Stories 2 is just downright gorgeous, the euphoria I feel riding my very own arzuros and tigrex through vast fields is actually unmatched. All the new weapon types added some MUCH needed hunter variety, and made mid-battle weapon swapping actually feel good. At the same time, though, Stories 2 lacked....... something that made Stories 1 feel so good, and I don't think I can pin it down on some glaringly obvious weakness. To be honest, I was kinda bored of this game for most of the time I was playing, and wasn't really sure what this game was offering me to come back to.

Den grinding is still as repetitive and boring as ever, and the monster ranking system which monsters scale stats around railroad you into using only small selections of monsters throughout the game, which badly hurts party diversity and you kinda just can't take one or two faves from the beginning to end because they get so badly outclassed in just the next area.

As beautiful as this game is, the actual landscapes to explore are so barren of anything meaningful that the game just becomes a walking/flying simulator with little reward, it's sad. Stories 2 is a pretty alright game that genuinely has endless potential to improve. It does have the best hairstyle options in Monster Hunter since the mainline 3DS games, so there's that at least!

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is an absolute trip! Who would have thought Kanye West would make a surprise appearance, screaming about Tracer, the Scout, and working things out? And the monsters deciding to off themselves, echoing the fate of the main character's father? It's a wild ride, and that's not even in the game!

But let's get real, the actual game is fantastic too. The intricate story, the epic battles, and the emotional rollercoaster of monster hunting are all top-notch. Even without the Kanye cameo, the game offers a gripping experience that keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you're into monster hunting and unexpected celebrity shoutouts, this game is a must-play.

Score: 9.5/10

(Campaña)
Un gran juego de gestión de monstruos. El combate es muy divertido, requiriendo conocer bien al rival para salir airoso. No hace falta farmear para acabar la historia principal pero tampoco te permite ir simplemente dando un paseo en los combates. La historia, sin ser nada del otro mundo, funciona bien, y los personajes son majos.
Tiene una gran variedad de monstruos, con muchas opciones para hacerlos únicos y propios. Los gráficos no son excelentes pero cumplen su función y el juego funciona bien. La opción de combatir al triple de velocidad hace que los turnos no sean excesivamente largos, así que los jugadores que no disfrutan mucho de los rpg por turnos tienen aquí un obstáculo no tan grande.

No he jugado el postgame pero, conociendo la saga Monster Hunter, supongo que será mejor aún que el juego base.

You wouldn't think it, but there are a surprising number of conventions and tropes in the Monster Hunter franchise that fit well in a turn-based RPG, especially when you include monster catching/training. While I mostly enjoyed my time with Stories 2, the game often felt like it was having an identity crisis and was doing things that it felt like it had to do because that's how Monster Hunter does it, even when it did not make a modicum of sense.

To start off with, the plot is solid (especially for one rooted in the MH universe). You journey across several different major areas with your newly hatched Rathalos (who may never leave the party, this is Capcom's Charizard after all) in hopes of learning more about the prophecy that ruin will be brought to the land. Each new zone you journey to partners you up with a new buddy character, and you hear their Stories as you progress that arc in the plot with them. It gets a little formulaic, but all of the buddy characters are lovely and have compelling motivations. There is but one truly poor character in the game, and unfortunately it is Navirou; the Palico-turned-Funko-Pop who serves as the silent protagonist's mouthpiece for the duration of the story. He is genuinely grating and I don't even think I would mind so much if his design wasn't so out of place (just have him look like a normal palico!).

The combat system however, is quite good. You sort of have a layered RPS system where different monsters will either be focused on Power, Speed, or Technical attacks and you'll want to align both yours and your monster partner to use the attacks that beat it. You'll also want to pick the right type of weapon (Slash, Pierce, or Strike) that is strong against the part of the Monster you want to break. Each of the 6 available weapon types have their own quirks, and as you win more head-to-heads and occasional QTE sequences, you will build up your kinship gauge allowing you to get on your monster and unleash flashy, powerful attacks. While monster parts you've hit in the past will display their weaknesses in battle, the type of attacks the enemy monster has an affinity for will not. This turns it into purely a game of memory, especially when monsters enrage and switch up their tactics. It reminded me a lot of Fate/Extra in this way and is maybe one of my favourite parts about playing the game. There's a surprising amount of depth and nuance if you really want to dig into it.

Sadly, exploring the open world is sadly what drives me up the wall the most about the game. In the main Monster Hunter series, you set off on missions that are usually anywhere from 8 minutes to 40 minutes. All is quiet as you track your target, and when the battle begins is when the music flares up and really enhances the whole experience. For some insane reason, Capcom has decided that the open world in Stories 2 must also be silent at all times outside of battle. It is especially baffling when most of the music in the game is fantastic, but you just don't get to hear any of it for more than 50% of your time in the main story. There are lots of little caves and paths to explore and retrieve eggs to hatch into new Monsties to join you, but it is all silent during this time unless you get in a fight.

There's a pretty large selection of monsters in the game locking in at a little over 120, most of which are hatchable and can join your party, although they are spread out rather strangely and many of them are bizarrely absent for most of the game when there was plenty of room to introduce them sooner. As you might expect from a Monster Hunter title, this is because the game has a pretty sizable and in-depth High Rank post-game, but after 60 hours to get through the main story I really do not feel all that motivated to re-fight and catch all those Monsties again just to see a handful of new ones.

