Monster Hunter Stories 2 Trial Version Thoughts

The demo for Monster Hunter Stories 2 is out today! Thanks to the magic of the Japanese eshop though, I was able to get the demo a day early. And it was in English! Here are my thoughts on the trial version of Monster Hunter Stories 2.

I’m not a Monster Hunter fan. I’ve tried to get into the games via the demos that have been released for each one of them but have never succeeded. And so while I thought that Monster Hunter Stories 2 looked really good, I was prepared to be disappointed…

The demo starts off by letting you create your own character. Its a great character creator too! There are so many options. You can check out the character I created above. Isn’t he cool?!

Then I was blown away: a cutscene with singing, voice acting, and beautiful cel-shaded graphics started the game off.

And after that was over, the actual gameplay started and it looked just as good!

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is, in my opinion, better looking than any of the regular Monster Hunter games. The graphics are excellent. It feels like you are exploring an animated experience rather than a game.

That said, the gameplay is really good too. The exploration is a lot of fun. You start in a small village that feels very alive. Its full of people to talk to and things to see. The weapons and armor you can buy here look very cool.

Outside of the village, there’s a big open area to explore! There are plenty of enemies to fight here, rare monster dens to discover, and items to pick up. I could just keep exploring forever and not even worry about the story.

And let me talk about the story (so far) and characters before taking about the game’s combat. I do find find the story and characters a bit cutesy, a bit Pokemon-like at times. As a non-Pokemon fan, does that bother me? Nope. I’m just having too much fun. The story is kind interesting but its everything else that really has my attention. The voice acting is pretty good in this game though.

Now let’s talk about the game’s combat!

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a turn-based rpg. Basically you have a menu, you pick your attack, attack the enemy, then the enemy can attack you, etc. However, Monster Hunter Stories 2 adds a bit more strategy to each battle. You have three ways to attack: Power, Speed, or Tactical. The key is to guess what your enemy is going to do and do something else.

So an enemy could be using a Power attack, so you hit them with speed and that might actually stop them in their tracks. If you picked Power while they are using power, the battle will likely be a Draw. The Head-to-Head animation that pops up is pretty great.

All of the battle animations and special attacks are very well done. The battle system is a complete joy.

I’m really loving this demo so far. The story is interesting and most of all the gameplay and graphics are out of this world.

If you like Pokemon, you will love Monster Hunter Stories 2. It does have that “gotta catch ’em all” feel when it comes to the monsters.

Though I’m proof that even if you don’t like Pokemon, you can still like this game. The graphics are just great, there is so much strategy in the battles, and there is a lot to find out of battle.

And this is just a demo! I haven’t even finished the demo and do not look forward to that. I don’t want this demo to be over. The actual game should be pretty awesome.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 comes out for the Nintendo Switch on July 9th. Will you be picking it up?

The demo is now available!