I remember a time when Monster Hunter was that one niche-as-hell franchise by Capcom that was much bigger in Japan than the West. With the release of Monster Hunter World, the franchise entered the mainstream with a kung-fu kick. It is now, arguably, Capcom’s main franchise, with each new iteration selling like absolute gangbusters. It made sense for Capcom to re-release and re-promote as many niche spinoffs and additional material they could. Why not re-release the former Nintendo 3DS exclusive Monster Hunter Stories to a wider audience, then?

That made a lot of sense. Monster Hunter Stories 2 came out a while ago and was also well-received. That being said, I’m sure some people weren’t even aware of the first game in the subseries, or what it was even about. This is the more kid-friendly, easygoing, JRPG take on Monster Hunter. All of your favorite monsters are present, but instead of (solely) killing them, you can also befriend them, raise them, tame them. In essence, it’s Monster Hunter Pokémon. Which made a lot of sense for it to be on the 3DS. How well did the conversion to a more powerful (and less mobile) piece of hardware go? Surprisingly good, to be fair.

You need to understand that this is a very basic JRPG in tems of combat skills and progression. You have two characters on your team at all times: the hunter and the Monstie (yes, this is how they call your partner monsters). You can select attacks for the hunter, but the Monstie has a mind of its own. Thankfully, they rarely pick a dumb attack choice. Everything revolves around a simple rock-paper-scissors chart, with powerful moves beating technical attacks, technical beating speed, and speed beating power. If an enemy targets you, and you end up choosing the better attack type, their attack is nulified, and you deal twice as much damage. That’s the core principle of the combat.

Catching “Monsties” is also different from your standard Pokémon fare. You need to actually explore monster nests, and pretty much steal an unhatched egg from there. You then bring it back to the stable, hatch it, and add it to your party. It’s equally more wholesome and more messed up than just snatching a beast from the wild, as you are basically stealing it from their parents, when you think about it.

The core gameplay loop revolves around exploring the many lands in this island, straight out from your hub town. Grab missions from your fellow Riders (they are this world’s trainers, essentially), raise your monsters, explore some incredibly large environments (considering this came out years before Pokémon went open world, Capcom was ahead of its time), partake on the aforementioned super slow but easygoing combat, and proceed with the plot. It might look like a childish game in tone and theme, but it has some shockingly dark moments which caught me off-guard. It’s all coupled with some actually decent voice acting, even if the village elder speaking in rhymes annoyed the hell out of me after the third line of dialogue or so.

By far, the best aspect about this brand new port of Monster Hunter Stories is its presentation. Considering the fact it was originally developed with the Nintendo 3DS and its many limitations in mind, it does look adorable. Sure, character models look simplistic (their faces are nothing more than a texture), and textures are very cartoonish, but I found that to be charming. It does look really good with these improved shadow effects and resolution. It also runs flawlessly at whatever framerate you lock the game at. In no moment did I ever notice a mere hiccup. Sure, one or two combat transitions went on for longer than necessary, but I assume that was due to my Steam games being stored in an external SSD. These problems may happen every once in a blue moon, no matter the game.

Monster Hunter Stories is not a complex or demanding game, far from being as challenging as its mainline counterparts. If you want to dive deep into the franchise’s actually detailed and amazing lore, with a much simpler and easygoing gameplay loop, this game is for you. It featured some likeable characters, colorful visuals, Pokémon-esque monster collecting, a combat system that did not get on my nerves. It’s not the greatest turn-based RPG out there, but I had a great time with it, especially because it was actually quite forgiving, if not a bit slow. Whether you decide to play it on a PC or the Switch port, you’re not going to have a bad time with it.

Graphics: 8.5 You have to take into consideration that some character models look a bit simplistic, and that all textures look cartoonish, as the game was originally conceived with the Nintendo 3DS in mind. It does look really good with these improved shadow effects and resolution. It also runs flawlessly at whatever framerate you lock the game at.	Gameplay: 7.0 It’s a very standard turn-based combat system. It’s not groundbreaking by any means. Fights are also somewhat slow, even when you speed them up. But it’s still fun. In no moment did I get bored fighting monsters, or raising beasts of my own. The fact it’s a super easy game also helped.
Sound: 7.5 The voice acting is actually quite good. Silly, sure, but far from bad. The soundtrack is also decent, even if not as good as a mainline Monster Hunter game.	Fun Factor: 7.5 Some likeable characters, colorful visuals, Pokémon-esque monster collecting, a gameplay loop that did not get on my nerves. It’s not the greatest turn-based RPG out there, but I had a great time with it, especially because it was actually quite easy-going.
Final Verdict: 7.5

Monster Hunter Stories is available now on PS4, PC, Switch and 3DS.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Monster Hunter Stories was provided by the publisher.