Monster Hunter Stories HD the review of a new edition for the Capcom JRPG
Monster Hunter Stories makes the leap from Nintendo 3DS to today’s platforms with a version renewed more in appearance than in content.
While fans anxiously await the next chapter of Monster Hunter, in a 2024 without noteworthy hunts, Capcom has thought well of dusting off its turn-based spin-off, a Japanese-style role-playing game that is very different from the parent series. The first Monster Hunter Stories remained confined to Nintendo 3DS for years , despite the excellent sequel being released for Switch and PC… and now also for PlayStation 4, with a conversion that will accompany the launch of this multiplatform remastered version, in released on June 14th on the same platforms.
The difference between the two editions lies precisely in the fact that Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is a simple conversion for the Sony console of the game released in 2021, while for the first Monster Hunter Stories something more was done, bringing it to high resolution and adding some nice extras . In this article we analyze the conversion work, but if you want to delve further into the game dynamics we refer you to the original review .
A good re-release in HD
Monster Hunter Stories was one of the last titles to be released for Nintendo 3DS and for this reason it showed off a slightly more demanding technical sector for the small two-screen hardware, especially activating the 3D effect which affected the aliasing and fluidity of the images, already put to the test by 3D models and elaborate cel shaded scenarios. Despite this, it defended itself well on the artistic side thanks to the stratagem used by Capcom, which for the story it wanted to tell and the reinvented gameplay had preferred a more cartoonish and colorful approach.
The remastered reissue follows suit in this sense. The new resolution cleans up the images, much sharper and sharper , especially on the Switch OLED screen which returns bright colors, particularly effective in some maps such as the Spring Peaks. On the TV, unfortunately, the image appears dirtier, betraying its portable origins, but fortunately the antiquated 3D engine does not place too much strain on the new hardware, which manages to maintain good fluidity even despite some very small delays in responding to commands.
The real novelty is represented by the recording of a dubbing, in English and Japanese with Italian subtitles , which joins the iconic “Monster Hunter language” used in the original game. Apart from this, the game has remained as it is: Capcom has added a museum mode full of illustrations, sketches and comments from the authors, complete with a jukebox to listen to the beautiful music of Marika Suzuki and Hiromitsu Maeba.
Monster Hunter Stories HD the review of a new edition for the Capcom JRPG
Monster Hunter Stories – Announcement Trailer
There is no new content, apart from the DLC included in the package which include some monsters such as the Kushala Daora, the Teostra and the Rajang, as well as some endgame challenges that prolong the experience for those who want to completely squeeze the Capcom game. From this point of view, Monster Hunter Stories is a more successful experiment than expected, although it may appear immature to those who have previously passed through Stories 2 in previous years: many functions and features have only been refined later but, despite this, it still remains today an excellent JRPG.
Unlike the mother series – at least until Monster Hunter Wilds – the plot in Monster Hunter Stories plays a very important role: after becoming a real Rider, the protagonist embarks on a journey to discover the world, in the hope of finding a remedy for the Black Scourge that is corrupting the monsters. It is an adventure that reserves quite a few surprises , also because at a certain point it takes a really interesting turn and focuses on the various supporting characters, despite having been designed above all for a young audience.
Monster Hunter Stories offers a classic structure that we have seen and admired in many JRPGs, but it does so with a few simple changes that modernize it without distorting it: you visit the cities, accept the main or secondary missions and then explore the world and fight .
The turn-based combat system is based entirely on a sort of Chinese vice, but it is more complex than it might seem after a few minutes of play and soon facing a boss becomes an exercise preceded by a preparation phase that is reminiscent of real Monsters. Hunter: we need to understand what we are dealing with and decide not only which weapons to equip but also what to put in the bag and which monsters to deploy.
The discovery of new monsters also unlocks previously unreachable passages or areas, inviting us to revisit some areas that no longer seemed to have anything to say but which perhaps hide secrets and collectibles. The lairs then appear at random points on the map and develop into small dungeons that are very similar to each other in which the monsters lay their eggs which we can collect and hatch in the city. Monster Hunter Stories has around a hundred monsters that we can ride, each characterized by a certain rarity that affects its statistics in combat.
The search for rare lairs and the best eggs, although completely optional, is one of the most fun parts of the game, also because the Shamanic Ritual allows you to combine the monsters’ genes and customize them. The Marvelous and Capcom title hides a complexity waiting to be discovered, especially if you want to defeat the most challenging bosses or players in multiplayer mode. Some aspects, especially regarding the various gameplay dynamics, may appear less elegant or precise today than what was then proposed in Stories 2, but this first title in the series, which we hope will continue in the future, has aged less than we feared.
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