Topic: Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin

@JaxonH I mean, it definitely looks better than Pokemon, but I'm not sure this is the game I'm looking for. The thing I like about Pokemon is the combat. Is there a gameplay video that details the combat of MHS2? Ideally it's something in-depth as Pokemon, but I don't think the first game had any of that. So I'm cautiously optimistic.

@VoidofLight
That's not what ends up killing series. For one, many if not most of them aren't dead. DQM is alive and well and a new one is in the works. Digimon has been going strong for decades. Yokai Watch isn't in a good place now, but it was insane for years and would probably still have a fair bit of relevance if they localized Yokai Watch 1 and 4 on Switch (that's just poor management). Even SMT gets compared to Pokémon and it's been around even longer. Many diifferent series, all of which have various amounts of success, but none of it has to do with being compared to Pokémon.

And for two, comparisons are appropriate for games in the same genre or which share similarities, and even inevitable. Can't avoid them. Especially when there's not that many games in a particular genre. There's like 30-40 2D fighting games, but the number of games which center around collecting creatures, breeding them with skill inheritance and battling them I can count on one hand.

@Octane
They haven't fully revealed all aspects of the combat, but they have shown quite a bit. Here's a breakdown of the combat. 8 minute video and should explain everything you need to know to get a good understanding of the cadence of combat.

Of course, they are different games and as such won't be identical. But here's my thoughts. Combat aside, I think one the appealing aspects of Pokémon for many is the Pokémon themselves, their designs, and the appeal of collecting them, and then working toward making customized versions of them with the best skill set. And that's where I think MH Stories 2 can potentially outshine Pokémon. The monsters in the series are incredibly designed with lavish detail and behavioral quirks, to the extent they actually feel like real monsters that could have walked the earth at one point (disregarding blowing giant beams of electricity and stuff like that).

It's also considerably more story focused, and that's an appealing aspect. The customization for monsties is also insane. You can end up getting skills on monsters that normally aren't one of their skills. So you can have a Lagombi that normally does ice attacks, you can have it learn the electricity beam attack that Rajang does. Or whatever you want. That really opens up the customization. Sky is the limit.

There's not as many monsters as in Pokémon, but each monsters is so much more richly detailed, as previously mentioned, with behaviors to the nth degree where devs come up with the craziest details. The Somnacanth (a siren inspired monster in Rise) makes these musical noises in the wild. And just recently it was discovered it mimics the theme song playing in the map or area it happens to be in. Tons of small details like that which really make it a joy learning about the monsters and naturally observing their various characteristics. Every little detail is designed with purpose. The devs explain in the art books how this monster would breath fire, with special glands producing a propellant, etc etc. It's not just fantasy creatures. It's like they sit down as a National Geographic team and delineate the purpose and survival function of every single detail of each monster when designing them. Everything is well thought out.

It's definitely a fresh take on the genre, that's for sure.

@Snaplocket
Depends on your definition of big success.

Do I think localizing it would have made it a multi million selling global phenomenon? No, of course not. But even Ni No Kuni and Tales of Vesperia did 300-500k in the west. I'm pretty sure YW4 could have at least pulled 200k. And that would have been enough to keep the series alive. Doesn't need to be a star franchise to be profitable and continue the series.

As it stands, they just gave up on it. Ported it to PS4 thinking that would do anything. It didn't even chart in its debut week. Had they instead just localized the game, that 200k (potentially more though) could have easily covered costs of development and ensured we saw a YW5. Unfortunately, they relied too much on Japan and now they've sunk the entire franchise.

@JaxonH I mean, they did promise a localized version, but it's probably canceled now. Also 4 feels like it was always sort of meant to be the end of the series anyways.

Check out these screenshots. Gorgeous.

@Snaplocket
I disagree. 3DS was not nearly as popular as Switch in the west, and niche Japanese titles are consistently selling 500k and up. And Yokai Watch 4 was a lot higher budget and had caught alot of attention.

@Snaplocket 2 and 3 were localized for 3DS too close to the Switch era to truly determine its potential. Pokemon Gen 7 were the only 3DS games from fall 2016 onwards that weren't affected by the Switch.

@Snaplocket
It doesn't say everything though. It's poor performance in Japan was in Japan, and would not necessarily translate to the west. Besides which,, nearly every single game nowadays sells far more in the west than Japan. For whatever reason, it didn't do as well as previous entries in Japan. But it still could have matched if not doubled the JP performance with a western release, especially at a time people were thirsty for a new home console Pokémon and were disappointed by Let's Go.

Yeah why doesn't Pokemon look this good? They clearly have the budget.

