Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

ONE WEEK IN: A Monster Hunter Stories 2 Impressions Piece

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Monster Hunter Stories 2 (MHS2) is a newly-released (July 9th) console-exclusive sequel to Capcom's 3DS/mobile turn-based JRPG spinoff of the Monster Hunter series, Monster Hunter Stories. The original Stories did well enough in Japan but never really managed to sell as well as the mainline 3DS Monster Hunter games overseas. Of course, that was back in 2017, and since then Capcom has massively expanded the overseas reach and appeal of this franchise with hit entries like Monster Hunter World on PS4/Xbox One/PC, which has become their best-selling title to date, and Monster Hunter Rise on the Nintendo Switch, which is on-track to become their highest-selling single-platform release to date. Will that translate at all to the sales of a turn-based, story-driven JRPG, though? Time will tell, but Capcom is certainly putting in the work.

For anyone who has played the original release, the first immediately noticeable alteration is in the aesthetic design of the game itself. The original Stories opted away from the stylized realism of the mainline Monster Hunter games and instead went with an anime-inspired artstyle for human characters where everyone looked like a child. MHS2 maintains the anime-inspired visuals, as they're a part of this spin-off series' identity, but, per the Capcom leak, we've learned they redesigned the visuals to feel less childish in order to make the series more attractive to adults and Western audiences. While I can't say whether this will actually succeed for others or not, I can say it was a roaring success for me! MHS2 is a beautiful game and, freed from the tiny environments and technical limitations of the 3DS, it stands out as one of the best-looking exclusives in the Nintendo Switch library, combining vibrant characters and detailed monster models with lush environments that feel like they could have been ripped from Nintendo's Breath of the Wild. Part of this is also undoubtedly the high-ish resolution the game is running at all, although that might not have ultimately been the best decision for this game (more on that in a minute).

One of the strongest aspects of this game is the monster design. Truth be told, it can be difficult for newcomers to the monster-collecting JRPG scene to design creatures that don't feel like bootleg Pokemon, but MHS2 benefits from generations of creative monster designs poached from the mainline games. These designs, unlike the character design style for anthropomorphic characters (including Felynes, the intelligent bipedal cats in the Monster Hunter universe, who look much less cat-like and more distinctly cartoonish now), maintain the stylized realism of designs in the mainline games. The animation work for these creatures is excellent as well.

In MHS2, you play as a young denizen of Hakolo Island, grandchild of Red, a legendary monster rider. Riders, in the lore of Monster Hunter Stories, use magic Kinship Stones in order to forge bonds with newly-hatched monsters and fight alongside them. This culture of reverence and respect for monsters puts them at odds with the much more common monster hunters, who see monsters as foes to be defeated and utilized for resources. The two groups come to blows at the beginning of the game when a mysterious event triggers unusually aggressive behavior in wild monsters and triggers the mass vanishing of Rathalos (great, winged wyverns, akin to traditional dragons, that are regarded by many with great fear as Kings of the Sky), including Guardian Ratha, Red's famous Rathalos who was considered by locals to be the guardian of Hakolo Island. Ratha leaves a lone egg, and many fear the mysterious events portend the arrival of Razewing Ratha, a mythical creature that legend warns will destroy the world with its Wings of Ruin. You escape capture from monster hunters who want to take custody of the egg and prevent the awakening of a potentially world-ending threat with Ena, a Wyverian girl who knew your grandfather and wishes to protect Ratha's offspring. You set off on a quest to learn the true nature of what's happening and, if the young Rathalos inside the egg is, indeed, Razewing Ratha, how to seal its power without having to kill it.

The baby Rathalos does indeed hatch, and it's suitably adorable for the brief period of time it remains young, but the Stories games are not only JRPGs, but monster-collecting JRPGs ala Pokemon, Digimon, and Shin Megami Tensei, so as you play through the game you'll be able to collect a diverse lineup of monsters to fight alongside you (80+ have been confirmed to be in the game, which is on the low side for a game in this genre, unfortunately). Riders need to bond with a monster when it's born, so instead of enslaving wild creatures you come across like in Pokemon, you instead follow monsters back to their nests in their dens and steal their eggs (curiously, even mammalian monsters lay eggs, although I guess it beats ambushing monster mothers as they're giving birth and ripping the babies out of them, lol). Hatch an egg, and the monster inside will become your "monstie" (the insufferably cute term these Stories games use to refer to your monsters, presumably because they're monsters that are your besties). The chance that a monster retreats to its den is, unfortunately, pure RNG, although you can increase the chances of this happening by using paintballs on them or sometimes breaking certain parts of their body (more on that in the next paragraph).

Battles in MHS2 are traditional turn-based affairs like in a Dragon Quest game, although the mechanics of the battle system itself are fairly unique. Sort of like the weapon triangle in an older Fire Emblem game, attacks in MHS2 can be one of three types: speed attacks, power attacks, and technical attacks. The difference here, and what gives the battle system an almost marmite quality (I wasn't a fan of it in the original, but I've learned to warm up to the system in the sequel), is that if you and an enemy are targeting one-another, whoever uses an attack that the other is weak to will be able to prevent their foe from acting at all. It's very much like a game of rock/paper/scissors in this sense. Speed beats power, power beats technical, and technical beats speed, and a helpful little illustration on the battle screen allows you to double-check this before committing to an attack. The game uses a line of sight to tell you who an enemy is targeting, and if you choose to directly attack an enemy that is targeting you, a "Head-to-Head" encounter is initiated. If both of you choose the same attack type, the H2H is considered a "draw" and you both take damage. Otherwise, whoever chooses the superior attack prevents their opponent from moving at all. If this were purely up to RNG, it'd be a nightmare, as all battles would come down to luck, but, thankfully, monsters in this game all have a preferred attack type and will reliably choose to attack that way the majority of the time, which makes most wild monsters in this game a piece of cake to defeat once you know their attack affinity, since you can get away with always choosing the attack type they're weak to.

