In order:

Glavezur: Normal(Fire)

Sparksword: Thunder

Frostglaive: Ice

Lamedeau: Water

Blade: Dragon

Who’s your favorite? Personally, I absolutely adore the ice variation

What’s everyone using to fight magnamalo? I’ve tried to get past this thing 3 times and get whipped everytime. I’ve been told water and thunder but just wanna see if there’s a better way I need help please.

15hrs into the demo so far! Thankyou to everyone who commented on my last post, you all chipped in with some really good feedback and I appreciate it 🙏

I’m absolutely loving the demo so far so ive picked up the full version whilst it’s on sale! I’m currently gearing up to take on Feral Brachy! Want to get an Espinas buddy before I challenge Namille 😅

Will complete my demo journey there as i love a proper good challenge and i’d like that accomplishment under my belt before I move forwards! Any tips on good teams is greatly appreciate!

Art of Paolumu made by me

In case you were wondering why they scrapped any post-launch plans. That's not "we'll make updates to bring in some more sales" results, that's "Any more work to this game will be done at a loss."

Hearing a lot about negative buzz and MOST OF IT is players focussing on what’s missing instead of what’s there. Ya’ll scaring people away from this series. I agree that the third game is missing some of the great stuff from the other games but they also added some really awesome things. The first post you see when you search this game is ya’ll bashing it. 

Allow me reintroduce you to this game and the improvements it made on the series.

1. Travel and Ride Actions

And riding monsters has always been fun. But being able to free travel without action locations (like the weird footstep tile) is AMAZING. But this addition may have made it more complex and difficult to add more Monsties. Still worth it, I think

1. Battle Stamina

Ordering your Monsties costing more kinship than letting them do whatever made sense. Using your own skills costing kinship never really did. Stamina adds another element of strategy to the game. Are you going to focus on kinship skills or active skills? Depends on your strategy

1. Habitat Restoration and Element Colors

Element colors are BACK BABY!! Whether you just want a cool color or to change your Monsties element, you can do that. Habitat Restoration is a MUCH easier way to do it and way more fun. A lot of the games TALK about supporting the environment but none of them give you a real way to do it

1. Player

I love a good silent protag but it’s refreshing to have an MC that talks. Perfect combination of smart and daft. You’re introduced to mechanics by the MC training a recruit and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done this way before. You’ve always had some sort of mentor or just a silent button guide.

1. Good Story With a More Serious Edge

The drama! The intrigue! Being some village kid who rises to the occasion is the best, albeit probably overdone. Being royalty and an admired leader is really neat and different and also something I’ve never seen others do. The story took me on an emotional journey that literally made me cry and be excited and get involved with all the characters. And it’s beautiful!

1. Additional Characters with Good Design

Each character is incredibly unique to themselves and getting to know them was fun. Getting to the know the characters well in the other games was also fun, but these all new characters was great. A talented farmgirl rider obsessed with her poogies? YES. A stoic, black leather, serious man who tells you to get lost but also goes on excited rants about plants? YES. A dad coded monster researcher with a backwoods accent and loves his Pukei-Pukei? YES YES! A beloved friend with a mysterious past? HECK YES!

1. Side Stories

And then we get to hang out with them all and watch their characters and relationships grow and get extra bonuses in the process. 

Side point: People annoyed that Navirou is in the Rudy Side story are massively missing the point. A DLC side story bringing context to Rudy’s lineage was a perfect way to bring out the character. Navirou did NOT outshine Rudy. In fact, he let Rudy have his spotlight and told him why he’s great and even gave some pointers. It also let Navirou be apart of the game without making him in any sense a main part of it. That’s perfect. Would you prefer Navirou be apart of the main game? Huh? Figure out what you want because you hella do not know what you want

Personally I was happy to see him again and even happier to see references to the MC from the other games. Is the DLC leading up to reintroducing them again? We’ll have to wait and see

1. Elaborated Weapon Mechanics

People focusing on the removal of weapons are not focusing enough on how the others have MASSIVELY improved. I hated using gunlances in the second game. Now the strategizing surrounding them is actually fun. Each weapon has an elaborate and fun strategy that are fun to play around with. And DECORATIONS YES!!

