Oops.) It would sound like that a lot randomization could be annoying – what in the event you solely need one particular Monstie? However in my expertise, I by no means needed to spend very lengthy to search out what I used to be searching for, and the opposite issues I picked up alongside the best way made it really feel like I by no means wasted my time.
Importantly, you’re getting far more than simply these hits of pleasure out of this cycle, too, even when some are solely tangentially associated. For instance, it’s satisfying to choose up supplies whereas exploring on the best way to a den, which each grant my occasion expertise factors and can be utilized for crafting. I’m additionally possible casually searching some monsters as I’m going, which is able to drop supplies for weapons and armor. And if I defeat a brand new monster, that’s new gear to look ahead to!
When you hatch an egg, you’re not solely getting a Monstie to your assortment or occasion, you’re additionally unlocking its gene abilities for each Monstie you’ve got. Genes could be freely moved between Monsties and rearranged as many occasions as you want utilizing the Ceremony of Channeling at any camp. The flexibility to rearrange is vital as a result of in the event you match three of the identical colour or sort of genes on the board, you’ll set off a “bingo” bonus that buffs your Monstie in several methods. This course of is an enormous change from Stories 2, which might devour your host monster upon transferring a single gene. You additionally couldn’t rearrange genes – with so many layers of dedication, and as somebody who’s chronically indecisive, that system was virtually torture. Twisted Reflection as an alternative welcomes you to experiment as a lot as you need.
These previous gene restrictions would have additionally been at odds with the brand new system of Habitat Restoration, which has you reintroducing additional Monsties to the wild. First you need to eliminate a Feral Monster within the space so you’ll be able to arrange a camp there, that are each comparatively difficult and fairly rewarding to beat. Every camp you unlock additionally will increase the stat bonus a Monstie will get when it’s hatched from an egg from that map. And as soon as camp is about up, you’ll be able to launch monsters again into that particular space – the extra of a species you launch there, the upper their ecosystem rank will rise, as much as S-Rank.
So as to add much more complexity to your crew constructing, S-Rank Monsties hatch with all three of a given map’s Setting Abilities, that are particularly advantageous as they don’t take up area on the gene board. Alternatively, you’ll be able to ship current Monsties on an “Tour” to completely different places and so they’ll come again with that area’s Setting Abilities if its species is S-rank there, to not point out it’ll swap to that area’s stat will increase no matter its rank. That even applies to Ratha, the Rathalos completely caught in your occasion, who can acquire the S-Rank atmosphere boons even when there aren’t any Rathalos to be present in a sure location. Hatching excessive rank monsties can also be the one strategy to acquire entry to some highly effective genes, famous as Egg Abilities – one more welcome carrot that inspired me to have interaction with the Habitat Restoration system.
I grew to become fairly obsessive about getting Monsties as much as S-Rank each for the above talked about boons, and in addition as a result of a Monstie at not less than A-Rank will get an extra ingredient dictated by the area–changing its colour. This method was scrapped in Stories 2, and I’m so completely happy it’s made its method again to the collection. It’s like with the ability to create your personal private shiny Pokemon. This technique to alter a Monstie’s colour can also be a lot much less convoluted than it was within the authentic Monster Hunter Stories, and is seemingly extra advantageous because it retains each the unique and new ingredient. I like this concept much more after I take into consideration simply how completely different everybody’s groups will probably be. I discover it so frequent for folks to finish up with such comparable events in RPGs based mostly on energy alone, however this technique encourages extra experimentation.
However wait, there’s extra! A handful of Invasive Species have posted up in what have been as soon as Endangered Species nests tucked away in semi-hidden places. In case you repel them, you may get your fingers on an Endangered Species Egg, reintroduce it to a habitat of your selection, after which meet sure necessities to get one or two extra mutated species out of it.
Repelling an Invasive Species is simpler mentioned than completed, although. The setup requires you to sneak round its territory to gather clues which may assist you determine easy methods to make it run. The tutorial Invasive Yian Garuga wanted me to topple it by breaking its legs, for instance, to make it retreat. That’s most likely the best of the Invasive Species mechanics. They’re all a distinct puzzle to unravel, requiring you to determine and execute an answer earlier than the Invasive Species can one-shot your complete crew sufficient occasions to wipe you out.
I cherished each trying to find these hard-to-find monsters and difficult them, however I need to admit I needed to resort to taking screenshots of the information as I discovered them. To my information, there’s nowhere to test these clues after you choose them up for the primary time. I additionally made the error of combating these battles at 2x pace at occasions, inflicting me to overlook vital cues, like how the colour round an Invasive Seregios briefly adjustments when its roaring. Fortunately, failing items you with a touch, however these weren’t practically as detailed because the clues discovered within the den or your companions’ commentary.
The “Endgame”
After repelling an Invasive Species, you’ll be able to attempt to truly slay it contained in the Endangered Species den, however that’s very clearly meant to be an endgame exercise – that’s made obvious by the truth that they’re degree 50 when repelling them and degree 75 when making an attempt to slay them. The Calamitous Elder Dragons – not less than the Namielle in Azuria – are additionally degree 75. I used to be solely degree 65 after I accomplished the story, so that ought to provide you with a way of how difficult these are supposed to be. It’s additionally neat that they present up so early on. The Invasive Species arrive everytime you occur to search out them, which could be as quickly as you enter a brand new map, and the Elder Dragons have a random likelihood to spawn after battling at night time.
Like throughout the remainder of Twisted Reflection, none of my time felt wasted even when I spent quarter-hour getting completely bodied by an Elder Dragon. If I did effectively sufficient, I may repel it, that means the following time it’ll come round pre-weakened. And even when I didn’t go away a scratch on it, these fights nonetheless rewarded me with a single Elder Dragon materials. You solely want three of those to make the primary degree of an Elder Dragon’s armor or weapon! That’s a really good boon to rock within the early and mid sport, and it’s cool to have these challenges motivating you to get stronger. And after I lastly did slay an Elder Dragon, I felt actually completed – similar to in common Monster Hunter. It even makes it so Monsties hatched within the slayed Elder Dragon’s area get a stat enhance!
Nevertheless, these late-game monsters – and, after all, finishing the Monsterpedia by hatching and mutating all of these endangered species – are the one endgame to talk of. I used to be a bit dissatisfied that nothing adjustments in any respect after the credit roll. Whereas the earlier Monster Hunter Stories had PvP, and even multiplayer dungeons in Stories 2, there’s nothing like that in Twisted Reflection. Not less than, not but – I’m assuming (hoping) we’ll get a free title replace sooner or later. However even when there isn’t, it nonetheless took me a very good 65 hours to complete Twisted Reflection’s story, and I’ve spent 10 extra hours up to now fortunately ending up aspect content material after that – and I’ve loved it that complete time, although I’ve one closing Elder Dragon nonetheless ready to be slain, a handful of Invasive Species to place to relaxation, and greater than half the aspect quests left.