Gotta Gatcha’m all.
Monster Hunter Stories 2, while not a direct sequel to its predecessor, evolves from its more kid-focused roots into a slightly more grown-up and emotional tale with an all-new Rider. While you’ll join up alongside characters you’ve met before, and a host of all-new ones, Stories 2 is a damn impressive sequel that takes much of what came before and fine-tunes its formula, making for one of the best Monster Hunter adventures yet. While the Stories series is certainly a different beast from your traditional Monster Hunter game, its turn-based battles still offer all the intensity of a treacherous hunt, as you battle nearly 100 monsters with an army of your own.
While the previous Monster Hunter games have all had a story in some capacity, some drastically more than others, Stories is exactly what its name implies, being a game that is more focused on contributing a narrative amongst its hunting of said monsters. There are plenty of characters and cutscenes to drive home its action-packed story, but it rarely feels like your own, at least for the better part of it. Your character is the grandchild of Red, a man who has left his mark upon the world. You’re given bits and pieces of his journey through countless flashbacks, and eventually, it then comes to you to not only follow in his footsteps but to continue the journey he left behind. While the story is largely entertaining, with likely my favorite final boss of any Monster Hunter game, it certainly has some pacing and generic moments that feel uneven throughout the 45-50 hour journey.
What I find is the most disappointing aspect of the story is that your character is entirely silent. Instead, we rely on Navirou, the Meowth-inspired Felyne from the previous game to fill that silence. While he is certainly there to appeal to the younger audience this game is mostly aimed at, key moments in the story that are built around some heartfelt emotion or vastly important conversations that need to be had, are often ruined because of his overconfident and often misplaced interruptions, and the fact that he speaks for the player regardless of how you yourself feel about the moment. Had my character been able to speak for themselves, even minimally, I likely wouldn't have minded Navirou’s input from time to time, but he eventually wore out his welcome and became the only annoying aspect of the game to get on my nerves.
Stories 2 is, in fact, a sequel to the original game as while the story itself is not a direct continuation, several characters present in the original game are here, and you’ll know who they are as Navirou will recognize them and already share a history with many of them. I wouldn’t say you need to have played the original, but having done so, you’ll certainly share a deeper understanding of who they are as characters and how they have grown since the last adventure. The cast is more or less enjoyable, but the fact that Hunters don’t have a monster with them can make some chapters and moments feel more grindy due to the lack of a 2nd Monstie on the field. It’s a shame you couldn’t just bring a second of your six equipped Monstie’s in with you into combat to fill out the missing member. And while it doesn’t happen all too often, there are moments where it’s just you and your Monstie, and this can make some Monster encounters a real challenge, especially if you are wanting to grind up before entering the next area or go on a scouting adventure for more Monstie eggs.
The story itself takes a while to really get interesting. Once you start to meet a lot of the key players and where and when the villains start to reveal themselves, it begins to take on a very different vibe. The original Stories featured a much younger cast, and while many of them are grown up here, the story ages up appropriately as well, giving some really intense and dark moments that truly shine. In fact, the whole final act is some of the best Monster Hunter content from a story perspective, even outpacing much of what Rise offered not too long ago. The fact we got two incredible Monster Hunter games with really enjoyable stories in the same year is impressive and continues to show that Capcom is truly back in the game, putting out hit after hit for the past few years now.
Stories 2 follows the tale of a new Rider, the grandchild of a man called Red, who despite early rumors across the internet, is not the protagonist of the first game. When his previous Monstie, the Rathalos titled ‘Guardian Ratha’, is nearly attacked during a siege on the island, a character named Ena is given a Rathalos egg to protect, and a short while later, that egg is given to you, as a sort of inheritance in a way, as is receiving Red’s Kinship stone, an item that allows you to bond with your collection of Monsties. As you battle, you’ll level it up, which is more or less for narrative purposes as it tends to only happen after key moments in the story. Now, your Rathalos comes with a prophecy about the Wings of Ruin, and sure enough, once it hatches, your Rathalos is the one of legend. What follows next is your growing team of companions navigating this legend and attempting to uncover the truth behind it and what is causing the destruction across the land.
This destruction comes in the form of red glowing pits that have erupted all over the mainland, causing regular monsters to become enraged and are granted incredible power. As a group, you’ll track down these pits, defeat their protectors, and attempt to uncover the source behind them. As I mentioned, the story itself starts off slow to get to where it picks up, and while none of it is particularly bad, it just fails at being a consistently well-told adventure. There are a few twists and turns and some entertaining villains, even if one of them was plainly obvious before their reveal. It’s just a shame that many characters simply leave the story for no real decent reason, often having you at the mercy of soloing some fights until you meet up with your next party member.
Now, combat in a 40-50hr RPG is going to be repetitive regardless of what you largely have available to you. Stories 2 gives you plenty of Monsties to add to your group, as well as a few different companions, each with a variety of abilities and Monsties of their own, should they be a Rider and not a Hunter, otherwise, you will only have them as a solo addition to your party. Regardless, it's the core mechanics and fundamentals that you'll be performing again and again where it really needs to shine to feel good even after some 20+ hours. Thankfully, the combat here is excellent, giving you just as much of a thrill as your real-time efforts in the other Monster Hunter games. While you're not riding on the back of monsters as you stab at them, or pursuing them as they limp off, wounded in their retreat, the turn-based affair that takes place here is still every bit as exciting.
