Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

(TLDR; The Game Should Have A Post Ending Where You Can Run Around And Tie Up Loose Ends Without Placing You Right Before The Final Boss) As some one who has just beaten the game at the time of this review I can say with full confidence that this definitely rivals MHS2 in terms of quality and enjoyment. I love this franchise and I have put over 200 hours into MHS2 alone. However there is one glaring issue that I can not overlook as it ruined the ending for me. In the past two installments there was post game content and while the first one had iffy content the second set a standard I thought would be up held for the remaining installments. I was wrong as after you beat the game there is no going forwards. You are stuck in time right before the final boss fight even after watching the credits roll. This disappointed me greatly as not just for the fact there wasn't post game content but rather the journey. In the past you were able to go back to the final boss area not to fight them but either to reflect on your journey or to access a challenge unheard of. The most beautiful arena is locked after a certain point and that's not fair to the player. I wanted a sense of resolution after beating a pretty tough boss. I wanted to explore the world without the sense of danger looming over. I wanted to see the new wave of life get restored due to my actions. I wanted a proper ending. This is an opinion expressed by me and if you think the ending is perfect good for you. All I want if it's possible is a some sense of post game. Just something that let's you run around with Simon and explore the world freed of your ancestors' transgressions. However don't let this bring you down as the rest of the game is a masterpiece that should be play. All in all I just hope to see title updates for this amazing game.

[sorry non native english speaker coming] I'm not deep in these Monster Hunter games, but wanted to give this one a try. And i dont regret it. Sure i'm not a big fan on hero type stories or YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE stories (just say this to avoid spoiler) buuuut so far i actually grew to like it, the characters are so loveable. I know the price might be a bit much for people, its a great game, yet i agree. If you dont have all the money freely at hand, just wait for a sale, its worth the wait. The combat made me a bit unsure at first "not again, i'm so tired of turnbased" but i have to say, i enjoy it. Its simple enough a super casual gamer like me understand and manage it, yet not too simple that you get bored out of ya mind. I also experienced so far no bugs, crashes or any other similar issues. Which is a pleasant surprise. [now i typed too much and no one gonna read it anyway xD] - I also noticed that most negative reviews about crashes are from people with better pc stats than me, so maybe there is something to look out for. I myself play on max settings and have no issues. - Update: [34h in] I can say for sure now that i really enjoy this Game. Still didnt had a single issue with crashes, lags, fps or anything similar while being max settings. My only complain so far. Some stuff is over explained while some things are too little made clear and get quickly lost. [or i'm too stupid, who knows]

I'm going to get this right out of the way now; As of time of writing this, there is No PVP, No Co-op, and No Postgame. I'm not upset about PVP, but i am kinda bummed about the other two. THAT BEING SAID. I do genuinely like this game. I wouldn't say [i]aaas[/i] much as 2 gameplay-wise, the postgame team building was very fun, but i did definitely have a very good time. (just beat the final boss while writing this, and i did very little in terms of sidequests; you can milk a lot more time out of this game!) The story's good. It's not the [i]most[/i] innovating thing in the world, but considering this is monster hunter we're talking about, having even a solid plotline is unheard of. Characters feel like actual characters and not cardboard cutouts, and no character is the designated "joke character," which makes interactions feel a lot more genuine all around. Rudy is also a lot more fun than Navirou, because he's a legitimate character just like everyone else instead of a walking punchline. Longevity-wise; This is a proper JRPG. The "postgame" is moreso "some extra challenges that are harder than the final boss, but are technically doable pre-final." a "postgame" save just loads you right before the final boss, akin to Zelda games. Hi-rank does not exist; This is basically what nighttime is. Superbosses? Calamitous Elder Dragons and Decisive battles against Invasive Monsters. Now, retracting my statement somewhat on the "No postgame" bit for a moment, and here's why; The final bosses of MHS1 and MHS2, Makili Pietru and Oltura respectively, are both fought around LV40. The final boss of MHS3 is roughly LV70. The lategame is basically the equivalent of postgame content--maybe not in terms of direct difficulty, but definitely in how the gameplay loop works. Oh, and as this seems to be a big-name monster hunter game that seemingly is the stories equivalent of MH: World, there may very well be additional content releases. I could honestly see a proper postgame or multiplayer being added in the future, though that may just be me coping. Okay, performance. I have had ONE crash, and i'm pretty sure that was a fatal exception rather than anything graphics related. I've had small lagspikes during cutscenes specifically, as they're all rendered in-engine instead of pre-rendered, and this causes audio desync that can get pretty nasty at times. That might just be me running it off of an HDD, though, in which case it still ran pretty damn well for hardware it probably shouldn't be running on. Normal gameplay ran fine, even on high. Swapped it to medium later on to see if it would fix the cutscene problems, but no dice. If lacking PVP/Co-op or not having a true Postgame is a dealbreaker for you, then oof. But this seems to be a proper shift in the formula that may very well linger from this point on, and while it's definitely different, i don't dislike it.