Ohai all! No, I haven’t gone insane… well, no more than usual.
Not much has happened since I last wrote one of these things. Other than finally finishing Life is Strange 2 (in time for True Colors next month!), praising a few indie gems on Game Pass (e.g. Rain On Your Parade & Donut County) and still having the neverending weight of Link’s Awakening on my shoulders on stream.. but we’re at the finale of that, if I ever stop being ill for about 3 hours this week.
However, there has been one game that’s been occupying a lot of my time lately. As in, the last month, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin! Now, I’m someone who’s always loved, then fallen out with the proper Monster Hunter series and this was a nice change away from the ol’ chase and hunt.
I’d tried to get back into the “proper” series a couple months back when Rise came out, but that lasted about a week. A couple hunts of Birdbrain (aka Kulu-Ya-Ku) was enough for me. The Stories games felt different, they’re like Pokémon but they’re not. I’d only ever previously played a bit of the demo for the first game on the 3DS and preferred it to regular Monster Hunter.
While there’s still the familiar crafting your armor and weapons from those monsters you’ve slashed the heads off of, there’s no chasing down the monsters until you (aka me) get lost on the map, you just run into them (similar to Sword/Shield’s approach to wild Pokémon). The battle system is simple, it’s basically rock, paper, scissors with attacks (power, speed and technical).
There’s also eggs to hatch of those monsters (aka Monsties, as they’re christened in this realm) and you can see where this is heading, to fill up your Monstipedia! Some of the eggs are a right pain in the arse to get (looking at you, Palamute!), but it’s worth it in the end when you’re riding around on the back of your favourite Monstie.
Just last week, I finally finished the main game’s story and I’ll admit, it did make me feel slightly bad for all those Monsties I might’ve slaughtered in the previous games… except the Nergigante and Deviljho (aka the devil pickle), they can rot. Oh, and the Brute Tigrex in this game can do one too — that scream!!
Now that I’ve finished the main game, it’s onto the harder Monsties post-game. High Rank! Those two dreaded words which was enough to put me off Monster Hunter World a couple years ago… but it’s not too bad in MHS2. Brutal? Yes. There’s been a few times where I’ve thought, “Are we going to make it out of this?! do I have enough potions or Vital Essesence one me?!?” I’m onto the 9-star quests now and they’ve been… interesting, to say the least.
But anyway, I won’t say anymore as I’m itching to get back onto it, until my other, proper obsession (besides Borderlands!), Monster Train comes out on the Switch this week. Please pray for my battery.
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