The saga Monster Hunter recently celebrated the milestone of 100 million players who have traveled the lands of the license armed with Volto-axe or long sword. If the main series is popular, we must not forget the few variations of spin offs, whether on mobile with Monster Hunter Nowor in our case, the JRPG series Monster Hunter Stories.
First released on Nintendo 3DS in 2017 in our region, Monster Hunter Stories tells us a new story in a turn-based JRPG style, the layout of which will remain the same for its sequel on Nintendo Switch and PC but glorified by a fine graphics engine.
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Therefore, in a very short month the remaster of the very first Monster Hunter Stories will show up with 3DS gameplay and a greatly optimized user experience in order to bring the software up to date. In addition to the remaster of the first Monster Hunter StoriesPlayStation 4 and 5 players will be able to enjoy the second episode for the first time, through a port of Wings of Ruins.
That said, the main novelty lies in the famous remaster of Monster Hunter Stories and this is why we were able to spend around fifteen hours on the software to get a first opinion on the new features, as well as the quality of this revisited version of the first JRPG of the successful monster license, from a PlayStation version sent by the publisher.
First generation Riders at their best
Monster Hunter Stories puts us in the shoes of a Rider, customizable in our image, who unlike monster hunters, makes friends with them in order to be able to raise them and travel the world like an adventure worthy of Pokemonall in areas semi-open to biomes where the fauna and flora vary depending on the environment that surrounds them.
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Thus, the software takes us on a journey alongside our powerful Monsties freshly hatched from their egg, in order to find the origin of a calamity known as the black scourge which threatens the very existence of the world. That said, our journey will not be well received by all the monster hunters who will view us with a negative eye, not being used to seeing tamed monsters.
Remastered version requires, Monster Hunter Stories returns in 2024 with improved and smoothed graphics, as well as reworking some of the textures and models. However, we are not at the visual level of its sequel, but for a game initially released on Nintendo 3DS the developers have made a wonderful remastering work.
However, we were able to note some small flaws on the audio side. Indeed, the menu sounds, mainly, seem to be muffled, making a significant contrast between the menu audio in relatively low quality, and other sounds such as music or beautifully reworked environmental sounds.
That said, it is not impossible that between now and the release, a day one patch will correct this small problem, and we will be sure to let you know during our final test. The same goes for additional end-game content that was, until this remaster, only available in Japan.
One, two, three rock, paper, scissors..
Only a simple remaster of the original version, the software keeps all the content and gameplay elements that made it so charming on 3DS and in its sequel Wings of Ruins. Indeed, Monster Hunter Stories Remaster keeps the very essence of its very original turn-based JRPG construction reminiscent of the good old, one, two, three rock-paper-scissors of our childhood.
As a good Rider, we have the choice between three types of attack (strength, technique and speed) where each type gains the upper hand over another. In fact, it is good to diligently observe the usual attacks of different types of monsters to correctly anticipate the type of attack to choose. In addition to our character, our Monstie also fights alongside us, adopting the same types of attacks as us, it is even possible to choose the action for him or let the artificial intelligence decide the action on its own of our Monstie.
Players who have played on 3DS will therefore not be disorientated by this combat system atypical and very dynamic turn-by-turnwhich requires good observation and rigor in our actions, which will also be rewarded by the increase in our friendship gauge with our Monstie on the battlefield, which can give us the opportunity to ride our companion once once the gauge is full.
Just like on 3DS, we will have the possibility of online combat, which we unfortunately were not able to try in this preview, and the management of our little monsters will be put to the test here. It is for this reason that it will be essential to use with discernment the different means of optimizing our team of Monsties, with, among other things, genetic manipulation allowing the transfer of statistics from one monster to another to strengthen the recipient at the cost of the life of the donor.
A technique on point
We mentioned it beforehand, but Monster Hunter Stories Remaster keeps its charm of the time while graphically improving certain textures, lighting effects, and the level of detail allowing you to admire the different monsters known, or not, from the franchise Monster Hunter, like the legendary Rathian Sakura. Moreover, a museum mode will be available in the game menus, to offer more than 200 conceptual illustrations, as well as music tracks to listen to freely.
In addition to the improved visual quality, the software offers us Constant 60 frames per second without any fall, this would have surprised us otherwise given the age of the title, and the original hardware on which the game was released, but it is still important to emphasize. Especially since this remastered version will be released on PlayStation 4, just like the port of the second episode, with backward compatibility on PlayStation 5.
Monster Hunter Stories also has some options to facilitate the user experiencesuch as hiding the mini-map on the fly at the top right of the screen, the possibility of pinning the resources necessary for completing a quest or manufacturing an object, a weapon, or armor, but also an important point for turn-based RPGs and JRPGs, the choice of whether or not to accelerate combat to “x2” or “x3” speed.
However, on this side we noticed a small defect in the help messages at the start of the fight which are also accelerated, making it impossible to read them, and it is a shame because most of the time, our faithful domesticated Palico gives us various information about the monster we are facing, such as how it attacks. We hope that in the final version it will be possible to read these messages without them disappearing without being asked.
As a reminder, Monster Hunter Stories Remastered will be released on June 14, 2024 on PlayStation 4 (backwards compatible on PlayStation 5), PC, and Nintendo Switch at a very reasonable price of €29.99. In addition, the carrying of Monster Hunter Stories 2 Wing of Ruins will be released the same day for PlayStation players.