As someone who really enjoys doing stuff regarding story writing and loves Monster Hunter... It really makes me sad how I've gone from loving the story of the games, to realizing it's just somehow not a satisfying story?? Stories 3 outright has the best ending and I adore it, but everything it took to get there feels so lackluster. And then we got the Navirou DLC and just... Why? Why?

GOGMAZIOS! I HAVE ONE QUESTION! WHYYYYYY?!

Stories 1 has the best story of them. Childish at times? Yeh, that's the vibe they wanted. But it still handled the world and story the best imo. Having to prove yourself to hunters, having an edgy character, having an actual antagonist. It feels like everything matters and every character you interact with matters in some way.

Stories 2 copies Stories 1 and then just does it worse in all aspects of the story. The only thing I actually liked more was Oltura was brilliant. Just wish that maybe we saw her a bit earlier. But otherwise mostly fine.

Stories 3 is better than 2 for the story, but the entire 3rd and final part of the story felt so damn rushed. Like how did we go from finding info, to immediately we're in the endgame and having zero time to tie in the side stories and rushing a development for Simon who didn't have any relevancy to the story after his "death"????? Vermeil needed so much more time to be properly around in the story it's insane. The ending is absolutely beautiful, but the fact it sets up back and we don't get to explore post game story of the aftermath is sad. There's still so much left unresolved... And instead we got Navirou's BS.

I love MH Stories. I just really want to have the story blow me out of the water. Is it amazing? Yeah, for Monster Hunter standards. But in general? Left something to be desired.

Probably more I could touch on but I'm limited on time. Just getting my thoughts out. Might do another post some other time. Been working on my own ideas for a stories plot.

I've been so against this game, but Atratusmon has actually tempted me back seeing how much I love them already. The anime never showed Atratusmon spinning. BUT DIGIMON UP DID SOMETHING AMAZING AND DECIDED:

WE'RE HAVING THE FULL LINE DOING THAT SPIN!!!

THAT'S HOW YA KNOW IT'S GEKKOMON, BOIS! EVEN AS A DRAGON MAN ATRATUSMON KEPT THE SPINNING ATTACKS!!!!

Whenever I see the returning characters it boggles my mind how often I see people say Lilia is insufferable or that she's terrible. How? ACTUALLY HOW? Sure she doesn't get to do much, but she's handled well with what they let her do.

1. "Oh but she took Ratha from us!" OF COURSE SHE DID! She got informed by Kyle, who was giving the player so many chances to prove if the threat was what it actually was and once he got confirmation and saw the player fail to control it, he called for backup.

2. "But Lilia is from a rider village!" Yeah? And? She just got informed that the player couldn't control a Rathalos who's legend is the power to destroy the world. She doesn't know the player or Ena. She can't run the risk of so many lives being lost from someone who she knows nothing about other than their failure not long ago.

Avinia and Reverto meanwhile got important moments of their story entirely retconned and replaced! Avinia opened up to Debli? No the hell she didn't. She opened up to the Stories 1 MC. Avinia was insulting Debli the entire time! There's not a single moment those two are on screen together where she doesn't insult him. Reverto learned of riders and chilling with them thanks to Red? No the absolute hell he didn't. He learned that from the Stories 1 MC and Navirou. Navirou even referenced it but said he couldn't remember!

Could Lilia have done more? Absolutely. But she is handled well for the role she was given and yet almost every single time I see this woman mentioned in regards to Stories 2, it's just how much people dislike her for this single scene.

Title says it all. I've been charting what I've seen, what I've seen others mentioned having seen (ModokiBetamon) or what was implied via another appearance, and just stuff from the popularity poll or are notable partners.

Xros Wars fans I'm sorry, y'all have too many Xros digimon and there's no way they're all making it. You'd have to drop the Xros thing entirely just to hope for Shoutmon's most notable Xros line.

Did I miss anything for that first one?

https://x.com/catprotano/status/2093437495736406242

Cat voiced this herself. Came to check if even ONE person shared this here to get it more spotlight. Not even once had I seen it.

