You can also command your Monstie to use specific special moves called Skills if you really need to, so it’s a limitation only in part.

This at first may seem detrimental to your control and efficiency as a unit, but the game is very open with what moves and/or attacks everyone else on your team is going to use before you make your final decision, meaning that you can plan accordingly and apply tactics where necessary. Similarly to something like Miitopia, you’ll have numerous members of your party, but you’re only in direct control of your player character rather than your 'Monstie' (a term used to distinguish friendly monsters from your bog-standard common or garden monster) or any partners that might be tagging along. The gameplay is also leagues apart from the mainline series, as Stories takes on the form of a turn-based JRPG. Whereas hunters kill monsters, riders kill monsters with monsters that they’ve befriended. First and foremost, you are not a hunter, you’re a rider. Well, if you’re not familiar with Monster Hunter Stories as a concept, it differs from the standard Monster Hunter formula in a number of ways.

The first game came out on the 3DS in the West after the Switch had launched and didn’t perhaps get the audience it deserved, so the pressure’s on for this sequel to grab the audience share it missed out on. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin in out in just a few short weeks, but ahead of that launch we were able to get our hands on it and were granted the luxury of giving you all a bit of a whack from the ol’ impressions stick.

Monster hunter riders stories