This doesn't sound particularly engaging, but there are a LOT of nuances to the gameplay here. Let's start with more basics: you'll always fight alongside your active monstie in a battle. Since these are independent creatures with wills of their own, though, their decisions are AI-controlled, and, in general, they'll attack with whatever attack type they have an affinity for. This would make it difficult to fight alongside them in battles where you run into monsters who tend to use the attack type your active monstie is weak to, but, thankfully, you can swap out your monstie once per turn with another monster in your party (like in Pokemon, you'll be able to maintain a party of six monsters at all times, although it's effectively only five you're able to actually choose, as the sixth slot is permanently occupued by the story-important Rathalos you save at the start of the game), which gives the game a crucial team-building element. And, unlike Pokemon, it actually matters, as you can't just blow through the game with one or two strong monsters.

While the AI controls what your monstie does in general, you'll build kinship with them in battles by winning H2Hs, especially if you and your monster engage in the same type of attack and attack the enemy simultaneously. As your kinship meter fills, you'll be able to direct your monsties to perform certain skills or abilities. Unfortunately, you'll share party space pretty much constantly with AI-controlled NPC allies who aren't able to be directed in any way. It's like I've gone back in time to 2006, when party members in Atlus' Persona 3 on PS2 were entirely AI controlled.

Actually, I want to gripe about this a minute. So, one of the ways the game balances out its unique battle system is by making it where you don't immediately lose if your HP drops to zero. Instead, you have a lives system. Until you return to a town or settlement, which replenishes your lives, you're allowed to die three times before the game boots you out of the battle (which is designed to emulate the gameplay of mainline Monster Hunter, where you can die three times before failing a hunt). Well, fine. Unfortunately, whoever your AI ally is at the time also has a life system, and if they (or their monstie) dies three times, you're also punished by losing the battle. The problem is that, since you have no control over what they do, a bad run of luck can lead to an enemy monster frequently targeting your ally, and your ally making foolish choices that easily lead to them dying, like choosing attack types poorly or not using skills to defend against powerful enemy attacks.

I mentioned dens before, and they function as the equivalent of dungeons in this game. As you're exploring out in the field in a given area, randomly generated monster dens will appear. Raiding them will always lead you to a monster nest at the very end, which you can scavenge for an egg. The stats of the monster in a given egg are randomized as well, so you're given multiple draws most of the time, and, once in a while, you'll pull out shiny eggs that house monsters with superior base stats and/or genetic traits (more on that soon). If the monster is away from its nest, however, time passes with every egg you find, and if you scavenge too many times, you'll usually end up attracting the attention of the monster that laid the eggs in the first place, and it'll ambush you.

Anyway, these dens are ALL over the place, and they randomly generate every time you leave and re-enter the field from a town or settlement, so if you're mildly OCD like me, you'll end up with more of these eggs than you know what to do with. Normal dens have eggs of common monsters with a low level of rarity, but every once in a while you'll stumble across golden dens that feature rare monster eggs. There are also Everdens, much larger, non-randomized dungeons where you can collect bottle caps, which function as a premium currency that you can use with a special vendor to collect stat-increasing items, rare equipment, and (more importantly) use to upgrade your stable so that you can house more monsters.

And you will end up with a LOT of monsters. Usually multiple monsters of the same type, which seems annoying at first, as there doesn't seem to be any reason to have five Yian Kut-Kus at any given time. This is where genetics and, eventually, the Rite of Channeling come into play. Each of your monster features a gene pool that determines their abilities, both passive and active, with many of them not unlocking until higher levels. This seems to be random, but the game introduces a system hours into the game whereby you can choose to fuse your monsters together, which donates one of the genes of the sacrificed monster to the recipient's gene pool. Granted, this horrifying process does seem to be at least slightly at odds with the focus on bonding and friendship in the narrative, but it's a system with a lot of depth to it that'll allow you to make your monsters as strong as they can be. It's certainly a great way of clearing up the clutter of having multiple monsties in your stable. Worth mentioning is that you can both introduce new genes and 'stack' copies of existing genes to strengthen abilities your monsters already have. You can also obtain bingo bonuses (lol) by lining up certain types of genes in a row, which will strengthen all of the genes in that line. There are also rare rainbow genes that act as a wild card, as they can combo with genes of any element and magnify the gains of bingo bonuses.

Also at odds with the game's bubbly image are the more traditional MonHun elements that carry over in terms of armor and weapon crafting. Like the mainline games, certain weapons work better against certain monsters. In this case, the game helpfully remembers which weapons are effective or ineffective against certain parts of a monster's body. There are six weapon types, two of each belonging to one of three categories: slash, pierce, and blunt. You'll want one weapon from each of the three categories. They all have strengths and weaknesses that I won't get into here, but using effective weapons make it more likely that you'll break off pieces of a monster's body. As in the mainline games, you'll use these pieces to craft stronger weapons and armor, so some of the classic gameplay loop is still here, meaning your rider is, functionally, as much a monster hunter as any of the people they're running from. It's a solid system, though, and I'm glad it was integrated into this game.

