The game puts you in the position of a newbie hunter arriving in the calm village of Yukumo, famous for its hot springs as a tourist attraction. However, Yukumo has recently fallen on dark times thanks to the sudden emergence of the Zinogre, a member of the newly-discovered Fanged Wyverns who has been displaced from its home in the mountains by a mysterious Elder Dragon and thus has gotten close to the Village in a bid to find a new home. It's up to you to defeat Zinogre and subsequently deal with the Elder Dragon behind it all.
Portable 3rd combines several features from both Monster Hunter Tri and past Freedom games, and ultimately expands upon them greatly, like the Palico sidekicks (you can now bring two of them at a time to hunting quests), the arrival of unexpected monsters in quests with unstable environments, and the introduction of subspecies based on monsters from Tri and past Freedom games. To compensate the absence of underwater combat, which subsequently led to the omission of the most water-dependant monsters, the game introduces brand-new monsters that serve as their earthly equivalents: Nibelsnarf standing for Gobul, Zinogre for Lagiacrus, and Amatsu for Ceadeus. Other monsters like Arzuros and Duramboros made their debut here as well. Many features from this game would be incorporated later in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Monster Hunter Generations, while the game itself would be spiritually followed up by Monster Hunter: Rise a decade later.
Like previous PSP Monster Hunter games, Portable 3rd only natively supports local multiplayer. But in 2012, a revamped HD port of the game was released for the PlayStation 3 and included online play, as well as an app to connect the PSP version to it in order to play online from there by proxy.
The game contains examples of the following tropes:
- 24-Hour Armor: Downplayed. Taking a bath, which grants a temporary stat boost, causes the player-character to automatically doff their armor in favor of a Modesty Towel. They still sleep in full armor, though. Generations, which sees the return of Yukumo Village, allows the player to take off their waist and foot armor to enjoy a footbath.
- Angry, Angry Hippos: The game introduces the Slagtoths, odd saurian creatures that resemble hippos crossed with frogs and slugs, and are water-dwelling herbivores that will instantly aggro and attack any hunters who get too close by rearing up and trying to crush them under their weight. They aren't dangerous in the slightest, but can be annoying if you fight a monster in their territory since they will happily waddle up and try to hit you in true "annoying lesser monster" fashion.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: Zinogre's theme is the first monster theme in the entire series to actually use electric guitars. The monster in question is an electrified lupine monster, so the music fits.
- The Bus Came Back: Anteka, Bulldrome, Tigrex, Nargacuga, Ukanlos and Akantor all return after being absent in Tri. Tigrex and Nargacuga even receive subspecies. The Palico class of Felynes returns from Freedom Unite as well.
- Background Music Override: Normally, when hunting a monster, the area's standard Battle Theme Music plays, but certain monsters have their own themes; so when two monsters are present and each of them usually plays a different boss theme, only one of these will play. This is the priority order: Jaggi (or any other large theropod) < Arzuros (or any other Fanged Beast except Bulldrome) < Stage < Nargacuga < Tigrex < Zinogre < Arena < Deviljho.
- Battle in the Rain: Amatsu is an Elder Dragon with exceptional powers based on water and wind, and whenever you fight it in the Sacred Pinnacle the whole place is experiencing a downpour that is even bigger than the rains caused by Kushala Daora. The rain stops and the dark clouds fade away after you defeat the Elder Dragon.
- Blow You Away:
- Nibelsnarf and Sand Barioth can shoot powerful gusts of wind. The former does it in a way similar to Gobul from Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) (expelling a vortex of wind from its mouth), which would have this power as well except it can only do it underwater. The latter can lay a vertical cyclone and then use it to spin and quickly charge at the hunter.
- Amatsu is a powerful Elder Dragon capable of performing cyclones by moving its body rapidly during battle. These cyclones can move around the battlefield and eventually merge before disappearing. The wind is also how Amatsu can hover in the air to begin with, and the exceptional control the monster has over it is one of the ways (the other way being its equally exceptional aquatic powers) it can render the wheather unstable and dangerous for the hunters and the wildlife alike.
- Boss-Only Level: In addition to featuring the Great Desert and Sacred Land from Tri, the game introduces the Lava Canyon (a Lethal Lava Land landscape where Akantor is fought), Polar Field (a Slippy-Slidey Ice World area housing Ukanlos), and Sacred Pinnacle (a rainy Death Mountain summit where the powerful Amatsu awaits).
- Chrome Champion: The subspecies Steel Uragaan, due to having a metallic carapace instead of a rocky one like the standard Uragaan; it is theorized by the Guild that this is the result of the monster feeding on metallic ore instead of rocks. The reactivity of this carapace allows it to unleash a fetid gas during battle, which upon contact prevents a hunter from using items (except for the Cleanser to remove the ailment).
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Duramboros is an enormous, mossy Brute Wyvern with curved horns and a round tail that can take a lot of punishment from hunters before finally dying. If the player doesn't wish to spend too much time fighting it, then it's recommended to capture the monster when it's weak enough.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Zinogre is the major threat for most of the game, but defeating isn't the end of the campaign as you still have to deal with the Elder Dragon responsible for its presence, Amatsu.