THIS IS NOW MANDATORY FOR YOUR PEARL PULLING RITUALS!!!!

Joke, of course. Cat Protano is a gem.

Was changing my PFP to be Ronova, and my background to be the crow meme... Then realized: "Wait. I could also make this Ronova." And here we are.

I've not played the 2nd Fate event yet! Don't tell me anything about the story! I just wanna point out this fun little detail!

Hi, I just wanted to appreciate and share the fact that the devs actually paid attention to what notable weapons Gilgamesh uses. They COULD have put Ea here or just more shots of the Chains of Heaven, or even Excalibur given his chasing after Artoria. But instead they went with the prototype Sword of Selection that Gilgamesh uses! Merodach! Fate lore it's a prototype to Caliburn and is just ever so slightly weaker than Caliburn and Excalibur, but is still plenty strong. It's a weapon Gilgamesh uses to test someone he is uncertain of being worthy of Ea.

That's all! I love Gil. He's fun. I need to claim him still, but I've been busy. Have a nice timezones!

Explanation: Celesdir Noct has a passive ability that gives you a massive buff to Attack, but as a cost it will constantly drain HP away.

My question is: How do you make this thing worth using?

So I'm basic. I love edgy looking things and love celestial themes. Love purples, pinks, magentas, and white always goes well. So Celesdir Noct is right up my alley. Even more than it's base version. If Hartalis had a Noct version I wouldn't even need to worry about this. I'd love to have this guy as my main ground traversal pal and maybe have a party around it specifically. But... How do you actually make it work when it's going to constantly be draining HP? Is there a way to majorly circumvent it?

Edit: Thank you everyone for the answers!! I'm pretty new to this, and didn't know there was a way to make Celesdir Noct an overpowered team member! I'm excited for the builds I can make for this guy!!

Ya'know whenever I think Digimon Mobile Game, my expectations are low. But I knew not to expect much from this game and IMMEDIATELY the first screenshot and reviews I see is crap like THIS? This is definitely some slop they churned out knowing it was gonna be dead so damn fast.

Just be called Digimon UP because soon enough it's gonna be up in mobile game heaven with the other games.

So when I'm here making lunch my mind started to wander to Gekkomon and it's known dark(?) mega digivolution, and how it might come about. General consensus I've seen is that Tomoro gets the white core or somehow that guy gets ahold of Gekkomon.

But then I remembered something that Raito said.

When Tomoro and Gekkomon's emotions are perfectly aligned, they become stronger. That's a good majority of the reason ArmaLizamon was able to beat Azhdarmon. Raito and Azhdarmon were not in sync. But ArmaLizamon and Tomoro were... But this has never happened with Rage, Grief, or any other negative emotion. Whenever Tomoro gets really pissed off, it's Gekkomon who loses control. But when ArmaLizamon was going berserk we saw that ArmaLizamon mentally was a prisoner to the rage.

What if the dark mega is caused by Tomoro and MonarchLizamon BOTH feeling overwhelming anger?

Feel free to just skip to the end.

Explanations

1. Stoick has the strongest will. Even Hiccup lacked that.

2. Drago has Fear as his entire gimmick.

3. Astrid & Throk both represent Love's Lantern in different ways. Astrid represents proper love. Throk represented the older ways of the Violet Lantern.

4. Savage & Mildew both fit Rage pretty well. Many would say Dagur and I couldn't agree. Maybe younger Dagur, but not adult Dagur. Mildew and his hatred of dragons and the riders. Savage for hating just everything.

5. Hiccup fits Hope better than anyone. It's his whole thing. Hope for the future, hope for a better path, hope for coexisting with dragons. Nobody else has as much hope as Hiccup.

6. Johann even if his character was mishandled reps Greed well enough. Considered putting Ryker here.

7. Fishlegs & Krogan are similar to Astrid and Throk in representing the lantern on both aspects. Krogan would be infected by the ring and have Compassion forced on him. Fishlegs would be a natural selection from the ring rather than parasitic choice.

