Monster Hunter Stories 3 Preview: Me and My Pet Rathalos

At some point, somebody at Capcom must have looked at Monster Hunter and said, out loud, “You know, the monsters in this bad boy are actually pretty cute. And there’s these talking cats, and they’re pretty cute, too. We’re kinda leaving money on the table by not making this a turn-based monster-capturing RPG.” And the executives did grin, and the sky opened, and the money rained down. And they saw that that somebody was right, and they said, “We gotta make more of these.”

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is the third one of these, in fact, if the number didn’t give it away, so that somebody’s idea had some staying power, but it’s this writer’s first. Not my first Monster Hunter; like most folks in the West, mine was Monster Hunter World. But it’s the first one of these babies. And after spending several hours with it, I’m pretty impressed. There’s a lot to get used to, but I enjoyed my time in this world and with these characters, and I’m itching to head back and do some monster huntin’.

Twisted Reflection starts with a pretty fantastic character creator that does a lot to introduce you to its gorgeous art style. I made a woman with long red hair and mismatched eyes, and not knowing that I was making a princess, kept Leia as her default name. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection 1, Will 0.

Pull off the right moves in combat, and you’ll build kinship with your Monstie. Max out that meter, and you can mount your Monstie and unleash a beautifully animated, cinematic smackdown. Our story begins with a woman discovering a monster egg preserved in crystal. Naturally, I thought this was Leia. Extremely loud incorrect buzzer. It was actually her mamma, who is the queen of Azuria. She hacks the egg out of the crystal and brings it home, where it hatches into the Monster Hunter poster child, a Rathalos. The Rathalos is extinct in Azuria, so everyone’s pretty stoked about this, especially little Leia, who says she hears two sounds coming from the egg. Turns out she’s right, and a second Rathalos has hit the throne room. As Leia, enamored, reaches out for her new friends, a vaguely vizier-shaped dude informs the king that while one monster is all fine and dandy, two monsters, especially two Skyscale Rathalos (Rathaloses? Rathalosi?) is Bad News, Chief ™ and only one may be allowed to live. Cut to black. Surely this will not irrevocably traumatize my girl Leia for the rest of her days and become a crucial part of her backstory. Surely.

Several years later, Leia, now a young woman, is following in her mother’s footsteps and studying a monster preserved in egg quartz when her buddy Simon appears and summons her back to the castle. Once there, we learn that Leia is the Captain of the Rangers and that she’s studying something called the Encroachment. Proper nouns are generally bad, and Leia has really made progress on the Encroachment, but that’s maybe not the most pressing concern. Relations with the neighboring kingdom of Vermeil are fraying, and her father warns Leia that the Rangers might see combat. Leia protests, as that’s not what Rangers exist for (they’re here for the monsters), but she rides Azuria’s only Rathalos (uh oh), and they may need her. My girl is also informed that she will attend talks with Vermeilian envoys, and that her conspicuously absent mother was Vermeilian. In a later conversation with Simon, Leia reveals that her mother is known as “The Turncoat Queen.” The plot thickens.

But Leia can’t spend too much time thinking about that. She’s the captain of the Rangers, and she has a job to do. That means training new recruits, and you’re got a fresh one in Thea, who is stoked to be here and learn from Azuria’s only Rathalos rider and Rudy, my Felyne. This is where my time with Twisted Reflection really takes off. In training Thea, Twisted Reflection is training me.

I learn how to ride my Rathalos (your monsters are called Monsties), but things really kick into gear once we enter combat for the first time. Like I said at the jump, combat is turn-based. Attacks come in three types; Power, Technical, and Speed. Power beats Technical and Technical beats Speed, which loops around and beats Power. Normally, these attacks work, well… normally. But if a monster is targeting you and you attack it, you’ll enter a Head-to-Head where the rock, paper, scissors of it all will play out. And if and your Monstie are attacking the same foe and a Head-to-head happens, you’ll get a Double Attack. Monsters have their own attack preferences. Velociprey, for instance, will prioritize Speed, so you gotta go Technical if you want to win. If you’re in the market for something a little fancier, you’ve also got abilities, though these take Stamina, so you can’t just spam them.

