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Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin


Maryokutai
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Just by typing the title I realised they could just have dropped the "2" from it, nobody played the first one anyway unfortunately and it would look nicer visually.

 

Anyway - I've finally started playing this over the weekend. Due to certain circumstances I didn't get as much time with it as I had hoped (see here), but I did manage to finish the prologue of sorts which takes about 5 hours. Lots of good things here with few negative stuff, but overall so far it's pretty much exactly what I would have wanted from a sequel.

 

Fundamentally it's still Monster Hunter x Pokémon, meaning you gotta breed them all by collecting and hatching monsters from eggs. Those monsters will then accompany you on your travels and both help for traversal on the map due to their faster running speed or other special skills (jumping, cimbing, swimming etc.) and during combat. During combat you only have limited control over them, but each has its own tendencies, so switching between them depending on the enemy is the way to go. The basics of combat being rock-paper-scissors haven't changed, so you still use this feature to build up the Kinship Gauge, which is basically a mana pool that allows you to use skills and command your monster more directly by letting it use special moves as well. New to Wings of Ruin are weapon classes. In the first game your weapon only influenced the skills you could use as your character was more of a support for your monster, but this time you play a more virtal role and can target weaknesses with a weapon type that is particularly effective. An early example is smashing the rock a monster uses for a weapon with the hammer, or cutting its tail with a greatsword. 

 

Outside of combat it's a classic JRPG experience with semi-big HUB areas, quests, treasure chests and such. One thing I have mixed feelings about is the NPC partner that's with you most of the time during these initial 5 hours. I don't have anything against the character and she's certainly easy on the eyes, but it takes away from the feeling of it being a solitary adventure, with only you and your Monsters à la Pokémon. Now it could be that she goes her own way at some point but the fact that she levels up after combat and that some enemies have rather huge HP pools I get the feeling that it's designed to have a party of two (or four, technically) most of the time. 

 

There's been a lot of talk online about the technical side of the game. In context with the hardware it's running on, it's certainly less impressive that the original. Where MHS1 was basically a triple-A game on 3DS, this feels more of a budget mid-tier game that suffers from a low-ish framerate and some horrible pop-in. It's not without its charms though, as it has a very vibrant and nice style, the character models are great and during combat it really shines with impressive animations and effects. And the sound effect that plays when you land a critical hit on a downed monster might just be one of the most satisfying I've ever heard in the game.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I see this is having as much success as the first one.

 

I didn't get as much time as I wanted over the last week but I finally managed to leave the second area (Alkala), which dragged on a bit too long IMO. It felt like a second tutorial and it also doesn't help that the town you keep returning to has such massive framerate issues that it's not particularly fun running around in it, even though the music is nice. However, close to the end of Alkala and the beginning of Lolaska the quality ramps up significantly but I won't deny it might be because a) they brought back the excellent ice region battle theme and b) there's a surprising amount of references to the first game here, including a (temporary?) party member. The story also seems to only properly start here with an interesting, albeit not mind-blowing setup.

 

So far, so good. The quality level seems more like a roller coaster than the straight line of the first game but I'm enjoying it a lot. The increased graphical fidelity also makes crafting and recolouring armour more fun than in the first game. And the player character, despite being silent, is as expressive as ever:

 

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(Love the Jaggis, they're the most classic Dinosaur-looking Monsters by far)

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  • 4 weeks later...

There are moments in 2 where knowing the first elevates the experience, as there are occasional references or even guest characters from that game in your party.

 

Personally speaking I also think the first one was better, so I'd recommend playing it. 3DS games also don't get prettier as we move along and the longer you wait the harder it'll be to adjust to the visuals.

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Finished the main story yesterday. I really liked it but at the same time I think it's simultaneously better and worse than the first one. Its main problem seems to have been the budget they got for it, as there are quite a lot of little things that very obviously are the results of corners being cut. I imagine this has to do with it being a HD sort-of home console sequel to an under-appreciated handheld game, meaning the budget probably didn't increase enough to make up for the more polished visual fidelity they had to go through while at the same time improving and expanding on the original template.

