Monster Hunter Stories 3 was provided by Capcom for review. Thank you!
Having played previous entries in the Monster Hunter Stories series, I was eager to get my hands on Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, and I can assure you, if you're a fan of the series, Monster Hunter Stories 3 will not disappoint you.
The gameplay itself is largely the same as previous games in the series, with turn-based battles using a rock-paper-scissors formula providing the action, where you have to figure out an enemy's attack patterns and choose the corresponding counter. It works as well as ever, and we still have the opportunity to do synergy attacks with the monsties and whichever party member is in battle with us. It requires some strategic thinking, particularly in the more challenging boss battles you'll come up against.
I also found the difficulty well-balanced, which is crucial, since the game offers no difficulty options. I did have a couple of occasions where I needed to deviate from the main storyline to do side quests in order to gain some levels to fight against a tough monster, but by no means did I ever have to repeatedly farm monsters in order to grind experience. By and large, the game presents itself as challenging rather than brutal.
Beyond the combat, we also have a beautiful open world to explore. It's not quite on the same size as the mainline Monster Hunter games, but it's decent, and there are plenty of short quests, collectibles, and hidden secrets to find in each area you'll visit. On more than one occasion, I just found myself enjoying switching between Monsties in the open world, climbing cliffs, and gliding between platforms in order to see what was awaiting me. More often than not, there was at least some reward for exploring there, even if it was just one of the many Poogies you are tasked with finding.
One very neat feature in Monster Hunter Stories 3 is the new "Habitat Restoration" mechanic. Sometimes, when playing games like these, while you are trying to co-exist with the "monsties" in the Monster Hunter Stories spin-off, you do feel like you might be doing more harm than good, such as when interfering with nests and "stealing" eggs in order to raise your own monsties. Habitat restoration helps offset this by reintegrating endangered species into their native environment. This is more than a feel-good move, as it actually affects gameplay, eventually causing additional monsters to naturally spawn in the area you reintroduced them to, helping the game world to feel more dynamic and alive.
The storyline is a step up from the previous 2 Stories games. The narrative feels on a more epic scale and introduces more serious, darker tones, as adventurers from 2 warring kingdoms team up to find the source of the blight plaguing their nations. I felt myself becoming more emotionally involved with the story than in previous iterations, and you really want to follow this group of adventurers as they rebel against their respective rulers to restore peace to the land. Despite this high-stakes setting, the game still manages to keep things relatively light-hearted in true Monster Hunter Stories fashion.
All of this takes place in a visually appealing world. The Stories series' vibrant art style is back in full force here, creating some beautiful vistas of sun-soaked lakes and forests. While I feel the characters themselves don't look great, the monsters and environments come across really well and are easy to appreciate. The voice acting of the characters is largely on point, including the English dub!
If I were to draw criticism with Monster Hunter Stories 3, I feel as though the game does force you on linear paths occasionally, which can be frustrating. Certain missions require you to play as a solo party member, but that restriction applies even when you're in free roam at that point in the storyline, so any grinding or side quests you do during that time have to be done solo, making them much harder. Starting characters' side stories, too, puts you into an almost "instanced" part of the game, where you can't continue the main storyline or any quests until you finish that side story. It would have been nicer if they were more seamlessly integrated into the game.
I also encountered an infinite-loading-screen bug. Fortunately, the game autosaves frequently, and not much progress was lost. I also wasn't able to reproduce the bug in the same area again.
Monster Hunter Stories 3 runs well on the Steam Deck, but we do have to make some visual compromises.
As far as controls go, everything is perfect; the game is designed for controllers first. We don't get support for the 1280x800 resolution here, so we have to run 1280x720 with black borders along the top and bottom.
Generally speaking, we run the "High" preset for Monster Hunter Stories 3 and then set a 30 FPS limit using the in-game framerate cap. We also enable AMD FSR Upscaling and set it to Balanced.
Here are the full settings I used for my playthrough. Click the images to enlarge them:
These settings will maintain 30 FPS throughout gameplay, with some stuttering during battle animations and momentary slowdowns in cutscenes when a scene suddenly changes.
Even at the lowest settings with FSR on Balanced, the FPS can drop below 40 on occasion, so I don't recommend lowering the graphics further to try and improve performance. Given the turn-based nature of the game's critical moments, a lower framerate works fine here.
Power draw is around 15W-18W, meaning you should expect about 3 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 2 hours from a Steam Deck LCD. Temperatures were generally around 60-65 °C.
Monster Hunter Stories 3 has some accessibility options. You can enable subtitles for all voiced dialogue, including speaker names, with a background and a larger font if necessary. You can also set the sound to "mono" and disable camera shake.
Monster Hunter Stories 3 keeps the good parts of its predecessors, the solid battle system, the vibrant art style, and the creature collecting, then backs it up with the best storyline in the series yet. This, combined with the new habitat restoration feature and a beautiful new world, makes it my favorite entry into the series yet.
The good news carries through to Steam Deck, where we can get a pretty stable 30 FPS experience with the main compromise being FSR upscaling. It controls well, and the world really pops on the Steam Deck OLED's display.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Monster Hunter Stories 3 is the best entry into the series yet, with beautiful, vibrant visuals, an engaging storyline, and great game mechanics. It also runs well on the Steam Deck.
