Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, with its turn-based combat system and story-oriented structure, approaches the Monster Hunter series, which has managed to reach wider audiences in the west with Monster Hunter World, from a different angle. Let's see how Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, whose first game was released for Nintendo 3DS, was together.
With Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, we see the side that we can call the "Rider", that is, the rider, who lives in harmony with the monsters, not one of the "Hunter" team, who accepts every monster he sees as a new prey. The Rider team consists of warriors who use weapons just like hunters and use armor made with pieces falling from monsters, but there is one important difference. Rider members have monsters that have bonded with him since birth. The monsters they call Monstie roam the towns in daily life, join the fight in the battles, and the riders can ride on these monsters and travel.
The game, which opens with a ceremony in the town of the riders accompanied by a beautiful song, continues with a mysterious woman trying to escape from the hunters who are after her, encountering Rathalos on the island. An emerging red light envelops the entire island, Rathalos attacks the hunters and flees, and the mysterious woman hides from the hunters with the egg entrusted to her. We, on the other hand, are the grandchildren of a legendary rider named Red, and a new rider who doesn't even have a monster yet. We meet a cat that is not very similar to the Palico breed we know, get the Rathalos egg and embark on a long adventure.
Hunters and Drivers Face to face
In Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, he helps towns that are endangered by the sudden aggressive behavior of monsters, tries to unravel the secret behind the Rathalos disappearance, learns about the past of our grandfather Red, and at the same time learns that the Rathalos egg given to us by Ena really does not exist. We struggle to find out if it belongs to the beast that will bring the end of the world. Along our journey, riders from other villages, the mysterious Wyverian people and lovely members of the Palico race join our adventure. After us are hunters determined to catch Rathalos in the egg and a mysterious group of riders we don't know why they are after us.
We have a story that takes about 30 - 35 hours. We have a story that can be understood without playing the first Monster Hunter Stories game. Our Palico friend named Navirou is apparently the only character (excluding monsters) from the first game. We learn more as the story progresses, but not playing the first game is not a big deal. The events in the game are explained very well. The story is much better than "Monster Hunter World" and Rise.
My biggest complaint in terms of the story is the main character who doesn't speak. We are in 2021, technology is going crazy, even the cats in the game are talking, but our character has no way of communication other than shaking his head and taking the other's head in his hands. While everyone is talking in cutscenes and in the game, our character says nothing but the "hhh" voice. It's like an indispensable part of the JRPG genre, but I'd be very happy if they would gradually address this issue.
We Must Catch All the Monsters
Most fans of the Monster Hunter series do not care about the story of the game, but rather its gripping and long-term self-connecting gameplay. Developed as a spin-off, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin has not completely abandoned the usual way of hunting monsters, strengthening your character and chasing stronger monsters. Even with drastic changes in gameplay and combat system, we're still chasing stronger monsters for more powerful equipment.
In battles, we usually fight with a party of 4 people. In addition to our main character and his monster, we can fight with a party member and his monster. This party member can be an NPC that joins our team during the story, or another rider we play with in co-op mode. In fights, we can only fully control our own character, and we can give some commands to our monster. There are 81 monsters that we can take to our party in the game, we can have 6 of them with us at the same time and we can switch between monsters whenever we want.
To add new monsters to our team, we don't beat them and throw balls at them. In order to bond with monsters, we need to be with them from birth. That's why we need to get into the monsters' nests and get a good egg. Our Palico friend Navirou measures the eggs with their smell and weight and gives us information about how good a monster can be inside. Our choice is limited, but we try to find the best egg possible.
It puts an end to our view of monsters as mere creatures to hunt.
Pluses
+ Dozens of monsters that we can add to our team
+ Satisfying endgame contents
+ Easy to learn combat system
+ Co-op and competitive online options
+ New free content on the way
Cons
- The main characters should now have a voice
- Occasional fps drops
- Background music cuts out in open areas
- Some bad section designs
- Grind can be tiring
Monster-like Performance
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, which I played on the Nintendo Switch platform, performed very well overall. I enjoyed playing outside in both handheld mode and connected to the TV with the dock. The FPS drops we witnessed in the demo are also available in the game. Sometimes, the fps drops that occurred in the cutscenes were also seen in the intermediate videos when the auxiliary NPC characters used the Kinship abilities in the fights. I've never had such a problem using my own abilities, maybe it's a case they can fix with an update.
The game, which we can play in 900p resolution while connected to the TV, works in 720p in handheld mode. Cutscenes can be watched in 1080p on TV and 720p in handheld. The image quality is worse than the PC version and the details are drawn as you move, giving a more limited experience visually, but it never becomes distracting.
All the characters did a great job with the voice acting. We can choose Japanese or English as the voice-over, both of which are very well done. The music is very enjoyable and memorable. My only complaint about music is that there is no music while roaming freely in open areas. If there isn't a monster that uses "dash" anyway, we're walking around in the open for a long time, I don't understand why it doesn't play music.
My Conclusion
When I first saw Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, I thought it would be a Telltale-style, story-based game only because of its name and published trailers, and I was prejudiced, but as I played it, I saw that it was a completely different game. With its content, it is a game that is good enough to attract the attention of both those who love the Monster Hunter series and those who have played Pokemon-style games before.
It is a game full of long story mode, expanding world after the story ends, lots of equipment and monsters to collect, multiplayer modes that you can join together with other players. Although it's only just released, it is an unmissable game considering that the current content will be further enriched with free developments that will be released in the next three months.
