Monster Hunter Stories, series’ chirpy turn-based spin on Pokémon, gets its first PC release in a new remaster

The original Monster Hunter Stories, the turn-based take on the long-running hack-and-craft series, will finally see a release on PC this summer in the form of an upcoming remaster.

Monster Hunter Stories released on the Nintendo 3DS back in 2016 (2017 for those of us not in Japan), and later found its way onto mobile. While its sequel, 2021’s Wings of Ruin, came to PC alongside Switch, the first instalment was left behind on handhelds.

Until now, that is! Today’s Nintendo Direct revealed that the OG Monster Hunter Stories will see a remastered re-release this summer, marking the first time the RPG spin-off been (officially) playable on PC.

The remaster will revamp the 3DS visuals with HD graphics and better models, textures and lighting, as well as adding full voiceover in English or Japanese for the game’s cast of chirpy characters. (I’m a little unsettled by having your felyne companion talk in complete sentences rather than meows, I’ll admit.) There’ll be some other gubbins like a new museum mode featuring background music and never-before-seen bits of artwork, including developer sketches, along with some gameplay content from the game’s 1.20 and 1.30 title updates that was only available in Japan before now.

Stories offers a distinctly different approach to whacking dragons and dinosaurs over the head with the sharpened thighbone of their upcycled offspring, changing from real-time action combat to turn–based battles. It’s got a more family-friendly tone, too, in that you can hatch monsters (after stealing their eggs from their parents, mind) and raise them to fight other monsters for you. Er, that’s family-friendly, right?

Overall, the overall tone and gameplay is closer to something like Pokémon, with cutesy takes on usually vicious beasties like the Rathalos who will let you ride on them as you explore the open world and fight in battles with similar rock-paper-scissors matchups.

The remaster of Monster Hunter Stories is due to arrive on Steam sometime this summer.