It’s been a good year as far as Wizards of the Coast is concerned when it comes to Magic: The Gathering and its “Universes Beyond” collaborations. Final Fantasy made a ton of money, plenty more themed sets are on the way, and people have started to slowly but surely accept more and more that the crossover sets are part of the game’s future. So it’s probably not great then that the company has had to publicly and embarrassingly pull the plug on one of its latest collaborations and try to do better.
That’s exactly what’s happening with the upcoming Monster Hunter card set being crafted for Secret Lair, Wizards of the Coast’s limited-time special release store. Revealed just weeks ago after an early press release published by Wizards leaked the collaboration’s existence, the set is now being pulled from its planned December 1 release.
“Like many of you, we’re big fans of Monster Hunter. It’s why we put this Superdrop together,” a statement published on the official Magic: The Gathering website reads in part. “But in our excitement, we missed the mark on elements like card selection and faithfully integrating the world and mechanics of Monster Hunter. As a result, the overall construction of this Superdrop is not up to the standard you have come to expect.”
“Pulling Superdrops back isn’t something we’re going to do very often, but we’re committed to doing better,” the statement continues. “Capcom is on board for us to take another swing at this Superdrop as well.”
Ever since the collaboration’s accidental reveal, Magic players and Monster Hunter fans alike have criticized Wizard’s choices for cards used to receive the Monster Hunter art, both representing a swath of Magic cards that usually don’t command the value that cards usually selected for superdrops (which themselves can cost $30-40 or more, depending on size and scope), and cards that didn’t seem to fit with the flavoring they were being designated with—such as creatures over pieces of gear from the game being used to represent artifact cards, or certain cards from Magic‘s color wheel, and the usual elemental archetypes they represent, not being reflected in the Monster Hunter beasts they’re reskinned as.
It further didn’t help that several cards included spelling errors, notably the Champion of Lambholt reskin, “Champion of Kotoko,” a misspelling of “Kokoto,” the village that serves as the main hub of the original Monster Hunter as well as Monster Hunter Freedom.
If Magic fans have been at least willing to accept Universes Beyond when it meant both flavorful theming of whatever license was being used andmechanically exciting cards, the Monster Hunter superdrop represented players’ worst fears about it: awkward, clumsy tie-ins that served neither fans of the crossover nor players of Magic. At least this time, Wizards of the Coast agreed—but as it begins to make Universes Beyond even more present in the cycle of Magic releases, a mishap like this one is only going to make Magic players less receptive.
When ‘Capcom Presents’ flashed across the screen during watching last week’s Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2025 Broadcast, my pulse quickened as I prepared for something familiar from one of my favorite publishers – only to be surprised by a world I’ve yet to explore: Monster Hunter Stories.
Even if you’ve sunk dozens of hours into Monster Hunter World and the more recent Wilds as I have, you may find yourself in a similar situation. But there’s never been a better time to get acquainted, as Monster Hunter Stories, a beloved spin-off series of the legendary Monster Hunter franchise, makes its Xbox debut next month, with the first two games arriving on November 14.
The day after that announcement, at Tokyo Game Show, I found myself with a controller in hand to get acquainted with the next entry in the series, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, itself coming to Xbox on March 13, 2026. After an hour of exploring this new world, my ignorance has been supplanted by anticipation. If you’re new to this series – or only know the mainline games – here’s what makes Stories unique:
A Sunnier Take on Monster Hunter
The first thing players are you’ll likely to notice is how different Monster Hunter Stories games look; the cel-shaded art style is vibrant and inviting—a sharp contrast to the gritty realism of the mainline games. Infused with rich, bright colors across its sunny vistas, verdant fields, misty mountains, Monster Hunter Stories presents a world you want to get lost in.
Monster Hunting Action, One Turn At a Time
Beyond its outer appearance, you’ll feel how different Stories is from mainline Monster Hunter when you first get into combat. As you approach your first monster, rather than attacking outright, you’re thrown into a turn-based RPG battle. After being introduced to an initially simple rock/paper/scissors mechanic, Monster Hunter Stories quickly layers on a lot more.