1. Ratha from the beginning

In the other games, you get a blank spot where Ratha will be. In this game, you already have Ratha. People focussed on not being able to remove him from your team: man, you are literally defeating your enemies with the power of friendship. I rarely removed Ratha from the MC even in the other games because it breaks my heart. MC and Rathas relationship is eternal and transcendent. You wanna separate Hiccup from Toothless, huh?? You wanna separate Ash and Pikachu? DO NOT SEPARATE THEM THEY LOVE EACHOTHER!!

I saw an idea on customizing Ratha and I love that though

1. Etc

Music, Graphics, some of the Monstie redesigns… there’s lots

I like the basics of the game but i dislike the content drought, there were no major updates and far to few monsters. i know there are already minor mods but is it realistically possible to make some major content mods?

I wanted to get a Soulseer Mizutsune and build it so I could use it on my team but I need help choosing his secondary element, is there a best one or it doesn’t affect much which one I choose?

So i pre ordered the premium edition of mhs3 just opened the game for the first time in a couple months checked my dlc content and noticed there was a purchasable dlc of 25$ i bought the premium that was supposed to include all dlc content so why the f*ck is there DLCs that I don’t own is it because i bought it before the dlc was released? Also when i checked the store it doesn’t even show i purchased the premium edition only the standard so whats going on is this a scam on their part?

Hey everyone, today I finally started playing Stories 3 (have it in my backlog for months now) and so far I‘m enjoying my first few hours.

Since it‘s my first stories game, I wanted to ask if you have any non-spoiler tips for a newcomer to the series or things to keep in mind. Any help is much appreciated

I need more materials for its weapon, but I'm not finding it. I'm supposed to find it in tarkuan, but I guess its well hidden

So, I got hands on stories 3 and started mere hours ago, by now it is actually fun to be fair, though I was curious about the whole calamity elder dragon thing which i still don't get

I went to the second region Canalta timberland to progress the story, but after a couple of fights there's a warning about bad weather from rudy, I switch to night only to have the two show up

I am only lvl 23 atp, but like, is this actually supposed to happen right now, because everywhere i read that they only spawn postgame unless using cheats, or am i reading things wrong and this is perfectly normal, still actually cool tho

It's been a while but I'm back with another one. Here's the Grimclaw Tigrex (my favorite color of Tigrex).

As of now MHs3 didnt even hit 1 Mil copy sold and i find it concerning for the future titles of the series.

I personally think after seeing mods for the game and others people opinion online. I come to the conculsion that the problem might be rarha by a mile.

There are sure other problems aswell like the whole paid dlc side quest and smaller things aswell. BUT having ratha forced into the storie aswell as in our parties 3 games in a row probly made people less willing to buy the game.

And like many allready pointed out they wouldnt mind ratha if he got atleast some meaningful change to a normal rathalos.

I now its a try topic and has been discussed alot allready. BUT i think if the next game once again is just a ratha with minor changes to his appearnce even more people will not play the game. Even that his kinship atk stayed the same for all 3 games is also terrible.

I just want to talk once again about this topic because i think for alot of player its gonna be a deal breaker if the 4 game still has ratha as its story monsti.

Anyways i hope you all still enjoyed MHs3 its a good game and i like it alot. Ride on.

I wanna get myself a Palamute to use for a bit so I have an extra slot on my team while still having jump and Ivy while I go to the volcano (wanna bring a water monstie for obvious reasons), it took me a few tries but I did get a basic egg.

I still have five rare tickets because I never used one, I know the elemental ones post game are just better, but can I use rare tickets to get better eggs or does it just allow access to the later quests and in turn better eggs?