Combat plays out mostly through a rock-paper-scissors ordeal with Power beating Technical, Technical beating Speed, and Speed beating Power. These are illustrated via Red, Green, and Blue; respectively. This largely plays out when you are targetting a monster or one is targetting you. As most Monsties that you bring with you are based around one of these types, you'll often want to build a group that diversifies your available options, instead of loading up with just Power hitters, or Speedy attackers and neglecting Technical. Upon a targetted assault, the corresponding attack according to the rules of rock-paper-scissors will have the victor perform their attack and the loser then denied theirs.
At first, the start of most battles can be a guessing game, but often, most monsters will exhibit certain criteria or behaviors that you can usually guess that a big hulking bruiser is likely Power, a more agile one regulated to Speed, and the in-between then making up Technical. However; many monsters have the ability to swap types during combat, offering hints through changes to their pose, or under different circumstances; keeping you and your party on your toes. As you perform an attack or use an item, the type of attack they are about to use will flash up above them, giving away their attack type, unless they are using a special attack, which is then marked in yellow, denying you that glance at what combat type they are until you attack or use an item again.
Now, while you can control what attacks your Monstie uses during battle to a certain extent, or let them just do what they want, the AI can often pick the losing side of those battles, picking Power against a Speed attacker instead of the Technical attack you manually had them perform just moments ago. This also goes for your AI companions which you cannot control, leaving it up to them to hopefully make good choices. I've had my companions use a healing potion after receiving a scratch, but not using one as they are almost dead, making me spend my entire turn healing everyone. In fact, this is something I found I was constantly doing, except when one of my companions was a support class, but you only get her for a few hours, and then she’s gone from the story for quite some time.
Combat is further fleshed out with button prompts as monsters duke it out, either pushing them off-screen or in the air, causing them to get slammed into the ground below. Now, as you gain ground through these standoffs or through using items or winning targeted showdowns, you'll gain energy that you can use for a variety of special skills, or as a special attack where you’ve mounted your Monstie and perform a big move, one that can be furthered leveled up as you attack while mounted. What is cool about these moves, is that your companion, should they have theirs charged as well, can perform a double attack alongside you, causing even more damage. It's also worth pointing out that targeted attacks can often see your Monstie or theirs attack with you, should you both have the same type of attack in mind. Now, while the big flashy attacks are impressive and different for each and every Monstie, the fact they are canned sequences to particular backgrounds can be confusing when you see a bright sunny backdrop during the attack while in a dark and moody cave or out in the frozen mountains. It’s a lazy part of their animation for sure, but not really something to affect my experience that poorly.
The core way of breaking down a monster is by dealing damage to key parts of their body. It wouldn’t be a Monster Hunter game unless you were harvesting parts of the monster to create new armor or a flashy new weapon. Here, you'll have a part-wheel that allows you to target wings, legs, head, or body, often preventing a monster from using a certain attack. You can also use items or traps to prevent certain attacks as well, in typical Monster Hunter fashion. Now, breaking down a monster is simple enough, but let's say you are just targeting their wings, because of an attack you’re warned about happening by your team. Often, the AI would target anything but that key spot, making me often the only attacker working on that part of their body. Sure, they were weakening other components of their frame, but telling me that “We need to take out those wings, now!!” And then going for a body shot just made no sense.
Taking those parts and pieces back to a smith can reward you with the ability to craft armor and weapons, providing you have enough materials and money. Now, the amounts you need vary from set to set, but the cost here is largely less than your typical Monster Hunter game. This streamlined approach is great and given that this game has nearly 100 monsters available at launch to turn into some aspect of armor or weapons, you want to make that procurement of an item easier and quicker. You can craft as well as upgrade a wide variety of greatswords, the sword and shield, hammers, a bow, as well as the gunlance and the hunting horn. You sadly don’t have access to some of the weapons found in the mainline series, such as the Charge Blade, limiting the game to just the six weapon types. Now, another aspect that leads into combat is their attack type. The Great Sword and the Sword and Shield cause Slashing damage, whereas Hammers and the Hunting Horn give out Blunt damage. Lastly, Bows and the Gunlance offer up Piercing damage, which will all affect monsters in different ways, causing more damage if they are weak against that type, and less damage if they are more resistant to it. Each monster will display an icon that indicates if that weapon is actually doing good damage or if your efforts are barely doing anything to them.
Now, with all this talk about Monsties and Monsters, let’s get down to the differences and how you’ll be adding Monsties to your group. Monsties are monsters that you’ve hatched from eggs, forming a bond between monster and rider. Monsters are what you’ll simply come into contact with while out and about, and are creatures that serve no rider or master. Monsties are hatched from eggs that you’ll find in dens, in a nest that is either protected by a monster, found next to them sleeping, or simply left behind and alone. Sometimes you’ll be able to swap out an egg for hopefully a better one with better stats, and in some cases, you’ll only have the one egg and be stuck with whatever is present. The den’s you will visit will vary in rarity, with special gold den’s hosting rarer eggs popping up as the availability of den’s randomize every time you leave a hub location and enter back into the map. You’ll also encounter Everden’s which unlike other den’s are fixed in certain locations, and contain bottle caps in special chests, which are a currency you’ll be grinding away at to unlock special event tickets, new hairstyles, outfits for your companions, and more premium items, such as permanent stat boosters and increasing your stable space for more Monsties.