- Fartillery: Volvidon and Steel Uragaan are capable of unleashing a fetid gas from their skins. They both inflict the same soiling status effect that Congalala in the second-generation inflicts, namely the prevention of item use until it expires or unless a Deodorant is used.
- Feed It a Bomb: Nibelsnarf. One of the easiest ways to deal damage to it is to plant some bombs or Shock Traps and make him chase you into them with its mouth open. Once they go off, it'll stagger him, giving an opening. Another thing is that the most vulnerable part of him is his Uvula.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Despite having one of the silliest creature names in the game, the Nibelsnarf is a fairly dangerous burrowing Leviathan-type monster.
- Green Hill Zone: In addition to featuring Deserted Island from Tri, the game introduces the Misty Peaks, a beautiful forest in the mountains with a lush waterfall and a gold cavern. Though its layout is slightly more complex than that of Deserted Island, it's still a relatively safe hunting area for novice hunters, as it doesn't feature any environmental hazards.
- Hub City: Yukumo for single-player quests. As with previous Portable-series games, the one from the first mainline game is replaced by a Gathering Hub within the village for multiplayer quests.
- An Ice Person: In addition to featuring Barioth from Tri and Ukanlos from Freedom Unite, the game introduces two new ice-based monsters:
- Jade Barroth is a subspecies that live in snowy regions, contrasting the standard Barroth's preference towrds deserts. Thus, instead of attacking hunters and preys with mud or dust, it relies on shaking itself to drop dense snowy debris capable of impairing a hunter's mobility.
- Glacial Agnaktor is a subspecies that stands out from its volcanic parent species by inhabiting snowy biomes instead. As a result, whereas the standard Agnaktor aims to cover its weak points with rock-hard layers and attacks by shooting fire beams, the subspecies covers its weak points with layers reinforced with hard snow and attacks with freezing ice beams.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Zinogre, which debuted in this game as its Mascot and has since then enjoyed a near-perfect attendance record in all subsequent Monster Hunter games (except the base version of Monster Hunter: World, which would be rectified in the Iceborne expansion), starting from this game's immediate followup (3 Ultimate, whose original version predated the release of Portable 3rd itself).
- Making a Splash: Amatsu is a large Elder Dragon that floats in the air thanks to the dense wind currents it creates around. Wherever it goes, rains and downpours ensue, which makes it a major natural threat. Within its vast repertoire of attacks, there's the strong water streams it can shoot from its mouth, and do so while it looks from down to up. When it's enraged, it can shoot a bigger stream from afar in the skies.
- Missing Secret: Despite the presence of Rathian, Rathalos and their respective rare species (Gold and Silver), the Pink and Azure subspecies don't appear anywhere in the game, just like in Tri. They'd have to wait until 3 Ultimate to finally have a presence in the series' third generation.
- Monster Arena: The game has both the standard Land Arena from Tri and the debuting Small Arena where Bulldrome and all Mini-Boss monsters (Great Jaggi, Great Wroggi, Great Baggi, Arzuros, Lagombi and Volvidon) can be fought.
- Monster Threat Expiration: Not only can this happen with Deviljho in High Rank (like it happened in Tri and happens again in 3 Ultimate), but also with Zinogre in Low Rank. Completing certain quests involving hunting lower-threat monsters or simply gathering items for delivery will, instead of take you back to the village as usual, trigger a warning signaling the arrival of Zinogre. You have the option to fight it with your current gear, though it's not advised until you progress into the story until Zinogre finally becomes the main target in the 5-Star Urgent Quest.
- Poisonous Person: In addition to bringing back the poisonous Gigginox, the game introduces two monsters with an affinity to poison:
- Great Wroggi is a theropod-based Bird Wyvern that serves as the King Mook of the Wroggi mooks. It exhales a poisonous breath that can affect hunters as well as small monsters. It prepares the breath by inflating the organic sac located in its throat.
- Purple Ludroth is a subspecies of Ludroth that inhabits the Misty Peaks and, more rarely, Deserted Island. Whereas its standard yellow cousin shoots water globules at hunters and natural preys, it opts instead for shooting balls of concentrated toxins. It's unable to swim underwater, unlike the parent species (it cannot swim in 3 Ultimate either).
- Raijū: The Zinogre is based on the raijū, being a wolf-like monster capable of generating powerful electrical shocks.
- Remixed Level: Two locales from tri- appear in this game, but adjusted to remove underwater exploration and combat:
- The Flooded Forest alters underwater areas to only have knee-deep water at most, due to the removal of underwater mechanics. This dried-up variation would later serve as the basis for the map's incarnation in Monster Hunter: Rise.
- To a smaller extent, the Deserted Island. Area 11 is underwater-only and 12 is only connected to the rest of the map by 11, so those two areas were removed for this game; as such, the northern shortcut from area 8 now goes to area 10 instead of 11. Area 10's submerged area is no longer accessible. This version of the map would be reused for Monster Hunter Generations, rather than the tri- / 3 Ultimate incarnation.