Before I move on from gameplay, it's also worth mentioning rider skills (and my own gripes about those). As you navigate the various landscapes in this game, you'll encounter areas that require certain types of monsties to access. A chest on an island in the middle of a lake will require a swimming monstie, for example. If a shortcut is only accessible via jumping, you'll need a monstie that can jump. While this does make monsties useful outside of battle and serves to diversify them a bit, it also, early game at least, severely limits the variety of teams the player can build. Granted, none of these seem to be required for main story quest completion, but you'll be missing out on a ton of optional materials if you don't build your team at least partially around rider skills. I guess you could technically ignore them initially and come back and scour the same area later with a separate team of monsters in order to collect all of the materials, but this seems inefficient.

As I mentioned before, the game is gorgeous and well-animated, and the resolution of the Switch version is surprisingly high. While demanding games on this system typically target 540p in handheld and 720p when docked, MHS2 targets native 720p in handheld and around 900p when docked, which yields a clean, attractive image, especially when played on something like the Switch Lite with its pixels more densely packed on the smaller screen. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of performance stability. The perhaps ambitious resolution targets, alongside a bizarrely uncapped framerate, causes the framerate to weave like a drunk throughout the experience, and you'll go from low-to-mid 40 fps in small, enclosed locations, to what feels like low-to-mid 20s in dense town areas. It never tanks to the point where I found it actively detrimental to the experience of playing the game, but it's worth keeping in mind for those who are sensitive to framerate fluctuations. The game is also available on Steam.

Music is another strong point for this game, much like the most recent mainline entry. I'll go ahead and link a few pieces I've encountered so far.

I was a tad apprehensive about certain aspects of this release going in, but, so far, it's looking like a superior console exclusive, and one of the many jewels of Nintendo Switch's surprisingly strong third-party showing in 2021. It probably won't sell a tenth of what the next Pokemon generation sells, but, in nearly every regard, it shows what's possible on the Switch hardware with just a little effort.

Before 2007, Mario had been to every place you could imagine. Boring grassy plains, hot deserts, icy tundras, haunted mansions, sunny holiday islands… prison. But there’s one place he never went to. Space. The final frontier. That was until he actually did, and is his intergalactic journey good? No, it’s fantastic.

Game: Super Mario Galaxy
Played on: Nintendo Switch (through port)

The Story
This game starts with Mario visiting the star festival. This is a festival that happens every 100 years. In this festival, a special comet flies over the kingdom and star bits fall from the sky. This is until the festival is interrupted by bowser. In Mario games, Bowser usually kidnaps the princess, right? Not in this one. Instead, he kidnaps the castle with Peach inside. I’m not kidding. He lasers it from out of the ground and sends it up to space. It’s up to Mario, these star children called the Lumas and a new princess and friend to Mario, Rosalina to save the day. The story is simple and gets to the point. There are also these book chapters you unlock through the game that give you some background for Rosalina and the lumas. This is nearly the best part of the game. It’s super emotional and charming. Please read the storybook if you play the game.

The Gameplay
This is mario’s best linear outing ever. Yes, it’s even better than 3D World and I adored that game. This game uses a hub world which is pretty odd for a modern Mario game (sure, the game’s nearly 14 years old but you get what I mean). In this hub world, there are rooms that include telescopes that lead you to galaxies. In these galaxies, there are missions. This is kinda like Mario 64 and Sunshine. There are also trickster comets that give you challenges to complete. Some involve beating a boss with one hp while another requires you to beat a level in a specific time. At the end of each mission, there’s a star and you need 121 to 100% the game. Once you beat the game 100%, “you can now play as Luigi!” and you have to get all of the stars as Mario's taller, floatier brother to get the true ending. In this game, Mario’s in space. That means that he makes use of the different gravity in space. You can do extra long and high jumps and there are these gravity changing spots that make for some great puzzles. Mario can also perform a spin attack that can attack enemies and also give him a double jump. In the Wii version of the game, you shook the controller to perform a spin attack but in the 3D All Stars port, it’s mapped to a single button press. Mario just controls really well in this game. Not as well as another Mario game but I’ll talk about that in the near future. Overall, yep. The gameplay is good.

The Music
OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD THE SOUNDTRACK IS BRILLIANT. HOLY BLITHERING BEES EVERY SONG IS AMAZING. Ahem, this game’s soundtrack is fully orchestrated. Recently, I’ve learned to love orchestral music. From the Sonic 30th Symphony to the Zelda Symphony. The most iconic song is obviously Gusty Garden Galaxy. The fact that an amazing song came from such a middle of the road level baffles me. It balances epic and whimsical so well. There is no way you haven’t heard this song, it’s that iconic. There’s also the observatory theme. This is just a very calming song. Just like GGG, there is no way you haven’t heard this song before. There’s a reason why Nintendo included the soundtrack feature in 3D All Stars, and this is why.

