Monster Hunter Stories

A Kinship Stone lets a rider hatch monsters and battle beside them in Monster Hunter Stories, Capcom's turn-based rider game, with Nintendo publishing it in some regions in 2017. Navirou, a talkative Felyne, tags along as guide and comic voice. The main-series hunts, built around bringing a beast down with a greatsword, are a different sport.

Eggs discovered in dens hatch into monsties you can ride over the field and into a fight. Power, speed, and technical strikes form a three-way pattern, and winning that pattern fills kinship toward a shared skill. The ride serves as travel and as the way some encounters start.

Villages, dens, and a plot about people who partner with monsters take the place of the old quest board. Navirou talks almost without stopping, a mascot the main hunts never leaned on this heavily. The rider's weapon still counts, but a monstie's element and genes settle many of the harder matches.

Capcom developed the rider rules. Getting ahead means growing the stable and walking the story's trails, rather than clearing a timed arena against one flagship beast.