Monster Hunter Stories Announced for 3DS

During Capcom’s Monster Hunter Fest ‘15 Finals, a brand new Nintendo 3DS exclusive was announced: Monster Hunter Stories. The new handheld RPG is a spin-off of the Monster Hunter series, and it will take place in the same universe as the games in the core series.

Not only was the game announced, but an amazing reveal trailer was also released. The video does a great job of expressing the tone that Capcom is looking to set for the new game. The art style is adorable, and the environment is full of bright colors and beautiful textures. The art style seems to be based on an anime style, which is a big change from the mostly realistic environments that appeared in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The game looks more like Fantasy Life than Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. But this isn’t a bad thing! As we learned with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a change in art style can often accompany awesome innovations in the general game design.

After the opening scene, the game’s core element is revealed – players will be able to ride on monsters, a game element that was briefly explored in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. In fact, it seems like the vast majority of the game will be played with the player on the back of a monster. There are also quite a few monster eggs shown off in the trailer, suggesting that hatching and raising new monsters might be a gameplay element, especially since the main character is shown attempting to steal a monster egg at the beginning of the video.

If the trailer is any indication, it appears that the huge environments that make the core Monster Hunter games so beautiful and breathtaking will also be present in Monster Hunter Stories. Traversing the environment on the back of a powerful monster is sure to be an incredible experience, and we cannot wait to see it in action. Monster Hunter Stories is set for a 2016 release in Japan. Capcom hasn’t mentioned a release outside of Japan, but hopefully we’ll be seeing the title sometime soon. For more on Monster Hunter, keep checking back with LoadTheGame!