Despite all my gripes, I did genuinely enjoy much of my time with Stories 2. You can really see the potential for this series as a companion to the mainline action games, and I think if they made a Stories 3 after Wilds comes out, they could really have a banger. But for now Stories 2 is awkward, if not earnest, in its attempt to blend the popular action series with a turn-based RPG.

copying my steam review:

Already dropped about 220 or so hours on my Switch version, getting all the best Monsters and maxing out their bingo-sheets fully optimized and 2-stared on every gene. Now I'm finally wrapping up the PC version and caught up now. I'm basing my review content-wise on what I've already done on the Switch version (pretty much everything bar a few irrelevant subquests) and the performance is based on what I've seen so far with my own eyes starting at launch day (made it to the second Anjanath sighting) and then today (Made it to the end of Rutoh Village so far).

Content:
The game is, really good! Simple and easy at first but eventually the difficulty doesn't come from playing RPS, but rather kinship management, gene placement (so you can actually WIN those HtHs often and deal damage), and the timing for healing (not healing at the right time if you need another heart or to top off CAN get you wiped). The story I really couldn't personally care for. It's not bad by any measure (the plot "twist" kinda sucked and was unpredictable for bad reasons but, it's not TERRIBLE at least), I'm just saying I didn't care for it since its not why I bought this game. For fans of the first game, the story is probably amazing to you since it's filled with characters from the previous title and a few cheeky references. As much as I can appreciate the love and care done, it's not why I bought this time. For someone taking their time and grinding monsters out, and getting average and acceptable genes for the sake of progress, I finished the main story in about 60 hours (10+ hours were from the demo alone). I bought this game knowing the majority of my time playing this game would be in the post-game and its content. I was correct. I love the gameplay loop, I love the Super Rare tickets I can do with friends, I like the trials MUCH MORE than the Tower from the first game, and the overall gene editing as well. Even if I couldn't appreciate the QoL improvements made in this game coming out of the first game (causing me to NEVER look back), I'd still wind up in love this with game enough to play through it (and pay for it) two separate times. I do miss being able to easily change monster elements, but I don't mind it as much as I was expecting. The monster selection in this game is pretty neat, and the future roadmap is 100% going to keep me coming back monthly to catch up and try out all the new stuff (although I'm expecting one of the things to kinda suck I'm ngl). It's nothing 900IQ or anything but, it's not dumb either. It's just nice casual fun, which I think I've needed after playing a ton of minmaxy and hardcore games I've been diving into for thousands of hours the past few years. The attention to detail and the love put into this game is NOT unnoticed (example: using the Ice Armor move on Velkhana gives it it's ice armor form from Iceborne when it enrages). It's not perfect, and it doesn't actually have to be. It's pretty damn close though.

Performance:
This game was raided with negative reviews on the launch day this game had. I have zero exaggeration when I say this: none of it was even correct lmao. Like cumon, if you're gonna exaggerate stuff to try and make this game look bad, at least base it in truth to make it LOOK honest. People were claiming they were using top of the line specs and they were encountering stuttering, frame dips, the works. I'm running this game on a Rysen 3600 and a 1660 Super and I can play this game at MAX settings and at 144fps smoothly with zero problems, even when a lot is happening on the screen at once. There's ZERO way people were having this many issues with the game. Really now? Keyboard controls were maybe KINDA awkward? Man, using KBM on a Monster Hunter game? That sounds like a goooood idea. This is like lambasting a Souls game in its entirety for not feeling as good on KBM as it does on controller. And to top it off, it was people complaining about the simple character creation when it came to these controls. You can run this game on a potato, and as long as you know where you W, A, S, and D keys are on your keyboard you can figure out how to play this game. This thing is optimized insanely well, and the controls.... well if you can't afford a controller then you better get used to using right click to rotate that camera, bc it really ain't THAT bad. TLDR: Anyone complaining about performance with GOOD hardware 100% has issues with their PC that are not related to the game, and they should get that stuff checked out ASAP because this game is optimized insanely well. Please check your parts if you claim your 2070 Super cant hit 60 fps because something is VERY wrong and it is NOT on the game's end.


TL;DR: Bulldrome rarely drops its own parts in 144fps, good game. Worth at full price, which means on sale it's even more worth getting.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a faithful adaptation of Monster Hunter into a monster-collection game for kids. The rock-paper-scissors combat is simple enough, but it's supported by additional layers of combat complexity. Exploring the vast landscapes on the back of your favorite monstie feels great. And there's a ton of visually striking equipment to forge from monster parts.

Unfortunately the game suffers a bit from Yo-Kai Watch syndrome. This bounty of variety is both unnecessary due to the low difficulty, and fails to actually impact the moment-to-moment gameplay. Hatching a new monstie feels great, but by and large you're just going to use them as a slightly more powerful rock, paper, or scissors. The new areas unlocked by overworld abilities offer only optional vendor trash. And raising and breeding monsties is exceedingly grindy.

The story is so firmly targeted at kids that the best it can be for an adult player is inoffensive. Couple this with a lot of dropped inputs, weird joystick dead zones, and a highly variable framerate - the result is a game that lacks sophistication and detail. If I was in the demographic age for this game I would appreciate the scope and slower pace of the content, but as it is the game feels padded out and unmemorable.