Monster Hunter Stories 2 Review-in-Progress: Fun Fast-Paced Strategic Combat

In our first review-in-progress for Monster Hunter Stories 2, we talked about the game’s graphics. This time, we’ll dive into its combat. Is its turn-based combat fun?

The regular Monster Hunter series are in the action genre.

The Monster Hunter Stories series is in turn-based jrpg genre.

And think thats yet another reason I like Monster Hunter Stories 2 more than the regular series.

For a long time I’ve been a jrpg fan. Everything expect Pokémon. Of course, it has to be said that Monster Hunter Stories 2 has some similarities to the Pokémon franchise.

Just like Pokémon, you will find yourself fighting along side monsters. You also have to “catch ’em all”. Kind of. There are monster eggs that you can find to get new monsters into your group.

What I love about Monster Hunter Stories 2, so far, is that you can ride a monster around outside of battle and use that to transverse the dungeons in unique ways. You can also ride them when your kinship meter is full in battle too.

However you do not directly control the monsters. I’m fine with that. In fact, you only really control your main character and can occasionally give your monster an order or get their help in battle.

The battles are super unique. I love that there are three ways to attack the enemy, plus you target parts of them at times and even “break” parts on monsters. Its not as graphic as it sounds. It awesome though and oh so rewarding because it can be tough to break some of these enemies.

Each battle is so strategic and thrilling. You just never know how a battle will go, even random ones! And these battles happen quickly. Just because the game’s turned based does not mean it has slow battles. You have to stay on your toes and pay attention to everything.

Sometimes you’ll find yourself in a head-to-head where you have to button mash the A button to beat an enemy back or you picked the same attack as the enemy so you hold your breath to find out if you won or if it was a draw or the enemy beat you! Its great. I love the special attacks too, though I’m glad you can hold down on the plus button to skip them if you are in a hurry. The battles are just so great.

Also the game is so judgey. You get scored for every single battle. Sometimes think you did really well and the game will give you a C or D. Its pretty funny.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 has such a great battle system. It can be pretty tough at times, especially boss battles, but its always fun.

Oh and if you don’t feel like getting into a battle, you can easily avoid random battles most of the time because you see the monsters walking around in dungeons and open areas. So cool.

What about the game’s story though? Is that interesting at all? We’ll talk about that in a non-spoiler manner in the next review-in-progress!

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is now available via retail and on the Nintendo Switch eshop! Thank you to Nintendo Canada for providing a review code.