Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection Review

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When a game gets the most important parts right, it’s easy to overlook its flaws. Despite having several issues, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection truly succeeds in what matters most, even if other aspects aren’t perfect. It’s a game that nails the core experience.

If you’re familiar with past Monster Hunter Stories games, you’ll quickly understand this one. You’ll search for Monster Dens, collect eggs from them, and then hatch those eggs to raise monsters to help you. Each egg contains unique genes that give your monsters special abilities, both passive bonuses and active combat skills. Battles are similar to previous games: you’ll need to pick attacks that are strong against what the enemy is likely to do, and adapt when a monster gets enraged or changes its strategy.

Everything works the same as before, but we’ve added a stamina system that affects both monsters and players. When fighting bosses, you’ll need to carefully time your attacks, considering not only elemental weaknesses, but also how much stamina your unit and the enemy have left. Planning around stamina will be key to success.

Okay, so I’ve been diving into this game, and it’s really cool how they’ve built in this whole Habitat Restoration system. Basically, you weaken the tough, wild monsters in an area, which then lets you bring in new ones and help species that are dying out. There’s this whole loop of rescuing endangered creatures! What’s neat is how your character gets stronger – it’s all tied to the gear you find. Weapons have special abilities, and you can customize them even further with Decorations. And get this – all the best gear comes from the monsters themselves! So even if you don’t necessarily want a certain monster on your team, hunting them is still important because you need their materials to craft awesome stuff. It’s a really satisfying cycle!

The core gameplay—restoring habitats by finding and defeating wild and invasive monsters, researching their weaknesses, and then earning a new monster as a reward—is truly exceptional. It’s one of the best RPG loops I’ve encountered, seamlessly blending gameplay and narrative through the protagonist’s role as a wildlife conservationist. The game’s map design is also fantastic, making exploration visually appealing and genuinely fun as you search for secrets.

Despite being a generally excellent game with a strong focus on building a party of companions, Monster Hunter Stories 3’s story feels somewhat underdeveloped. While it shows promise with its intriguing setup of a political conflict between the nations of Azuria and Vermeil, the game quickly falls back into familiar territory seen in previous Monster Hunter Stories titles. The political themes are mostly limited to the beginning and end, preventing the story from reaching its full potential.

The sidequests in the game are generally quite simple, and the only truly worthwhile ones are the ‘Side Stories’ that focus on your companions. Even these, however, follow a predictable pattern across the entire game world, with little variation. While you do get to know your party members better and unlock gameplay benefits – like new cooking recipes, hidden areas to explore, and help finding collectibles – the stories themselves aren’t particularly engaging, even at their peak.

However, there are some bright spots. The game starts and finishes strong, and while most sidequests aren’t very engaging, other optional activities are definitely worthwhile. For example, exploring different areas to locate powerful monsters to defeat, then using those monsters to create new team members through bio-engineering, is a lot of fun. Even simply hunting at night can eventually lead to encounters with rare Elder Dragons, offering valuable crafting materials. And after you finish the main story, you can even re-fight particularly tough Invasive Monsters as optional super bosses, harder than the final boss itself.

Okay, maybe I’m being a little picky, but honestly, I was really excited about the story at first. It felt like it was going to be deeply focused on the characters, and it just didn’t quite get there. The same thing happened with some of the simpler sidequests – everything else was so well-designed, they felt a bit flat in comparison. When the game was good, though, it was amazing. Rescuing endangered species by figuring out unique strategies to defeat the invasive monsters – really making you think about how you build your team and use the battle system – was so much fun. And unlocking those special Variant and Deviant monsters? Totally addictive!

I really enjoy Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection – it’s my favorite in the series. However, I was a little let down that the promised focus on story wasn’t quite as strong as I’d hoped. While this isn’t a major issue for most players, and it didn’t ruin the experience for me, it’s a shame that such a great monster-battling RPG falls just short of being truly exceptional. The gameplay is fantastic and well-refined, so I’m hopeful the next installment will fully deliver on the series’ potential.

8

We tested Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection on PC. It’s also available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

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2026-03-09 18:30