Here’s a rhetorical question: Do you really enjoy playing as an heir or someone from noble lineage in a game? My gosh, I don’t think there’s a more uninteresting premise for me when it comes to RPGs. “Wow, I can’t believe that everyone recognizes me and also, I’m the ‘savior’ of the world”, makes me roll my eyes. Even the typical “chosen one” is a tad overdone at this point — although it can work in some cases like in “Octopath Traveler 0”. I’m getting this complaint “out of the way” so to speak, because that might be one of my biggest gripes with “Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection”
As you can imagine, the third entry in the spin-off of the Monster Hunter franchise rubbed me the wrong way at the start. The first couple of hours or so were less about turn-based combat and more about how my character was the prince (or princess) of Azuria, the expectations that are placed upon them and the tensions between Azuria and the neighboring country of Vermeil at the brink of a war. And oh, by the way, you just happen to have a very rare Rathalos. Convenient, isn’t it?
In a way, its story is more “mature” story if compared to “Monster Hunter Stories 2”. And I honestly understand where the team Capcom comes from. It’s time for the franchise to step away from its younger audience’s focused roots. Do I think it’s necessary? No. But, at the same time, there are aspects of it that work.
Case in point, it doesn’t take too long between the tensions between the two countries reach a boiling point and both you and your party members are dragged into the conflict with little to no saying as to why they should be in the “frontlines”. That’s war for you, baby. It’s messy, stressful, and a lot of the time, unnecessary.
“Wait, I thought this was the RPG where you raised monsters and battle others in turn-based battles”, It still is dear reader, but now you’re also gearing yourself up for war! Let’s go, come up with your worst excuse to invade another country in your relentless pursuit of oil, end up destabilizing an entire region which sends waves across the globe, and — Oh, I’m sorry, I got too carried away.
Okay, fine, war isn’t the only thing you’ll be tackling in “Monster Hunter Stories 3”. If I had to define the game in one word, it would be “massive”. Not as massive as “Xenoblade Chronicles X” – I don’t believe any game will be that massive anytime soon, but still, “Monster Hunter Stories 3” is a way more ambitious title than the previous two.
If “Wings of Ruin” established a bigger world overall, “Twisted Reflection” takes it one step further by making it an almost seamless open world with points of interests aplenty, from side quests in which you help a man find out who is messing with his crops (spoiler: it’s obviously a creature) multiple types of monster dens, time of day settings that affect which monsters might appear, and so on.
Capcom isn’t afraid of flexing their use of the RE Engine – a first for the franchise –, and unlike “Monster Hunter Wilds”, it runs like a dream on PC. There isn’t a lot of crazy effects popping up at every turn even massive set pieces, although some sections of “Twisted Reflection” are a feast for the eyes, and the fact that even a modest computer can run at least shows that the team got the memo of “Maybe, just maybe, don’t go overboard with effects and optimize your games”. A relief.
But you’re not here to read about visuals, right? No, I can see it in your eyes (although I am across the ocean from you, probably), you want to know about raising monsters. Oh, I’m sorry, I meant “Monsties”, as in, monsters that formed a bond with you. Yeah, if there is one thing that “Twisted Reflection” did not change was that one naming. I can’t say I’m a fan of it.
What I am a fan of is a lot, a lot of space for theory crafting and fine-tuning builds. If you’re anything like me and want to get the most out of battles, you’re going to have a blast.
“Twisted Reflection” retains the core combat loop of the franchise. Each character and their respective Monstie (ugh) has one of three types of attacks: Power, speed and Technical. It’s a very basic rock-paper-scissors system but it works wonderfully due to adjacent systems. If you manage to break a monster part, it might topple them, making it possible to do a Syncro Rush, an all-out attack similar to games like “Persona”.
What sets it apart from “Wings of Ruin” is the vastly improved equipment management, which now lets you equip a bigger variety of weapons and making your team composition really matter, especially during more challenging, but optional fights. I suggest that you seek it if you want to experience “Twisted Reflection” to its fullest.
Such fights typically come in two forms, feral and invasive monsters. Feral monsters are ones inflicted with what the game calls “blightstones”, a sort of “disease” so to speak that changes their behavior. Invasive, on the other hand, are “just” strong monsters that can disrupt an entire ecosystem and possibly hoard endangered species eggs (more on that later).
In both cases you’ll be facing monsters with very distinct and unrelenting attack patterns, and you’ll need to maximize your damage to break parts, pay attention to how they behave between turns or how they change their posture. Not only that, but you have to be extremely careful because some parts might trigger a retaliation attack that can wipe you or your entire party in one hit.
“Twisted Reflection” is the best “translation” of high-level Hunter Rank fights from the mainline franchise into a turn-based RPG form. It’s all about getting your butt kicked, lots of times, reevaluating your party composition, maybe switching your weapons and even going for a bit of grind to level up a monster — sorry, Monstie — that you wouldn’t expect to be using anytime soon, if at all.
