Summary

Monster Hunteris a series that has no illusions about what it is. You hunt monsters, you craft gear from their body parts, and you hunt more monsters. It’s a pretty self-explanatory concept. Yet over time, those monsters have become as much of a character as any human.

And what better way to celebrate characters than by giving them copious spin-offs? Monster Hunter may not seem like a series that has all that many games beyond the main series, and while that may be true of its international releases, there is a somewhat staggering amount of games exclusive to Japan. Let’s dig in.

9Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting

Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting. The first Monster Hunter game that was made exclusively for mobiles. The series as a whole has a long history of being on handheld consoles, from the PSP all the way up to the Switch, so making one for phones just made sense.

Except the game was bad.The combat was dramatically simplified, though that was a given. The issue was more that it simply didn’t work. Touch controls simply weren’t incredibly intuitive and the environments were very simple and small, with just battling the monster in a single arena.

It was also, consequently, one of the only Monster Hunter spin-offs that launched internationally.

8Monster Hunter Spirits

In a dramatic jump-up in terms of quality, we have Monster Hunter Spirits. This game was another one restricted to just Japan, but came with some additional restrictions on top of that, too - it was only ever released on arcades. It did at least have a much stronger art direction to differentiate it.

It came with a very stylish arcade cabinet to play it on, and utilised a card-based battling system while you were monster hunting. It still retained the arena battling of dynamic hunting, though with controls that were actually good this time. Plus the baby Zinogre art is more than enough to justify the game’s existence.

7Monster Hunter Now

Pokemon Go is a game that just about everyone has heard about, and became a worldwide phenomenon at the instant of its release. Boosted by this success, Niantic stretched their geo-location gaming into other franchises, and Monster Hunter was the next victim.

Monster Hunter is a game all about grinding, though it’s just as much about your own skill. Monster Hunter Now is all grind, all the time. These monsters are rendered in beautiful detail and it’s not doubt a thrilling experience to see Rathalos outside your house, but it will feel more like a nuisance when you simply can’t make a dent because the right materials aren’t dropping for you.

6Monster Hunter Riders

Taking a visual appearance much more akin to Monster Hunter Stories, Monster Hunter Riders' own gameplay is more akin to those games than anything in the mainline games. Unlike the Stories games though, Riders remained a mobile exclusive, alongside the trappings of such a platform.

Boasting a lovely art style and the base gameplay systems of Stories, Riders had a lot going for it. Unfortunately, it was also burdened by many microtransactions and real-time waiting systems that didn’t exactly let you get into the hunt all that quickly.

5Monster Hunter Explore

Monster Hunter Explore is another Monster Hunter spin-off that is both exclusive to Japan and only available on mobile devices. But that’s fine, because Monster Hunter Explore is actually a pretty good game and wasn’t overly burdened with microtransactions.

In most ways, Monster Hunter Explore was a successor to the earlier Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting.It has a stronger UI, better controls, four-player co-op, more depth to the combat. It’s a good, solid experience that feels like a good distillation of the Monster Hunter formula to mobile.

4Monster Hunter Puzzles

You might have looked at those images and immediately checked out, but please do give it a chance. Yes, Monster Hunter Puzzles is a match-four game, but it’s also so much more than that. Monster Hunter Puzzles is so good because it is packed with Felynes being silly dudes.

The match-four puzzles make up the bulk of the gameplay, but they also give you the means to customise your Felynes, decorate your island, and just live out your kitty cat life. You can even invite friends to your island to share in the joy! It’s the ideal life, really.

3Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airou Village

Oh look, it’s the Felynes again! It’s almost like being the adorable mascot of Monster Hunter affords you some excellent spin-offs. The Monster Hunter Diaries games are actually the main inspiration for Puzzles, featuring plenty of puzzle-solving.

Diary has you issue commands to the Felynes to help complete these various puzzles and quests and puts extra emphasis on actually managing the buildings of your island. you’re able to’t really go wrong when Felynes are in the picture.

Another unexpected aspect of this is that the Monster Hunter Diary games aredeveloped by none other than FromSoftware.

2Monster Hunter Frontier

While most Monster Hunter games have focused on trying to adapt the style into a smaller, mobile environment, Monster Hunter Frontier goes in the opposite direction. What if Monster Hunter was even bigger than the average console could handle? What if it was an MMO where many, many players could hunt monsters all at once? That’s Frontier.

The Frontier games have developed a cult-following in the fanbase, especially following their shutdown. They never got an official western release either, making the love for the games even more impressive. They are Monster Hunter but somehow even more extreme and unhinged, and they are great for that.

1Monster Hunter Stories

Now these are the quintessential essence of what a spin-off can be. It distills the primary elements of what Monster Hunter is and puts it into an entirely different genre from the mainline series. Combine that with a compelling stylised art direction, and you have a winner in Monster Hunter Stories.

The Stories games are focused more on RPG mechanics than the species of monster battling, though the hunting is just as prominent. Monsters are your friends in these games though, and you’ll be hatching more friends rather than hunting them to extinction, which is a pleasant change of pace.

Monster Hunter Stories was also Capcom’s grand return to more traditional RPG games.