To counter the first, I simply upgraded the armor and weapons I had neglected. I only failed against a story scenario twice in the 70ish-hour campaign (which could have been a lot shorter if I didn’t tinker so much, more on that later), as it normally would require my own carelessness to lose. Other than that, I didn’t encounter anything technical that disrupted my experience as a whole.
MONSTER HUNTER STORIES 2 CRACK STATUS PC
Because it’s turn-based, this wasn’t disruptive enough for me to consider switching over to a PC instead. These were more noticeable while docked, and, oddly, during cutscenes. Loading times were fast, but very slight pop-in and more noticeable, variable framerate dips were present on the Nintendo Switch. What a relief, since I loved experimenting with new Monsties on my team. Luckily, grinding specifically for experience generally wasn’t necessary because of a range of entertaining side tasks I’ll come to a little later, and the awesome new innate system that grants a huge EXP boosts for under-leveled Monsties. It makes sense in a Monster Hunter context for battles to be hard-fought, but for a turn-based JRPG, the idea is less fun in practice. The latter was only useful when backtracking, but since the Kinship Attacks that require you to completely build up a skill gauge with other moves don’t actually do all that much more damage than regular attacks and exploiting an enemy’s elemental weakness doesn’t have that drastic of an effect, there’s not really a reliable way to end battles quickly against monsters on par with your own power. I wish I could turn off the QTEs so I could avoid button mashing, but that option isn’t available.Įventually though, the length and tediousness of battles against your average overworld monsters began to wear on me - even though you can triple the animation speed (thank goodness), and use a “Quick Finish” function when facing something significantly weaker than you. There’s even more nuance to these battles, too, like the Kinship Gauge used to fuel skills and cool very anime “ultimate” Kinship Attacks, Head-to-Heads, your classic elemental strengths and weaknesses, quick-time events, and more. Early on, NPCs will hand out tips like these, but further into the campaign these more often become rewarding personal discoveries (or exercises of previous Monster Hunter knowledge). They make battles engaging, thought-provoking, and more reminiscent of classic Monster Hunter - attacking Duramboros’ legs specifically will eventually make it topple over, attacking Kulu-Ya-Ku’s rock with a blunt weapon will break it faster, or hitting it with a Flash Bomb will make it drop entirely. Overall, I appreciate the combat changes. It’s way more doable and deliberate than memorizing a dubious pattern with variables like in the first. If a monster becomes enraged, takes flight, or otherwise changes its appearance - like when a Zamtrios becomes iceclad - odds are it’s going to change the type it attacks with, giving you a heads-up to potentially switch to a Monstie that prefers the advantageous type of Speed, Power, or Technical to attack with. Though the previous method to reading an opponent’s intent was a near-impossible task, now it requires you to simply pay attention. Wings of Ruin includes more intricate mechanics in a majority of battles than its predecessor, with monster parts to break and readable attack pattern changes rather than seemingly random ones.(You can read more about these changes in detail in here). Turn-based combat is focused on a Rock-Paper-Scissors format with Power, Technical, and Speed type attacks, with each monster species (and Monstie) favoring one of these types. Being able to switch both weapons and Monsties out once a turn without losing an action makes switching between your three weapons and up to six Monsties a viable, necessary tactic and method to keep things from getting repetitive. Each of the six weapon types have different mechanics, skills, and damage types, and you can equip three at a time. This includes your Rider, too, who fights alongside your Monstie of choice and has armor and weapons to craft and equip. Riders primarily befriend monsters (though they still make them into pants out of necessity, too), resulting in a party-building mechanic with somewhat similar to Pokemon, where each Monstie (monsters that are your besties, of course) has different stats, elemental strengths and weaknesses, and skills. It translates the classic Monster Hunter formula well, except instead of being a Hunter you’re placed into the role of a Rider. Like its predecessor, it swaps real-time combat for turn-based battles, deep customization systems, a copious amount of side tasks, and a heartfelt story.