Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is an incredible evolution of an already great series, featuring a finely-tuned loop of hunting, hatching, restoring, and upgrading that perfectly, joyfully feeds into itself every step of the way.

I’ve always thought of the Stories subseries as a commendable yet modest spinoff series, but Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is anything but modest. It takes Monster Hunter's core loop and successfully translates it into turn-based combat, evolves the monster-taming genre thanks to Habitat Restoration, and does all this while telling a thrilling story with a great presentation. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection easily stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best Monster Hunter games.

Monster Hunter Stories 3 delivers deep build crafting and battle systems, but they're wasted on a war story that's barely there.

Despite spending over 60 hours exploring its world, I don't expect to think much about Twisted Reflection now that I've rolled credits. Still, its good outweighs its bad, and I don't regret my time in office as the prince of Azuria. At the very least, it was a joy to look at.

While its battle system is going to divide some players, the monster hatching and raising is some of the best in the business. Monster Hunter Stories 3 might be the best turn-based Monster Hunter yet, and shouldn’t be ignored by fans of Capcom’s larger-than-life series.

Monster Hunter Stories 3 is the pinnacle of the series in so many ways - especially from a storytelling perspective. At its core, it's a ridiculously addictive monster taming RPG, boasting in-depth progression systems and satisfying combat mechanics - but it does take quite a long time for everything to truly click.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is another strong entry in this series, and deserving of a place at the top table alongside a number of other excellent RPGs on Switch 2.A well-told story, an intriguing world and some excellent mechanics ultimately overshadow the usual (for this series) balancing issues and performance wobbles. If you want to collect 'em all within a charming Monster Hunter setting, this game will keep you busy for a long time.

Capcom's latest in the Monster Hunter spinoff series is easily the best yet.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is an engaging turn-based take on the MH series with plenty to do and a heartfelt narrative.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection brings back the Monster Hunter RPG spin-off with the challenges of a new journey.