Monster Hunter Stories Trailer: The Hunt Becomes an RPG

Capcom's famous Felyne-fueled, dragon slaying series gets a whole lot cuter in this new RPG for the 3DS, Monster Hunter Stories.

If you've played any Monster Hunter game, you're likely familiar with one of its basic quests where you steal a monster egg from a dangerous nest and carry it back to town. This debut trailer for Monster Hunter Stories (via Polygon) takes that same quest we first encountered a decade ago and gives it an anime-esque makeover with a brand new style of gameplay. This new take on the Monster Hunter series has action-RPG gameplay at its core as well as some awesome, cartoon-like visuals.

We've been waiting for the Monster Hunter franchise to show a significant change for quite some time. While we were blown away by its first game on PS2, the franchise's spin-offs and sequels have been recycling many of the gameplay features, mechanics and visuals that we've seen back in 2004. Sure, each new entry adds more monsters, settings and gear to grind (and are all really addictive), but its core mechanics have relatively remained unchanged. Monster Hunter Stories looks like the departure we've been craving, despite how awesome Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was. Just look at how adorable the hunter, Felyne, Tigrex and Rathalos look in the trailer above.

Monster Hunter Stories will be launching in Japan sometime in 2016. Based on the success of the series outside of Japan, we're confident a Western release will be happening.