Monster Hunter Stories looks promising

Monster Hunter has been taking the gaming world by storm in the last few years, quite a few of my gaming lady friends are very enthusiastic about the main game. I can’t get into the main series though I’ve certainly tried, but Monster Hunter is releasing another spin off in Japan this year, called Monster Hunter Stories. I’ve played one of their spin-off this year on my Japanese 3DS, Monster Hunter Diary, Poka Poka Airou Village, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun the game was.

This new game, Monster Hunter Stories looks very good too, it will be an RPG adventure with turn-based battles, the kind that I really like. The world of “monster riders” is explored in the game, and they are different from monster hunters: they have deep connections with monsters. The main character has a “Kizuna Ishi” (Connection Stone), which can awaken the powers of monsters as the connection he has with them  gets deeper. The story begins in a monster rider village, where the inhabitants live a life away from monster hunters. The boy we will be following has to go on a journey, entering hunter society, where he must learn to live with hunters who see monsters differently from him. Finding, hatching and grooming monsters will be part of it, and for Monster Hunter fans it will be quite something different to befriend wyverns such as Rathalos rather than slaying them for their scales.

Capcom is really going all out with this one: it seems an anime series is already underway to Japan, made by David Production Inc, a Japanese animation studio. The screenshots and the videos of the game have a visual style that appeals to me a lot. This maybe it will be a good title for me to import if a Western release isn’t announced soon. Check out the video Capcom published last week.