I don't want to say it'd be impossible for Capcom to screw up "Monster Hunter, but Pokémon," because in the decades since Pokémon's debut on the Game Boy we've never really seen an imitator come close to its level of success. Still, combining one of Japan's other best-selling game series of all time with the hook of catching monsters instead of killing them and you've got what folks in the biz call a sure thing. With Monster Hunter Stories 3, Capcom finally seems to be giving its RPG spin-off the scope and budget it deserves to really pop off.
This light turn-based RPG series, which casts you as a young monstie rider instead of a monster hunter, didn't come to PC until last year, even though it debuted on the Nintendo 3DS in 2016. There was potential even then, but the YA story and rock-paper-scissors battle system seemed guided by the mistaken impression that the audience for Pokémon-likes is still first and foremost kids, and not the thirty/fortysomethings who grew up with them.