@Dezzy Games are second thought and the devs aren't good with 3D games. They're masters of the art of pixel art, but switched to 3D given that people were complaining that they didn't switch. Not to mention most of the budget goes to the merch and anime, with the games only really being produced to keep the flow of regions and pokemon for said merch.

@JaxonH One of my complaints of Pokemon is the wide movepools, making a lot of them redudant, so I'm not sure if putting any move on any creature is a good idea

Does MH Stories also have more than one move slot? Is there something like elements/types, physical/special moves. Status moves that don't inflict any damage? I'm trying to find out how much of a strategy there is. I assume all the monsters have their own stats, like attack, defence, speed.

@Dezzy Why put more resources into something that is going to sell regardless? I mean, I agree, it can be a lot better, but a lot of people buy anything with Pokemon slapped on it. The fact that they do games annually doesn't help either (though this could be alleviated with more/larger dev teams).

@Octane
There's a wide variety of moves in MH, but they're not like Pokémon where they're redundant. Each monster is meticulously designed, with a moveset unique to them and only them. Basically it's letting us customize what moves we want on which monster through skill transfer. You're not stuck with just it's natural moves forever if you don't want it to be. Not freely, obviously, there's systems in place to customize moves. But it does mean you're not necessarily confined to only using a specific element for a monster. Or confined to no element if its a monster without any elemental attacks.

So ya, elemental damage is a thing. Certain monsters have certain weaknesses. And each attack in the triangle can be predicted by the monster tells, so the better you learn the monsters' tells the more you'll be able to use an attack type they're weak to

There's plenty of strategy. It's Monster Hunter, after all. That said, don't expect brutal difficulty for the main story. Obviously they're changing some things about combat this time to improve it, so we don't have all the details.

@DomGC As in, you can pick between three different moves? Or are the moves in a rock/paper/scissors category (instead of physical/special)?

It's honestly nothing like Pokemon, since it's it's own thing. It's like saying "Persona is like pokemon" or "SMT is like Pokemon". They're all different series with nothing similar except for collecting monsters.

@DomGC The concept of collecting creatures is the same, but that's effectively it. All the rest are entirely different in comparison.

Fact sheet

Btw, you can never say the only similarity is catching monsters (although that is the biggest aspect defining the games, which means it’s the main point of comparison). There are infinite degrees of freedom along which you could make comparisons. Both are video games. Both are on Switch. Both are RPGs. Both have turn based battles. Both have a separate battle screen. Both have monsters appearing on the overworld. Both have monster weaknesses. Both allow skill customization. Both involve collecting. Both involve elements. Both have special attacks that use a limited resource (MP, Kinship, etc). Both have P2P. Both have co-op. Both have somewhat open areas. Etc. Etc. Comparisons can be made between anything. You can compare Zelda and Tetris and probably list 50 similar aspects they have in common. Likewise, there are infinite degrees of freedom along which you could contrast differences.

As much as I enjoyed the first MHS, the fact that they kept the term "Monsties" makes me both smile and groan lol.

Yeah...the game is similar to Pokemon, but at the same time very different. For one, you're fighting alongside them, and your moves/skills are based on your weapon. Monsties act on their own and the attack type depends on the monster (Nargacuga prefers speed, Brachydios uses power, etc.), you can give them orders if you have enough kinship...meter...ness. Monsties can also have more than 4 moves, and the amount and type also depends on the monstie. If that wasn't enough, you can go further with the rite of channeling thing. Want a Zamtrios that can breathe fire? Go for it, lol

Anyways decided to check on this thread, we're getting closer. I do hope this doesn't do what the first game to us...The Japanese version got a big update and the west never got it...not even the mobile version.

That said, if you're unsure about everything...not only does both versions of the first game have a demo...I'm pretty certain the sequel get a demo as well. The demo literally just gives you the first couple of hours of the game.

@Joeynator3000
True.

They'll almost certainly have a demo. A perfect opportunity to check the game out and get a feel for how it works.

MH Stories 2 Amiibo on Amazon JP (SHIPS GLOBAL)

Total for me came to $85 shipped. These amiibo are GS exclusive in the US, just like like MH Rise amiibo. Compared to those, Ratha is more expensive just like Magnamalo was. And GS charged $20, $20 and $25, or $65 for all 3. Plus tax and that's $70. But GS also charged shipping on them, and charged individually at that, so the grand total was actually around $90. I suspect these will likewise cost around $90 shipped from GS, unless they suddenly decide to not charge shipping (not holding my breath).

Which means this is likely no more expensive than buying from GS, and that's if you're lucky enough to catch them at GS before they go OOS.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B08YKRT4LG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dc...

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B08YKRHK4D/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?dc...

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B08YKQQ3MX/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?dc...