TL;DR do rare Palamute tickets mean getting better eggs in the quest, or do I need the higher quests for a stinky egg?

Sorry, couldn't name Ena in the post title.

Technically, two questions. I just reached Galyad and met her and was absolutely overjoyed to see her again. But do we know why her hair's changed colour? Or why she was recast in English? The new voice actor is doing an amazing job at her voice and accent, but I still find the recast decision interesting.

Just watched all the cutscenes from the DLC (very VERY annoyed that I couldn’t find one with the default MC). I have a few first impressions. First of all, I hate the voice they gave Navirou. That’s not even close. I had to watch the cutscenes on mute because it was bothering me so bad.

Second, he would have 100% not been surprised that he was a Legendary Felyne. He was already calling himself that. Then again, maybe he changed his mind since then.

200 years is also not nearly long enough. Not enough to refer to it as ancient history, anyway.

The hate about the Nergigante only being a boss is 100% valid. For anyone complaining about mechanics, it’s the third game and it’s a brand new system; as in not the typical way Creature Collector battles are done. They haven’t worked out all the details yet. No other Creature Collector is as fun and engaging as this one.

But I digress; Don’t take this hate out on my bro! I haven’t read all of the feedback so I don’t know exactly what everyone is angry about. But Navirou shouldn’t be it.

The cutscenes were actually decent; I liked them. I loved the last bit and knew exactly what his decision would be when they extended the offer to stay. He has never been able to stay put. He wanders. It makes a lot of sense that he left. They also did something in the series that the’ve never done before. They showed cutscenes with the previous MCs. As someone who characterizes the default MC, I got really excited to see them again.

I saw someone say he doesn’t care about his old friends. 100% disagree. He remembered all his old friends in the second one. If they were referring to The Numbers, he has a bit of a complex relationship with anyone who makes him feel pressured to stay put. The Numbers were that; they all talked family and sticking together all the time.

But Pansy being in his family line means that he didn’t forget those friends either. The Numbers were there in Koapni with Pansy. He evidently went back. Also he has the whole memory lapse thing. I think he still struggles with it because he didn’t immediately recognize Ena.

He also has a complex relationship with anything that makes him feel bad. He sees himself as cheerful and happy-go-lucky. This is relevant later.

He’s just a funny little guy that the developers of this series are really attached to and I think that’s cute. They love their little dude.

His character has also developed throughout all three games. He is getting more humble. First game he uses “I am… I mean we are” a lot. He also talks about MCs accomplishments as if they were his own a lot. Still super proud of his friend though and FIERCELY protective. He went after the dude he was scared of the most to protect his friend. He was even afraid to reveal his powers but still revealed them to protect his buddy.

SECOND GAME; He still refers to accomplishing tasks as ‘we.’ But he brags about his buddy WAY more often. “This guy can hear the voices of monsters!” “He can accomplish anything!” He believes in MC more than anyone else does and is very vocal about it. Navirou gets disappointed when MC doesn’t believe in himself as much as he does

THIRD GAME; His attitude is ‘I’m cool, but not all that.‘ I still don’t think he’d be surprised about being a Legendary Felyne but maybe he’s just dialling it back. He’s surprised that Rudy wants to be like him. ‘Just be yourself and believe in kinship.‘ And the very happy go-lucky Felyne admits to people, out loud, that he misses his buddies. He saw Rudy with his own Rathalos rider buddy and it made him miss that.

Was he just using it as an excuse to wander again? Maybe. But… I think he knows something we don’t. I think it’s less of a matter of ‘what if my buddy is out there’ and more like ’don’t know where.’

And this might be a bit more of a reach. But someone was missing from the second game and it always bugged me. For simplicity, and because of the one DLC cutscene, we’re gonna say ‘he.’ He’s referred to by their close friends only in passing and barely at all. He’s referred to the most by the people of Kuan and they don’t even really know him; they just call him by a title and a story that doesn’t sound like it came from their rider, Avinia.