Of course, you’ve also got your Monstie. You don’t control them directly so much as give them standing commands that they carry out when it's their turn, whether that means going for a regular attack or an ability, some of which carry elemental properties like fire, lightning, or water. Since Leia’s the main character, she’s also got additional Monsties she can switch to if the one she needs isn’t right for what you’re up against. Thea and her Monstie, Kaguchi, are also in my party, but I don’t control them. They do their own thing, for better and worse.

Because of this, combat goes quickly, and like your more traditional Monster Hunters, there’s strategy when it comes to which part of the monster you’re fighting that you target. Break the right body part, and you can weaken an attack or open it up to more damage. Stagger a monster, and you can unleash a Synchro Attack where everyone in your party lays on the hurt. The biggest spectacle, though, comes in the form of kinship attacks. Pull off the right moves in combat, and you’ll build kinship with your Monstie. Max out that meter, and you can mount your Monstie and unleash a beautifully animated, cinematic smackdown. I dig it.

Once Thea and I are broken in, we get to explore a bit. We pick up plants and bugs and other items on the ground, get into some fights, and I give Ratha a break so I can use my Tobi-Kadachi to scale a lookout point and meet an Explorer Felyne who gifts me a map. We continue on, learning how to use melee and breath attacks to interact with the environment and start fights early for an advantage, or roar and get monsters out of the way. We also manage to rescue a Poogie, an adorable, pig-like creature who somehow got up somewhere my Rathalos needed wings to reach, and even get Thea a taste of the Encroachment, which seems to be what causes those egg quartzes we saw earlier.

Yeah, things are looking pretty good for the home team, until we come across a nest and make a Paolumu mad. Once we whack him enough, he transforms, altering his attacks and weaknesses. Since he’s inflated an air pouch, it’s bow time. It’s a fun fight that puts everything I’ve learned so far to the test, but it’s nothing compared to what comes next.

Here, we run into our first feral monster, which has been altered by the Encroachment. Crystals sprout from its back, and it’s extremely powerful. Hitting the crystals provokes a backlash attack, so we have to be smart. It tests our smarts and our patience, but eventually he wears down, and we destroy the crystals. Then it’s game on. Eventually, he falls, and we take the eggs we’ve gathered home and add some new Monsties to our ranks.

Before we start feeling too good about ourselves, Leia is called into that meeting with the Vermeilian envoys. Things are going badly – Vermeil is getting hit hard by the Encroachment, and they’re convinced salvation lies in the Sacrosanctum, which would mean breaching an ancient pact. They’ve come to ask Azuria for help getting there – and war seems inevitable until Vermeil’s Princess Eleanor offers herself as a hostage until Azuria relents. Unwilling to treat her like a prisoner, Leia offers to show her around, and she ends up palling around with the Rangers.

If bringing Thea along was about learning the game, Eleanor’s arrival is really where things open up. Before setting out, we acquire new skills and forge new armor and weapons. It’s a good thing, too, because while we’re showing Eleanor around, we run into a new feral monster. Eleanor, her Anjanath (which I’m pretty jealous of, honestly), my Monstie cohort, and I take it down, but not before we’re knocked down a few times ourselves. Losing all your HP isn’t fatal. You can get back up a limited number of times, but it lets us know that the challenge is ramping up.

Soon after, we set up a camp, and Eleanor shows off her cooking skills. This is a Monster Hunter game, so eating food naturally boosts your stats and the cooking cutscene is immaculately rendered. I go for some experience-boosting bread, because who doesn’t love bread? Leia and Eleanor also bond over their shared realization that their countries don’t really understand each other. The situation in Vermeil is worse than Leia realized, and Azuria isn’t at all like Eleanor thought. Neither is as bad as they’ve been led to believe.