The Graphics and Aesthetics
I played this game through the stellar, if a bit scummy 3D All Stars collection so the game ran at 60fps in 1080p. Somehow, this nearly 14 year old game still holds up today. Each galaxy in this game has a different artstyle. A good example of this is HoneyHive Galaxy. This galaxy has a forest theme. It’s mostly brown and green but it sticks to that. Another thing that sticks to things is a sling pod. If you like those, sling pod galaxy is for you. It’s in deep space and there is no land. To get the star, you have to carefully sling mario on these sticky things called slingpods. These grab mario and you can pull them to launch him, kinda like a slingshot.
This last bit gets a bit spoilery, if you haven’t played this nearly 14 year old game, don’t read this bit.
The very last galaxy is a favourite of mine, Bowser’s Galaxy Reactor. This is a culmination of everything you’ve learned. This includes changing gravity, avoiding lava, avoiding tornadoes that launch mario and kill him and avoiding black holes. It’s a clash of different styles, ice, lava, space junk, a crumbling castle. You’d think they don’t fit well together but that’s dead wrong. As it’s a gauntlet, it feels more like you’re travelling through all of the galaxies you’ve visited. It gets a pass from me.

Conclusion
Mario’s first trip to outer space (if you don’t count any of the rainbow roads in Mario Kart) is a magical time. While it is pretty linear, most of the levels just need you to go from point A to point B, it uses that limitation and gives you a metric butt tonne of creative, beautiful level designs, fun gameplay with a surprisingly useful spin attack and a soundtrack that is literally one of the best ever made, Mario Galaxy is a worthwhile game that gives you about 13 hours of fun.
However, this is not mario’s best outing. In the words of Yoda “There is another.” My favourite game of all time, Super Mario Odyssey. That’s coming soon, stay tuned.

Pros
-Stellar music
-Fun gameplay
-Unique gravity mechanic
-Creative level designs and aesthetics
-Surprisingly good graphics for a Wii game
-The Storybook, just The Storybook

Cons
-Most missions are basic “point A to point B” designs
-Dumb story, even for a mario game

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
10/10 Outstanding

This was a long time coming. I spent a lot of time playing Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, trying to cope with the extreme heat in the uk, going on walks and watching tv that I completely forgot I was writing this piece. It was also my birthday recently. Sorry to keep you waiting!

@RogerRoger tbh I would never have guessed you'd ever be in an anime mood. But yeah, even if it's not the biggest budget game in the world, the art-style and environment design serve to make it an attractive experience. Very much the sort of AA Japanese title I enjoy playing on a portable system.

The normal enemy battles are pretty easy, but bosses, side quests, and "royal" monsters (encounters out in the field that are usually harder than boss fights in that area) keep the challenge up enough to be enjoyable. It's definitely not going to kick your teeth in like an SMT game, but avoids being braindead easy like Pokemon. Although, admittedly, some of that is due to the AI controlling your partners and monsties. I'm pretty satisfied with the gameplay overall, though.

Well, early Pokemon games had TMs and HMs. HMs were usually skills you could teach your Pokemon to help you traverse the world, but they took up a slot and, if I'm remembering correctly, the moves couldn't be removed, so people often turned certain Pokemon into "HM slaves" and kept them in their party so that they could manuever around the world. With that said, HMs aren't really used as frequently as rider skills are in this game, and one of the best recent innovations in the series was removing the need for HMs altogether. You're definitely not the first person to get early Pokemon vibes from the game basically making you keep certain monsters in your party to access certain rider skills. I just hope I find another monster that knows "jump" soon so I can ditch this early game Velocidrome for more capable mid-game monsters.

Actually, we do have rough sales estimates, as the game, a little over a week after launch, seems to have shipped over a million copies.

It's not a lot compared to mainline MonHun games (World, in particular, has sold nearly 20 million copies across all platforms, including re-releases with the expansion), but the first Stories couldn't even crack half a million copies lifetime worldwide, so I'm sure Capcom is satisfied so far.

Thanks for reading!

@Jackpaza0508 Cool Galaxy piece! One thing I actually liked about it, unlike its direct sequel, is that I felt like it had a balance of linear and more exploratory levels. Have you played Galaxy 2, btw?

The music is indeed amazing. Very unusual for a Mario game, but it works really well in the cosmic context of Galaxy's space setting.

Considering you liked Rosalina's storybook backstory so much (so did I), I'm curious what aspects of the plot rubbed you the wrong way.

@Jackpaza0508 Ah yes, happy birthday. Hopefully you were able to spend quality time with your loved ones.

@RogerRoger The Switch hardware is getting a bit long in the tooth at this point, but it really was a quantum leap forward from the 3DS. More impressive, I think, is that the screenshots in my piece are taken from both docked and portable play, but I genuinely can't tell which is which.

I get what the game is going for with the rider skills, but the way it's implemented is just limiting. Like, I've had to keep a basic monster like Ranmar, the Velocidrome my first partner gave me at the very start of the game. First because he was the only speed-based monster I was able to hatch for the longest time, and then because he was the only one who knew the jump command. I'd rather they just tether these functions to equipment so that it didn't limit my team-building options.

