Monster Hunter Stories 2 Release Thread

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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Bluie
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The game releases today and I know a good chunk of us will be playing it. Let's hatch those eggs and discuss the game!
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LeBurns
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I saw this on my STEAM page. STEAM! Honestly had no idea it would be on there. Now it's $59.99, but I have to wonder if it, like most STEAM games, will eventually go on sale. I also kind of want to wait until all the free updates are out before starting the game so I'm not having to replay to see the new stuff. So for now it's on my Wishlist while I wait on the DLC releases and a sale.

Still though, I really liked playing the first game on my 3DS, so I am partial to playing on a handheld. Course the switch would give the option of handheld or TV (using my daughter's switch since she has the regular one, I've got the lite).

But yeah I'll be following this game for sure.
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Mikodesu
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@LeBurns: I posted this on the announcements thread, but if you've any interest in playing on PC, Green Man Gaming still has the game on sale - 17% off right now: https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/mo ... f-ruin-pc/ (It's a Steam key, but directly from the publisher so they decide the discount. The Ace Attorney collection has the same discount right now.)

The ONLY benefit to PC is a stable framerate. From the review I watched of the game there's still pop-in, it was definitely a game built for Switch that was ported to PC, but. Yeah. :lol: If it weren't for the frame drops I think I'd have paid the extra $10 for a handheld experience.
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LeBurns
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Mikodesu wrote:The ONLY benefit to PC is a stable framerate. From the review I watched of the game there's still pop-in, it was definitely a game built for Switch that was ported to PC, but. Yeah. :lol: If it weren't for the frame drops I think I'd have paid the extra $10 for a handheld experience.
Well to be honest I have plenty of PC games and too few for my Switch, so I may get the Switch version anyway.

One question though, to get the free DLC do I have to be in the Nintendo club (or whatever it's called now)? I recall there were some features of FE3H that I couldn't do because I didn't have that on-line account. But I did get all the updates for AC as I am hooked up to wifi.
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Mikodesu
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Oh wow! I remembered that wrong, all of those updates are free? I found an IGN article referencing a tweet for the update roadmap. I don't believe any of those updates are Switch exclusive. Nothing in the tweet says so, anyway. And none of the content is Nintendo related.
Spoiler:
I would bet that by Christmas MHS2 will be on sale, probably a good one even on Switch, and by then all the updates will be out! So maybe that would be a better bet?
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LeBurns
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Mikodesu wrote:Oh wow! I remembered that wrong, all of those updates are free? I found an IGN article referencing a tweet for the update roadmap. I don't believe any of those updates are Switch exclusive. Nothing in the tweet says so, anyway. And none of the content is Nintendo related.
The STEAM page mentions the free updates, so they are definitely not Switch exclusive.

The game on STEAM is $59.99. However, there are $68.81 in additional content you can buy. I'll be honest, I'm always leary of games where the DLC cost more than the game. You can actually pay $3 to be able to edit your character's looks after the game starts. Most games just have you visit an in-game barber or something and change all you want (maybe pay some in game currency or something). But this game is making you pay $3 out of pocket to do it. Looks like most the others are hair styles and outfits. I don't think any of the stuff helps in game, but it sure feels greedy to charge so much for this stuff. I assume the Switch version has something similar.
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Mikodesu
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Afaik that sort of monetization is standard in Monster Hunter...the mainline games make you pay to change your character's voice. :/ And face, I think. But they offset that by doing free updates with more monsters to fight.

Edit: Forgot to clarify - what you can't change is your character's face. Eyes, eye color, mouth. Hairstyle and color can be changed at any time, easily. It's not perfect, but I can live with it.

From the demo there's quite a few base hairstyles (maybe 20? It was several pages) and the outfits...there's literal scores of armor to craft. I don't think it hits 100, but it's a lot. DLC outfits I think are more for veteran fans (like I remember the basic armor from Rise being one). Being able to edit your character would be nice though.

I haven't looked too much into DLC yet since I don't want to spoil anything else, but it is something to think about. There's definitely enough content though, main quest alone is 40-50 hours, completion sitting over 100.
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Bluie
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Played a few hours last night past where the demo stopped and I am having such a good time! It's been ages since I played a JRPG that's so fun to explore that I go out of my way to do all the side quests in every area! I stopped after getting a Royal Ludroth and swimming around the first area to gather chests. Still need a monstie that can climb ledges, and one that can fly, but flight was unlocked late game in the first entry, so I expect the same will happen in this one.
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Bluie wrote:Played a few hours last night past where the demo stopped and I am having such a good time! It's been ages since I played a JRPG that's so fun to explore that I go out of my way to do all the side quests in every area! I stopped after getting a Royal Ludroth and swimming around the first area to gather chests. Still need a monstie that can climb ledges, and one that can fly, but flight was unlocked late game in the first entry, so I expect the same will happen in this one.
So you are playing on Switch or PC? What do you think of the platform you're using?
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Initially I had a "take it or leave it" attitude toward this installment, even though I liked the first one okay. After seeing how good it looks in the demo, and hearing about co-op, I am officially keeping my eye on this one. Wishlisting it for sure. I am especially curious how playing co-op would work in actual gameplay vs the description. I suppose I could probably find videos now or fairly soon since it's been out a day now.