While ‘turn based’ may conjure thoughts of a deliberate, repetitive experience – there is a lot going on here: balancing attacks and skills, attack types and weaknesses. And you’re not just controlling the human rangers; your monster companions – called “Monsties” – can be called into battle, each with unique abilities. Want to switch tactics mid-battle? Swap Monsties on the fly or mount up for a powerful special attack.
You’ll Ride a Lot More than Seikrets
Speaking of mounts, the Monstie you’re riding offers up different mobility options throughout the open world. The Monster Hunter Stories 3 demo started me out with a Rathalos called, appropriately enough, Ratha – though I was able to easily switch via a radial menu to a lizard-wolf type of monster you might recognise from Monster Hunter World, called Tobi-Kadachi. Tobi could go where Ratha can’t, bounding straight up a vertical rock formation. After looking around and marking points of interest, I realized Tobi had another trick up its fur: it was less wolf and more flying squirrel, allowing me to glide straight to a chest I had spotted and marked. Very fun.
Ratha also has a trick: when mounting it, pressing RT brings up an aiming reticle, and releasing allows it to do what wyverns do best: spit up explosive fire, assisting with breaking things, revealing resources, or initiating battle… sometimes even ending it before it starts. Again, very fun.
It’s Still Monster Hunter
Despite Monster Hunter Stories’ RPG trappings, in just about every element, its Monster Hunter DNA shines through. From hunting down monster materials, to forging new equipment, to collecting bugs, fruits, and metals as you explore the world, to the chatty Felynes, you’ll never forget you’re in a Monster Hunter world, even while inhabiting a different part of it.
Most “Monster Hunter” of all are the tough-as-leather beasts that survive even the strongest attacks you can dish out, meaning that combat isn’t just a test of skill, but of attrition. After taking down a pair of bosses with unique, stylish finishers, my demo came to a close. My takeaway: even if you’ve spent dozens of hours in Monster Hunter World or Wilds, Stories will surprise you.
Monster Hunter Stories
– Purchase early to get Navirou’s “King” and “Queen” Outfits.
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
– Purchase early to get Ena’s “Kamura Maiden Outfit.”
*Bonus content is available to customers who pre-order the game by 23:59 on 11.13.2025.
*This content may be made available separately at a later date.
*Outfits for Ena and Navirou are purely cosmetic and only change the characters’ appearance.
Both Monster Hunter Stories games included in one collection!
Monster Hunter Stories is an RPG series that takes the world of Monster Hunter and expands upon it in new and exciting ways! No longer are you hunting monsters, but raising them! Featuring heroes known as Monster Riders, you will live alongside monsters and form lifelong bonds with them.
Game Introduction:
The first game tells the story of a Rider who confronts a calamity known as the Black Blight that has overtaken the world, all while learning to live together with Hunters. The second game is set four years later, when a new hero unravels the epic story surrounding a legendary Rathalos, one foretold to bring ruin to the world.
Game Features:
■ A turn-based RPG set in the world of Monster Hunter! Monster Hunter Stories features a strategic battle system which is easy to get the hang of, even for those who struggle with action games. Use Power, Speed, and Technical attacks to guess and overcome your opponent’s attack patterns to inflict heavy damage and win head-to-head battles! Build up your Kinship Gauge to use skills or try your Monsties’ unique Kinship Skills!
■ Turn popular monsters from the series into your Monsties! Explore the field using Monstie abilities, hatch eggs that you find along the way, and turn various monsters into Monsties! This game features many popular monsters from the Monster Hunter series, including Zinogre, Nargacuga, and Lagiacrus. Also featured is the Rite of Channeling, a ritual that awakens dormant abilities in your Monsties, allowing you to raise original Monsties and take on powerful enemies!
■ Online features that allow you to create a powerful party with the Monsties you have raised and enjoy battles with other players!
*The items in this set can be purchased individually. Please be careful not to purchase the same item twice.
MONSTER HUNTER STORIES 3: TWISTED REFLECTION
CAPCOM Co., Ltd.
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Twin Rathalos, born in a twist of fate.
