Topic: Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin

Obviously real time combat is more popular, but that’s what the main series is for. Turn based games still have an audience. Pokémon in particular is massive, and shows the audience potential for a turn based MH spin-off. The whole idea is to expand the audience. Those who prefer action combat have the main series appealing to them. But Stories focuses on those who maybe aren’t into skill based action combat and are more into turn based battles. That’s its purpose.

And for fans who like both, it’s win win.

@Snatcher
I like them too. They’re more expensive than drugs, so I suppose I’d better.

This.

Besides, it wasn't just rock/paper scissors combat as many have claimed, that was just the surface. Elemental weaknesses, gene behaviour as well as abilities that could be customized, equipments and items made the combat much more complex that people made it out to be, specially for those of us that played online. Personally I just think that it needed more variety in general in terms of monsters, armor and weapon types but it was enough for a first entry. This game seems to expand on that and that's all I really need. Well, I'd like that they also make certain existing monsters more viable for pvp, since some like the Narcaruga and their variants were pretty much obsolete for that.

Aside from that, the first entry became my favourite turn based monster collecting rpg. As a semi competitive Pokemon fan, that game gave me the same feeling that I used to have for Pokemon.

I just hope Stories 2 has a proper quest tracker on the map, showing you where you need to deliver the quest objectives. The vague marker from the original release got aggravating fast.

That rng is present in many similar games. For example, Pokemon has critical hits, accuracy and special chances of poisoning, burning, etc. In my opinion, the point of rng in these games is to consider them but not base your strategy around it.

By modifying monster genes, certain attacks became predominant diminishing rng the more you modify them. The thing about this game is that you are fighting along your monster, meaning that he has to take certain decisions. It's what makes it feel so different from Pokemon and other games. Even so, by using the gauge for commanding you can choose what attack and when will your monster attack. It's usually more used than the special attacks in pvp and it allows to control your monster just like in any pokemon game, just not every turn. You also have complete freedom of choosing what your character will do each turn and his abilities, trap placement and healing are a constant necessity each turn so it's not like it's automatic or anything. I can see how the game can become boring because of lack of challenge at certain points, but then again Pokemon and almost every rpg are much worse offenders in that case. Personally I found the combat and egg hunting ad well as exploration and mounting more enjoyable than other rpgs I played and I needed more strategy and had more challenge than any other Pokemon game in the main story, specially in the free dlc part. It also has that option to speed up things which many games need.

I'm not saying that the people that don't like those elements are wrong or anything, but I do think that then maybe the game might not be for you or at least not your preferred way of gameplay in this genre. That doesn't mean that the system is flawed or has to change though. I think that they accomplished what they try to do with the game and losing those things would make it less unique and enticing for those that loved the first game gameplay-wise. It's simply just like with any other game: it isn't for everyone.

I’m hearing from leaks and sources reporting that the game will have around 90 monsters...

Wow.

Idk how many the first game had, but that sounds like a LOT. Even MHGU only had 93. Granted, this may include small monsters too. Not really sure. But either way, it’s an impressive number.

@JaxonH Not to mention that Stories (in Japan, at least) got DLC support adding extra monsters, so maybe there'll be even more down the road.

What is your "source," iydmma?

@JaxonH Pokemon had 151.

@Octane To be fair, Monster Hunter Stories has a deeper customization feature.

@Ralizah
Leaked documents from Capcom giving an overview of game direction.

We also have the leaked monster list from a pastebin which has around 150 monsters, but that includes small monsters and duplicate bosses and the like.

So it's confirmed that the Gene system's back.

@JaxonH Nice, thanks.

This game looks magnificent. It's great that they're trying to "age up" the look of the game while still keeping it stylized and gorgeous.

Late May - Late July is going to be a really crazy time for the Switch.

@VoidofLight
Ya. Mile wide, inch deep comes to mind.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Not every game needs to go that deep. Pokémon does just fine with its approach. But that’s not the MH approach. In this series, each and every monster in the MH universe is meticulously designed with insanely good animations, wide variety of attacks, movements, individual behaviors, etc. Depth is the heart of MH. You can saddle and ride every monstie around the world- that alone must have taken a huge amount of resources to implement. It’s the best part of Rise, and I already know it’s going to be one of my favorite aspects of Stories 2.

I kind of wish that they could've added some of the monsters from Rise, but I'm guessing that'll be DLC and for a third game if they make one.

@Ralizah
Same. I understand the style for the first was a good fit for 3DS. But this style appeals to me much more. And it makes more sense for more powerful hardware like Switch. It’s kind of like Bravely Default 2- they aged up the look of the characters and reduced the exaggerated features like disproportional head size, while retaining the art style people praised. I think they did a much better job though, which is to be expected since Capcom makes the best looking games in the industry, and are probably on par with Nintendo in terms of optimization and quality.

I’m just glad this game exists. I never thought we’d see a sequel after the first one failed to meet expectations. But Capcom said the passionate fan response was one factor in deciding on making another. When the news of MH Rise and Stories 2 first dropped, I almost couldn’t believe it. Sounded too good to be true. Just getting a new MH in RE Engine alone was more than I dared to hope for. But here we are. Rise is everything I dreamed it would be and Stories 2 looks to be the same.

@JaxonH I just hope the footage in the trailers and the screenshots aren't just the pc build. I want to know what it looks like on switch, not just what it looks like on the PC. This is why I kind of wish they would've done a PC release at a later date, like with Monster Hunter Rise..

@VoidofLight I doubt there'll be any substantial differences between the Switch and PC builds, other than support for higher framerate and resolutions. The game was clearly built with the Switch hardware in mind.

@Snaplocket
I actually really like the art choice in Bravely Default II. I know there’s some outspoken critics who think it’s the worst thing ever, but I liked it. Obviously I think Stories 2 looks better, but by no means do I think BD2 style was bad.

As for Stories 2, I’m quite confident the game will look and run top shelf. Just look at MH Rise. The game is being built for Switch in mind. We’ve seen Switch specific footage (you can tell when you zoom in and see small imperfections that wouldn’t be present on PC), and it’s essentially indiscernible from the Steam store page screenshots

Bravely Default 2's style was honestly pretty good in my opinion. It's a more detailed version of the original game's style. Some animations look a bit weird in cinematic cutscenes and such, but other than that I think it looks pretty nice. @Snaplocket

Overall I liked the combat in Monster Hunter Stories. On the surface it's deceptively simple. But when you factor in critical hits, different monster gene combinations, and elemental weaknesses, things get way easier. The only thing I disliked were the randomly triggered button-mashing events. I really hope those have been done away with in the second game.

On the art style: While I didn't mind how chibified everything was - I don't mind chibi aesthetics as long as I feel it fits with the game - I was weirdly bothered that the monster companions were smaller than their wild counterparts. XD Really trivial I know, but I'm glad that seems to have been addressed.

One thing I really hopes happens in Monster Hunter Stories 2 is that each area has a theme constantly playing, instead of just a theme when you enter and then total silence afterwards.