8. Grimmel fits thematically and physically. He wants nothing but the death of dragons, and he's also actually dead. The only ones who apply for Black Lantern are those who have died or are dead. The only exception I know of is the Black Ring of Death.

9. Valka fits Life well enough. She's an advocate for not killing dragons, and is where Hiccup gets his behavior from. She is also a life giver with being a mother. Granted, the White Lantern also really doesnt have many rules for it. Emotion ain't really it's thing. It can just make people into White Lanterns.

10. Memories of this garbage is something I'd like to suppress. Also when I tried to do any digging on this lantern, it's like Shame, Humiliation, Guilt, etc. Multiple emotions all at once and it's probably more corruptive than any of the others. It didn't feel like anyone really fit here imo. Could be wrong, but might as use it for a funny.

Did this just cause a certain someone certainly rigged their "votes" of it, plus there was just a few cases of not really agreeing with the selection on a writing perspective.

"It's been five years since you set out on your adventure from Hakolo Island in Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin! Enjoy this special artwork with our protagonist, Ratha, Ena, and Navirou in celebration. Experience the latest story in the series with #MHStories3. " - Official Post

Link to post: https://x.com/i/status/2075203485482590269

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S BEEN HALF A DECADE?

Honestly I kinda enjoy doing this style of posts for stuff. Let's me be a little more creative with the images. Also I got to be a little silly with this while sharing the actual concept I had! What do y'all think of the idea? This was an idea I had back during the Wyverian Egg Debate in like 2020 or 2021. Still surprised that Stories 3 actually took place with a kingdom setting.

Also is this easier to read? Last time during my Manelgar post I had (admittedly just only one) person say the colors of the text and background was making it harder to read. I didn't have any issues myself, but if it is an issue I'd like to be sure!! I'm messing around with different ways of showing the text, but I know I can be a bit... Wordy.

Also Capcom can we please have Primordial Malzeno in Stories 3 and New Game+ as well? I'd love to start a new save and just headcanon that PriMal is my true monstie!! Also it's such a missed opportunity that we weren't from Vermeil ourselves instead. We hardly got to see the suffering Vermeil was going through.

Never actually did one of these for my beautiful Queen Clarissa. But now, you can do it for her! For one of the two most beautiful women in MHS3! The other ofc being Kora. She can be my Queen of Azuria and Vermeil, and I'll make sure her people never have to suffer again.

Eleanor can't you see, you're just not the girl for me? 🎶

OVER 200 YEARS AND THIS CLOWN IS STILL CAUSING PROBLEMS LONG AFTER HE'S GONE!!!

The third image has pretty much all the relevant information. I don't really have to say anything. Just the fact that this guy has had such a long reach of what he's done is insane.

The only question left is WHY did these experiments continue? Who picked up where the mad doctor left off? Did he never stop? Did Itsy Bitsy, his assistant, continue the experiments and even pass it down to others due to loyalty to his master? Did Itsy Bitsy have descendants that became some people in Lazlion and later on Vermeil?

Planarcadia really hasn't hit me as hard emotionally as Amphoreus has, and I find that a shame. We've got all these characters but the only one who's really been that intriguing is Himeko. Yao Guang has red flags over her, but she keeps disappearing without focus on her so it's hard for me to feel that attached to her.

Himeko's involvement in the story has been the MOST intriguing part. Second being the involvement and schemes of Asat Pramad. But other people in the playable cast? Ashveil is the only other real interesting one.

Amphoreus so consistently left me being attached to these characters throughout the journey, and seeing Anaxa in an EVENT of Planarcadia left me so much happier than anything so far. I'm really hoping that 4.4 is PEAK, cause Planarcadia needs SOMETHING juicy. But I love Himeko and I'm so happy we're getting a focus on her. Dannie had a focus several times. March had half of a focus for one patch. Welt needs something more. But Himeko we are FEASTING!!

All this to say I just really miss Phainon and the Chrysos Heirs. Even the ones I thought I wouldn't like with Aglaea, Tribios, and Cipher I ended up missing more than I enjoyed even a second of Sparxie's continued presence. Granted Hysilens and Cerydra could've used something more. But regardless... Could we have Giovanni playable? He's the only Masked Fool I actually like!

