Monster Hunter Stories is Making a Comeback

During a Nintendo Direct: Partner Presentation today, Capcom had a special announcement to make that certainly surprised the Monster Hunter community. The Japanese developer/publisher is bringing back the 2017 3DS game, Monster Hunter Stories, to the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC (via Steam), but it’s not just a straight-up port. Capcom is not only enhancing the visual fidelity of the 7+ year old RPG, but there are other bonuses being made available for die-hard fans coming back for another playthrough or for series newbies.

Monster Hunter Stories was introduced as a spin-off for the hardcore action series Capcom is known, turning the monster-hunting action on its head, giving players traditional turn-based battles that rely on befriending monsters in favor of hunting them. Monster Hunter Stories even coined the term ‘Monstie,’ a cheeky mix of the words ‘monster’ and ‘bestie.’

New Features in Monster Hunter Stories (2024)

Capcom didn’t put a date on the port of Monster Hunter Stories just yet, but it will launch sometime this summer for PS4, Switch, and PC. As far as what’s been added to this release, Capcom has dished out the information for us:

• This port of Monster Hunter Stories has full voice work for both English and Japanese.
• A Museum mode will let players view over 200 pieces of game art, check out some music tracks, and gander at illustrations of Monster Hunter’s most iconic beasts.
• Improved visual fidelity –according to Capcom, “players can now experience riding Monsties in stunning detail on larger screens, enhanced with improved modeling, textures, and lighting in high definition.”
• And interestingly enough, the original release of Monster Hunter Stories on the 3DS in the west did not receive regular title updates. This port will rectify that, giving players access to new content previously unavailable on the 3DS version.

It’ll be interesting to see how Monster Hunter Stories gets critiqued this time around. When it first launched, critics found it to be a great spin off of the main series, but still didn’t wow most of them. The game currently sits at a 79 on Metacritic for the 3DS version.

And its 2021 sequel, Wings of Ruin, ended up with a score of 81 *for the Switch version. We added the sequel to our list of best Switch games of 2021, so we’ll see if more people check it out after playing this upcoming suped-up port.

Monster Hunter Stories launches in Summer 2024 for PC, Switch, and PS4.

Monster Hunter

Monster Hunter is an action role-playing franchise from Capcom that, as the name suggests, tasks players with tracking down and killing enormous monsters of various species. 

The main series games are often big hits with critics, particularly thanks to how enjoyable the games are with friends.