Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

I really didn't want to leave this review but in light of recent updates I felt the need to do so. I pre-ordered the deluxe edition wanting to support a game I thought was going to be the best entry into a series I really, really like. There's a lot to love about this game, really. The art design is gorgeous, the combat system itself is really deep and engaging, and the characters are quite likable. Building your monsters (called Monsties in-game, as a distinction from wild Monsters) is the best it's ever been in the series with many quality of life improvements over the first two entries in the series. There's good bones here, and with better planning and support, it'd pretty handily be the best entry so far in the Stories series. But that's sadly not the case. While the combat mechanics are very good, the actual combat itself is often an unfun slog. Encounters feel like a binary between being easy enough to brute force through on one hand or being constantly at risk of having your party completely wiped out in an instant on the other. This isn't generally a problem throughout the story until the last chapter of the game, but harder fights often boil down to managing a deluge of party-wide hitting attacks. It gets repetitive quickly, especially when fighting the secret boss of each zone. Not only are these bosses not very fun to fight, but actually getting them to appear is bafflingly random. Habitat Restoration is a pretty neat concept but I felt like the game really needed a blank slate area in order to create your own habitats instead of absolutely clogging up the ingame zones with monsters that make grinding for eggs an absolute chore. There are special Monsters you can acquire called Deviants that don't actually appear in the overworld so you can't force those monsters to retreat to get their eggs specifically, meaning if you have a completely full habitat you can spend hours grinding eggs to get specific creatures. There are features present in the previous two games that are absent in the third installment. While there is (now) some post-story content it's not anywhere near as robust as the previous game in the series. You can't actually explore the game post-story as you have to reload a save prior to defeating the final boss, something the first two games did not do. You could also freely fly on your monsters in the first two games but has been replaced by clunky gliding and reliance on updrafts here. There is a specific monster that is always in your party in all three games but now that monster can no longer be removed from your party in this installment (when your entire party is freed up in the post-game in MHS1 and 2, and there is technically no post-game in 3). Lastly, there is no multiplayer. Cooperative nor competitive. The lack of multiplayer or post-story content puts a damper on investing time into your party of monsters. The story itself started very strong in the first act but lost all of its intrigue for most of the game afterword until close to the final battle. It lures you in with a war between two nations only to drop that plot hook entirely for most of the game beyond that point. The plot beats and payoffs at the end of the game feel both rushed and unearned with some questionable direction. The rushed nature of the final chapter coincides with the final area of the game being mostly a hallway compared to the open, layered spaces of the first three zones. This game sells itself on being more mature than MHS1 or 2 but I feel like this is misleading. Especially with the recent DLC story, it's unclear what audience they're trying to appeal to with MHS3. That'd normally not be enough to make me leave a negative review, but the current update to the game pushed me over the edge. Monster Hunter Stories 1 and 2 were given roadmaps and updates that added new monsters you could obtain as well as exclusive battles with another player present. Monster Hunter Stories 3, on the other hand, introduces (for the first time) a paid DLC with only 3 fights and only one monster that cannot be obtained as a party member. This would be disappointing on its own but the fact that they moved up an Autumn update to early Summer makes me think this DLC was rushed out the door. Overall Monster Hunter Stories 3 is a game with a great premise, good ideas, and flawed execution that Capcom doesn't seem interested in iterating on or fixing with title updates. The DLC being moved up months in advance with no desired features or new monsters makes me think any TLU or expansion plans have been scuttled to shift the team to other projects due to poor sales. I'm leaving this negative review for now until Capcom decides to invest more into this game and addressing its biggest issues.

So the base game is amazing, let me clarify that. But the post-game? An absolute joke. There's absolutely nothing to see here, you're just spat out right before the final boss. We get lvl 90+ monsters (that are just HP sponges and drop no unique rewards) (and you also have to redo the final boss but with more HP) but no high rank? No coop? No PvP? (I didn't like it but there are folks who enjoyed it) No swappable Ratha? There's not even a proper post-launch roadmap unlike MHS2. But you know what's worse? That's right, DLC time. - Locking fan-favourite Nergigante behind a DLC is one thing. - Not having it as a monstie is a second thing. - Nergigante being just a boss fight is a third thing. - This DLC being just a d*mn side story is a fourth thing. - Having to wait 3 D*MN MONTHS for this DLC is a fifth thing. - But worst of all? Navirou being godd*mn back somehow. So no, he can stay in that d*mn crystal. (This review is indicative of the terrible post-launch support which should have been better for MHS. If you wanna have a good time with the base game and not think much about what SHOULD have been, go ahead, it's a great game. Or don't and just buy MHS1 for dirt cheap and MHS2, especially with MHS3 ridiculous price.) Also, WHERE IS MY PRECIOUS SWORD AND SHIELD?! CAPCOM, YOU COWARDS.