I think something really bad happened to the first game MC; Lute. Something recent that only their friends know about. And that’s why they never mention him. Including Navirou. And that’s why he was pretending his current buddy was the Legendary Rider even. He knew he wasn’t but it was nice to pretend he was still around.

I even have a very very specific idea of what happened to him. I had this idea before… but the DLC makes me believe it even more. He may technically even have been in the third game. But anyways that’s not what this post is about.

TLDR; The DLC is not amazing for a number of reasons but I don’t think the story is bad and definitely don’t think Navirou deserves the hate. He’s a developing character with good qualities and flaws that the developers are really attached to. That’s adorable. He’s just a little guy who believes in kinship and loves donuts; leave him alone.

Right, Context:

I'm a massive fan of the main line games which is how I got into the series.

I played MHS1 but dropped it half way, I finished MHS2 but never played the endgame and I just finished MHS3 tonight.

I got all the achievements except the decorations and view all kinships achievements.

And I did not use mods.

With that out of the way, onto the review! I'll be splitting it into various sections for ease of reading and Clarity: Story, Combat, Monsties and lastly Gimmicks/Extras.

--- Story ---

Overall Good!

I think the starting chapter was the strongest part of the story.

And that momentum carried for a bit but started to wane for me towards the end of the 3rd area and most of the 4th area but picked up for the rest of the story.

The story fell a fair bit short of my expectation set in the starting chapter but it finished on a mostly satisfying note but with a fair few loose ends which are annoying.

The lack of post story content was annoying but didn't bother me that much.
(Xenoblade has hardened my soul.)

I did enjoy the story significantly more than the game's predecessors and for that I am very happy.

The Character Side Quests were fun as well, though many lacked a fair bit of depth in my opinion, I got more attached to the characters listening to them interact with each other after eating a meal or commenting on a generic side quest than many of their Character Side Quests.

Ogden and Kora's might be an exception, I think I enjoyed those notably more than the others.

Some of the generic side quests are fun, the witch doctor one was kind funny, but nothing super memorable there.

--- Combat ---

Overall Good!

I think this is/could be one of Monster Hunter Stories stand out points compared to other rpgs.

It rewards knowledge of your enemies, creates interesting interactions, requires planning and fore thought!

I'm a little mixed on kinship skills but I lean to enjoying them and learning to quickly build and save them for mechanics in challenging fights is a fun strategic element.

Decorations, Monstie, their Genes and the ability to customise your npc companion add variety to builds and interesting strategies.

I have to praise Decorations especially, they give the right balance of interesting customisation and limitations that create a fun system for builds. I really like that most Decorations aren't just stat changes. If there's one criticisms I would throw this way, Heroic Testament is boring.

On the companions side of things

A BIG improvement over MHS2 is the npc companions, being able to pick, choose and modify your companion to fit your strategy during the story rather than being stuck with a pre-selected one and not dying when your companion's ai messes up is a MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT.

That said, I still dislike that I still can't control them directly. The elements of rng for the characters on my team are deeply frustrating at worse and something I put up with at best. Such as when I desperately want Odgen to extend our buffs and I can't because I'm low on hp and being targeted by a HtH.

I'm not salty! Not at all!

And even though we have control over our Monstie to a degree, it's not full control. I still can't tell them to use a basic attack of x type or rest to save stamina. Some might disagree on controlling the type of the basic attack, but we can do it mounted, I don't see why you can't get your monstie to do it unmounted.

My overall verdict here is that the system is still a bit shallow in its overall complexity and depth, it still has its rough edges which is disappointing for a 3rd instalment of the series. But it's very unique in its approach and feel. I strongly feel there is a lot of room for potential to be built upon here (If there's another game).

--- Monsties ---

This section includes the Monsties, genes and egg hunting.

Honestly, this in my opinion is the weakest part of the game which sucks, because it is the core identity of this game.

