Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin

MHS2 is coming soonish, and I'm quite excited about it, maybe the game I'm looking forward to most in July, especially after it's E3 showing. Now Andy brought up in the July Game thread he wasn't keen on the first (think he said hated) and I believe Balla is not a fan of the first.

I might be wrong in thinking Orange Raccoon was/is a fan of the first game, which has a 79 on Meta/Open, no means a bad game then. Now I've not played the first one, basically what didn't you guys like about it and what did you like if you're someone who did enjoy the first.

And anyone else going to be playing for the first time?

It's rock paper scissors, in a Monster Hunter skin.  I hate rock paper scissors in video games. You can try and psych out anothet human or predict their behaviour, you can't do that with a CPU.

That seems silly, least a triangle system like FE would make sense.

Well demo on Friday, so I'll give a bash, if I don't like I can just cancel my preorder.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

It's rock paper scissors, in a Monster Hunter skin.  I hate rock paper scissors in video games. You can try and psych out anothet human or predict their behaviour, you can't do that with a CPU.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying the battle system is like RPS and just down to luck?

I really like the look of the game (visually), I would get it down the line if it's actually decent. Far too big a backlog at the moment to be buying anything.

Yes, the monsters will pick a rock paper scissors, you will pick one and you just hope you've picked the right one. The bosses are literally just a toss up, I think the random enemies have attack patterns that you can learn, but that doesn't exactly make it fun repeating the same pattern endlessly.

Thank you for saving me some money.

Previews going up and very positive hmm

I would agree with Andy here. I found the battle system really weak, and I'm not sure why they decided to make that the prime mechanic - it's a lousy one. I didn't like the catching mechanism either, and Nintendo Life's preview (which otherwise raves about the game) agrees with me that Navirou is awful.

I'm occasionally tempted by how pretty it is, but I'll be strong and pass on this one.

I can definitely see value in the game, obviously it looks amazing and it'll be something that you'd easily sink a lot of time in to but that battle system sounds like it'd get old quick and a little frustrating.

I've played the demo which took 3.5hrs and where I can continue on when the main game comes out.

MHS looks great but seeing on PC, does make me go imagine this on a Switch Pro.

On how it plays, found battle system to be rather simple and Andys not wrong about RPS but you learn that X Monster is a Speed type that next battle you use the typing you need. Can only see it being issue when you fight a Monster for the first time or if you totally forget.

Anyway I'm really excited about this and wouldn't be shocked, year end with votes to have Monster Hunter games taking up some top spots #yearofcapcom

I got this on Friday and now 11hrs into it, after continuing on from my demo save.

What I said at the end about top games is very likely to be true, unless something goes super wrong in the next 12hrs or so.

I do want to give this a go but I'm playing a bunch of stuff just now. I'm happy to know it's there, y'know?

Also, it doesn't seem like many of the Mash boys are keen so once I get around to it, it seems like it'll be me and you doing the spoilercast Mas

Yeah have to you, me and smurf who's played the demo.

I played part of the demo, I thought the story was nicely put together but I didn't like the battles much. I don't really have any desire to complete it.

I really enjoyed this, I put in 95 hours and didn't quite finish everything, but finished almost every side quest and saw the main post-game through to completion. It's mainly just multiplayer and DLC I haven't really touched! It's a great follow up to the first game and expands on it well, and continues to offer a fun alternative perspective on the Monster Hunter world. The level of polish regarding the stylings and lore is really high and where the game is at its best.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

Yes, the monsters will pick a rock paper scissors, you will pick one and you just hope you've picked the right one. The bosses are literally just a toss up, I think the random enemies have attack patterns that you can learn, but that doesn't exactly make it fun repeating the same pattern endlessly.

I have to object to this on factual grounds!

There are three attack types - Speed, Power and Technical - and these are, as you say, effective in a rock paper scissors triangle.

Monsters (and bosses) don't attack randomly. Each monster has an attack type it will use, so remembering their type will let you counter them reliably. When monsters get enraged (or various other changes depending on the monster, like start flying or give themselves ice armour or whatever) their attack type will change, also reliably.

There are also all the usual Monster Hunter elements at play. Attacks can have different elements like fire, ice, water or dragon, and monster have resistances and weaknesses to different elements.

There are also weapon types that human characters use, divided into blunt, slashing and piercing damage. You can target different monster body parts, and different parts are weak to different weapon types.

The elements affect the damage you do. The attack type is only relevant when you go head-to-head - that's when a character on your side and a monster you are fighting are targeting each other with an attack and a line is drawn between them. In a head-to-head you win if you pick the advantageous attack type, increasing your damage and decreasing theirs. You can also trigger double attacks by having another of your characters target the same monster who is in a head-to-head with the same advantageous attack type. Double attacks are really useful because they prevent the opponent from doing any damage whatsoever.

Your own character is the only character you have direct control over in battle. Your monstie you have the ability to override the AI decided attack by having them use a skill (at the cost of kinship which builds up during each battle). AI partners are entirely uncontrollable - except you can "reroll" their choice of attack once per turn by swapping out your monstie, which is sometimes useful if they are set to lose a head-to-head. The result of all of this is that you will juggle between who is attacking what enemy and how to try and maximise head-to-head wins and double attacks.

Attacks that target the entire team, rather than a single character, don't have an attack type and can't be countered by a head-to-head or double attack. For those you have various options like using evasive skills, blocking, or using kinship attacks which cancel the opponent's turn.

It is a relatively simple battle system, but it's absolutely not just random luck at rock paper scissors!

There are some challenging battles, especially for the post-game where I had to refine some strategies.