I wouldn't blame you for feeling skeptical that the mechanics of Monster Hunter—which either famously or infamously, depending on who you ask, can often go into granular levels of detail—would translate well as a turn-based JRPG that still seeks to feel like Monster Hunter. On paper, these just seem like two wholly separate and downright contradictory gameplay philosophies, doomed to never complement one another—no matter how much they've been admiring the other's lovely hat. So bearing that in mind, the fact that Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (MHS3) not only exists, but can so perfectly and seamlessly blend these two gameplay styles, is nothing short of amazing.

You play as either the prince or princess of Azuria—a voiced protagonist with a personality already locked in, but you at least get to decide what they look like and what their name is. Regardless, in addition to being heir to the Azurian throne, you're also the only Rathalos rider around, and a member of a group called the Rangers. Suffice to say, all this means is that with the help of your trusted friend Ratha (a, well, Rathalos), you're going to do your best to help both people and the ecosystem.

Despite what that might make it sound like, Ratha's not the only monstie you'll be interacting with. Far from it, actually. By hatching monstie eggs that you can find in dens, you can (and will) work with several different kinds of monsties that returning Monster Hunter fans will find familiar. In particular, they can help you traverse the world, and they'll also help you in battle. Similarly, you can use these hatched monsties to customize abilities and change up ecosystems. The depth put into these mechanics is staggering, but then again, I suppose that should be expected from Monster Hunter.

By now, you might be wondering how Monster Hunter-y this game really is, and whether or not it's going to require any prerequisite franchise knowledge. Certainly, this was something I was pretty concerned with going into it as well, having been pretty into Monster Hunter about a decade ago (the 3DS era), but falling off after it made the jump to non-handheld consoles. Still, my dated knowledge of Monster Hunter did nothing to hold back my experience of this game. Did it enhance things by making it a bit cooler when I recognized them? Of course. Still, this game is more than self-contained enough that I wouldn't say familiarity, or lack thereof, with Monster Hunter is going to be a big part of whether or not you're going to enjoy this game.

Really, the only arena where familiarity with Monster Hunter might actually make a tangible difference in your experience is weapons—or more specifically, figuring out how they work. Although there are other elements to the combat—in particular, using your monsties to help you in combat (just another layer to the incredibly rich combat gameplay), making use of your weapons and their unique abilities and gimmicks are going to be your bread and butter. As mentioned earlier, it's shocking just how well MHS3 can translate Monster Hunter's decidedly action-based gameplay to being turn-based. And it does this without sacrificing the sheer volume of different weapons you can use, and the unique qualities of each. In fact, if anything, MHS3 actually builds on Monster Hunter's combat by adding the monsties that can help you and their abilities into the mix. The good news is that this means that while it might require some trial and error, you're sure to have plenty of fun experimenting with a wide array of playstyles and eventually find a fighting style that suits you perfectly. And there's so much to try that, despite how much trial and error it might take, it's rarely repetitive or boring, despite how this might sound. Rather, the bad news is that new weapons with new mechanics mean the game has to explain them every time, and some explanations make a bit more sense than others. If you're already familiar with these weapons, it's much easier to intuit what you're supposed to be doing—whereas I could see someone totally new to Monster Hunter feeling intimidated and confused, even if only temporarily.

With plenty of fights, you're never going to be left in want of more opportunities to grind, either because you want to get stronger, get more materials, or experiment with a new weapon or item. While there are other things you can do aside from fighting—a handful of side quests, work on customization, the aforementioned ecosystem stuff, and so on—fighting is still the main thing at the center of this game, and definitely where most of your in-game time will be spent. Still, depending on how much grinding you like in your JRPGs, this may or may not be a positive note. Fights are many, and they're definitely meant to emphasize creativity and stamina over raw strength and power. Again, that alone already won't make this game everyone's cup of tea. But for those who can appreciate it, it makes for an incredibly satisfying combat experience. It truly is the Monster Hunter formula, but fitted for those of us turn-based JRPG-lovers.

And it's much to MHS3's benefit that the gameplay is so robust, because alas, the story certainly doesn't have the same amount of attention to detail put into it. More specifically, while it's not boring or downright uninteresting, it's just nothing especially memorable either. It gives you just enough momentum to keep pushing forward, and some aspects are more interesting than others. Still, at the end of the day, it's MHS3's gameplay—rather than the story—that's stuck with me. The characters are charming enough, but nothing to write home about. The writing overall—story, character, and so on—errs on the side of serviceable but unmemorable. It could be a lot worse, but it still feels a bit disappointing that the story doesn't live up to the impressively thorough gameplay.

This is kind of a running theme for the more disappointing aspects of the game: What might otherwise be nitpicks at most feel magnified—at least somewhat—when you remember how excellent the combat is. As though to say, “How can a game that accomplishes this much in its gameplay trip up here?” The writing quality is the most obvious example of this, but others are textures sometimes needing an extra beat or two to load in, and navigating on flying monsties feels looser than it should. Apart from those, though, the game's functionality is fine. On the topic of graphics, however, apart from the occasional need for some textures to need an extra few seconds, they look fine—the visual style is a bit more mature relative to other Monster Hunter Stories games, but I like that, and I think it fits a narrative about more mature characters anyway.

More than anything, whether or not you enjoy this game will probably boil down to how appealing the idea of such a combat-focused turn-based JRPG that you can't brute force your way through sounds to you, because that's what you're doing for most of the game: experimenting with combat. Where some might see a slow, grind-heavy trudge, others will see a satisfying, just-the-right-amount-of-challenging, and rewarding turn-based JRPG. It's an incredibly unique experience, both as a JRPG and a Monster Hunter title, that fans of either won't want to sleep on.