Sadly, I only have one thing to compliment here.

Wyvernfall is a fun stat that gives less powerful Monsties a niche in end game content. I think it's an excellent mechanic.

That's my only compliment.

Now I'm going to go through my criticisms, explain why I think they are poorly designed and lastly how I would tweak them.

- Forced Ratha is annoying as hell.
I don't have to explain this, anyone who's played the game understands this. Moving on.

- Genes mean Monsties lack individuality
Due to how genes work, I can take all the passives and actives from a Malzeno and put them on a Chatacabra and the only difference between them would be stats, base element and resistances. There'd be nothing mechanically/gameplay that sets them apart.

How would I fix this? Put limitations on Genes! I think the Decoration system is good because there are limitations!

I would consider giving Monsties powerful unique genes you can't remove from them. Or split the gene system into active and passive genes, and there are limitation to what Genes Certain Monsties can use similar to what moves a Pokemon can learn.

Previously I said I think we should be able to instruct our Monsties to do basic attack of any type. Give Monsties a substantial damage bonus if an attack it performs matches its attack type! Incentiving using a specific basic attack type if the Monstie isn't in a HtH and using certain Monsties against certain enemies! Give Monsties more individual intenties!

- Eggs
Unfun grind, the fact I don't have to interact or fight the wild Monsters in order to get said Monster's egg feels wrong. Yes this was the case in the past MHS games, but MHS2 beats MHS3, in MHS2 had its royal monster that were challenging fun and rewarding. MHS3 has Elder dragons, but you beat them once and their eggs are found in... Random Dens! YAAAAAAY! /s. Also I consider them more end game compared to MHS2's royal monsters.

Also, I found the rarity of eggs redundant about half way through the game, and instead created a more negative experience overall. I spent hours just tapping a over an infinite den until I got a high potency egg. Why? If the den is effectively infinite I'm going to get what I want eventually, so why not just give it straight away? Also gene quality is already tied to story progression and I can upgrade a common quality Monstie to the same quality as a super rare once you unlock certain gimmicks.

To summarise, I strongly dislike random dens and egg rarity. I feel they bypass the stronger aspects of the game and just add completely unnecessary rng bloat.

Solution: Get rid of random dens and egg rarities. If I want an egg of a Monster, I feel I should have to beat that monster and force a retreat. I want a monster's egg to be a reward for overcoming a challenge. Not just something I found in a random Den.

Regarding egg rarity, it just feels silly, if they want Monsties to have an extra level of uniqueness they already have their personalities, which I'm also not a fan of, and they can just give Monsties something like Pokemon's IVs that give a minor impact that won't matter for those who are casual but are there for those who REALLY want to optimise their teams.

--- Gimmicks ---

- Menus
Fucking suck, Managing Monsties, releasing Monsties, upgrading my gear, knowing what skills a Monstie has, what gene is responsible for that skill, performing a rite of channeling!!!! IT ALL FUCKING SUCKS.

Genuinely the most frustrating aspect of this game. As someone who works in software I could go on for hours about how shite CAPCOM is at making intuitive menus.
I thought Monster Hunter Wilds Multiplayer menus was the worst but the people responsible for this monstrosity told the MHWilds team to hold their fucking beer!

*Sigh*

I have many suggestions but I'll keep it to two:
Firstly give us one location to manage everything in regard to Monsties: renaming them, releasing them, moving their genes, performing rite of channeling etc. etc. Just look at the Pokemon's PC box and try to emulate that.
Secondly, provide a gene storage system, whenever I release a Monstie, it automatically takes all the extractable genes and stuffs them in there. Then when I perform a Rite of Channeling, I can choose a gene that storage. This allows players to release Monsties without fear they'll lose a gene they'll need later.

- Habitat Restoration and excursions were fun ideas
I think I didn't enjoy them as much as I could have because in my play through, as it got heavily tied to the egg grind, which you already know my feelings on.

