Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin - Review @ RPG Site

Monster Hunter Stories 2 Review

As cliche as it is, some JRPGs are just like comfort food. They're not particularly outstanding, but they offer just the right mix of gameplay, story, and overall vibes to make it easy to devour them - even if they might not stick with you as long as some of the greats of the genre. Monster Hunter Stories back on the 3DS was a comfortable, if not astounding RPG - a nice first attempt at the monster-collecting sub-genre filled with the likes of Yokai Watch, Digimon, and the ever-popular Pokemon. All Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin needed to do was improve upon an already solid foundation, and to give players a reason to give the spinoff another shot. In that sense, it more than succeeds.

As you might've gathered, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is the iterative sequel. While Wings of Ruin makes a number of changes to improve the experience, fundamentally they're both very much the same type of game at their core. An expansion on existing ideas and frameworks, rather than a complete rewrite.

If you're not already familiar with Monster Hunter Stories' main gameplay loop, the name of the game is working together with monsters instead of just mercilessly slaughtering them. In practice, that means stealing their young, too. Across the overworld, you'll find randomly spawning Monster Dens, which are randomly generated and will include a nest from which you can gather eggs that you can bring back to town and hatch. These dens can either be empty, have a specific monster sleeping at them, or could even have an active and awake monster on the prowl.

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I greatly enjoyed my time with Monster Hunter Stories 2, but if this review reads more restrained than the score might make you feel - it's because as much as I enjoyed the game, it still has its fair share of flaws, and I'm unsure if players with less of a history with the franchise might be willing to overlook them. Your mileage may vary, but one thing's for sure - it's great to see that Monster Hunter: Stories isn't dead, and hopefully this is just one of many more sequels to come.

Score: 8/10