With what's been happening lately with the Monster Hunter franchise, it's hard not to notice Friv2Online's deliberate strategy to expand into new markets, platforms and audiences and turn a hardcore title for diehard fans into a truly mainstream phenomenon. And in addition to World released on the “large” platforms and Rise, which is friendly to beginners, the developers did not forget the spin-off Stories, releasing its sequel on Switch and PC. This review contains our impressions.
Perhaps it is the first Stories for the Nintendo 3DS of 2017 that can be considered the beginning of the franchise's journey to the people. Unlike friv games of the main series overloaded with hardcore hunting mechanics, Monster Hunter Stories was something radically new and much more accessible - relatively unpretentious even by the standards of portable JRPG platforms with a full story and turn-based battles according to all the laws of the genre.
The second part of Stories continues to follow this path, developing the principles laid down by its predecessor. Formally, this is even a direct continuation - the action takes place in the same world after the events of the first game. But you don't have to play the first part to understand what's going on in the second. The games overlap only at the level of setting, references, and some characters.
OLD WORLD, NEW HEROES
Strictly speaking, the friv game (and the entire sub-series) would be more correctly called Monster Rider Stories. The mention of hunters in the title only indicates a common game universe, but we have to play for the Riders - representatives of another community with a different vision of the world, monsters and their disagreements with the Hunters, who are also present here and are revealed somewhat from the other side.
The introductory cut-scene, which the game shows us immediately after character creation, briefly outlines the setting, plotline, and origin of the hero. The player character is the grandson of an illustrious Rider named (or nicknamed) Red, who lives in the Polynesian-inspired village of Mahana. He is still young, he has everything ahead, and he just comes to an important holiday for his village.
But according to all the laws of the genre, as usual, something goes wrong. The holiday is disrupted because the guardian of the village - looking like a huge dragon Ratta guardian - decided to leave it, giving the egg to a mysterious girl. And he is not alone - in the same cut-scene we see that all such dragons, called Rattalos, are flying somewhere. Everything is aggravated by a strange glow and the intervention of the Hunters, also invited to the holiday - despite the formal friendship, they have their own interests and their own motivation. The result is an almost global threat. Guess who's going to take care of everything?
Unlike Rise, where the plot was just a formal addition to the hunt, there is a full-fledged story here, and all our tasks are plot-based. Let it be completely linear, and quests, as a rule, come down to defeating some kind of monster, but thanks to beautifully staged cut scenes, even such a simple plot is revealed very interestingly. But the side quests here are exactly the same as in Rise - go / fetch / kill / turn in on the quest board. Nothing interesting, but a good way to earn zeny - this is the name of the local currency.
RIDE THEM ALL!
In general, the Riders lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle than the Hunters. Of course, they also fight monsters and even use them as raw materials for weapons and armor. But their main craft is breeding domesticated versions of monsters from eggs, called monsters (yes, these are fundamentally different concepts here) with further taming for the purpose of riding.
In Rise, we could also ride a monster, but for a limited time and solely for the purpose of dealing damage, but here it is the basis of the whole friv game, and monsters and Riders are best friends. Link Stones help in this friendship - special magical artifacts that give the Rider the opportunity to communicate with his monster on a mental level.
The first monster is given to us by a friend and teacher named Kaina, but almost immediately we will learn how to find monster lairs, take out other eggs from them and breed new pets.
This is one of the key moments of the friv game, somewhat close to the Pokemon series - in Stories 2 there are more than 200 types of monsters that are well known to fans of the Monster Hunter universe. For most of them, you can find an egg from which a monster hatches in a village stall, ready to go on an adventure with you.
You can take with you a whole team of up to five individuals, between which you can arbitrarily and instantly switch through the menu. Monsters help us both in battles and in exploring the world, and among their abilities are not only combat techniques, but also quite peaceful skills.
One can swim, the second can climb plants, the third can jump, the fourth can search for resources, and so on. All this is really used in the gameplay and even some kind of puzzles, when some places with valuable and not very resources can only be reached in a certain way.
SPEARGUNS NAKED!
As a rule, it is in the combat system of JRPGs that most often lies the uniqueness of games in this genre and their attractiveness (or unattractiveness) for players. There is a lot to fight in Stories 2, like in other Japanese RPGs, the battles are turn-based with a choice of actions, the mechanics are quite simple and accessible, but exciting. There is no smell of hardcore hunting here, but the friv game retains the magic of the universe to the fullest - it’s worth a little better understanding of the nuances, and it becomes impossible to break away.