You don't need DVDs to get into anime, btw. Most of the major streaming services have dipped pretty heavily into anime distribution. When I was a kid, watching anime meant collecting pricey VHS tapes that came with two episodes in one language for $30 a pop. It was highway robbery by modern standards. My first 'real' foray into the medium was Neon Genesis Evangelion, and a complete set of the dubbed VHS tapes cost almost $400! DVDs were better, since those included dual audio tracks and usually featured four episodes per DVD, so the value coming from VHS was roughly doubled, but it still cost a small fortune to collect any suitably lengthy series. Looking back over all of my old games, VHS tapes, DVDs, etc. I can only imagine the small fortune my mother must have invested in feeding my geeky habits as I was growing up.

Nowadays, you can collect complete series for roughly the price of two VHS tapes back in the day, and that's the premium option now, since you can just access most of the stuff you're interested in via streaming services.

btw, I feel you on FMA traumatizing you. Years ago, I watched this series called Elfen Lied, and there's a flashback well into the series where the main character remembers how a group of schoolyard bullies pinned her down and forced her to watch as they bludgeoned her beloved puppy to death. Now, the series can't go five minutes without someone's head exploding, hearts being ripped out of chests, people getting dismembered, etc., but what really stuck with me, after all these years, is that puppy scene, and it's the exact reason I'll never watch that show again. Over time, I've learned to develop a hatred for media that plays on the emotions of the audience by abusing animals.

I could never get into Haruhi Suzumiya, unfortunately, on account of the main character being an infuriating sociopath who constantly sexually harasses one of her friends and bosses everyone else around. And I'm still angry about the scene where she blackmails a couple of hapless computer club geeks into giving her a PC by threatening to (falsely) accuse them of rape!

I definitely enjoyed Summer Wars, though! I have a love/hate relationship with Mamoru Hosoda's films, but I really dug the mix of science-fiction and family drama in that one.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing his newest film, Belle, which seems to mix science-fiction and fairytale elements (Beauty and the Beast, if the title wasn't a tip-off). It apparently got a lengthy standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, where it debuted this month, although this tweet gives me the impression that they do this standing ovation thing a lot.

I'm not sure if I'm more amused by the idea of these people standing around clapping for 10 - 20 minutes at a time, or that someone actually keeps track of how long they clap!

The film itself looks visually stunning.

At the moment I'm watching this great little crime comedy on Netflix called Great Pretender. The main characters have fantastic chemistry, and the show's sense of style is really kinetic and engaging.

Also, if you ever get the chance (definitely check your streaming services), watch a film called Your Name. It weaves comedy, romance, drama, tragedy, science-fiction, coming-of-age elements, memorable plot twists, nuanced characterizations, gorgeous animation, and body switching (ala Freaky Friday) into one of the most wholly satisfying pieces of animation I've ever seen.

Sorry for the trailer overload.

I'm just in the process of reading your "Monstie" Hunter Stories 2 impressions @Ralizah but I just had to stop upon seeing that reply to rog with the Cannes film festival tweet and post this.

Pan's Labyrinth had a 22 minute standing ovation?!

I can't believe that they were clapping for that bloody long or that there's some poor guy sitting there who has to sit and time it all, probably bored out of skull waiting for them all to finish 😂

To be honest, I had absolutely no idea that this sub series existed until like a week ago when it released @Ralizah or that it even had a entry on the 3DS.

Playing Nexomon Extinction and seeing a few other "Poke-Clones" I totally get what you mean in regards to this (Even if that doesn't bother me so much) ... And having watched a fair few streams of Monster Hunter Rise and World I totally get what you mean about the Monster designs in Monster Hunter too! They really are quite creative and does help the game stand out in that department.

Bit of a shame there's only 80 but I can imagine the pool of unique looking Monsters in MH is nowhere near as expansive as Pokémon, Digimon, SMT etc.

I can also see why you're a little luke warm on the battle system. I'd definitely have to try it myself to get the full picture as it doesn't sound like the best system on paper to me personally.

Though you do give me another reminder that I should REALLY play Persona 3 again at some point ... if only because I don't remember having a single problem with the AI companions and it's making me wonder if i'm just blocking out the bad memories

It doesn't sound alike in the slightest with the whole gentics system but the word fusion in regards to a monster raising/catching game will always remind me of Jade Cocoon and the guady looking abominations you could create lol

And wow. Those screenshots are absolutely gorgeous! I can only imagine it looks even nicer on PC at 4k or whatever.

Plus as always I can't help but love your music choices from the soundtrack. They're all absolutely delightful!

I look forward to reading the next installment whether it be a second impressions piece or a full blown review!

@Ralizah Great review of Monster Hunter Stories 2! I’ve not played the first one but I just saw it’s being added to Apple Arcade so I’ll definitely play it there.

@RogerRoger Hmm… I guess that means there was some aspects of the game to praise that you planned to include, but didn’t feel right in the current climate? If the game is garbage I say pour it on! 😅

@RogerRoger It’s hard where these things are concerned. While I really don’t want anything to do with ActiBlizz for the foreseeable future either, I’d feel awful for the employees who’re not engaging in this behaviour and the victims who are still employed. But then the fact it’s clearly a culture engrained in the company makes it easier to pass judgment on the entity rather than a few individuals.

@nessisonett Thanks!

I imagine the AA port of MHS1 will probably feature higher resolution visuals, so it's probably the better platform to experience it on anyway vs 3DS if you don't mind mobile gaming. The two Stories games are broadly similar in terms of gameplay structure, mechanics, etc.