Anyways for the actual reason of the post. Let's do a funny. If you read this, don't say anything in the comments. Just comment a picture of Ice Elation Phainon!

You can make Elders spawn now!

When you unlock royals by defeating the Hard Mode/Royal final boss you'll now be able to find royals around the map.

Specifically at night you can find a Royal Remobra on each of the maps. When you kill the Royal Remobra, it will immediately forces that map's calamity Elder to spawn! Rudy will have special dialogue for doing so!

Finally coming down from the depression of the Rudy DLC. I'll have my happy memories and hope for better. But right now? I wanna talk about stuff that they could realistically do!!

There's so much potential left for the story in Stories 3! Still so much they could do, so much they SHOULD do!! Hell, there's even factoring in what the Rudy DLC actually gave us there's more they could do.

Everything I thought about:

1. Clarissa

2. Simon

3. Arken

4. Amara

5. Crystallisis

6. Restoration

7. The Protector

Clarissa

My beloved, beautiful, gorgeous, elegant, mature, sexy, hot- got bonked for being down bad for Clarissa FINE I'LL DO THE ACTUAL YAPPIES!!! Clarissa's story is far from done. Her work to restore Vermeil. Her repairing her relationship with Eleanor. Consequences for starting an almost(?) war. Making her a battle buddy and actually showing us what her proper monstie would be. Marrying her so I can be her Quee- Got bonked again. I even want to see her interacting with Simon. See what their relationship is actually like.

Simon

We need backstory on this man. What actually led him to working with Vermeil? Cause to my knowledge, this got ENTIRELY skipped over in the story. We know the why he battlebinded V from the implications, but what led up to that? What did he feel? How had they bonded up to that point? As well we need him as a battle buddy back. And address the biggest Gammoths in the room: His having to earn back the trust of The Rangers... And what happened with Fawn? Fawn disappeared and is never ever addressed again. Is he alive? Is he dead? And if dead, how does Simon feel about it? Also consequences for being effectively a traitor.

Arken

Arken effectively is at his end. It's time for him to pass on the throne to the MC. So, I wanna see it. The player becomes the ruler and has to take over the authorities. Repairing all the relationships Arken failed to. Arken having to adapt to life now. Arken reflecting on how he was as a king both to his people and those his kingdom has a relationship with.

Amara

Straightforward. Amara rehabilitation and getting her memories back. Re-connecting with Arken, The Rangers, her kid, Clarissa, Simon. Her relationship with Ena and expanding on what she's doing. Give her a monstie mayhaps.

Crystallisis

This still has not been cured and we have four known characters who have it. One is close to death, one has a bad leg, one seems to have lost function in both of his legs, and Simon has somehow entirely slowed down the process to a halt. This hasn't been expanded upon. None of these characters have that long of a future ahead of them unless a cure is found. The Skyscales didn't cure it. Mayhaps a combination of Skyscales and the Protector can?

Restoration

Vermeil, Simon's hometown, the sanctuary, and Azuria all have different levels of restoring needing to be done for them and we've seen the process begin for just one of them; the sanctuary. We need the other three being shown proper.

The Protector

There's so much that could be shown with them. Hell give us a time skip even and have it grow more. Show it trying to clear crystals, have different abilities from it's mother, and teaching and raising it proper. Keeping it safe from anyone who may try and take advantage of it.

There's more that could be done for story, but that's the main stuff I could think of that didn't include Navirou. Cause honestly there's even more story they could give him but it would suck cause he's already paywalled. But I really wanna see this game get some sort of story update or expansion.

Credit: Depraved_Vyle on Twitter

Yes the man who started the Wyverian Egg Debate due to wanting Ena to make eggnog.

Obvious answer is obvious: they recast his English VA, probably. But that's not funny enough. So gimme funny answers!

Personally I think being crystallized for so long probably RUINED those vocal cords. That or he got crystallisis from eatin' that crystallisis donut.

