I suspect that any action game fan would have the Monster Hunter franchise in their sights, a classic series that has exploded in popularity in the last decade thanks to back-to-back blockbuster releases. A sub-series within it is Stories, which arrive as games that focus less on the action and more on the monster universe and its inhabitants.
I was hesitant at first to accept this review of Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection when Capcom offered access, as I’m almost a complete newcomer to the entire Monster Hunter franchise. But every entry is said to be built as a springboard for anybody, so it became a good opportunity for me to test just how accurate that claim is.
Jumping in, I was met with the JRPG experience I was expecting, but also a dense adventure with a surprisingly fun monster-collecting system that had me hooked. Pokémon games never held my attention long enough, but Capcom may have made me a fan of the whole genre.
Read on for my full review of Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. I have avoided spoilers for the most part, with only broad mentions of the storyline and only a very few, early monsters being shown in screenshots.
Hunters no more
It says "Monster Hunter" in the title, but in fact, what’s being told here is a tale of a civilization where humans are bonding with and taming the highly varied wildlife to fight alongside them. While everything is sunny and green at first, it’s soon revealed that this kingdom is almost at war with a neighbor that’s surviving a much harsher landscape, making a clash inevitable. There are brutal clashes between armies, royal conspiracies spanning decades, and a mysterious environmental issue that’s threatening both human and monster habitats. It’s not the kind of story I expected from a game that looks more like a Saturday-morning cartoon, but the more mature tones definitely helped me get hooked faster on the character politics and plotlines.
The protagonist is a part of the royal family (built with a character creator), exploring the world while searching for solutions and answers to the kingdom’s growing troubles. Coming alongside are all the monster buddies that are bonded to us. As you might have seen from the cover art or other materials, their primary companion is a Rathalon, an almost extinct species of monster that is tied heavily into the plot"s conspiracy angles. Don’t expect Pokémon-levels of character for these tamed monsters, though, as they are barely given any screentime or identity unless there’s a fight happening. It’s mostly a human-centered story.
Outside of the campaign, the biggest chunk of story content comes from the pack of other monster riders that accompany the main duo. If you"ve consumed any fantasy Japanese material like anime or manga, this will be a familiar concept. There’s the serious character that doesn’t like talking much, the broody one with a heart of gold, the eccentric old guy that’s a genius, the wide-eyed new recruit, and so on. It"s a good sort of familiarity. I found myself delving into their personal side stories whenever I felt like taking a break from the main questline and found a surprising amount of enjoyable short stories ranging from comedy to heartwarming. Each member of the gang brings their own monster and skills for use in battle, so even if you completely ignore their dedicated questlines, which are optional content, they appear often alongside you during battles.
Still, plenty of hunting
Okay, I did say that these people are riders and not hunters, but they still fight monsters quite often, and that also involves pitting the creatures against each other. First off, the turn-based battle system has a lot more depth than I was expecting. There aren’t any quick-time events or systems that test your reaction times seen in modern turn-based games like Expedition 33. Here, it’s all about prior planning and proper execution.
Going head-to-head with a monster involves deciding on my own character’s attacks and my monster"s. Depending on the enemy type and what it’s weak to, I can easily swap in and out my weapons and monster from the available roster. If the monster is lining up a direct attack on me, I can use a powerful counter, but only if I know what type of attack is incoming. There"s a rock-paper-scissors (Power, Technical, Speed) system that decides this, which I can exploit if I know the monster"s preferences. While it felt more like luck at first, I realized that I was building an internal inventory of monster attacks to recall whenever something I recognized showed up for a battle, making prior difficult fights breezes to go through.
It’s this strategy building and continued evolution of the available assets that becomes so addictive. I was quickly searching for the highest-grade and endangered monster eggs to build my fighter"s ranks. Releasing these massive critters back into environments (both natural and foreign) and letting them flourish can also give future eggs special mutations that add further powers and benefits. It’s a satisfying loop of hunting, hatching, and upgrading to make the most powerful battle-worthy monsters.
My chosen companion and their monster buddy are also usually a part of fights, though there is no direct control of their actions. This was also a plus, as too many options could easily become a chore. The game lets me see what everyone is about to do in the next turn, giving me the chance to add to their firepower or go with my own strategy. Of course, syncing up with my own monster is one of the best ways to deal heavy damage and survive battles.
