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.