A Friend To All Monsties

HIGH Sublime creature designs.

LOW The age of the target audience.

WTF Stealing monster babies.

For 20 years, Monster Hunter has been one of Capcom’s most successful and enduring franchises. Yet for all its star power, the games themselves have done little to change up the central action role-playing mechanics of hunting kaiju and other beasts in its lush, feudal world.

Little, that is, until Monster Hunter Stories took it into the arena of monster-taming turn-based RPGs, ala Pokemon or Shin Megami Tensei. Having put some time into Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, I can say it doesn’t take the genre to any new heights, but it does make for a solid entry into an overly saturated genre with just enough of its own character to stand out. 

For starters, MHS2 does a commendable job of replicating the core cycle of the mainline series — gear up and murder monsters using a wide array of tricks in the hope of harvesting some drops to forge or upgrade weapons and armor. Rinse and repeat with increasingly threatening beasts. 

Although mainline Monster Hunter is hardly blood-soaked, this one’s also more family friendly — the protagonist’s talking cat sidekick is only too willing to give the ol’ “Believe in yourself!” between bouts of pining for donuts. Given the genre, it’s clear this title was targeted towards a younger audience with an appropriately-attuned difficulty (AKA, pretty easy.)

The jovial tone carries through the rather serious — although not particularly grim — storyline. A mysterious evil is driving monsters to unnatural rage amid a prophecy foretelling destruction across the world. The player’s avatar must collect monsters and advance their skill as a Monster Rider to save their idyllic island home from these treacherous threats.

It’s not a particularly compelling plot, and characters lack the kind of depth that could give it more oomph, but as is the case with this genre especially, the story and questlines really aren’t important — what matters is the collecting and battling. In this, Wings of Ruin makes a strong case for itself.

Pulling from decades of material, it features some of the series’ iconic, sublime and oftentimes just badass creatures as potential partners — delightfully referred to as “Monsties.” Part of the franchise’s success is due to its memorable designs, here re-imagined in a more cartoony and vibrant graphic style. Rathalos, Tigrex, Nargacuga and more are here, along with weapons and armors that mirror them. 

Then there’s the manner in which they’re “caught.” Players enter dens — sometimes spawned when a monster fought in the wild retreats — and steal eggs to raise as their own. There is something intrinsically funny (and awful) about pulling an egg from a nest and watching the player goofily carry it out with both hands to go hatch and fight with — or, in another dark turn that never reaches the tonal surface, sacrifice it to boost the stats of another Monstie.

Stat lines are relatively straightforward — speed, crit rate, attack, defense — with some elemental flavor. There’s a neat gene mechanic where monsters try to line up certain attributes to make a bingo but this isn’t a system that needs a complex Excel spreadsheet to min-max a build. 

Similarly, combat is simple without ever being dull. It boils down to a rock-paper-scissors system of power, speed or technical attacks coupled with choice of the type of weapon (slash, pierce, or blunt). Correctly guessing which type to use against a wild monster will yield bigger rewards in damage and charging up a kinship meter, used for flashy skills and eventually to ride the player’s Monstie for a big damage finisher

On the technical side, I never ran into any issues. This release is a port of a previous Switch version, and the while graphics are nothing to particularly herald, Capcom has followed the original hardware’s limitations (and Nintendo’s ethos) in crafting an enjoyable experience, rather than anything particularly pretty.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin isn’t a shining exemplar of the monster taming genre, but it does successfully mesh the iconic aesthetics of its mainline counterpart with no-fat collect and battle systems that are as easy to approach as they are satisfying to master.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Capcom and Marvelous and published by Capcom. It is currently available on PS4, PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence and Mild Language. The official description reads as follows: This is a role-playing game in which players assume the role of a monster rider on a quest to protect a mysterious egg. Players explore a fantasy world, complete quests, interact with characters, and battle fantastical creatures (e.g., dragons, dinosaurs, giant insects) in turn-based combat. Players can select various weapon attacks (e.g., sword slashes, arrow strikes, oversized-pistol shots) and monster attacks (e.g., flame breathe, dash attack) from a menu to defeat enemy creatures. Battles can be frenetic, accompanied by explosions and screen-shaking effects. During monster tracking, players can collect monster dung; players also encounter a creature that emits a brown flatulence attack. The word “hell” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized.  Audio cues for NPCs and enemies do not have a visual component onscreen. This game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers partially remappable controls. Action mapping for buttons on the controller can be changed.