Review: Monster Hunter Stories (Nintendo 3DS)

Become a legendary Rider, bond with wild beasts and take to the skies for a breathtaking journey, filled with friendship, mystery, and plenty of turn-based battles.

Pros:

• Gorgeous graphics nice and bright yet charmingly pleasant on the eyes.
• 14,749 Block download size.
• 3D implementation.
• Get bonus loot if you have a Monster Hunter Generations save.
• Character creation-Male/Female, Name, Face type, Mouth, Hairstyle, Colours of hair and skin, Face markings and if you get really stuck, A name generator.
• Tutorial pop ups as and when you need them.
• Top screen is the game screen. Bottom screen is the map and inventory.
• Options- Camera type, Inverts axis, Camera speed.
• Amiibo support- Uses any Amiibo for loot and if an unregistered Amiibo is used it will boot the app.
• Connecticat- Download DLC, QR Code, Amiibo and download code.
• Classic monster hunter sounds and art.
• Home- Save, Change outfit of you and your follower and few basic appearance settings.
• Rider card- Fully customisable with background, unlocked titles, poses and welcome note.
• Combat-Turn based. You have 3 attacks- Power, speed and tech. On a rock paper scissors basis you need to fight with the stronger attack to do more damage.
• Earn EXP level up yourself for HP and your Monsties for HP and learning new moves.
• End of combat rank with rewards.
• Easy to get into with simple controls.
• Battle pouch- Holds 10 items that can only be used in combat.
• Poogies- Hidden around the world. 100 to collect and every milestones grants a reward.
• Blacksmith- Buy/sell/craft/upgrade gear and weapons here for materials and zenny.
• Kinship stone- The bond between you and your monstie, Successful attacks fills the stone, Once filled you can ride your Monstie and do epic special attacks and do more damage.
• Prayer pot- Give zenny to activate timed buffs like double EXP or more materials.
• Monsties can interact differently in the world. Some can do jumps or swim whilst some can fly.
• Clean easy to use UI and menu system.
• Feels like a Monster Hunter game but very simplified and streamlined.
• Monster den- Spawns randomly and come in many forms like common or rare. Go in here to get an egg.
• Eggs- Find eggs in dens or fragments to make one. There are loads of eggs and each one hatches into a Monstie. When you tap the egg open, Clicking different parts of the egg increases its stats.
• Streetpass support- Share rider cards, Download riders to fight them and share dragon dens.
• Stables- Here is where you can store upto 200 Monsties and 12 eggs.
• Has a strong Pokemon vibe to it with the need to collect all Monsties.
• Monsterpedia- Fills up as you discover/fight Monsties. Filling it up grants rewards.
• Battle- You can fight other parties both online and offline local.
• Decent pacing as it unlocks new activities and events slowly.
• Side quests- Optional but give loads of rewards and EXP. Get them from the village message board.
• Accessible to new players.
• Still feels like Monster hunter as you can still collect all the items you know and love, Monsties retreat, You can attack certain body parts to get rare drops.
• Fast travel can be unlocked and used to save as well.
• Play how you want and explore how you see fit.
• Every Monstie plays and handles differently.
• Addictive collecting and building up your Monsties.
• Constant feeling of encouragment.
• Enemies are roaming around and you engaging them by contact. You can sneak up from behind to get an advantage in the fight.
• Still has the big Monstie fights.
• In game cut scenes.
• Really hard to put down.

Cons:

• Some may find the game too simple.
• Materials and enemies spawn back very quickly.
• Combat takes a bit of adjustment as you learn the tells.
• Camera can go a bit crazy in tight spots.
• Full of fetch quests but thats always been the case.
• Lands especially in the begininng are big granted but feel barren with the odd Monstie and pick up lying around and it doesnt look very enticing.
• Can just run past enemies.
• Caves have little variety.
• Slow to load character assets so you will see a lot of grey people in town.