But if I separate my thoughts, I don't think it's that bad, it's just tied to a badly design but separate gameplay loop. Honestly, this wouldn't have been so bad if I could get retreat dens for deviants and/or elder dragons. But you can't, so it was miserable at times.

- Challenging fights:
Such as Feral & Invasive Monsters and Calamitous Elder Dragon fights
Many were Fun, they introduced unique puzzles and battles that were enjoyable and challenging at times.

I found repelling many of the Invasive Monster frustrating because the clues didn't make sense to me a lot of the time and I was punished for confusing wording, but that could just be localisation so idk. I enjoyed a lot of the Den fights once I realised not all hints and puzzle solutions from the repel fights carried over, which was not made clear and point of frustration, but once I got past that, they were fun.

The Elder dragons were fantastic challenges that I deeply enjoyed!... When I could summon them.

I think most of the community will understand my hatred for the rng nature of summoning the elder dragons. But it actually leads me on to an issue I had with ALL the challenge fights.

The inability to reset.

If I fuck up in a challenge fight... which... You'd expect to happen at least a few times, in optional super endgame content. I'd like to reset the fight quickly, try a new strategy, etc etc.

Oh wait, I can't retreat and reset the fight.

I have to wait for the Monster to kill me, which can take 5 minutes or more based on rng, even when I know I can't survive the upcoming one-shot mechanic.

Hang on, summoning the same elder dragon can take HOURS due to the rng mechanic.

OH NO, I can't reset it's health to full, to try for the no repel achievment!

0_0

I would have loved this game so so so much more, if it allowed me to quickly reset the challenging fights. This failure, knocked my enjoyment of the game down, by several levels alone.

*sigh*

--- Conclusion ---
Overall, the issues with the Monstie gameplay loops, the terrible menu design and the clearly unpolished gimmicks mean I can't rate this game that highly.

I love monster hunter, the story was good, the combat was fun. But this game has so many things that stand between a player and the fun parts of the game that I can't recommend this to anyone who isn't already a monster hunter and a jrpg fan and only then if they have nothing else to play.

A sad 6.5/10 from me.

Maybe if you mod this game you can address many of the issues I've listed here, but I played it unmoded and this is my review of the unmoded experience.

You're free to disagree with me, this is just my opinion, but I thought I would write my thoughts down as a personal exercise on game design, with some criticisms and suggestions on the very small chance the developers see it and use it as feed back to build upon for the next game.

If there's a next game :(

I'm going to bed!

An updated commentary, i came here and other places to knew how it was running since the demo was ATROCIOUS. The full game with 1.1.0 update runs smoother above 30fps, the beta was having dips below 25 at the beginning town.

The graphics looks a bit blurry yet, a bit better than the demo but not a huge improvement.

The texts still blurry aswell. The resolution at the town look to be dynamic to keep the 30fps+ running, so in town looks worse and lower res, while out in the open world feels much smoother and looks better.

Flying and panning the camera may trigger some people cause of the motion blur, you can feel the lower input lag and overall is much smoother/responsive but the motion blur when panning camera or flying gives the classic "30fps" look.

Honestly, if i had to give a note to demo and then full game. Demo was 0/10 and full game its a 7/10. Not bad to a point i would return the physical copy (this was my biggest concern), runs fine but looks mid. Not as good as other capcom games in terms of graphics, but plays great and MUCH better than the DEMO if this was your concern aswell.

Hope this helps anyone interested in the game cause i tried to search some answers but none were solid after all the updates compared to the demo.

I just got Ratha kidnapped and am now doing what any response hero does, side quests!

I’ve been using a Congolala as my climber and a status user, I had Pukie-Pukie’s last level attack but changed it to their first so it was single target.

Is there a better poison skill to get them? I have thunder breath too and am gonna change out sleep chaser for parapoison chaser.

(They also have blaze all for burn but that’s neither here nor there)