Released quite late on the Nintendo 3DS, Monster Hunter Stories had been able to convince many players thanks to a convincing RPG formula and a shimmering artistic direction of the most beautiful effect. Four years later, Capcom delivers a second part, entitled Wings of Ruin, more ambitious and on faster hardware than the honorable 3DS. Does the result meet expectations? Yes, even if everything is not perfect.
The character editor is quite comprehensive!
Monster Hunter has been on the rise in recent years. A real phenomenon in Japan for many years, the license has captured the Western public with Monster Hunter World on PC and PS4/Xbox One, as well as Switch players with the recent Monster hunter rise. It is therefore natural that the Japanese publisher capitalizes on the latter. After a MH Rise very classic in its formula, the spin-off series "Stories" returns to the front of the stage and (re) puts forward an RPG formula, very different but just as convincing as the original game.
First of all, a little warning. Despite a very colorful artistic direction, and, let's not be afraid of words, a little childish, the game is far from simple! If you plan to offer the title to one of your children, make sure they are comfortable enough to read the many tutorials at the start of the game and that they have already developed a bit of strategy and thinking to face the (very) many fights that await him. The game is indeed based on turn-based combat where you must adjust your attacks according to the Monster(s) you are facing. A small combat triangle is offered to you, with 3 types of attacks: Power, Technique and Speed. Each type has a weakness, and it should be exploited to inflict maximum damage on your opponents. Added to this is the type of weapon: blunt weapon, piercing weapon or sharp weapon, it will have to be chosen wisely so as not to end up with significant damage. Integrating this already takes a little time, and then comes the Talents, which you can use alone or with your Monstie to perform a devastating attack that will also increase the friendship between your creature and yourself.
At the beginning of the game, these reminders are frequent!
MHS2 offers a deep combat system and will sometimes put your nerves to the test, "forcing" you to a few grinding sessions to be able to overcome the fights without struggling too much. Where the game wants to be a little less "bloody" is in its proposal. Here, you don't play a hunter, but a Rider. So no need to go butcher all the local fauna, you live in harmony with the monsters and you tame them to make Monsties (a mix of the words "Monster" and "Bestie"). You will literally spend the whole adventure with them. At first, you can only ride them to ride across the plains, then later, you can swim or fly to reach areas that seemed inaccessible... Then, of course, you will fight with them. Don't forget to collect as many eggs as possible at each den visited to expand your panel.
As for the story, it lets itself be followed without too much dead time. We embody the descendants of Red, a legendary Rider in his home village, who knew how to ride a legendary monster, the Ratha Guardian. The latter will disappear and leave scars on the island where the adventure takes place. Beams of red light will emerge here and there on the territory, which makes the Monsters aggressive. Our protagonist will therefore go in search of this mystery, and try to understand why these beams appeared, and if it is not the egg left by the Ratha Guardian that would be the cause of this disruption.
We quickly get a taste for exploring on the back of Monstie
On the technical side, I was able to try out the Switch version of the title. It is clear that it is very pretty for Nintendo's hybrid machine. However, this is not done without some shortcomings... In TV mode, it is not uncommon to experience frequent slowdowns, whether in the exploration phase or during combat. These technical concerns are reduced in the mobile version, but never really disappear. No doubt the PC version should be free of these technical issues. It remains to be hoped that the updates will be able to correct the image stability a little.
I was very curious about this spin-off, and I came away frankly conquered. The turn-based RPG proposal appeals to me more than the more action-oriented proposal of the more classic Monster Hunters and, even if the wobbly technique can bring out a few sighs, it never dramatically taints the gaming experience. Very nice surprise, then. that this monster hunter stories 2.
Available on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam, at €59,99.
The synchronized attacks are awesome!
