Monster Hunter Stories is an interesting spin-off in a rather interesting franchise. The series began on the PlayStation 2 and has since become one of the biggest selling names in Japan. With every installment it seems to catch even more momentum in the land of the rising sun. I imagine that Monster Hunter Stories then, is a result of brainstorming within the company. Capcom execs know that both Monster Hunter and RPGs are popular, and so why not combine the two? While Stories failed to set the sales charts on fire it was still a hit critically, and now it’s available on mobile devices. Is Monster Hunter Stories a worthwhile RPG? Let’s dig in a little deeper.
Stories bucks franchise tradition right in the beginning. Instead of playing as the titular Monster Hunter as per a normal iteration of the franchise you instead play as a monster rider. These are fighters who have made bonds with monsters they themselves hatched from eggs stolen from nests. You begin by customizing a character; you name them and choose their physical appearance. From here you are thrust into the world of Monster Hunter which is one of huge dragons and mythical beasts with huge wild lands to explore. Your character is a boy (or girl) from the small Hakum Village which, after a little exposition, is attacked by a monster infected by the dark forces. Fast forward years later and our protagonist is now a full blown monster rider, and is setting out on a journey of their own to discover and destroy the source of the darkness infecting the monsters.
The plot in Monster Hunter Stories is pretty lame to be honest. It has that whole ‘friendship is more powerful than the sword’ angle that so many other similar properties focus around, and it’s pretty sugary sweet to be honest. With that aside, Monster Hunter Stories is not the type of game that needs a focused story. With your customized character you’re soon sent into the wild lands which are full of hostile monsters. You can see all enemies on the field, and when touched by them you’re whisked away to a separate screen showing you, your monster and the enemy. Gameplay is strictly turn based, and Monster Hunter Stories plays more like your typical Final Fantasy title than Monster Hunter. You take turns inputting commands for your character (the A.I. handles inputs for your monster) and the battle ends when either your party falls or the enemies are defeated.
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| You’ll be seeing the battle screen an awful lot as you play. |
There are a few conventions that set Monster Hunter Stories apart from other genre staples. You only ever have a two person party; it’s you and your monster against the world. Secondly, there’s a rock-paper-scissor mechanic related to your standard attack. You’re given three options – power, speed and technical attacks. Each one cancels out one other. Each monster leans toward one of these options more which makes defeating them easier after the first few rounds and encounters. Unfortunately your partner monster often doesn’t get the hint and the A.I. is quite poor to be honest. When you and your monstie choose the same attack they will strike in unison for more damage which is a nice touch. With each command carried out you gain kinship points and when your kinship stone is charged you can ride on your monster. This increases your defense and attack power, and allows you to use a super powerful combined attack as well. You’re given a fair amount of options for use in battle in Monster Hunter Stories.
The monster collection aspect of the game can be readily compared to that of Pokemon. To gain new monsters you must raid lairs which each have a nest awaiting at the end that you can steal one egg at a time from. Sometimes these are guarded by the parent monster, and other times they are not. You have to bring an egg back to a hatchery to see what monster you’re getting, but generally you can tell by the color and design on it. Monsties (as they’re called) can be stored back at the hatchery and though you can only have one in your party at a time it’s a painless process to change between them. What’s interesting is that you’re even given the option to transfer genes from one monster to another which most often results in them gaining new moves out of their element. It’s a pretty interesting system that makes almost every monster you hatch of some use.
Monster Hunter Stories retains a lot of the franchise mainstays such as scavenging for items and completing quests. I must say that the mechanics translate well into a straight up role playing game. With that said there are a few issues with this game. First of all the battle system and mechanics don’t offer enough variety to keep things interesting across thirty hours. Yes, you get no monsters, equipment, and add genes to your monsties but things become a bit monotonous pretty quickly to be honest. The environments are vast and have beautiful scenery but they just aren’t different enough from one another. The first few new areas I had a blast searching for monster lairs and battling the new foes, but after a while things become a bit too repetitive. Despite the name of this game the story just isn’t enough to carry along the action and I wasn’t invested at any point therein.
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| The environments are seriously beautiful. |
Monster Hunter Stories is an absolutely beautiful game. The 3DS version had some serious framerate issues but these have all been taken care of along with adding a generous bump in resolution for this mobile release. It looks absolutely incredible on my phone. The use of colors makes this look like a watercolor painting at times, and the variety of different environments is extremely enjoyable. On the other side of the coin I’m not a fan at all of the soundtrack. None of the music is particularly catchy, and I can barely even remember the main themes despite having just turned the game off a few minutes ago. If you’re anything like me then Monster Hunter Stories is not a soundtrack you’ll want to be adding to your collection. Mobile titles live and die by their controls, and Monster Hunter Stories fares really well in this regard. You have a virtual joystick that’s highly responsive, and all of the menus have large buttons and are quite easy to navigate. I really liked the controls and had no major issues with this mobile version.
I’m not a big fan of this game, and that really surprises me. Monster Hunter Stories has all of the ingredients that I like, but perhaps they just don’t blend as well as I would have hoped. The game is actually a lot of fun in the beginning. Learning the mechanics while exploring the environments and collecting new monsties is a lot of fun. At first. About ten hours in it becomes somewhat of a slog, and without a compelling narrative to keep my attention I had nowhere else to focus except on the mundane and formulaic layout of this game. Hatching new monster eggs is fun, and combining them to make your current team for powerful allows for the perfect amount of customization. I just wish the developers had done something to make the experience more fresh because halfway through Monster Hunter Stories loses some serious steam.
