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rainwatersparkRecently, I played the Monster Hunter Stories 3 demo, and I became absolutely OBSESSED. I had really enjoyed Monster Hunter Stories 2, but it had been 4.5 years since I'd played it and I kind of forgot how the experience was. So I was interested in playing MHS3 but not super hyped until I played the demo (great marketing move by Capcom—I immediately went out and preordered it). And then I went back and booted up MHS2 for the first time since October 2021 (!!) to mess around a bit.
Like many other people who have followed the Monster Hunter Stories franchise, my biggest impression of MHS3 is how much of an improvement it is on MHS2. The graphics are better, of course, but even the animations are a huge step up—the player character animations look so natural and detailed. Going back to MHS2 is honestly a bit hard because the player animations and environments are so lackluster in comparison.
And the UI has been impressively streamlined. "Streamlined" is honestly the one word I would use to describe this game as a whole compared to MHS2. It was a great idea to tie the various battle options to buttons rather than scrolling through multiple menus; I even found myself accidentally pressing the buttons for certain commands when I went back to MHS2. I also love the seamless way you can switch among Monsties out in the world rather than having to go into a menu to do so. It's fantastic and adds so much to the immersion. Even small changes, like having the game tell you which Monstie egg you've picked up for Monsties you've hatched before, or the fact that most Monsties can sprint and roar, have been such great quality-of-life upgrades.
The battle changes are quite interesting. They've made several changes that make battles easier: healing the party after every battle, having battle allies be able to revive themselves after being knocked out, and even removing the usual turn-based RPG trope that you can only heal/buff by sacrificing an opportunity to attack—the hunting horn can attack *and* buff/heal on the same turn. I guess this is to balance out the battles being generally harder—story bosses seem to hit pretty hard, and unlike in MHS2, you can't counter every single attack from an enemy. The one thing that stumped me for a while was that the game didn't explain, and it took me a while to figure out, how to tell when a monster is going to use a counter-able vs. non-counter-able attack. I initially thought it was random, which was a bummer, but now that I've figured it out, I'm fine with it.
I do like how involved the story appears to be this time, including the fact that the protagonist is fully voiced instead of mute. I think part of the reason the story of MHS2 faded from my memory was due to the fact that the protagonist was a mute blank slate. It's cool that this time, we have entire kingdoms where monster riding is normalized, rather than isolated villages. I'm also super excited to see the side stories for our Ranger pals—I really want to know more about all of them!
Finally, I like how they've shaken up the formula the first two games followed by allowing more freedom and options from the beginning, including access to fan-favorite Monsties. Like we FINALLY get to ride on Ratha when the game starts, lol. I remember unintentionally grinding MHS2 until I got to the point where I could have Mizutsune, not realizing that was a late part of the game, so I'm super glad Mizutsune is obtainable earlier on in MHS3. The story change to have the player as the captain of the Rangers teaching a newbie is also a fresh angle to experience the tutorial section of the game. The habitat restoration angle is really cool, both as a concept and for gameplay. And I'm a big fan of the fact that we can swim and fly (or at least glide) from the start of the game. I'm assuming we'll unlock true flying later on (there's an area in Blightstone Woods that looks like you need true flying to reach), which I don't mind.
Honestly, my single complaint is that I wish the frame rate on the Switch 2 version was a bit better (I even had motion sickness in the city for some reason and had to adjust one of the camera settings). Hopefully they can patch it to be more stable, even if they can't reach 60fps. I've replayed the demo several times and can't overstate how excited I am for this game. I'm going to be in agony waiting until March 13.
*
Edit 2/22/26: Lol not sure how much Capcom is going to keep revealing for this game considering it's less than a month out from release. Half of me thinks "Oh wow if they're going to keep revealing stuff, how much content does this game have??" The other half is wondering if they're going to spoil too much.
According to leaks on Reddit (so take this with a grain of salt), there's no postgame content. Personally, I don't really care about them getting rid of the High Rank Monsters/Monster Dens since they've integrated the Monsters much earlier in the game. (It also seems like the Calamitous Elder Dragons might be intended to be postgame content.) When it came to MHS2, I spent all of the postgame battling/farming eggs for the Deviants they added as free DLC, so hopefully they'll do the same with this game.