@RogerRoger

Ah, I was mostly making conversation. Apologies if I went on a bit of a tangent. It can be easy to get carried away.

I prefer Hulu, personally, given my bias for older stuff, but Netflix is better for mainstream fans. But yeah, Crunchyroll is probably the best one-stop-shop on that front. Thankfully, their lowest membership tier is free.

Given that framing, I do think it's interesting how many of the movies on this list are politically loaded. Even stuff that's not immediately obvious in that regard, like Pan's Labyrinth, which features the Spanish Civil War as its backdrop and is filled with terrifying depictions of political violence by fascist forces.

Then again, if you look into the history of Cannes, it's also not uncommon to hear about critics loudly jeering and booing at films they don't like, and sometimes even fleeing from viewings of or reacting with hyperbolic outrage to controversial films, so I'm inclined to think it's a social space where ordinary public restraint is thrown out the window, lol. It's probably part of the fun involved with attending something like that in the first place.

Interesting. Do you plan on boycotting games they publish going forward?

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy

Yeah, imagine standing there clapping for 22 minutes, or even just being in the room! tbh I don't understand the whole standing ovation thing to begin with, as I try to fade into the background of any social space I'm in as much as possible, but the entire scenario must begin feeling pretty surreal even a minute in. I wonder if they tape the showings, or if a designated "clapping counter" sits in every showing in case people happen to do a standing applause?

I do think there is a large element of theatricality to it, though.

I imagine it being as obscure as it was on the 3DS probably didn't help for visibility. Sales were absolutely dreadful, even in Japan, which is weird given its connection to a massive property like Monster Hunter along with the general popularity of monster-collecting games like Yokai Watch and Pokemon. Capcom planned on it blowing up: there was even a children's TV anime version of it that aired around launch (it must have drawn some eyes, at least, since it ran for 75 episodes or so).

Yeah, the overall total number of large monsters across all of the games is fairly small. 200+ across all the games, I think, with a sizeable chunk of those being small monsters. It is still a bit disappointing, though. One annoying thing is that certain monsters can be fought, but, for whatever reason, the game doesn't allow you to obtain their eggs and tame them. I probably spent an hour trying to get a Tetsucabra egg before I looked online and discovered it wasn't an option, despite being in the game.

I recently looked up the total number of demons across all of MegaTen recently and was shocked by how many there were. And the majority of those are unique and well-thought-out as well insofar as they're based on real world mythology. In terms of both quantity and quality, IMO, MegaTen takes the cake, even if Pokemon has the more iconic monster designs overall.

With that said, SMT V is ACTUALLY going to have detailed, complex demon animations, so you only have access to around 200 demons in that game, apparently. Like Nocturne. From what I remember, SMT IV had roughly twice the number of demons, but those demons were all just JPEGs, so including them was less work overall.

Definitely. It was my one big reservation with the game. But the implementation is mostly solid thus far.

It'll never be a game I love playing for the sake of playing ala SMT IV: Apocalypse, but I'm at the point where the combat doesn't really detract from the experience, either. The system in place is involved enough that it's preferable to the more mindless turn-based combat you find in a lot of older JRPGs. Plus, the flashy visuals and absurd special attacks you can pull off are a lot of fun to watch. Here are just a few of them.

I never got more than a few hours into it (at this point, I think I'm just waiting to hear from Atlus about what they have planned for the next year or two before committing to the PS2 version of the game), so, between the two of us, you'd be the authority. But party-based games where an AI is randomly choosing moves for your allies to use annoy the crap out of me on principle.

Yeah, not quite like Jade Cocoon. It's really more of a sacrificial ritual than anything, since the monster that contributes a gene is wiped from existence. Quite dark. The closest thing I can think of are sacrificial fusions in Nocturne, where a third demon is obliterated in order to power up another demon.

It's a very pretty game on Switch, but yeah, I'm sure the foliage/higher resolution/etc. make it look even better on PC. Although the most notable upgrade is likely performance, since this one chugs a bit in spots.

I'm pretty happy with the music in this game. There's actually a super pretty song that plays partially during the beginning of the game, and in full near the end, apparently. It's very much worth listening to. Plus, it sounds good in both English and Japanese.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting! I always enjoy our discussions.

@RogerRoger Fair enough. Honestly I only read the related Activision article after I saw your comment here. I’d seen the headline and a few comments from users and I felt a bit yucky inside about it all and I knew seeing the details would give me the creeps so I didn’t look further. Even after finally reading the article here on PS I couldn’t bring myself to contemplate too much about it. It’s just too disturbing to me. And like you say, these are allegations at this point — innocent until proven guilty and all that, but it’s revolting enough to have me keep a wide berth. I’m not sticking my head in the sand, I’m just looking out for my own mental health and it just drains my spirit to no end to think such a culture exists in the hobby I love.

@RogerRoger I think that’s a good level-set. The scumbags get a lot of press and attention (and rightfully so when egregious things occur) but the overwhelming majority of good people are quietly ignored by the press. You won’t see any stories written about the perfectly normal and respectful people that are sure to exist in parts of Activision. Nevertheless, it doesn’t excuse the bad things, this case being a prime example of multiple layers of employees and management that will possibly end up involved, but it does make it harder as an outsider reading news reports to not become incredibly jaded and pessimistic about an entire industry or group of people. We as a society are guilty of this quick judgement a lot; not just in game developer scandals, but in nearly all areas of rotten society it’s hard to not overreact and unfairly profile perfectly innocent colleagues or relations.

