Monster Hunter Stories first made his debut at Nintendo 3DS in 2017, which was then on-port to Mobile in the following years. Right on July 9, 2021, Capcom released Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. The second series tells the young riders assigned to keep Rathalos eggs, to prevent the destruction of the world. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin presents various types of monsters to be collected and driven, which is certainly no stranger to Monster Hunter Stories fans. The second series has now been present at the Switch and PC via Steam on July 9.
This time, ExGamesplay gets the opportunity to try while reviewing Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin deeper. What are our story, mechanism, and impression of the game? Come on, look at the reviews below!
The plot that touches and satisfies
Monster Hunter Stories 2 takes the settings in a world filled with monsters. The residents immediately employ monsters hunter to hunt, fight and collect material from monsters to make new equipment. In this game, players will act as a rider, which is assigned to tame monsters and friends with them using Kinshop Stone. The successful monster was nicknamed a monsties. Sounds funny and adorable, right?
The story starts from a village called Mahana Village, where at that time the citizens were celebrating the festival. During the festival, suddenly the giant Wyvern named Rathalos disappeared on the surface. Mahana Village Chief immediately sent the character controlled by a player as a brave, independent, and strong rider. He was in charge of helping to investigate the reason Guardian Ratna had left the island.
During his mission, the protagonist met with a woman named Ena, who recognized the grandfather from the protagonist. He said that Rathalos disappeared and the red light that had emerged made him angry and uncontrolled before bringing destruction for the world, Ena was assigned to keep Rathalos eggs until they hatch.
For those who have never played their first series and the mobile version, no need to worry directly to play Monster Hunter Stories 2. Even though the character of the first series has reappeared, this game offers a variety of elements that provide new experiences and understanding for beginner players. If the player has played his first series, of course, it will arouse nostalgia after seeing cutscene footage along with stunning cinematic presentations.
Friendly gameplay for beginner players
At the beginning of the game, players must choose and make characters as desired. Starting from gender, eye color, hairstyle, hair color, skin, name, and so on. This character is named by a rider, which is the protagonist of the Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. After making characters, players are faced with a long enough cutscene to be able to control characters.
The concept of Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is not much different from the first series and the mobile version. Players can adventure to look for monsters as partners along with the game and fight, of course. In addition, some missions can be run, namely the main mission and side mission. If the player wants to raise the level or look for items before advancing to the main mission, it doesn't hurt to take an existing side mission. But it must be prepared to be not bored with a side mission in this game!
Unlike the main game Monster Hunter, where players can gather monsters to become friends in the fight. If in its main game-killing monsters with the concept of Action, in Monster Hunter Stories carrying a turn-based system. The equation lies in the purpose of hunting monsters, namely collecting material to update the gear for the rider. At the same time, players can explore to find monsters to add to the collection of monsties. Monsties is a term that refers to monsters collected by characters.
Talking about monsties, does not mean that all monsters can be friends. Before you want to make it a friend in adventure, players must find their eggs from their nests. When taking the egg, a cat named Navirou will tell the character about the type of monsters in the egg. But the player remains cautious because his mother can block the character if in the mission of stealing his eggs is less fortunate.
In addition, along with the game, as many as 5 monsties can be brought by character. If the player wants to change the monster, he must return to the village and talk to a cat in front of Stables. They not only help the character in the fight but also can be ridden. Each monsties have certain abilities and can be used during the adventure.
The battle is not much different from the first series
As mentioned above, the Battle system in Monster Hunter Stories 2 is still similar to the previous series, which carries the turn-based concept. Monstie cannot be controlled by a player but through AI. While players can only control the rider. Like the Monster Hunter game, Rider can also change his weapon. As many as 3 types of weapons can be taken to fight. Starting from the sword, greatsword, hammer, bow arrow, to Gunlance.
Although Monstie can only be controlled by AI, the player can also ask them to issue certain desired attacks. To do this, energy is needed from Kinship Stone, where players can produce it through the use of healing items or fight monsters from head to head. For those who have never played Monster Hunter Stories, the Battle system here carries a Japanese suit format (stone, paper, scissors) with the monster that focuses on three types of Serang (Power, Speed, Technical). When both target each other, players can activate head to head and produce more powerful attack power.
The structure of the gameplay and mechanism of the battle Monster Hunter Stories 2 is not much different from the previous series. However, we see a quality improvement that makes it new players easier to play it. In addition, Capcom does good work, because they have fixed several problems from their first game in Monster Hunter Stories 2. For example, changes in the behavior of monsters. Initially, monsters change the type of attack continuously. Making it difficult to predict by players. Different in the second series, where monsters only use one type of attack, except when they are angry or change into a new form.
Points displayed at the end of the battle can be said to be quite interesting. Players will get points after fighting with monsters. When Rank is getting higher and better, then the opportunity for players in getting rare items is also getting bigger. Another interesting mechanisms that players need to know are monsters when they want to escape from the fight. Who would have thought it wasn't just a character, the attacked monsters could also run away if it was loud. However, this is the right moment for players. That's where players can have a good opportunity to steal monster eggs.
Stunning visual and dubbing choice
Monster Hunter Stories 2 presents a colorful visual and is very bright. Unlike the main Monster Hunter game, which tends to be dark and realistic, the Stories version emphasizes the design of character and cartoon-style monsters like anime. For Game Lovers with Visual Pokemon, Zelda, this game can be one of the recommendations that must be played.
Not forgetting, the environment along the rider's trip with Monstie will bring players to all types of locations. Starting from the forest, desert, beach, meadow, and much more. The landscape displayed is a plus value of Monster Hunter Stories 2, because it looks very beautiful coupled with stunning lighting effects, especially at sunset. His cinematically relatively satisfying, really spoil the eyes. Coupled with the existence of a day/night cycle that can be set manually.
While in terms of audio or sound, Monster Hunter Stories 2 offers two voiceover options. Among them are English and Japanese. Not just voiceover, players can also choose the language used in the game. Starting from Japan, England, Mandarin, and many more. In addition, the quality of the soundtrack of Monster Hunter Stories is also not playing games. Support music is well designed and can describe the situation until the right moment.
Conclusion
Monster Hunter Stories 2 not only serves satisfying JRPG elements, but exciting and interesting adventures. This makes the game fairly fun to play. The storyline is classified as a standard but still managed to touch the players. Playtime to complete Monster Hunter is quite short if the player only focuses on the storyline. While if the player does various things such as completing a side mission, collecting more monsties, playing time from this game will be longer than just a story.
Like the Monster Hunter game in general, Monster Hunter Stories 2 also presents a pleasant multiplayer system. Players can make PvP fights, a co-op in running the mission together. This game in the future will present a variety of latest updates such as the addition of monsties and co-op missions. Hopefully, the updates to the Capcom for Monster Hunter Stories 2 are not boring and able to present something newer, of course.