Gone are those days when Monster Hunter was little more than a niche product in the West whose new deliveries came to us years after being launched in Japan. Now the series is a true international bombshell that sells millions and millions of copies, so no one should be surprised that one of its spin-offs has become one of Capcom’s most important releases for this 2021. Of course, we are talking about Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin , a very special JRPG that, without having to be perfect, has made us have a really good time living all kinds of adventures in this fascinating universe.
The life of a rider
As you can imagine, in this sequel to the original Nintendo 3DS title we will once again incarnate a rider , so our objective will not only be to eliminate monsters that cause problems and threaten the natural balance, but also to create links with many of the creatures that populate this world to join our team and help us both when fighting and exploring.
Is it necessary to have played the first Monster Hunter Stories?
This sequel takes place a few years after the events that took place in the first ‘Monster Hunter Stories 2’, so you can expect the return of many well-known characters and lots of winks and references to what happened in that adventure, although everything is built so that we can find out perfectly what is happening without having to have played it. After all, the story as such is completely new and they always explain everything we need to know to understand it, so you can enter the saga without fear with this installment.
Although we are not going to give you specific details about its history so as not to spoil any surprises, we do want to confirm that we really liked everything they have told us : it raises very striking conflicts and moral dilemmas, the narrative is very careful, it knows how to maintain the interest of start to finish to give us a tremendously epic and intense final stretch with a few very well-managed twists and the staging of the videos is simply outstanding. And all this while expanding the universe of the series and showing it to us from a very different point of view than usual. Not that his script is the most original or surprising, but it has a “soul” and gets us involved enough to make us participate in a great adventure that could hardly be more enjoyable.
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Fighting alongside our Monsties
Regarding its gameplay, we are once again faced with a JRPG with turn-based combat that closely follows the formula of its predecessor , so we will have to explore all kinds of dungeons, get eggs from which new beasts will be born that we can add to our group, complete a multitude of optional missions, level up, improve our equipment and fight against many of the most iconic and representative monsters of the saga.
Each monster has its own abilities that will help us when exploring to reach places that would not otherwise be accessible.
Speaking of the confrontations, comment that they once again bet on a central mechanic based on the classic game of Rock, Paper and Scissors , so that our attacks and those of the creatures can be of three different colors. Each of them loses against another color and wins against the rest, something that applies when we are going to attack the enemy that has us set as targets, at which time a face-to-face duel takes place. If our color has an advantage, we will increase the damage we do and reduce the damage we receive.
Starting from this very simple base, the title adds different layers of depth that we will have to take into account to fight efficiently , such as the fact that if our monster also attacks the rival with the same color as us during a face-to-face, we will do a powerful combined technique with him that will cancel the opponent’s action, something very important that will save us from receiving a good number of injuries.
Most monsters have several parts that we can attack. If we break them, we can nullify some of their attacks and get them stunned.
This may seem somewhat unfair to you for being too dependent on chance, but nothing could be further from the truth, since the creatures are very predictable and will always use the same colors to which they are related . Yes, the type of their blows can vary depending on their own mechanics and moods, but we can always know what they are going to do just by paying attention to their behavior.
Another important detail is that our beasts will act on their own and will tend to carry out attacks of their favorite color , although we can choose their actions with the bond points that we accumulate during a confrontation by fighting alongside them, a resource that will also help us to perform special techniques of our weapons and even to ride on our monster and unleash its ultimate movement. Obviously, we will also have to be aware of the type of damage to which the rivals are weak, both physical and elemental, to choose the right weapon for each occasion.
Fight to your liking
If the battles are too long for you, there is the possibility of speeding up and skipping their animations. In addition, when our level is much higher than that of our enemy, we will be given the option to automatically win the confrontation, something that will save us a lot of time, especially when we want to explore areas that have already become too small for us.
One of the great novelties of this installment we have in the fact that now we can be accompanied by another rider and his Monstie or by a hunter , who will help us when fighting and with whom we can carry out cooperative attacks. Our teammates will depend on the moment in the story in which we find ourselves and they are tremendously useful, although we warn you that they are controlled by the AI and that we will have to choose our actions according to what they are going to do in order to optimize each turn.
