Monster Hunter Tales has had an attention-grabbing journey over time. Having begun its life as a Nintendo 3DS title and later smartphone platforms, Tales marked a shift in priorities for the sequence by going all in on a extra conventional JRPG aesthetic. While different entries targeted extra on motion such because the pretty latest Monster Hunter Rise, Tales as an alternative settles again on a turn-based battle system and monster gathering.
Now eight years later, Capcom is eager on reviving Monster Hunter Tales for some extra fashionable platforms – particularly, PC, Nintendo Swap, and PlayStation 4. We had an opportunity to take a look at the HD port in an early preview and go hands-on with some early components of the sport.
Monster Hunter Tales opens up as one would possibly count on from any RPG – a elaborate cutscene units the temper, there’s some character and monster introduction, and a glimpse of the colourful world to ultimately discover. There’s then a shift to the real-time graphics and my first impression is that the whole lot may be very colourful and attention-grabbing.
For a remaster, Capcom has executed effectively to maintain the whole lot shiny and cheery, regardless of the apparent limitations caused by 3DS sport design. That is instantly evident upon controlling a personality – areas aren’t very large and have a tendency to information you down a linear path towards a marked goal. Not that there’s something incorrect with that – actually I did admire that the sport was telling me the place to go.
After a brief introduction, your character meets up with two characters referred to as Cheval and Lilia, who’re looking for an egg. From right here, you’re tasked with customizing your participant avatar of types, and that features choosing their gender in addition to a restricted variety of hair, eye, pores and skin coloration, and even voice choices. You possibly can even title them, for those who’d like, or choose a generated title to proceed alongside the story.
The egg the group finds seems to be a younger Rathalos – named Ratha in fact – who decides your character is their guardian. Issues appear effectively and good till you return to the village of Hakum and a tragedy takes place killing others, together with your new monster good friend.
There’s a time skip and it’s from right here that Monster Hunter Tales actually will get going. With the specter of a illness referred to as the Black Blight nonetheless round, you’ll be taking on a Kinship ceremony and a crystal as a way to accumulate monsters and turn into what is named a Rider.
With the monster looking and capturing component now in play and a key component of the sport, the participant character leaves the village, encounters new characters, and ventures additional into the thriller of the Blight corrupting the land.
Whereas the narrative is entrance and middle, Monster Hunter Tales does ultimately get you to the battle and different programs after some prolonged exposition. Hoisting up the standard JRPG mantle means the principle system is turn-based, or every occasion member and enemy take turns attacking after skills are chosen from a menu with out a time restrict.
Your created character has a little bit of flexibility in terms of their flip as assaults are divided into three varieties: Energy, Technical, and Velocity. Every of a lot of these assaults comes with their very own strengths and weaknesses. For instance, use a Velocity assault if an enemy is hanging at you with a Energy potential.
A cut-in scene referred to as a Head-to-Head when the enemy is concentrating on the attacking character. The assault sort that’s stronger in these conditions will win out, or in the event that they’re the identical, you’ll finish the flip in a draw. The opposite examples of assault strengths embrace Energy being stronger than Technical, and Technical over Velocity. It’s necessary to maintain these parts of types in thoughts throughout battle so you’ll be able to chase these bonuses.
Battles will also be blended up with numerous weapon varieties similar to an amazing sword, or a hammer. There are additionally completely different expertise and, in fact, the monster gathering side to contemplate in customization.
Past the single-player side, Monster Hunter Tales helps you to mess around in multiplayer matches on-line, so there’s quite a bit to mess around with right here for anybody seeking to get their turn-based itch.
Circling again round to the visible facet of issues, it’s necessary to keep in mind that sure, Monster Hunter Tales is a remaster of a sport that was initially developed for a handheld system. It’s due to that that the fashions are fairly simplistic, even for an anime cel-shaded fashion.
There’s additionally not a number of environmental element or animations occurring. A lot of the dialogue scenes are in a form of visible novel side-by-side fashion, though there are some conventional cutscenes and a number of CG cutscenes included. All of those have been upconverted from their authentic decision to suit an HD output, though the CG scenes have not been redone to compensate for extra pixels.
In any other case, Monster Hunter Tales is voiced in each English and Japanese, or in order for you you’ll be able to select the unique model’s voice observe. I used to be even stunned the participant character does have some canned traces and isn’t fully a silent protagonist. Regardless of different limitations, this does add quite a bit to the general presentation.
Regardless of its origins on Nintendo 3DS, Monster Hunter Tales does at the least deserve its time within the solar. With its sequel out now on Nintendo Swap and PC, this remaster launch seems to offer followers and even newcomers with an opportunity to expertise the Tales sequence all on the identical platforms. And for PS4 gamers, it’s only the start with the sequel dropping concurrently on June 14, 2024.
TechRaptor was invited to preview Monster Hunter Tales by the writer.