 

For example, progress is very formulaic for the most part. There's an overarching plot where you investigate mysterious pits in the ground that send out a beam of light which drives surrounding monsters crazy. There's one of those in every area you visit but before you can get to it, you have to do some quests in every dungeon in said area. All those quests are about a monster making life difficult for the people in that area and every dungeon's layout you visit is made up by the same modular pieces, so by the time you visit the second area you've basically seen them all in one way or another. And there are other small things that show that this just didn't get the same treatment as, say Monster Hunter Rise. The framerate is all over the place, ranging in the 40s in some of the dungeons but dropping frighteningly close to the 20s in some towns. Camera control isn't analogue, so no matter how far you push the stick it always rotates with the same speed, which reminds me of PSP shooters. And despite some good quality-of-life features, some very obvious ones are missing, like for example a dial menu to switch you leading monster instead of having to go to the menu every single time.

 

The first game, in contrast, had a more organic progression, more unique dungeons. And also felt more polished all-around – relatively speaking of course because it's a 3DS game. It's like it was tailor-made for that platform at that time whereas Stories 2 feels like a game that might have been planned for the Vita and then got forced into a bigger system and is now punching above its weight because, even though I would have been absolutely fine with less content in some areas, it seems they wanted to fulfill a certain quota in terms of monsters, armour, weapons, areas and playtime to be able to compete in the landscape of big HD-TV RPGs. They didn't even get proper support for the RE engine and opted to use MT framework instead, which was solid for its time but has since been eclipsed by REE, which also powers Rise, so it's not like Switch can't handle it.

 

But outside of all that, which I really can't blame the actual developers too much for, there's still a wonderfully motivating Pokémon-like here with a truckload of charm. My initial reservations about additional party members proved misplaced as I've grown to like them. Sometimes you're going to roll your eyes when you see the action those NPC party members take in battle but you quickly learn how to use them to your advantage. If you see the opponent targeting them that gives you a free turn for buffs or healing and if they plan to use their special attack – which locks the opponent out of their action for that turn – means you basically have a free turn to do whatever you want. Or you can choose and use your own special attack for a devastating coop move. It all works really well and those moments where you're on your own still happen from time to time when moving from one area to the next.

 

The storyline seemed a bit undercooked with one group of baddies thrown into the mix and then getting basically forgotten for about 15-20 hours until they pop again very shortly close to the final. The latter is pretty bombastic though, not unlike the first game's, with a very cool-looking final boss and a very drawn-out fight (didn't watch the clock but wouldn't be surprised if it took 45 minutes or so). There are some genuinely good and gripping cutscenes in this though, but some aspects feel a little underdeveloped. I did enjoy the story though and the characters for the most part are rather likeable (though Navirou can be a bit annoying now that he's voiced).

 

The monster collecting stuff is still highly motivating because it brings with it so many different new things to uncover: what weapons can I make now, which armour can I craft, what moves does this monster have if I manage to get one, how does its special attack look? There are moments where I had to force myself not to return to the last visited city every time I beat a new enemy just to see the items I could get my hands on. It's a different take on the Pokémon idea but it has the same effect on the player IMO. Perfectionists can also pay special attention to genes and breed perfect monsters, but just like in the first game I only scratched the surface here. It's mostly useful for postgame stuff, which I will check out at some point (lots of new monsters here you don't see in the main areas) but for now I'll take a break from it for a bit.

 

My final Rider Card looked like this, I coloured my Deviljho armour black to make it even more edgy:

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Err, this game is excellent? @Maryokutai why didn’t you tell me you always trying to hog the good games for yourself it’s very selfish

 

I also made the best character I’ve ever made 

 

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That little cat character is amazing too he needs his own spin-off 

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