In related news, has anyone else picked up the amiibo? I had heard they were just supposed to be in person, but then people were going crazy over a possible delay, and about the roll out online. So rather than trying to slog through that, I just called my local GameStop and asked if they had any or if it was online. He said they only had one left in store and it was Ena. I was happy as that was the one I wanted most. He was even nice enough to save it for me! Granted I hopped right into the car with the kids to pick it up, but I thought that was really nice. I don't think they unlock as much as the old ones did, but at least I was able to get one of the three.
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Mikodesu
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greensara wrote:I am especially curious how playing co-op would work in actual gameplay vs the description. I suppose I could probably find videos now or fairly soon since it's been out a day now.
From the review I watched, co-op doesn't apply to the main story, only special hunts that unlock as you play.


I played for a few hours yesterday and I'm aaaalmost back through the demo. Haven't noticed any frame drops and I think the load times are a liiittle faster. Either way it's steady, and if I reeeally want to relax while I play there's a TV I can hook my computer up to easily enough.

This is basically the Pokemon game I've wanted for the last 10 years. The only thing that bothers me about the presentation is the amount of clipping that wasn't addressed. Somebody went to the effort of lowering a ponytail so it wouldn't clip through a hat, but you couldn't adjust the main character's arm position in a cutscene so her arms don't clip through your BASIC OUTFIT in one of the first cutscenes in the game?

Kinda wonder how that went down. Was it just the dedication of one or two people modeling the armor sets? And whoever animated cutscenes did not give a « Snuggly Bunny » about the FeMC?

Anyway. Rant over. It's an excellent game. Plus, skipable cutscenes and sped up battles! A+
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Bluie
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LeBurns wrote:So you are playing on Switch or PC? What do you think of the platform you're using?
Playing on Switch. There is certainly a dip in framerate (that I can't seem to place number wise? Probs 30fps?) in certain areas, but it really doesn't effect gameplay. Framerate is better in battle, pretty much buttery-smooth until someone unleashes a gigantic special attack and there's a half second pause before the damage numbers pop up. I have the battles on 2x speed, so I don't even notice this any more. I turned the camera tracking off as it was making me a little nauseous, but now having the camera in my under my control helps a lot.
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Glad you guys are enjoying it! I loved the demo, but not in a way that made me think I'd be able to love the game the whole way through. It was fun to complete every single quest available in the demo, but I feel like I'd get overwhelmed and stop doing that when there was more story to advance, and then I'd repeat what I did with the first game and just end up not playing any more by the time I got about half way through.

How do you guys like it compared to the first game? Putting the graphics aside.
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I've played about six hours of the game so far? Did all the sidequests available to me at the time (though I didn't do the trial quests yet. I guess I'm saving those for later?) Before moving on (so now I have new quests and monsters to beat.) I might play for another hour or two tonight if I feel up to it.

I definitely love the game like I thought I would, I actually might try and complete all the armor and weapons later on? Something about how it's presented makes me want to do that. It'll probably be an on and off thing though, whenever I feel like doing that or hunting a few monsters to collect the materials I need. It might be something I do in the postgame which I'm sure will take forever for me to finish since it always does in every game with a postage, but there's really no pressing need so that's fine.

I need to get some new monsties for my team (and to fill out the entries) some bottlecaps whenever I actually can do that, and do the aforementioned sidequests and monster hunting. Up until i got to that One Boss Monster, I hadn't lost any hearts yet, and I honestly wouldn't have lost any hearts to that either but I purposefully chose to not be as careful as I could be because I didn't want to bother with healing. I guess after having played through the whole first game I'm used to the monster hunter stories systems. This is definitely a game I'm going to be spending a lot of time on right now. I already know I would definitely buy a third game if they made one...
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Kikki wrote:How do you guys like it compared to the first game? Putting the graphics aside.
The world in 2 feels a lot more alive compared to its predecessor. While most of my memories from the first game are it's story segments, what I do remember was the overworld itself was kinda empty until a monster popped in. In this game, there is wildlife everywhere, to the actual monsters, some prowling around while others are doing unique animations (ie: Azuros eating honey), to the uninteractable critters like stinkminks and toads that react to your approach. Even the towns are a lot more lively as when I got the the second village, there are a ton of villagers doing tasks instead of just standing around AND you can see people riding on their flying monsters above the village (first village has some kites flying around too iirc).

Animations are also top notch. The first game did well with the 3DS hardware, honestly really impressive stuff, but now that the series is on a home console with more power, you can really see how expressive and free the animators can be. The kinship skills are extra flashy and remind me of 90s Final Fantasy games summons with how over the top they are lmao. Other than that, I'd say the (Japanese) voice track is good. I was at first disappointed we couldn't have the 'Monster Hunter Language' as an option, as it was the only option in the original, but I'm quickly warming to the cast as is. Having 90% of the game voiced probably helping.

PS - battle system is a lot more fun with more party members + it's nice having Navirou squished into a speech bubble instead of taking up so much of the screen with his character art in battle.
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