Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin Review - A Brilliant Sequel Which Soars To New Heights

Monster Hunter Stories was an intriguing spin-off on the 3DS. Offering a more traditional RPG compared to main entries, Stories saw us playing as a Rider, letting us bond with these creatures and utilising a turn-based combat approach. Fresh off Rise’s heels, we now have Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, a brand new adventure that isn’t reliant on the first game. This isn’t your normal Monster Hunter experience, and Capcom delivers a solid evolution that’ll hook you in.

Our adventure starts within Hakolo Island, where Monster Riders revere Guardian Ratha, once rode by the famous rider “Red”. Playing as Red’s grandkid, our rookie rider begins his journey as Rathalos disappears from this world, entrusting his egg to a mysterious Wyverian girl, while a rage-inducing light begins to infect monsters everywhere. With nature in disarray and growing concern over the “Wings of Ruin” prophecy, we’ll be joined by several new allies — including returning feylne Navirou — in discovering the truth behind this strange phenomenon, taking ownership of Ratha’s egg.

Opting for a more family-friendly experience than main entries, Wings of Ruin utilises existing Monster Hunter well elements and builds upon the original game’s foundation. Presenting an engaging mystery and a lovely cast of characters, I find myself hooked and this story-focused approach certainly pays off in. There are a couple of elements I'm not so fond of though, and because our protagonist remains silent, Navirou often fills the speech gaps. This can be slightly annoying due to his loudmouthed nature, but this is far from a dealbreaker.

Exploring numerous vast open areas — ranging between tropical islands, snowy mountains, harsh deserts and beautiful forests — Wings of Ruin sees our Riders using Kinship Stones to form bonds with monsters, or “Monsties”. As riders, our goal is to raise them after hatching eggs, give them nicknames and set a lead Monstie to join you in combat, forming a small party. They all come with specific skills like smashing boulders, swimming and jumping across platforms, which regularly proves crucial to advance during exploration.

You could just proceed with story missions, but exploration is half the fun here. Between these visually stunning locations, there’s no end of treasure chests, collectible materials and side quests to undertake, many of which are often based around these activities. You’ve also got randomly spawning Monster Dens to find, with “Rare Dens” offering more elusive eggs with better genes. Not long after starting, players will learn the “rite of channelling”, letting us merge two Monsties into one and carry over specific genes, giving us decent tools for creating a more optimal fighter.

As for combat, Wings of Ruin takes a considerable turn from the main entries, using an enjoyable turn-based approach with 4-person parties. That includes yourself, an NPC and both of your lead Monsties, though only the protagonist is directly controllable. During battles, players can rely on special Kinship Skills that draw from your Stone’s gauge. If it fully charges, you can team up with the Monstie to perform an enjoyably powerful strike, also letting you perform Double Attacks by choosing the same attack type.

While it’s not entirely reliant on this system, combat utilises a simplistic “rock, paper, scissors” style approach to attack types, and characters can perform one of three: Power, Technical and Speed. Power beats Technical, Technical beats Speed, while Speed beats Power. Most enemies can be hit without much consequence, but if you and an enemy target each other, that leads into a “head-to-head” battle, where your choice determines a winner.

That doesn’t account for a nicely varied set of weapons either - Great Sword, Sword & Shield, Hammer, Hunting Horn, Bow and Gunlance - which can be upgraded, forged and bought outside of combat alongside armour. These can be found using materials obtained during exploration, alongside drops from defeated monsters. Weapons are a key element as you can switch between three during combat, and each damage-specific monsters differently. For example, monsters with harder shells won’t take much damage from sword slashes, but hitting them with a hammer is a different story.

For the most part, combat is enjoyable and if anything, it reminds me of a Monster Hunter style Pokémon game. There’s good depth, great customisation options and some monsters can be targeted in specific areas, offering strategic elements to combat. Granted, the attack types system can make strategizing feel somewhat luck-based, especially if you’re fighting a Monster you’ve not previously encountered, but enemies usually favour specific attack patterns. That gets slightly repetitive though, and you’ll soon learn what to expect after repeated encounters.

Primarily a single-player experience, Wings of Ruin also features co-op elements. Dungeon Exploration quests allow players to search with friends, fighting freely or joining each other in battles, while Battle Challenges are a set of competitive side quests, and both are available offline too with NPCs. Otherwise, there’s also Versus mode, letting you take on other players in 1v1 or 2v2 tag-team matches, giving players plenty of options. I couldn't test these during the review period, so I can't comment on them much further.

Still, for the most part, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin marks an excellent sequel to its 3DS successor. By offering a vibrant setting, open-ended gameplay, an engaging story and (mostly) entertaining combat, this is one entry that’ll suit both established series veterans and Monster Hunter newcomers. You won’t want to miss it.

8/10

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin was reviewed on PC, and a review code was provided by the publisher. It's also available on PS4 and Switch.

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