My parents used to tell me that they didn’t want me hanging out with certain peers that I made friends with. To not “run around with the wrong crowd”, so to speak. Not that they didn’t trust me to keep my nose clean, rather they said, “when the cops show up, you go to jail with the rest of them, even if you’re not doing anything wrong.” Guilty by association. It’s just human nature to lump everyone involved into one batch of iniquitous villains. Does a bystander shoulder some responsibility to stop criminal activity? Absolutely. But does Doug from cubicle 4C down the hall whose working obliviously to the goings-on need to be shamed into obscurity because he happens to be on the same floor as a sexual predator? Probably not if he didn’t know about it.

So things like this are a mess. But like you say, best to step back, let the legal proceedings weed things out, and see what’s left at the end.

We get notifications for being quoted now? When did that happen?

... Also did someone leave whilst I was gone? I clicked on one of the review links (Rog's one for Blake Stone) on the front page of the topic and it seemed to have directed me to the wrong place (Ral's review for The Witcher III's Blood & Wine expansion of all things) 😯

I've only just worked up the nerve myself to properly read up about the lawsuit after Johnny and ness gave me some details in the chat thread on Thursdsy so I don't blame you one bit @RogerRoger on deciding to omit your CoD review.

A shame as I'm sure it was a good read as always from you Rog.

I was thinking more myself on when does that bloke stop counting. If there's one old coot still standing and clapping but everyone else has stopped does the timer keep going? Could he spur on a second wind/standing ovation and the timer carries onwards?

Alas I doubt we'll ever find out... Mystery of the ages Ral!

At the least longest one is a film I've actually heard of though... I'll admit I don't recognise half of 'em on that list but thdn I'm not that big of a film buff either 😄

Really? MH Stories 1 didn't do well anywhere? That's intetesting to hear. I thought Monster Hunter was practically the second coming of Dragon Quest with how well it seems to sell over there.

Good that this one seems to have made a great start then with that million sales already!

That's unfortunate... But seeing as how the standard MH games now are updated to add new content in a timely fashion (And I think I saw Palamutes from Rise were added in as a "Monstie"?) I can't imagine it'll be long before you'll, hopefully, be able to get one of those Tetsucabra's in MHS 2!

Even Mara? Or is Mara the one that clinches it for ya?

Ugh... Stop making me want a switch more then I already do

Long as my girl Scathach is in it! Dunno what it is exactly about her design (Might be that funky four corner hat) but I've always liked it along with all the other UK representation that occassionally pops up like Cait Sith, Cu Sith, Cu Chulainn...

Though I doubt we'll ever see something like Albion or Gogmagog (You'll no doubt see them soon enough in Nocturne) to pop back up anytime soon

That last attack in particular was rather adorable... But there was also two monsties that had quite a similar raptor like design as well that was a smidge disappointing in a game with only 80 creatures.

I haven't played Persona 3 properly in at least 6-8 years (Though I've started it up a couple of times ). I totally get where you're coming from though with AI only partners... I don't particularly like it either myself really (or any sort've automation option) and would much rather just do it myself even if it takes forever. Ahain part of the reason why I think I'm blocking something out lol

That's true... I can't really call it locking to 60fps or whatever beautiful though!

Both versions are really something. Thanks Ral for the recommendation!

Aww thanks Ralizah. Same to you too 😁

I'm working on something myself to post here hopefully (As I've frankly been awful with writing anything in this topic the year so far).

It'll be a more regular thing from me with a number of impression pieces after key story points in the game that'll hopefully spur me on and make me commit to writing a full review when all's said and done.

I need to start taking notes at the very least going forward... Especially with something as gigantic as this 😅

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy

That's a new feature. Instead of people's work getting the credit it deserves, I added a function that just randomly redirects them to one of my reviews!

Nah. Arugula had his account nuked recently.

I'm in the process of fixing the Directory now. Barring any catastrophic life events, expect it to be back up before the end of the month. I'll make an announcement when it is.

I fixed that link now, btw.

So it's less a crowd of people who don't want to be the first to stop clapping and more one annoying guy who carries on, but everyone is too polite to tell him to shut up.

MonHun proper sells several millions of units over there, but MH Stories on 3DS couldn't crack 500,000 worldwide. So this sequel managed to double its lifetime sales within a week of release, lol.

Hopefully, but I doubt it. Capcom is already providing a roadmap for what monsties it's adding to the game, and I didn't see my man Tetsucabra on the list.

I just don't understand why he's in the game at all if you can't hatch one. They already have the full 3D model for it.

Only if he constantly makes tacky dick jokes and innuendos like he did in SMT IV: Apocalypse.

Cu Chulainn and Scathach are both in. Atlus has been gradually revealing the game's roster over time. That, alongside a drip feed of trailers and news about the game keeps it in peoples' minds.

Sounds great. Looking forward to it! I'll be relying more heavily on impressions pieces myself.