The two halves of a great adventure
In general terms, fighting is an experience that, within its simplicity, is fun and entertaining by forcing us to know our prey well and adapt to their different mechanics and patterns, something that wins many integers in the second half of the adventure, when the most powerful and complicated monsters appear. It is not a particularly difficult title, but it does punish mistakes and there are several battles that can put us on the ropes if we are not well prepared and we do not learn to quickly identify the behaviors of our rivals.
Some attacks are colorless, so they won’t cause head-to-head duels with the enemy. This must be taken into account, since we will not be able to easily avoid these types of techniques when they are done by our rivals.
Since we have referred to the second half of this trip, comment that the development of the main story could be divided into two well differentiated parts that have given us very different sensations. The first is the worst of the set because of a very rigid structure and with a lot of padding that will force us to follow the same steps over and over again to advance the story, so you can expect lots of dungeons with a very poor design and too much similar to each other that will make you easily fall into boredom, something that does not help the fact that the fighting starts out being so simple and simple.
This is undoubtedly the great Achilles heel of the game. It is a work that takes many hours to start and that makes us feel like real messengers while they send us from one place to another to do exactly the same so that they let us see how their interesting story progresses. And all this always following the same scheme in a tremendously predictable development that is incapable of surprising.
The upbringing and inheritance of genes
Unlike the first game, here we will unlock the breeding option relatively soon, so we can sacrifice monsters so that others inherit their genes. Through this process, we will have the possibility to create our ideal Monstie.
We are not going to deny that this part was very difficult for us and we had to dose it so as not to end up bored with his proposal, although this changed when we reached a certain point in the game, at which point the script takes off with force and the title goes to have a much more adventurous and engaging approach in every way : dungeons are greatly improved with unique mechanics and designs that add variety, new exploration-related systems are introduced, the saga’s most iconic monsters begin to appear, battles are getting tougher And they are more exciting and the main plot progresses at a great pace with each small step we take, culminating in a very epic and spectacular final stretch that has prevented us from letting go of control until we reach the credits.
In total, reaching the end is a task that will take you between 35 and 40 hours depending on what you want to entertain with its nondescript secondary missions (eliminate a certain beast, deliver certain objects, etc.) and get eggs to obtain monsters each time better, a more than adequate number and that can increase a lot by little that we propose to complete everything and defeat its very powerful optional bosses.
Multiplayer fun
The multiplayer has also received interesting news thanks to the inclusion of a cooperative mode with which we can get into some raids for two players. As you can guess, in them we will have the possibility to explore new areas and fight together with a friend and his Monstie while we get treasures, resources and, of course, we get new monster eggs, thus assuming an especially attractive addition for the postgame . Of course, there will be no shortage of competitive battles, which have now been enhanced with the introduction of two-player team matches, which opens up a number of additional strategies that provide an extra layer of depth that feels great.
A world of great beauty
At the graphic level we have a game that we liked a lot thanks to its spectacular and beautiful art direction . The design of the characters and monsters, the animations of the combats (watch the sequences of the final attacks) and the videos, the scenarios we visit … It is a beautiful title with a lot of personality that now looks a bit more mature. than its predecessor, although maintaining that anime touch that suited it so well and that continues to convince us so much.
The game’s art direction is a feast for the eyes.
Unfortunately, technically, not everything is good news (at least on Nintendo Switch, the version that we have been able to play), as it suffers from low-quality textures, a somewhat limited drawing distance and a lot of pop-in , quite noticeable clipping and totally unstable performance and with serious drops in the rate of images per second. Be careful, as it is a JRPG with turn-based fighting, this hardly affects when playing, although it does make the whole ugly. The good news is that the image is quite sharp on both desktop and laptop.
The sound does not disappoint in the least with a great soundtrack that perfectly captures the epic and adventurous tone of the game, especially highlighting its main theme and combat melodies, as lively and intense as you could expect. The effects are very varied and recognizable, and the dubbing comes to us in both English and Japanese, both options with outstanding performances. Obviously, the texts are fantastically translated and adapted into Spanish .
Conclusions
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is a remarkable JRPG with which we have had a great time and that has left us very good moments . Yes, it costs him too much to start, but once he does it and he catches a rhythm he does not stop improving until he reaches the end, becoming a very pleasant and entertaining adventure that is well worth it as soon as this unique and special universe attracts us. Highly recommended.
