A spin-off of the popular action series, Monster Hunter Stories adds a shiny, new, and arguably cute coat of paint to the world. But don’t let that put you off. Monster Hunter Stories’ heartwarming story comes alongside incredibly entertaining RPG gameplay that never gets old, even after the 50-hour campaign.

Instead of overcoming beasts and wyverns in real-time action in the usual Monster Hunter style, Monster Hunter Stories features a turn-based combat system where the player and a monster buddy side by side against up to three other foes. These buddy monsters are called “Monsties,” a slightly embarrassing but fun term. This isn’t the only time I have doubts about the naming. But I was easily able to get past the silliness of it and actually started to enjoy it in between the action.

In combat, three basic rock-paper-scissors style attacks – power, technology and speed – allow you to take advantage of each monster’s special abilities, combos, one-time items or elemental strengths and weaknesses.

Winning rock-paper-scissors battles against opponents strengthens your kinship gauge, a gauge that unlocks special abilities, and allows you to ride a mechanic called Monsty, unleashing devastating and super cool kinship abilities. Different weapon types with different skill sets, such as great swords with damaging slashing abilities and hunting horns with supporting melodies, add even more variety to every battle. With up to five fighters on the field at once, the various animations can take a little longer, but to keep things fast in the truest sense of the word, you can increase the speed of animations.

The combat system has a lot of nuance to it, and with over 100 different monsters to encounter, each with a range of attack patterns, strengths, and weaknesses, Monster Hunter Stories’ battles remained consistently interesting and exciting.

Like other Monster Hunter games, items are very important both in and out of combat. However, unlike other Monster Hunter games, there is no complicated inventory management in Story, which is very much appreciated. Instead of worrying about storing materials at home, you only need to pay attention to the 10 items allocated to you in your Battle Bag, because bringing the right items into battle can make a big difference in the tide. A well-planned trap can prevent enemy movements for several turns, and antidotes are very useful when fighting poisonous monsters.

Never a Grind

Monster Hunter Stories offers much more than just a combat system. Each new area opens up new possibilities, and my innate desire to explore has allowed me to get not only the much-needed XP, but also new weapons and improved armor, and even new or improved materials for my Monsty. Additionally, these areas can be explored by riding my Monsty on the ground, in the air, on water, and even on lava, and I can use special field abilities to discover additional areas of the map. Honestly, it felt great to fly around on the back of a Rathalos or climb vines on a Tigrex to discover cliffs full of resources. With so much to see, do, and discover, I found myself inadvertently getting sucked in, not because I needed to advance the story, but because it was fun.

By fighting rare monsters, I got access to their crafting materials and the chance to find randomly generated caves (where the eggs are). So, there are plenty of reasons to seek them out and fight them besides leveling. There is also a chance to encounter Lost Poogie, a cute pig in a costume, and rare monster dens hiding all over the vast and beautiful world. I never had a hard time going to the next area, so I naturally leveled up with the pace of the story.

All of this exploration gave me a lot of materials to take advantage of the Monster Hunter Stories crafting system, which is simplified compared to the regular Monster Hunter. To create powerful equipment, you only need a certain amount of materials, not a drop from a super rare monster like the Rathalos tank. Rare drops are simply more valuable than common items, so you don’t have to grind the same monster for hours looking for a 1% chance of getting that drop. This challenging Monster Hunter battle-crafting loop works in action games too, but an optimized version would be welcome in story too.

Meownster Hunting

Most of the time, I hunted for rare caves of monster eggs that I could steal, hatch, and raise in my own personal way to add to my collection of Monsties. With over 100 monsters roaming around, collecting them is a daunting but fun task. Finding all the nests, collecting all the eggs, and hatching a new Monsty gives me the same thrill as opening a blind box or pack of Pokemon cards. But even if I ended up with a duplicate Monsty, or even a Monsty that I probably would never add to my party, the effort was never a waste, thanks to the fantastic customization system called Rite of Channeling.

Each Monsty has a set of nine “gene” slots, which are basically placeholders for skills. These can be passive, like fire resistance, or active, like fireball attacks. By using items or combining monsters, you can add any skill to a gene slot, allowing for fascinating creativity. Want a Rathalos with Kez’s Thunder Breath? A Tigrex with the ability to put enemies to sleep? You can do that. You can do anything if you find the materials, but you never know what useful genes you’ll discover from the Monsty you hatch.

Despite Monster Hunter Stories maintaining a great sense of wonder very well, it suffers from barely enough difficulty throughout its long campaign. As long as you have a balanced team, don’t go into battle in poor armor, and think carefully about your decisions, I didn’t find anything frustrating. That’s fine, but the sense of urgency wouldn’t have bothered me as much. It’s not that hard to get HP to zero. There’s little impact if it happens.

Following the original Monster Hunter, you fail if HP reaches 0 three times. If you and your Monsty are on the field at the same time, it is not at all uncommon for both to go down at the same time, even on the same turn. If only one of you loses all your HP, both will bounce back a few times, fully healed and ready to continue the fight. There are also items you can use during the battle to restore these chances.

If your HP drops to zero three times, you’ll just wake up at one of the respawn points that are always nearby, and you won’t lose any progress except for the rewards you may get from killing monsters and the items you used. The only time you’ll feel a real sense of danger is when you’re carrying an egg from the nest, because if you lose at that moment, you’ll lose the egg.

While the story didn’t have much difficulty to master, finding and hatching rare monsters was a big challenge, especially when combined with a very forgiving death system. I also enjoyed taking part in tournaments with the same format as PvP. Yes, there is PvP! There are also more increasingly difficult endgame challenges, such as the Tower of Illusion and the Labyrinth of Trials, as well as new high-level quests to complete and monsters to discover.

These two endgame challenges actually have consequences that the main story doesn’t, but considering they can’t be accessed until over 40 hours in, it’s a bit too late to consider the issue completely resolved. However, more challenging content is on offer, and we can expect more in future DLC.

While solid gameplay is undoubtedly the main selling point, the story, which Monster Hunter Stories is named after, shouldn’t be overlooked. It may be a little superficial and the dialogue gimmicky at times, but at the same time it evoked genuine surprise and emotion. Navirou, the little Felyne mascot, is much more than just a silent RPG voice and has grown into a cute character that I have to admit a kind of admiration for. The other characters you meet along the way are also not fully fleshed out in the main story, but they are still memorable and charming in their own way. I’ll be honest, I was in tears by the end, but I’m also a fan of inspirational children’s media. Just like Pokemon.

It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a lot of “fan service” for players of the series, so to speak, and Monster Hunter knowledge is fully portable to the story. The old sound effects are familiar, the monsters use more or less the same signature attacks and are vulnerable to the same elements, and the use of hidden items is intact. One of my favorite moments in Monster Hunter Stories is when I’m hunting Diablos. There was no hint of this in the story, but I used my experience with the series and threw a sonic bomb at the horned wyvern as soon as he burrowed underground, trapping him in the mud, giving Monsty and I a chance to beat him mercilessly. I’m glad I was a fan to have access to that knowledge.

Verdict

I’ve really enjoyed my 50+ hours of Monster Hunter Stories so far. It effectively eliminates the usual boring RPG hassles, implements a novel turn-based combat system, and truly surprises with its seemingly endless customization options. Despite being wrapped in a comfortingly sweet shell, Monster Hunter Stories manages to achieve all this while retaining the spirit of the Monster Hunter universe and adding some small but amusing nods to the fans. I can’t wait to return and hatch some Kirin in the endgame.