I have to admit that it took like four hours of messing around to finally understand all the systems in place. I had read through the starting tutorials, but I would say it still takes a while to get into the rhythm of things. There are the monster’s weaknesses, its attack types, the rock-paper-scissors counters, double attacks, kinship attacks, item usage, breaking monster parts, the Wyvernsoul Gauge, Syncro Rush, Feral monsters, and more things that can come up during just one fight. These are aspects that might be easier for someone who is familiar with the series, but for the rest of us, taking notes to keep track of each element is not a bad idea.
Sounds like a lot to take in, I know, but strangely, it worked out fine in-game as I went through more and more fights. There aren’t any difficulty modifiers, so everything depended on the battle readiness and how I used what I had available. Moreover, not every random monster I ran into in the open world led to a drawn-out fight either, as easier opponents can be finished off in one hit to skip the encounter.
Visuals, performance, and UI
Under the hood of Monster Hunter Stories 3 is Capcom’s proprietary game engine, RE Engine. Yes, the same one that powers games like Resident Evil Requiem or Monster Hunter Wilds. You don’t need to worry about performance being an issue here, though, as the more anime-like cell-shaded art style has also brought the benefit of running like a dream. Looking at the game’s requirements should give you an idea of how even hardware from 6-7 years ago should run the game just fine.
I spent my time with the game on my RX 9070 XT 16GB-equipped Windows 11 machine. It was paired with the eight-core Ryzen 7 3700X and 32GB of RAM, with the resolution set to 1440p. With that setup, I was easily staying close to 200 FPS on completely maxed out graphics settings during gameplay without the use of upscaling tech. There is a plethora of graphics settings to tweak as well, each with helpful previews to show what exactly will change in the visuals when lowering or increasing them. I always appreciate seeing a good settings menu. Being a turn-based game for the most part, the “playable” frame rate is much lower than your standard affair, so I won’t be surprised to see it running just fine on even handhelds like the Steam Deck.
Each region of Monster Hunter Stories 3 is highly varied, with its own type of geography and biomes, as well as monsters. The starting area’s rolling green hills, pristine waters, and European aesthetic give way to cliff-covered jungles and tribal villages right after. While the free-roaming parts can look a little dated by current open-world standards, I found that the classic cell-shaded look let me lean back and take my sweet time with the roaming and battling. Sure, the world is in danger, but my armor collection isn’t going to complete itself by itself.
At the same time, the cinematic cutscenes and special moves of monsters don’t hold anything back. Extremely well-polished animations and the satisfying voice acting elevate these cinematic story pieces everywhere, both during the main campaign and companion side quests.
This is still a JRPG, and that means layers of menus to go through for everything from saving the game to helping endangered monsters flourish. Surprisingly, it’s quite streamlined. Autosaves happen often and after any significant event, removing the need to spam manual saves anytime you approach a camp. The menus for doing additional tasks like buffing the team or monster-related actions themselves load fast, letting you swap between options without time-consuming animations, and new features get introduced slowly to not overcrowd the player.
I was spending a lot of time in these menus just hammering away at perfecting my favorite monster roster. This meant swapping and upgrading their skills, finding the perfect combos to ease out just 5% of extra damage, having the right counters for upcoming boss fights, purchasing weapons and armor, and even getting a companion to cook up a meal for a good battle boost. It’s tremendously satisfying to have everything up and running before a big fight.
Conclusion
Monster Hunter Stories 3 is not what I expected going in. The combat can become overwhelming if you don’t pay attention to each detail, but I had an engaging time overcoming the tough battles. It’s a choice between rushing harder fights with solid strategies to barely win them or slowly building up monsters and weapons to make them easier scenarios. In the end, having that moment when everything clicks into place and knowing that the raging monster in front of you has fallen right into your multi-turn trap is satisfying.
The saving endangered species gameplay loop that cultivates more powerful variants for grabbing later, which in turn, naturally lowers the difficulty for future fights, is an addictive mechanic. There was almost never a time when I was left with only one activity option. I spent hours searching for the best rosters or powers for battles, exploring the world for mythical fights with ancient beings or simply spending time on companion side quests. The game is packed with content.
While I don’t think this would be a good starting point for a first-time JRPG player, it may be the best option if you’re thinking of jumping into the Monster Hunter series. The storyline is deep and interesting, twisting a resource crisis and an impending war into an adventure that had me curious the whole way through. Capcom has knocked it out of the park.
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is releasing on March 13, 2026, on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2 for $69.99.
This review was conducted on a pre-release PC copy of the game provided by Capcom.