Capcom had a large presence on the show floor of New York Comic Con this past weekend, with demo stations for hotly anticipated titles like Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword. But the game that interested me the most was actually Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection in part because the NYCC demo marked the first time the turn-based RPG was playable in the United States and in part because it’s near the top of my personal most wanted list. After covering Monster Hunter Stories and its sequel, Wings of Ruin, I’m a firm believer in the potential of the Stories sub-series. While it hasn’t yet hit the highs of the mainline series, I see no reason why it can’t. In the demo, I controlled the game’s protagonist, the prince (or princess, if you prefer) of Azuria and captain of the Rangers (an elite unit of adventurers who protect monster ecosystems). It was my responsibility to onboard Thea, an aspiring Ranger with something to prove. Also along for the journey was Rudy, a Felyne who serves the royal family of Azuria, and Simon, the protagonist’s best friend. If these names are foreign to you, you’re not alone. Since the game takes place 200 years after the events of Wings of Ruin, it’s unlikely we will see any familiar faces in the final product. That 200-year fast-forward isn’t the only big change in this sequel. Based on the demo, the developers at Capcom have made some serious alterations to the Monster Hunter Stories template, shaking things up in terms of narrative, graphics, world design, and combat. From my short 20 minutes with the game, it already appears to feature a more grounded, less jokey story. The stakes seem higher and more urgent, and the characters carry the weight of responsibility. This sense of evolution, of Monster Hunter Stories all-grown-up if you will, is also reflected in the game’s graphics and art direction. The landscapes, characters, and monsters have never looked better or more detailed. Furthermore, there’s a realistic sense of scale and proportion, particularly between monsters and human riders something the series has struggled with at times. When you ride a Rathalos through the world of Twisted Reflection, it doesn’t feel like a three-fourths scale model; it feels like an honest-to-goodness dragon. Speaking of that world, it’s undergone a significant upgrade, not just visually but spatially. In previous Stories games, the overworld (or field) was a tad empty and lifeless. It served more as a bridge between towns and settlements than a living, breathing ecosystem worth exploring. If the demo is anything to go by, the directors of Twisted Reflection have revisited this idea. The field is now wider and taller, with greater verticality and more detours and points of interest. What’s more, your Monsties (friendly, domesticated monsters) can manipulate the world in more realistic and direct ways. In the middle of the 20-minute session I used my Rathalos’ breath weapon to dislodge fruit from a tree a level of interactivity previously unseen in the series, at least outside of turn-based combat. Also, and this is a huge quality-of-life upgrade, you can switch your main Monstie on the fly by bringing up a radial menu; no longer do you need to retreat to Options to swap back and forth when you come upon impassable terrain. The biggest change I observed in Twisted Reflection, though, involved combat. Since 2017, when the first Monster Hunter Stories launched internationally, the series has deployed a rock-paper-scissors framework in which technical attacks > speed attacks > power attacks. As the hero, you would study your enemy’s traits and observe their behavior, and choose the right type of attack for the situation in order to win head-to-head showdowns. Once you landed on the correct rhythm, though, the battle was more or less predictable. This is not quite the case in this newest installment. The rock-paper-scissors dynamic is still there, but augmented with a new feature that adds extra nuance to each fight. It’s called the Wyvernsoul Gauge, and it represents a monster’s fighting spirit. If you reduce the gauge to zero, you will topple the monster and open it up to Synchro Rush. This allows all active members of the party to combine their talents to inflict massive damage on the enemy and also fill the Kinship Gauge, which powers Kinship Skills. In the final battle of the demo, against a Feral Chatacabra, I had to decide whether to target its crystallized back, and risk a Backlash counterattack, or work around that obstacle by breaking off armored parts and chipping away at its Wyvernsoul Gauge. This still isn’t the most complex fighting framework out there, but it feels less mechanical than before. Thanks to more strategic options in battle, not to mention the other upgrades more serious storytelling, refined graphics, and a broader, more interactive world Twisted Reflection is on its way toward becoming the best Monster Hunter Stories game yet. It feels like it’s finally escaped from the shadow of the mainline series and become its own free-standing thing. We’ll know for sure when it launches on March 13, 2026. Full Article. Continue reading Monster Hunter Stories 3 Swoops Into New York Comic Con→
