Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
- Turn-based RPG, developed in Japan; original release: July 2021
- played on Nintendo Switch, also available on PC
- finished and reviewed in July 2022
Artistic Vision
Pro: The game feels like a playable Animé movie: it features a heartwarming story and interesting characters in a colorful world where people and monsters coexist. Particular credit is due to the attention to detail seen in the design and animations of the various characters and monsters.
Contra: In contrast to its colorful inhabitants the field areas feel empty and their design generic. This is particularly the case for the procedurally generated monster dens. These shortcomings betray the promise of an organic world.
Gameplay
Pro: The game features an interesting turn-based battle system based on a paper-scissors-rock principle that takes into account attack types, weapon types and opponents’ physical features. The gameplay loop of encountering new monsters, discovering their weaknesses, collecting their materials, stealing their eggs and raising their offspring motivates and keeps you engaged. Modern quality-of-life features (including teleporting, quick heal, etc.) make navigating the large world and the many usable items convenient.
Contra: The game suffers from a high level of repetition, especially in its quest design (beat monster X, fetch item Y, etc.) and overworld but also when battling the same monsters again and again – which can be avoided somewhat but not completely. While the game offers a huge range of monsters and options to customize their genes, in practice these optimizations do not feel impactful and are not necessary to beat the game.
Amount and Quality of Content
| Singleplayer | yes, good | Story, side quests and challenges |
| Time to beat: Main | 39:46h | Source: How Long to Beat (N=64) |
| Time to beat: Main+ | 62:48h | Source: How Long to Beat (N=103) |
| Time to beat: 100% | 163:02h | Source: How Long to Beat (N=8) |
| Endgame Content | a lot | New challenges await, and beating and collecting all monsters keeps you motivated even after seeing the credits. |
| Replay Value | some | Character customization is only cosmetic and the story linear, but beating the game with different weapons and monsters is an option. |
| Difficulty | medium | The game is not particularly challenging except for some of its boss battles. Some grinding may be necessary but it is not excessive. |
| Co-op | yes, not tested | co-op with one to three players available (online and local; each player needs their own system and game) |
| Multiplayer | yes, not tested | multiplayer with one to three players available (online and local; each player needs their own system and game) |
Summary
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin offers an interesting variation on the Pokémon formula that surpasses the original and offers a huge amount of content to those who can look beyond some of the game’s weaknesses in quest and world design. Here’s hoping that the developers will revisit the world of the riders and their monsters in a future game and create an environment that lives up to its colorful inhabitants. Recommended.
Performance on Nintendo Switch: Not great but does not impact gameplay because of the turn-based battle system. Framerate estimated around 30 FPS (not measured) but some slowdown in cutscenes. Feels a bit more fluid in handheld mode (subjective impression). No bugs noticed during gameplay.