Monster Hunter Stories

This iteration of Monster Hunter Stories received a lovely visual upgrade and it delivers a fun-filled and emotional story with supremely rewarding monster hunting at the forefront. I'm very happy that we can now play it on modern consoles.

Monster Hunter Stories might be eight years old, and might have been succeeded by a newer entry, but those factors do not diminish its incredible quality. Now accessible more than ever before, Stories is a game that must be accessed by fans of the franchise as well as JRPG-fans as well.

Monster Hunter Stories is a fun and light-hearted RPG that explores a new side of the series, with engaging gameplay and a nice story that makes it a must-play for fans of the series.

The Monster Hunter Stories Collection for PlayStation delivers around 70 to 80 hours of pleasant gameplay with fine round-based combat and a motivating character system. The remastered version of part 1 increases the experience by some nice visual improvements and benefits a lot from the totally new voiceover. It’s not on eye level with current productions, but that does not affect the atmosphere too much. The second part Wings of Ruin is still the better game with a richer world and a more complex combat system. But if you already played it on a PC or Switch, you do not experience much new. In total, the Monster Hunter Stories Collection is a rich compilation of two games, you should play if you like the Monster Hunter series and round based combat.

Monster Hunter Stories comes back with a pretty good remaster on more platforms than only 3DS and mobiles, so that the full series can be enjoyed with its sequel, Wings of Ruin. Players who like RPGs such as Pokémon will find many hours of enjoyment taking care of their Monsties and levelling them up, something every fan of the Monster Hunter franchise always dreamed of. Sadly, the game can get pretty tedious and repetitive in the long run because of its gameplay loop and structure. Although this remaster gives a more modern take on its original visuals, adds english and japanese voiceovers, with all the DLCs, it doesn't really go beyond that. It is nonetheless a good way to wait for the very promising Monster Hunter Wilds coming in 2025n as long as you enjoy Pokémon-like games.

Monster Hunter Stories Remaster succeeds at bringing the 3DS original to new platforms. The combat system remains simple while offering deeper customization. Sadly, both the game's difficulty and story execution hold it back from achieving greatness.

If you miss games meant to be played on the go rather than simply able to be played that way, Monster Hunter Stories is worth checking out. That won’t be the case for most players on PS4, though, unless you happen to engage in regular remote play or own a PlayStation Portal. It becomes a bit harder to recommend as an option to be played at home when its simple design and lacking story struggle to stand out next to the wide variety of great RPGs on the platform. Interesting combat certainly helps, and if you’re a big fan of Monster Hunter, seeing its world in a whole new style will certainly offer some appeal, but Monster Hunter Stories will be hard to truly fall in love with unless you’re playing it the way it was designed to be played.