Monster Hunter Stories asks what happens when you stop hunting the monsters and start raising them. Capcom and Marvelous built a turn-based RPG out of a franchise known for real-time combat, and the gamble works. The game launched on the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on October 8, 2016, then reached North America, Europe and Australia in September 2017. A high-definition mobile version followed on Android and iOS, hitting Japan on December 4, 2017, and the rest of the world on September 25, 2018.
Trailer, via CapcomChannel.
Hakum Village and the Rider’s Rite
You play a Rider, not a Hunter. The story opens with your character, whose gender you choose, searching for a monster egg alongside friends Cheval and Lilia. The egg hatches into a Rathalos that bonds with you instantly. You name it Ratha. Back at Hakum Village, a Nargacuga sick with the Black Blight attacks. Ratha tries to defend the village and is seemingly killed. Cheval’s mother dies in the attack.
A year later, you take the Rite of Kinship and receive a piece of Kinship Ore, a crystal that can tame wild monsters almost instantly. You earn the title of Rider and meet Navirou, a wild felyne who insists on tagging along.
Stealing Eggs and Raising Monsties
The loop is simple and absorbing. You explore environments, collect items, and steal eggs from monsters’ nests. Hatched creatures become Monsties. You name them, ride them across the overworld, and bring them into battle.
Combat swaps the series’ action for a turn-based system built on three attack types: Power, Speed and Technical. They work like rock-paper-scissors. Power beats Technical, Technical beats Speed, Speed beats Power. When an enemy targets a character who attacks back, a Head-to-Head settles it. Match your monster’s type with your own against a targeted enemy and you trigger a Double Attack, which stops the enemy from retaliating. Four core-series weapons carry into battle, including the Great Sword and Sword & Shield.
Doctor Manelger and the Black Blight
The plot keeps moving. Lilia joins the Royal Scriveners to study the Blight. Cheval tames a Rathian and fixates on killing blighted monsters for revenge. You keep purifying the Blight by resonating your Kinship Ore with larger natural formations of the mineral.
Eventually you meet Doctor Manelger, a mad scientist trying to create artificial Kinship Ore and bend monsters to his will. Ratha turns out to have survived and flies to Manelger’s laboratory, freeing kidnapped felyne slaves and the Numbers, the test subjects Navirou once belonged to.
Amiibo and the Ride On Anime
The 3DS version supports Amiibo figures. A first set launched alongside the game, with a second set two months later. An anime series, Monster Hunter Stories: Ride On, adapts the game loosely. A sequel, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, arrived in 2021.
What the Score Says
The rock-paper-scissors combat could have been thin. It isn’t, because Double Attacks and kinship techniques give every turn a real decision. The egg-hatching loop carries the same pull as any collection game, and the Black Blight gives the story stakes beyond taming. The mobile port makes the whole thing portable again, which suits it.
Key facts
- Release: October 8, 2016 (Japan, 3DS)
- Western release: September 2017
- Mobile HD version: December 4, 2017 (Japan), September 25, 2018 (worldwide)
- Platforms: Nintendo 3DS, Android, iOS
- Developer: Capcom, Marvelous
- Critic aggregate: 8.6/10 (IGDB, 11 outlets)
This is the rare spinoff that justifies its own existence rather than borrowing a franchise’s name. Score: 8.6 of 10.
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