Embark on a new adventure in the third installment of the turn-based RPG series set in the world of Monster Hunter! Become a Rider in the Monster Hunter Stories series as you hatch and build kinship with friendly monsters known as Monsties, then explore and battle alongside them in a world full of potential!
Set two centuries after a conflict that divided neighboring kingdoms, the drums of war are reignited as twin Rathalos—long thought extinct—hatch from a single egg: an omen of destruction.
Two kingdoms, two Riders, and two Rathalos; their fates now intertwined. As calamity encroaches, seek hope beyond the border and into forbidden lands.
Limited Bonus
Pre-order to get Navirou’s “King” and “Queen” Outfits!
*Bonus content is available to customers who pre-order the game by 23:59 on 11.13.2025.
*This content may be made available separately at a later date.
*These outfits are purely cosmetic and only change Navirou’s appearance.
Monster Hunter Stories is an RPG that takes the world of Monster Hunter and expands upon it in new and exciting ways! No longer are you hunting monsters, but raising them! In this deep story featuring heroes known as Monster Riders, you will live alongside monsters and form lifelong bonds with them. The first installment of the Monster Hunter Stories series returns, fully voiced in Japanese and English, with additional features such as a new museum mode where you can listen to music and view concept art, allowing you to dive even deeper into the world of Monster Hunter Stories.
Story:
As the hero of the story, you were born in a village of Riders who raise monsters for a living. You’ll overcome trials and tribulations as you grow as a Rider, and leave your village to embark on an adventure. Your destination: the world of Hunters, who make their living by hunting monsters. Although their lifestyles are vastly different, you must learn to live and work together with Hunters, and in turn, bring the world of Hunters and Riders ever closer.
Things take a dark turn as a calamity known as the Black Blight appears, threatening the entire world and upending peaceful lives that were taken for granted… Both Riders and Hunters alike will be put to the test in order to challenge this threat.
The keys to saving the world are the Kinship Stone and its hidden power, along with the truth of the “Legend of Redan,” which describes the long-kept secret of the Riders’ origins!
Game Features:
■ A turn-based RPG set in the world of Monster Hunter! Monster Hunter Stories features a strategic battle system which is easy to get the hang of, even for those who struggle with action games. Use Power, Speed, and Technical attacks to guess and overcome your opponent’s attack patterns to inflict heavy damage and win head-to-head battles! Build up your Kinship Gauge to use skills or try your Monsties’ unique Kinship Skills!
■ Turn popular monsters from the series into your Monsties! Explore the field using Monstie abilities, hatch eggs that you find along the way, and turn various monsters into Monsties! This game features many popular monsters from the Monster Hunter series, including Zinogre, Nargacuga, and Lagiacrus. Also featured is the Rite of Channeling, a ritual which awakens dormant abilities in your Monsties, allowing you to raise original Monsties and take on powerful enemies!
■ Online features that allow you to create a powerful party with the Monsties you have raised and enjoy battles with other players!
■ All updates are included! You will find all the monsters added in updates to the original game, such as Kushala Daora, Teostra, and Rajang, as well as expanded endgame content and additional character editing parts, making this the complete package!
*There are other bundles that include this product. Please be careful of duplicate purchases.
Limited Bonus
Purchase by 23:59 on 11.13.2025 to receive the Kamura Maiden Outfit for Ena. This outfit lets you dress Ena as a hub maiden from Kamura village, as featured in Monster Hunter Rise!
*May become available at a later date.
*Changes Ena’s appearance only.
*Monster Hunter Rise rated TEEN
A new adventure awaits you in this second installment of the turn-based RPG series set in the world of Monster Hunter! Become a Rider and form bonds with friendly monsters known as Monsties to fight alongside them as you take part in an epic story.
You play as the grandchild of Red, a legendary Rider. The story begins with a fateful encounter with Ena, a Wyverian girl who has been entrusted with an egg with the potential to hatch into a legendary Rathalos which could wreak havoc if awakened to its destructive power.
Embark on a journey which will test the bonds of friendship in a changing world, and discover the truth behind the legends of old.
