Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection doesn’t just adopt an anime aesthetic; it leans into it hard and builds almost everything else around it. After a few hours of hands-on, what’s striking isn’t just how it looks, but how thoroughly that look informs how the game moves, how the world is designed, and how it plays. This is art direction doing the heavy lifting and feeding into all aspects of the game's design.
At first glance, Monster Hunter Stories 3 is still unmistakably Monster Hunter (read our Monster Hunter Wilds review). The silhouettes, the creatures, the familiar rhythms are all there, but everything is filtered through a heightened, expressive anime lens. Shapes are pushed further, colours are bolder, and animation is doing far more of the storytelling than before. The screen is rarely still. Small flourishes such as a monster’s sideways glance, a weapon swing that lingers for an extra frame, sparks and dust bursting outward like manga panel breaks, give the whole game a sense of constant motion.
