Two great games are available to more players than ever, and Capcom continues to do everything right.
The first Monster Hunter Stories It was released in 2016 for the 3DS and received a port for mobile phones a few years later, after which Capcom seemed to forget about its existence for a while. The release of a sequel in 2021, Monster Hunter 2: Wings of Ruinon Nintendo Switch and PC made total silence about has a much lighter tone overall than the rest of the series, with more colorful character designs and stories that, while still dealing with some creature that threatens the world as we know it, are passed through a much more childish filter. The easy comparison would be Pokémon, but Stories does much more with the formula. Unlike the rest of the series, Stories It's a classic turn-based RPG, but it integrates tons of mechanics from the mainline games to give it flavor so particular of Monster Hunter.
For starters, our character always participates in combat alongside monsters, and while they level up and learn new skills by fighting, we can only change and upgrade our equipment to do so. The basic combat in both games consists of a sort of rock, paper, scissors defined by three types of attack: Power beats Technique, Technique beats Speed, and Speed beats Power. Each monster favors a type of attack and it is up to us to be prepared to counter it with the correct type on our part. Each turn we can see if our opponent will attack us or our monster, helping us to better plan our next move. While we can choose what our character does, our monster acts on its own so it is important to choose the most appropriate one for each opponent.
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When two types of attack meet, the game initiates a “head-to-head.” Winning these increases our kinship with our monsters, and at a certain kinship level, the option to mount them in combat becomes available. Once mounted, we can continue attacking normally or use a Kinship Skill, basically a special attack unique to each monster. We can also increase our kinship by performing double attacks, which happen when both we and our monster use the same type of attack and defeat the enemy type. The twist is that the higher our kinship level, the higher the damage our Kinship Skill will do (with 3 being the maximum level), but losing head-to-heads while mounted will knock us off the monster, resetting the process. Some of these Kinship Skills also have animations that use each monster’s characteristics in unique and very creative ways that we would never see in the main series. Seeing Pukei-Pukei, for example, using his tongue as an umbrella to protect us from a shower of poison never gets old.
Each game varies the execution of combat a little: In Stories 1 Monsters have attack patterns, and while they have a main type, they can occasionally surprise us with one of a different type or even attacks that don't belong to any of the three main types. When the monster gets angry, its main attack type and pattern change, so it is necessary to learn the rotation of each stage as best as possible.
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Stories 2 adds new mechanics while reducing the complexity of the basic rotation a bit. Monsters only use one type of attack that changes when angered, but there are now also different types of damage to consider: slash, bludgeon, or pierce, with each weapon type covering one of these three. Monsters in Stories 2 So they have parts that can break and can be targeted individually, and they require different types of damage. In order to stay on top of this requirement, we can switch weapons at any time during the battle. The result is a fight that gains in complexity but loses in RNG, resulting in something that, while giving us more things to consider, ends up being easier outside of specific moments. I have zero problem with this though, since in the first game that same RNG can basically screw you over from one moment to the next in a way that at times feels unfair. I'm sure a hypothetical Stories 3 you will be able to find a balance between both systems in which the difficulty feels perfect.
Of course, the other great attraction of Stories is to get new monsters to expand our collection. Exploring the world we can find monster nests from which we can steal eggs to hatch creatures, with heavier and smellier eggs (Navirou's words, not mine) producing the best results. While each nest has a limited amount of possible monsters, it is possible to target specific monsters thanks to paintballs. Simply throw one at the monster you want to get during a fight and there is a chance that it will retire to sleep in its nest after defeating it, and looting eggs from that nest will give us the monster in question. Easy. But if we still have too many duplicate critters to get rid of, in both games we can use the so-called Rite of Channeling, which allows us to transfer genes with characteristics and skills from one monster to another, in exchange for losing the monster that is donating the genes. In addition, forming different combinations in the gene grid gives different bonuses to our stats, increasing the variety of the system even more.
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Our monsters can also be ridden while we explore at any time, and each map has sections and secrets that can only be accessed with the particular skills of certain monsters, such as swimming, breaking rocks or climbing vines. It is important then to always have a party that contains at least the skills we want to have on hand, since we can only have a loadout of five monsters at a time.
While Stories 2 is a port that is virtually identical to the Switch and PC versions (at least in terms of content), the first game received a complete remastering job. For starters, while on the 3DS the characters only had a voice track in “Monster Hunter language,” the remaster also includes new voices in both English and Japanese. I can’t comment on the quality of the Japanese because I don’t speak it, but the English dub of Stories 1 It is practically the same as that of Stories 2 And without going into detail, it seems that all of the characters that appear in both games have the same actors returning to provide their voices.
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Despite all this incredible effort, I have to say that the first game still struggles to hide its 3DS roots at times, with exploration limited to small segmented sections or large empty spaces with only a few textures and materials. While some of the more elaborate areas make you think “how did they even get this to run on a 3DS?”, it’s the rest of the game that makes you say “oh right, that’s how.” Stories 2 Monster Hunter: The Last of Us was always vastly superior on a visual level to its predecessor, due to the difference in hardware generations. It also abandons the more chibi style and odd proportions of the former in favor of designs that, while still very stylized compared to the main series, suit it much better (it's normal and very funny, for example, in the first game, to see your character's big head popping out of a Gundam-like armor). Despite the visual and performance parity of these versions, in my opinion it only makes the differences in scope and technical advancement between the two installments even more evident. Also, while it includes all the content that the 3DS version received during its life cycle, it's strange that they haven't updated the monster roster that's still stuck in the fourth generation of Monster Hunter, even if it's for optional/post game content.
Both games have only been ported to PS4, it's worth noting. While they run perfectly on the PS5, it's strange that they've opted not to offer native versions for the console. Stories 2 in particular it's a revelation after having originally played it on the Switch. I don't think there's much point for those who have played it on PC already, but if like me you've only played it on hardware that struggled to run it at 30fps, the difference is night and day.
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Monster Hunter Stories came back better than ever thanks to this excellent remaster, and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is a fantastic sequel that expands on everything the first did well. There is so much more I could talk about, but the length of this review would be too long. Both games have hundreds of hours of content and are filled with the classic charm of the series, perhaps in a very different context, but no less fun for it. If you like them as much as Monster Hunter like classic turn-based JRPGs, Stories It's as perfect a series as you could imagine. And if you don't like them, what's your problem?
- The excellent remaster of the first Stories, now in its best version
- Lots of monsters and possibilities when it comes to raising and training them
- Hundreds of hours of content and variety between both games
- The colorful and vibrant world combined with the very particular charm of Monster Hunter
- Stories 1 takes a long time to start and get going
- The general lack of difficulty in Stories 2 until quite late in the game
Conclusion
Monster Hunter Stories brings the 3DS game to modern platforms and does an excellent job of modernizing it, while Stories 2 is an excellent sequel that expands on everything that game did well. Together or separately, both games are easy recommendations for fans of the series and/or genre.