Tokyo Game Show 2025
For Those Who Want a Deeper Monster Hunter Plot, Monster Hunter Stories 3 is Coming
by Ken Iikura-Gross,
Taking Monster Hunter and placing it into the JRPG genre of games is a novel concept to me. While I was aware of the Stories series, I never sat down to examine or play the games at length. So, it may come as no surprise that I was taken aback by Monster Hunter Stories 3 having turn-based combat as opposed to the more “traditional” action-oriented combat. Yet, this change was refreshing. Where a game like Monster Hunter Wilds has you dodging and weaving attacks and looking for an opening, Monster Hunter Stories 3 relies on a simpler rock-paper-scissors type system to inflict damage to Monsters. While this appears luck-based at first, there are clear tells what type of attack should be utilized when dealing with certain enemies. Thus, rather than a rote spamming of the attack button on your turn, you must think before you lock in your attack.
What's more, and to my liking, what RPG players would consider an MP stat is the Monster Hunter stamina meter. And much like the stamina meter in mainline Monster Hunter games, the Monster Hunter Stories 3 stamina meter will replenish over time in combat. This allows players to use powerful attacks and even combo attacks, as they please, but they still need to plan out when and how to use them. This was such a stark contrast from the mainline Monster Hunter games for me and made me want to engage with the combat a bit more than I'd normally would with a traditional JRPG.
Some gameplay elements greatly confused me when playing the Monster Hunter Stories 3 demo. Namely, I struggled with two rather simple tasks: searching the landscape for information about the world from a telescope and trying to get my partner monster to glide. Regarding the former, my issue came not from the controls but rather the lack of a clear example of what I should look for. I was left to my own devices, which, in a sense, is great for the exploration aspect of the Monster Hunter series, but I ended up pressing every button then asking the staff for help because of how confusing the task was. I'm not saying I wanted my hand held through the task I was given, but rather some better contextual clues to show me what I should look for.
Concerning my partner monster's glide mechanic, I was given one opportunity to do this early in the Monster Hunter Stories 3 demo. At first, I thought it was more of a gimmick than a core part of the game, but when I came across some side content of rescuing the Monster Hunter pig mascot, the poogie, it felt as though I needed the glide function. Yet, because the information was frontloaded and no instructions were provided after the fact, it was more than frustrating trying to figure out how to get the monster to glide again. This is doubly true since gliding on your partner monster is fun and also allows for faster backtracking and potential avenues of exploration—both of which are key components to the Monster Hunter franchise.
The Monster Hunter Stories 3 demo is an interesting game for me. It took a game I'm familiar with, Monster Hunter, and threw it into the JRPG genre. So, what should feel like an odd combination, in terms of combat, works quite well. The exploration aspect of Monster Hunter is retained within the game on a broader scale as well—making it a bit more involved than memorizing four to five maps. What really drew me to the game was the defined story structure rather than what always felt like a loose set of broad plot points in earlier mainline Monster Hunter games. While I had difficulty with certain aspects of the game, in all likelihood, those systems would become second nature with practice. As a first foray into the Monster Hunter Stories series, Monster Hunter Stories 3 got me interested and wanting to see what the full series has to offer in conjunction with the mainline Monster Hunter games.
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