Stories 3 was a game I was so excited for, so happy to be able to talk about with others. But after yesterday it feels like everything we were hoping Capcom was going to do, going to improve was nothing but an afterthought they couldn't even be bothered to do the bare minimum with. I've never felt insulted by a series I loved to this extent. And do you know what sucks?

The signs were there from the start.

1. Roadmap

2. Endgame

3. Multiplayer

4. Flight

5. SnS

6. Aptonoth

7. Performance

Roadmap

Stories 1 and 2 both had a roadmap back during their times. Every modern Monster Hunter game has had a roadmap to give us something to look forward to. Stories 3 we had radio silence. No roadmap whatsoever. Already this was a massive outlier in modern Monster Hunter. We got told before release that Side Story: Rudy was coming and they told us NOTHING about it. Then we got told about Royals. Radio silence again after that up until yesterday's update.

Endgame

So many people dismissed this. So many people said "oh well it's a standard monster tamer now" or "Aenshin is the endgame" or "it doesn't need an endgame" despite Stories 1 having it, despite Stories 2 having it, despite modern Monster Hunter always having a grander challenge to work up to. Stories 3 had nothing like this at launch. And my fear came to light despite people saying it would be fine.

Inevitably, the Calamities and Invasives became pushovers. Predictable. No challenge. And the only one who was was the only one who worked differently. And some of them didn't even have armor.

Multiplayer

So many people dismissed it. I remember back then whenever anyone TRIED to bring it up, they got down voted to hell and back. I would know, I was amongst those people. There was all of maybe 5 hours of outrage only on Twitter.

And of course, the only content creator who said it was BS was the one the community doesn't like. Everyone else? "Oh it's a shame, but eh." Monster Hunter has community at the heart of it. Hunters coming together to take down great beasts. And Wilds just finally had crossplay... So why didn't Stories 3?

Stories 3 was proof of they COULD have taken mechanics they didn't do as well with in the past and improve upon them!! And what did they do? Instead of improving and reworking it, they just scrapped it entirely.

"Oh but it was bad" "oh but I didn't play it" are terrible responses and all people brushed it off with. This was proof they didn't want to take the extra step.

Flight

It was utterly crippled. Nerfed into the ground and not even just locked behind postgame. People had to mod this into Stories 3. "Oh but it's for map design" no it's because they're too lazy to improve and adapt the map. Again proof they didn't want to take the extra effort. Wilds just introduced a proper weather system. They could have adapted the maps of Stories 3 to affect flight and cause situations to make you alter what you're using. Expand the maps greatly to have areas where you couldn't use flight and thus promoted the others.

Yet by the end of it that still didn't work out for them.

Sword and Shield

Hardly seen anyone talk about this one. And whenever it was mentioned, it was a big ol "haha replaced with longsword" "haha worst weapon" "well they couldn't adapt it anyways" like it was okay. They revamped all the other weapons and changed how they worked. They added longsword to overshadow it. But SnS? They couldn't be bothered. They removed a whole weapon type instead of actually taking the time and effort to revamp and improve it.

Was an imbalance between weapon types inevitable? Yes. Definitely. But the fact they didn't even try here was telling.

Aptonoth

People pointed this out from day 1 of the demo. Aptonoth couldn't be tamed despite it being there before. May as well have just removed it entirely instead of putting it in our faces. This went on to be an omen for what happened.

Performance

"Oh well it runs fine for me" "Performance issues? There are no performance issues!" Has been all over ever seen anyone in the sub mentioned. Whenever someone tried to bring up the fact it was running badly or that reports were coming in from people testing the game, it was met by people down voting them. I'd know, I've been trying to get people to see. Stories 3 was a bad port from PS5 to everything else.

And with all this, some of this stuff ACTUALLY IMPACTED THE GAME'S SALES!!! And it was the stuff the community was shutting people up about. Multiplayer DID affect the sales. People were excited for it, told friends about it, only to be let down that Capcom axes the feature. And performance ESPECIALLY impacted sales. Some people couldn't even play it.