Between Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter: Rise you would think that World, the much older title, wouldn’t have such a resurgence. And yet, here may be why Monster Hunter: World is currently 4x more popular than Rise.
Monster Hunter: Rise is the currently latest released game in the Monster Hunter series. As a Monster Hunter game that was designed for the Switch, it doesn’t have the graphical quality of Worlds or Iceborn but what it lacked in fidelity it had in style. However, Rise elevated the classic Monster Hunter gameplay through several quality-of-life updates. New ways to play like the Palamute ridable dog, wire-bugs, wyvern riding, and the Rampage mode were mostly appreciated new features.
Image Source: Capcom
Meanwhile, Rise’s single expansion, Sunbreak, overhauled the wire-bug system, giving even more ability choices and gameplay flexibility to players. On top of a revamped companion system that allowed you to bring some of the game’s NPC characters with you during hunts. So why is it then that after the announcement of Monster Hunter: Wilds that Rise peaks at 25k players while World has grown to peak at 110k?
There are a few reasons that come to mind, but the biggest I feel is that Wilds is more likely to represent World than it is Rise. This is because of World’s intentionally slower pace and bigger size is something the MH community enjoys more on a whole over Rise’s quicker, more arcade-esque Monster encounters.
This is punctuated by the fact that in Monster Hunter: World you are actually hunting the monster through a process of finding its tracks and pinning down its location on the map. Which many find more involved and immersive to Monster Hunter: Rise’s streamlined “hunting” process of seeing the monster on the map and quickly traversing to it. Thankfully, it seems some aspects of Rise are making their way to Wilds, like how the Wilds trailer showcased a ridable mount very much like Rise’s Palamute.
Then, there are the visuals of World that are leaps and bounds ahead of the newer, released Rise. Even with expanded visuals for the PC port, the way the game was made for the Nintendo Switch’s aging hardware made Rise already visually dated on release. Wilds looks to be a return to graphical form for the Monster Hunter series with wide open expanses of traversable land that looks more open world than ever before.
Many players also found the wire bug mechanic of Rise to be too forgiving in the ways that the mechanic could help you immediately get out of harm’s way. This had the likely unintended consequence of making Rise one of the easiest Monster Hunter titles. And what is Monster Hunter without difficulty after all? The players have spoken, and they want the less forgiving, more punishing gameplay of World.
Image Source: Capcom
However, even I am surprised at how most prefer World when its co-op multiplayer was significantly less accessible. This is because World had cutscenes and missions that could only be experienced by yourself. So, if you had a friend who wasn’t as experienced with the game, and you wanted to help them, they had to get fairly deep into the overall story where these solo missions largely vanished. Luckily, I would bet that a lot of World’s returning players have already gotten far past those points of co-op limitation.
Ultimately, Monster Hunter: World exhibits more of what players want from a mainline Monster Hunter title. Capcom would be wise to notice this trend and develop Monster Hunter: Wilds to better cater to the majority of players who have shown what’s important to them with their collective time spent.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
Cinderys is a professional cosplayer from France who has been active in the scene for almost a decade now. Over the years she’s cosplayed as a bunch of Blizzard characters, from World of Warcraft to Hearthstone, but her latest Diablo work is terrifyingly good.
The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Diablo IV
Before we go any further: yes, I said professional cosplayer. As I’ve written about previously, there’s a certain level of cosplay where artists can engage in paid, sponsored work, and Cinderys has been doing this for a while. The Diablo cosplay here, for example, is the result of a collaboration between her, Blizzard France and peripheral company Steel Series, which technically makes this advertising, but also gives Cinderys the time and resources to make something that looks this incredible.
As you can see in this quick making-of video, putting a costume like this together wasn’t easy. There was sewing, of course, but also loads of 3D model work (being sponsored can help with access to that stuff), 3D printing, prosthetics and make-up. Somehow—with a little help at the end from fellow French cosplayer Xia—Cinderys not only got it all together, but built the whole thing from scratch in just a month:
Finally, here’s some footage from Diablo IV’s launch party in France, which shows that the costume not only looks incredible in photos, but was entirely (RELATIVE FOR COSPLAY) practical to walk around in for the night.