Also according to leaks, quite a few Monsties from MHS2 were cut. It doesn't surprise me considering they added so many new Monsties, but I'm disappointed by the lack of Great Baggi/Jaggi, Lagombi, Uragaan, and Gammoth if the leaks are true. (I really only care about the cool armor from Great Baggi and Jaggi.) Maybe they'll be added as DLC, although usually new DLC Monsties are Deviants and Elder Dragons, so I'm not confident about that.
Like many other people who have followed the Monster Hunter Stories franchise, my biggest impression of MHS3 is how much of an improvement it is on MHS2. The graphics are better, of course, but even the animations are a huge step up—the player character animations look so natural and detailed. Going back to MHS2 is honestly a bit hard because the player animations and environments are so lackluster in comparison.
And the UI has been impressively streamlined. "Streamlined" is honestly the one word I would use to describe this game as a whole compared to MHS2. It was a great idea to tie the various battle options to buttons rather than scrolling through multiple menus; I even found myself accidentally pressing the buttons for certain commands when I went back to MHS2. I also love the seamless way you can switch among Monsties out in the world rather than having to go into a menu to do so. It's fantastic and adds so much to the immersion. Even small changes, like having the game tell you which Monstie egg you've picked up for Monsties you've hatched before, or the fact that most Monsties can sprint and roar, have been such great quality-of-life upgrades.
The battle changes are quite interesting. They've made several changes that make battles easier: healing the party after every battle, having battle allies be able to revive themselves after being knocked out, and even removing the usual turn-based RPG trope that you can only heal/buff by sacrificing an opportunity to attack—the hunting horn can attack *and* buff/heal on the same turn. I guess this is to balance out the battles being generally harder—story bosses seem to hit pretty hard, and unlike in MHS2, you can't counter every single attack from an enemy. The one thing that stumped me for a while was that the game didn't explain, and it took me a while to figure out, how to tell when a monster is going to use a counter-able vs. non-counter-able attack. I initially thought it was random, which was a bummer, but now that I've figured it out, I'm fine with it.
I do like how involved the story appears to be this time, including the fact that the protagonist is fully voiced instead of mute. I think part of the reason the story of MHS2 faded from my memory was due to the fact that the protagonist was a mute blank slate. It's cool that this time, we have entire kingdoms where monster riding is normalized, rather than isolated villages. I'm also super excited to see the side stories for our Ranger pals—I really want to know more about all of them!
Finally, I like how they've shaken up the formula the first two games followed by allowing more freedom and options from the beginning, including access to fan-favorite Monsties. Like we FINALLY get to ride on Ratha when the game starts, lol. I remember unintentionally grinding MHS2 until I got to the point where I could have Mizutsune, not realizing that was a late part of the game, so I'm super glad Mizutsune is obtainable earlier on in MHS3. The story change to have the player as the captain of the Rangers teaching a newbie is also a fresh angle to experience the tutorial section of the game. The habitat restoration angle is really cool, both as a concept and for gameplay. And I'm a big fan of the fact that we can swim and fly (or at least glide) from the start of the game. I'm assuming we'll unlock true flying later on (there's an area in Blightstone Woods that looks like you need true flying to reach), which I don't mind.
Honestly, my single complaint is that I wish the frame rate on the Switch 2 version was a bit better (I even had motion sickness in the city for some reason and had to adjust one of the camera settings). Hopefully they can patch it to be more stable, even if they can't reach 60fps. I've replayed the demo several times and can't overstate how excited I am for this game. I'm going to be in agony waiting until March 13.
*
Edit 2/22/26: Lol not sure how much Capcom is going to keep revealing for this game considering it's less than a month out from release. Half of me thinks "Oh wow if they're going to keep revealing stuff, how much content does this game have??" The other half is wondering if they're going to spoil too much.
According to leaks on Reddit (so take this with a grain of salt), there's no postgame content. Personally, I don't really care about them getting rid of the High Rank Monsters/Monster Dens since they've integrated the Monsters much earlier in the game. (It also seems like the Calamitous Elder Dragons might be intended to be postgame content.) When it came to MHS2, I spent all of the postgame battling/farming eggs for the Deviants they added as free DLC, so hopefully they'll do the same with this game.
Also according to leaks, quite a few Monsties from MHS2 were cut. It doesn't surprise me considering they added so many new Monsties, but I'm disappointed by the lack of Great Baggi/Jaggi, Lagombi, Uragaan, and Gammoth if the leaks are true. (I really only care about the cool armor from Great Baggi and Jaggi.) Maybe they'll be added as DLC, although usually new DLC Monsties are Deviants and Elder Dragons, so I'm not confident about that.
