PLATFORM: PC, SWITCH | RELEASE DATE: 9TH JULY
Capcom’s long-running Monster Hunter series continues with spinoff title Monster Hunter Stories 2, the sequel to 2017’s original MHS. Arriving on Switch and PC, MHS2 follows a young Rider (not a Hunter) who finds themself embroiled in a rather mysterious situation when strange lights start appearing, the ocean changes colour and the local wildlife suddenly become more aggressive than usual. The island’s guardian monster – your grandad’s former “monstie” (pretty much MHS2’s word for “pet”) – has has gone AWOL, a young girl is desperately trying to care for a rather special monster egg, and it’s your job to figure out how all these things fit together…
MHS2 is a fairly typical JRPG with added Pokemon-esque egg hatching and monster-raising elements. From your base in the local villages and settlements, you’ll explore the surrounding areas to complete quest objectives, fight monsters to gain useful crafting materials and steal eggs from monster dens. Then, back at your camp, you’re able to trade with the villagers, add various perks and buffs to enhance your party members, forge and upgrade your weapons and armour and hatch eggs to gain new monsties. These monsties are way more than simple pets though – all have unique abilities that can grant access to closed-off areas, as well as possessing a variety of stats, strengths and weaknesses that come into play during fights against other monsters.
Running into a monster while out exploring will initiate a battle, where you and your monstie take turns to attack your opponents. There’s a bit of rock paper scissors in play, with combat options divided into power, technical and speed attacks. Enemies are weak to specific attacks as well as being vulnerable to certain weapon types, so there’s a fair bit of switching between monsties, weapons and attacks to discover the best strategy for taking down your foes. At the end of each fight, points are awarded based on your performance, which in turn determines the amount and rarity of the loot you acquire – the best rewards make the best crafting materials, so finding the best ways to fight is always a priority! There are plenty of other items to find, create and use in battle too, many of which, like pitfall traps and bombs, will be familiar to MH veterans. Being au fait with the series as a whole isn’t at all required to play MHS2 though – it’s a standalone story and everything is explained pretty well, so no knowledge of what’s happened before is needed.
If there were any nitpicks, the story does take a fair while to get going, and the familiar Monster Hunter repetition does creep into proceedings fairly quickly, with monster dens often sharing identical layouts, even across separate areas of the game, and multiple battles against the same foes can occasionally become slightly tiresome. Aside from that, though, this is ultimately an incredibly engaging adventure with supremely solid gameplay. If you’re a fan of turn-based adventure RPGs, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is definitely a strong contender for game of the year.