And then Side Story: Rudy and the Summer Update happened.

The Summer Update

We eventually got a poor man's postgame with the Summer Update. Stuff they should have just been in the base game without an update. Stuff that was in the base game of the previous games.

They slapped "Royal" on monsters made higher level and gave them the red names of high rank monsters from Stories 1 and 2. It's just high rank but months late. But we did get the HR armor that the previous games gave us. Yay! Now we got HR versions of the Calamities and Invasives, so surely they'd give them special armor and weapons right! ...right?

No. No, they didn't. They are still lacking anything that would make them worth fighting other than doing the fight to say you have. They'd surely let the deviants spawn and give them armor right? And weapons? Right?

Nope. Again nothing. This was perhaps the thing people were excited for most with the update. And they refuse to acknowledge it. But surely we can remove Ratha now and we get Simon and Ratha V as allies right? Surely we got Fawn back right?

Nope. Nope. Nope. None of it. Ratha is still forced onto you. Simon is still gone despite the ending.

Side Story: Rudy

The worst decision in modern Monster Hunter by far. $10-15 roughly. Numbers are a bit different between the currencies. We knew this was coming since they revealed the deluxe edition of the game. Nobody was happy about it. Few people tried to find hope that surely this was going to be worth the purchase. That those who were Doom posting that it was a terrible decision were wrong and that the purchase would be worth it!

And it wasn't.

We got the return of the #2 most popular monster in all of Monster Hunter (as voted by the fans) after it was tamable in Stories 2! Hell yeah! Nergigante is back! And they paywalled it. It's not tamable. It has no armor. It has no weapons. It has no egg. It's fight is scripted to the point it's easier than Yama Tsukami. And the only way you can rematch it is through a side quest after you beat Royal Aenshin that lets you fight a Royal Nergigante. And still no armor, weapons, or egg. Nothing to justify this addition. The bare minimum of laziness. Nergigante got the Aptonoth treatment.

Navirou is back! And his character is STILL assassinated! Stories 2 proved he did not give a damn about his old friends, and Stories 3 proved he didn't even care about his mate, children, and anyone he knew from back then. He should have just died. People celebrated Stories 3 for the fact he would have been dead in 200 years. But they found an ass pull way they could bring him back. Oh and they recast his English VA.

So, what did we get for our purchase.

1. Side Story that should have been free base game

2. Two jewels

3. Navirou costume for Rudy with his new voice

4. Two fights

5. Paywalled donut mechanic that lets you actually use Rudy in combat

None of this was worth it. Not a single bit of it. They sold us what should have been base game and couldn't even do the barest to actually make this worth it.

The Sales

Stories 3 has not hit even a million sales yet on steam. Across the platforms? No clue. But it's selling worse than Stories 2 ever had. Selling better than the OG release of Stories 1, not that the bar was high. Barely sold 400k units back then. And sure as hell nobody is buying Rudy's side story.

Hope for the Future

Stories 3 still has no roadmap. Honestly there is no hope for any future support for this game other than the fact that there has been such outrage over the DLC and husk of a summer update. We should demand better. So, let's do exactly that. Leave reviews on the DLC and the main game. Comment on their Twitter posts across the languages. Comment on their YouTube across the languages. Let your voices be heard.

At the rate Capcom is going, there is now a very real chance that the Stories franchise dies out. Stories 1 and 2 were disregarded by many for being too childish, people didn't like JRPG, or other things. But Stories 3? Stories 3 has left a scar upon the Stories name, a slap to the face to the playerbase, and has left the Stories series worse off.

But I love Monster Hunter. I adore Stories as a series and I want it to be amazing, to flourish, but if something does not change then Capcom will not go the extra mile for this series. I want to hope for a Stories 4 that masters everything the previous games failed at. Or I want to hope for an amazing future update that fixes and changes all the problems Stories 3 currently has. I know I'm in delululand right now. I'm thriving in my delulu. But even some hope is at least better than nothing.

I love Stories. But this? I'm just disappointed and it hurts seeing something I love have this happen to it.