The basis of the combat, as in the first part, is the principle of "rock / scissors / paper" of three types of attacks: powerful, high-speed and technical. Power beats technique, technique beats speed, speed beats power. This is revealed in the so-called "battle on equal terms", when our character and the enemy choose each other's targets.
Visually, this is first displayed in the form of a beam connecting them, and then - a video of the collision with the "collision" of the winning side in full screen (in case of a draw, the screen remains split). Moreover, we must understand that winning the battle on equal terms only increases the damage we inflict and reduces the damage received, but does not completely eliminate it.
In addition to damage, winning a battle on an equal footing charges the link scale - a local analogue of mana, which is spent on the use of special skills, and when fully charged, it allows you to ride a monster. At the same time, the health of the monster and the rider is restored, attack and defense are increased, and you can also use the communication skill - a typical "ultimate" ability with strong damage and a video sequence full of special effects.
The rest of the monster fights on its own, but we can give him instructions on choosing the type of attack.
If the attack types of the character and the monster match and beat the attack type of the enemy, then a double attack is performed - also with increased damage and a strong charge of the communication scale. Skills, in essence, are special type of attacks, which are also divided into types (powerful / technical / speed), or defensive abilities. Also in the skills menu once per turn, you can change weapons.
There are six types of weapons in the friv game - in addition to the two-handed sword, the sword with a shield, the hunting horn and the hammer from the first part, a bow and the iconic "Monchan" spear gun were added. Rise is far from diverse, and the mechanics of use due to the peculiarities of the combat system do not differ so much, but each type of weapon in the game has its own set of skills, and using its different types is not only interesting, but also useful.
Weapons differ in the type of damage (cutting / piercing / crushing), and monsters - in resistance and vulnerability to it. In addition, for some monsters, we can choose the part of the body that we strike - this way you can knock out a particularly valuable resource or neutralize some enemy ability.
The icing on the cake is that, angry after hitting some parts of the body or for some other reason, the monsters go into a rage, along with which QTE events are activated with a vivid video sequence, where we need to win by playing as our monster and pressing the buttons at a certain speed or in the right sequence.
After the battle, we will have a traditional JRPG "debriefing" with a letter designation of the rank (it depends on how quickly and effectively we won) and a demonstration of trophies and pumping results.
Yes, unlike Rise and other traditional Monster Hunters, there is leveling here, albeit a rather rudimentary one. For our hero, it simply increases damage and health, and it also gives monsters new abilities. Moreover, all the monsters in the team are pumped, regardless of participation in the battle.
STILL MONSTER HUNTER
But as much as Wings of Ruin differs from the main series in terms of gameplay, the shared universe makes itself felt - and that's definitely a good thing. Equally important here are forging weapons and armor from monsters, crafting and gathering resources, with many recipes common, although some items (for example, traps) are used differently. But the resources in the friv game world, in my opinion, look brighter and are better visible than in Rise.
As in other games in the series, we are waiting for different biomes with their own characteristics of flora and fauna - for example, the coast, forests, mountains. Unlike Rise, although the world here is divided into separate locations, which are revealed as you progress, it allows you to go to any previously opened place at any time, regardless of the task.
Unfortunately, the reverse side of this medal was the refusal to implement virtual ecosystems - here the monsters do not form food chains and do not fight with each other, but simply walk around the locations waiting for a fight with the player. But the ability to choose the time of day for your task remains, and the location of the monsters in the locations is also different.
Of course, "Monhan" is inconceivable without Kotts - these cute intelligent cats who in Wings of Ruin are responsible for moving quickly in Kottavan caravans, breeding monsters in stalls (this important position is called Kottyuh) and organizing online play (it requires a Nintendo Switch Online subscription ). And also a slightly mutated Kott Navira, who transferred from the first part, is one of the key characters in the friv game, a merry fellow and a friend of our character.
Particularly meticulous collectors will appreciate access to encyclopedias of monsters and monsters, and fans of Rise - mutual bonus items in both games. For example, in Wings of Ruin you can put on the cosmetic armor of the Kamura Hunter and bring out Palamut, and in Rise you can put on the same armor of the Rider.