Our goal now is to investigate invasive monsters and track them to their dens so we can save eggs from the species they’re crowding out. From here, the world is essentially our oyster. We have to operate at night to track these invasive species, but otherwise we can kinda do what we want, whether that means fighting monsters in the field, or completing side quests where we reunite a Felyne with his lost master or help another Felyne get rid of some bug monsters.

Eventually, we find an invasive Yian Garuga. We steer clear long enough to analyze its tracks and get a feel for how it works, but eventually, the fight is on. The Yan Garuga is incredibly strong; in a stand-up fight, we probably wouldn’t stand a chance, and we’ve got to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off a few times before it’s over. But our goal isn’t to kill it, it’s to make it retreat to its lair. That means figuring out its weakness – in this case, its legs – and piling on the hurt fast enough that it stumbles when trying to hit us with a powerful charge attack and retreats. Once it does, we track it to its lair and steal a Rathian egg, but we’re not looking to make it a Monstie. By releasing it into the wild, we can restore the natural ecosystem. That means new and better monsters for us to catch. Restoring a habitat has benefits for us, too. You might get monsters with elemental skills unique to that habitat, or unlock mutations that imbue monsters with elements outside of the norm. It’s sad to see our Rathian go, but it’s for the greater good.

Our task complete, the Rangers return to the castle. The king’s still focused on what might happen if the Rangers have to go into battle, and we learn why Leia’s so opposed to it. Remember that other Rathalos that came out of that egg? She saved it as it was about to be executed and fled. Everyone assumes she headed to her native Vermeil. The whole Traitor Queen thing makes a lot more sense now, and it explains why Leia’s so fond of her own Rathalos – he got her through her mom leaving – and why she’s so devoted to the Rangers. She wants to find out what happened to her mom.

As if inspired by this revelation, Twisted Reflection decides to open up Side Stories – escapades you can head on with other Rangers to get to know them better. I decide to pal around with Eleanor, who, impressed with Azuria’s beauty and abundance, tasks us with tracking down some items that are native to Vermeil: a Sucklebug, Witherweed, and a Molted Gumshell. After getting the lay of the land from a nearby lookout tower – and a few side excursions where we grabbed some eggs from monster dens – we headed out. The first couple were easy enough. Hitting a Paolumu with a breath attack snags us our Gumshell, and we find Witherweed in a shady area.

The real bugaboo turns out to be the Sucklebug, which likes to hide behind rocks. I searched for it behind rocks for a while before realizing that “behind the rock” means “break the rock, Will, you doofus.” Once we’ve got all the ingredients – yes, ingredients – Eleanor turns them into Vermeil Dumplings. Leia and Rudy are grossed out, but it’s a nice moment that helps them understand just how dire things are in Vermeil – and how lucky Azuria is by comparison. Plus, it unlocks a new recipe for our camps, and Eleanor is excited to share her local cuisine with everyone else.

My time with Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection ends shortly thereafter. I could have kept going – we had access to a generous amount of the game – but my next story mission saw me getting absolutely rocked by a pair of Feral Velocidomes. I clearly needed to get some new Monsties with different elements and upgrade equipment to continue, but it felt like a natural end. I’d spent half a dozen hours with Twisted Reflection by that point, and gotten a feel for what it was shaping up to be: a gorgeous RPG that combines the traditional elements of Monster Hunter with a turn-based RPG and a surprisingly compelling cast and narrative that invited me to befriend and train monsters, not just hunt them. Don’t get me wrong, those Velicidomes are going down the next time I fire Twisted Reflection up, but for now, I have a feel for this world, these characters, and the game they inhabit. And it was more than enough to convince me to turn this snack into a meal. I might just stick with the bread, though, you know? Vermilian Dumplings don’t really seem like my bag.