- Sand Blaster:
- Nibelsnarf is a desert-dwelling Leviathan with a wide maw it can use to absorb sand and then exhale it as a powerful sandy torrent. On rare occasion, it will expel dust from its gills to harm unsuspecting hunters.
- The Sand Barioth, subspecies of the snow-dwelling Barioth, is capable of shooting balls of sand as well as creating sand cyclones, which it can then use to perform a rapid charge at the hunter during battle. In 3 Ultimate, specifically in G Rank, it can even shoot smaller cyclones that can move across the area.
- Shock and Awe:
- The game's flagship monster, Zinogre, attacks with the electric energy it has managed to process from the Thunderbugs that are living symbiotically in its back. It can either shoot electric balls by doing backflips, unleashing a powerful discharge, or punching downward at their enemies with its front paws.
- Crimson Qurupeco trades the fireballs shot by its parent Qurupeco species for electrical discharges to attack hunters and natural preys. It can also rub its flints to unleash a blinding light that stuns all opponents present in its surroundings.
- Baleful Gigginox is a subspecies that trades the poisonous abilities of its parent version for the ability to shoot electric balls and charging at hunters and preys with an electric discharge, much like Khezu from past Monster Hunter games.
- Spectacular Spinning: Duramboros attacks primarily by spinning its tail around the rest of its body to perform a skyward launch and try to stomp the hunters. It's a very powerful attack (a layer with little health can faint easily due to this attack), but it leads to Duramboros needing a brief cooldown period before being able to stand up to reaume attacking. During this period, the hunter can proceed to attack the monster without risk.
- Stock Animal Diet: The bear-like Fanged Beast Arzuros can be seen eating honey or Sushifish. It usually goes for the former if it's hungry, but sometimes it can toss up one of the latter offscreen in freshwater areas. The introduction video for the more powerful Zinogre monster, which shows a number of other creatures fleeing from its approach, includes an Arzuros caught in the middle of a honey meal, who gives the beehive it was eating from one last hesitant look before running away.
- Superboss: During the endgame of the high rank quests, it's possible to unlock quests pertaining powerful monsters from past Monster Hunter games by meeting certain conditions: Gold Rathian and Silver Rathalos are unlocked by hunting a combined total of 100 large Wyverns (this also includes the Leviathans, because they're known as Sea Wyverns in the games' Japanese versions); Akantor and Ukanlos are unlocked by completing all single-monster hunting quests (including Amatsu's Urgent Quest), and Alatreon is unlocked by completing all Dual Boss hunting quests. Alatreon also requires prior completion of Amatsu's quest, despite it being single-monster.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- Many new monsters take the place of third generation monsters not present due to a lack of underwater combat such as Nibelsnarf instead of Gobul; Zinogre instead of Lagiacrus and Amatsu instead Ceadeus. Ludroth is still present, despite being a natively aquatic monster. The former four monsters appear together in 3 Ultimate.
- In the absence of Iodrome in the third generation, Great Wroggi inherits the role of a poisonous theropod-class Bird Wyvern.
- Tactical Suicide Boss:
- The Duramboros occasionally does a huge spinning leap into the air and comes smashing down (which hurts about as much as you'd expect from having a 18 foot tall dinosaur land on you), but it takes several seconds to get up, leaving you free to attack its tail, which is a weak point and usually too high in the air to get a clear shot at otherwise.
- Zinogre has to go through a lengthy charging animation when it gets depowered, calling in Fulgurbugs to restore its electrified state. This leaves Hunters a significant opening to wail on its head, which may interrupt its charging for a time, or, as of Iceborne, smack it in the face a few times with the Clutch Claw and drive it into a wall with a Flinch Shot. It also does a back-first body slam move, which, while extremely damaging, causes it to get stuck in the ground for some time.
- Tech-Demo Game: The PS3 version was used at a PS Vita tech demo
to show that one could simply port a home console game over to the handheld. Capcom was amazed at how easy it was. - That's No Moon: Nibelsnarf hides beneath a small dune in desrt areas that have other dunes, to fool their preys into approaching them so they're eaten. A hunter can tell where the monster is due to its exhaling breath, however.
- Tourism-Derailing Event: Yukumo Village is usually visited by many people to enjoy the local hot springs, but the migration of Zinogre from the high mountains has affected this. The player hunter is tasked to hunt monsters, including eventually Zinogre, in order to reverse the situation. Then, in High Rank quests, it's revealed that the Zinogre exodus is caused by Amatsu, a powerful Elder Dragon that is responsible for the irregular weather conditions that also began happening since the Zinogre sightings.
- Wintry Auroral Sky: In Polar Field, the night sky shows a beautiful pattern of auroral lights leaning to the horizon, and colored green, purple and pink. In later games where this area returns, the trope is averted, as it's set during day instead of night, and the sky is deep gray due to the snowstorm.
- Wutai: Yukumo Village is a traditional Japanese village with hot springs as its main attraction and a base armor that has a samurai-styled look. The village is plagued by the presence of nearby monsters such as Zinogre that threaten it.
- Yōkai: Zinogre is based on the Raijū and like the Yokai of Japanese folklore it threatens a peaceful village with its ferocious behavior and presence.