Monsties will have varying attacks, abilities such as jumping gaps, or climbing vines, and a host of different stats. And while some stats are only ever shown when they hatch, you’ll have a 3x3 grid with connected lines that you can tweak and adjust their abilities through a process called the Rite of Channelling. While it takes a while into the game to unlock, you can essentially sacrifice another Monstie to transfer powers and abilities to another, making them more powerful or granting them skills they likely wouldn’t have otherwise. It’s a nice system that rewards you for not always getting that perfect Gatcha egg, but if you do, it allows for further tweaking of that god-roll Monstie. Now, as for the 3x3 grid, having a line of a certain color will grant bonuses, so you’ll often want to grind away at finding eggs to find attacks and skills that benefit you in combat, making that Monstie extra special. In order to unlock most of their grid, which does contain a few locked spaces, you’ll need to either level them up or use items to bypass the blank spaces, allowing you to have more access to everything they can learn. If you end up getting a very cool Monstie later on, placing them in your party reserves and turning in side quests can cause them to level up incredibly fast. In fact, I would often need only 45 mins to an hour to get my new addition right up with the rest of my team, reducing the grind needed to make them a vital component of my team.
Now, given that the game was the same price on Switch as it was on Steam, I opted for once to go with the PC version and that was largely due to the performance I experienced trying out both demos, and the need of having it portable wasn’t a big draw for me. While the game is clearly an enhanced port of the Switch release, it still looks and runs fantastic on PC, giving way to 60fps and higher instead of the Switch’s fluctuating 30fps, which seems to drop pretty often. Granted, I did have a few moments of slowdown, especially during the moments where both Monsters would take to the skies in battle, but otherwise, I didn’t really have too many issues apart from transparency effects having weird lines through my cloaked Monstie, or whenever I would come out of a store for a few seconds. Also, the foliage would often grow and appear around me as I ran, which is odd for a PC version but something I would have expected for the Switch, given the limitations of the aging hardware. Again, since this is a visually similar release to that of the Switch, there are countless bland textures and some very flat and boxy character models, especially that of small monsters that have wide flat angles on them, and some parts of the environment are just lacking in detail. Also, many environments, especially that of caves and dens are almost always the exact same cave with slight alterations that would occasionally make it feel new until you would find that same waterfall section with the same gaps or vines nearby. Still, the art design of the game is superb, I just wish the PC release saw a better increase in detail to accommodate the hardware.
Across the game world, you'll have a few hub locations that have various vendors as well as a quest board, or a prayer pot, allowing for a few pre-mission perks to be used. The quest board is where your side quests and multiplayer will be housed. There are also trial quests, which are more like arena battles where you'll fight a few monsters for experience, money, and other rewards. There are tournaments to take part in, and the full multiplayer suite offers co-op quests, versus battles, and you can customize your profile cards as well. If you want to do the co-op quests but without another player, you simply need to start the mission immediately after making it and the game will generate an NPC for you, giving you some AI help. Co-op missions vary, just as they do in the story, with exploring dens for eggs, or slaying particular monsters. Overall, I had no issues with online, with not a single dropped session or uncooperative partner.
Despite an inconsistently well-told story, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a truly engaging and wonderful game with a few blemishes that do hold it back. It can be a bit grindy and some battles feel like you are doing nothing but healing as your party widdles away at your attacker all while choosing the wrong moves for the encounter. However, when combat shines, and it frequently does, the game is a nail-biting turn-based affair that does the franchise justice. The sheer amount of monsters to fight, the Monsties to collect and upgrade, and the armor sets and weapons are vast in number with so much to work towards. The online content is decent with a lot to do with friends, and the wide arrangement of side quests will certainly keep you busy as you add more and more Monsties to your party. Stories is shaping up to be just as impressive as the main series with its own twist on a much-beloved formula. With Monster Hunter having both a real-time franchise and a turn-based series, there is certainly going to be one that works for you, and if you enjoy both, then you’re treated to more Monster Hunter more often, and that’s a very good thing.
As for my PC, I have a gaming laptop that has an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 with 16GB of ram. It’s not a drastically powerful system, but it is above the recommended requirements. I ran the game in variable frame modes, opting for 60fps during most of my play. I ran the game on its highest settings and only experienced a few moments of slow down in specific areas such as when Monsters would take flight for their airborne battles, otherwise, it was smooth sailing and the game ran like a dream.
Developer - Capcom/Marvelous. Publisher - Capcom. Released - July 9th, 2021. Available On - Nintendo Switch, Windows. Rated - (E 10+) Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language.
Platform Reviewed - Windows - Steam. Review Access - Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin was purchased by the reviewer.