If you have read previous critics of mine, you know I’m an absolute sucker for any opportunity to go off the beaten path and tackle challenges, and while “Twisted Reflection” doesn’t offer as much as I would like, it was enough to keep me engaged and try to be a step ahead of any possible invasive monster that I might face in a new region.
And by engaged, I mean going into monster dens, hatching eggs, slowly but surely building my party, grinding, doing excel spreadsheets. Yes, dear reader, I actually do those, If I have a spreadsheet for each of my cats food intake, do you think I won’t have one for each Monster it’s in my party in “Twisted Reflection”? Think again.
Besides, if you defeat an Invasive monster, you get to restore the habitat via the new “Habitat Restoration System”, possibly the most genius addition in “Twisted Reflection” and in Monster Hunter Stories as a whole.
You see, I never quite vibed with the way capcom depicts “Monster Hunter” in terms of story set up. Up until “Monster Hunter 4”, most of it acted as a filler, and from “Worlds” onwards it set an uneasy precedent of colonialist tropes. I vividly recall watching the cutscenes from “Worlds”, how they found an “uncharted territory”, and they set up a base of expeditions to learn more about such “unique creatures” — such base of operations pretty much looked like setting up permanent residence. And, as someone from South America, it left a bad taste in my mouth.
While these traces aren’t as prominent in “Twisted Reflection”, the whole “you are a prince” is equally as uninteresting to me alongside some of what the story does in later stages — more on that soon.
Point is, the Habitat Restoration System is, in its own terms, a way to reframe how the world, or the country of Azuria sees the monsters in an environmental sense. Defeating the invasive species opens a plethora of options of repopulating an area not only with previous monsters, but new species while keeping a balanced ecosystem. It’s not absurdly in-depth, but just enough that makes you feel like you’re contributing to something bigger than you.
This, of course, being a game, and a “power fantasy” in a lot of areas, also means that the more your ecosystem is at a high rank, more you’re able to obtain rare eggs, possible mutations that create a monster with special abilities; some types of monsters are only obtainable if you put effort and time to improve the habitat.
Reader, let me tell you, I did, way more than I expected. After fighting so many battles and watching the plot slowly move forward, it’s good to go back to a previous area and put some effort into enacting real, tangible changes.
You might have noticed that I’ve been trying to avoid talking about the story up until now. There’s a reason for that. First of all, it’s a slow start, a very slow start, so much so that even if the war was looming on the horizon, the time you spent talking with the very diverse cast of characters feels like it will never end. When I said “well, the plot isn’t moving forward, so I might as well tackle some side quests”. Big mistake on my part.
Calling it side quest is quite generous of my part. Remember the side quest about the man with the crop issues? Repeat that 100 times and you’ll get the gist of what the side quests in “Twisted Reflection” are. Glorified fetch quests that don’t require a lot of thinking other than “go there and beat a monster” or “go to a place and gater X number of things” or, for a chance of pace, “eliminate a specific type of monster”.
The last one, again, rubbed me a bit the wrong way and clashed a lot with the themes of environmental importance. Especially since, as far as the game goes, the monsters were minding their own business, and such quest was almost entirely “profit” driven since the requester wanted a specific monster part.
And if you’re planning to avoid them, I am sad to say that, for the most part, you can’t. Grinding is part of “Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflections”, and sidequests offer the best XP and a quick and easy way to level up your… “Monsties” … ugh I will never get used to the name. And, if you’re anything like me, you’ll do it if you want to tackle the aforementioned invasive or feral monsters.
As for the main story and the looming war between two kingdoms — which, mind you, goes much deeper than that, has some great scenes. A lot of them do resonate with current themes such as saving the environment, the cost of conflict not only for countries and its people, but also for the ecosystem. Sadly, some of them are undercut by some very…. peculiar choice of dialogue and sentences.
The voice acting, which is superb, does a fantastic job with the material, but even the most dramatic, heart-wrenching scene can’t be salvaged if it’s halted by some joke or something that feels like a leftover of “Monster Hunter Stories 1”.
It’s not all doom and gloom, I do think that the team did a terrific job of fleshing out the supporting cast and the moments between you and the rest of the team — be it on side quest or tackling whatever is going on in the main thread — is exhilarating. I haven’t felt this connected to a cast of characters in a long time.
And it’s that connection that got me through the finish line and beyond, tackling some leftover stuff from late game content and even finding some surprises along the way.
“Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection” is a game about connections. Yourself with nature, to the ones you love and matter to you, extending your hand to the ones in need and forming a bond. Saving endangered species, restoring once fractured or severed ones. Does it always hit the spot? As I stated multiple times above, no. But at the end of the day, it does come from a place of love, of good intentions. And, to me, it is what matters the most.