I've noticed that my habits as a gamer don't properly align with my reviewing style. I tend to only discuss games after thoroughly completing them, which can mean beating them multiple times in order to see all in-game content if they're on the shorter side and completing all of the side-content in longer games. What I tend to do with longer games (which make up a huge chunk of my library given my affinity for visual novels and JRPGs), however, is play them for a period of time (anywhere between 15 - 60 hours, generally) before sitting them down and moving on to other games. It can be months or even years before I'll return to and complete a given game after doing this. So I've decided to lean more on impressions pieces for long games. If I end up returning to a game and beating it, then I'll craft a fuller, more complete review of it, but this way my feelings about games I end up not returning to for a long period of time will still be documented. They'll also give me a solid foundation on which to craft a finished piece about a game.

So here we are. I’ve been working on this “favourite games” project since may. We’ve looked at ancient warriors wielding tree branches in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a young superhero with a magical changing face in Spider-Man Remastered, Italian plumbers in space in Mario Galaxy and now we’re at my favourite game ever made. Super Mario Odyssey.

Game: Super Mario Odyssey
Played on: Nintendo Switch

This game begins in the skies above Peach’s Castle on Bowser’s Airship. Mario is fighting Bowser who had kidnapped Peach and is plotting to marry her. Mario tries to stop him but Bowser throws his (very dapper) wedding top hat at Mario which flings him off of the ship leaving only his hat on the ship. Bowser stomps on the hat and throws it away. It soon gets torn to shreds by the ship’s propellers. This 1:30 minute cutscene is the perfect Mario opening. No star festival, no plane ride, no “cake”. It just cuts right to the chase. We soon find Mario crash landed in what appears to be Tim Burton Land. We meet a hat ghost called Cappy who has the remains of Mario’s hat and tells Mario that his sister, Tiara, was kidnapped by Bowser to be Peach’s tiara for the wedding. Cappy uses the shreds from the hat and morphs into its shape. Bowser is also stealing important artefacts from kingdoms all across the globe to use for the wedding like a sacred ring, a dress, a meal etc. It’s up to Mario and Cappy to stop the wedding and save Peach and Tiara. I really like this story. Unlike Galaxy where they tried to switch up the “Bowser kidnaps Peach” formula and made it ridiculous (I mean, stealing the castle? Really?), it’s a bit more down to earth.

The main mechanic of this game is shown right on the box art. You can throw your hat. This can be used to pick up coins, be jumped on, and even possess… oh, I’m sorry, capture enemies. This gives Mario full control of their bodies. You can be a goomba, a Piranha Plant, a hammer bro, a manhole cover, a taxi, a cactus, a slab of meat, a letter and even a bloody hyper-realistic T-Rex. They all have their own play-styles and they even change the enemy’s appearance by giving them a moustache, a hat and blue eyes. Sadly, a lot of the actions you can do with the hat are locked behind something that makes any pro controller player’s terrified, motion controls. Some actions like the hat spin have a button control work-around but some actions like the really useful homing attack are only for use by the wagglers. This really irritates me (as well as many others).

Mario can travel all over the world and collect the new collectables called Moons. These are hidden everywhere and while some are pretty easy to find, a lot are very well hidden. These last ones are very tedious to get as there are… ahem... 999 MOONS. If you didn’t know, that’s a lot. We’ve come a long way from the 120 in Galaxy and 64. Now, I just wanna go back. All you get for collecting all… ahem... 999 MOONS is a little picture and a new shiny gold balloon on your flying Hat Ship, the Odyssey. Seriously, that’s it. This leaves no point to 100% the game. It’s a bragging right more than anything. No, I haven’t 100%’d the game as I value my mental wellness.

This game has music. Is it good? Well, imagine Galaxy’s soundtrack but taken down a few pegs. It’s fine. Obviously, I can’t mention this game’s soundtrack without mentioning the game’s phenomenal theme song, “Jump up, Super-Star!” It’s a really good song. Especially the break in the song where the instrumental turns into the music from arcade Donkey Kong. Also, the Metro Kingdom is a terrifying world of hyper realistic humans with amazing nyc themed jazz music. I’m far from qualified to talk about music so I’m gonna move on to something else.

All of this game’s worlds are amazing. From the Lost Kingdom which is a desert island over a sea of poison to the Sand Kingdom which not only has Mexican stereotypes aplenty but also a really cool theme of a desert covered in ice to the aforementioned Metro Kingdom which has the best sequence in the game, the festival. This takes place entirely on an 8-bit 2D platforming plain. It’s a loving tribute to arcade Donkey Kong where Mayor Pauline sings Jump Up, Super-Star as you dodge barrels and eventually defeat Donkey Kong. One last kingdom I want to talk about is the Ruined Kingdom. This kingdom is probably my favourite, even though it’s a glorified boss fight with a very small number of collectables. Mario battles a hyper-realistic dragon in a ruined castle. It happens after your ship gets broken by Bowser who is actually controlling the dragon using a helmet. It has the perfect atmosphere as the sky is completely covered by purple tinted clouds and nothing can get through them. The level is bleak and dull, almost like something in a little game by fromSoftware called Dark Souls. I know it’s a bit cliche to compare this world to that game but who cares? Not me!

One thing I wanna mention is the detail on Mario. You can see the pores on mario’s face, his nose jiggles when he stops running, his nose gets swollen and has a prickle in it when he hits a cactus, he’s just super expressive. When he takes two hits, he starts breathing heavily and ducks down, his face is fully animated and it’s glorious to see Mario, one of the most one sided characters in gaming history, be super expressive and actually have a personality. You can also see the stitching on his overalls, the hairs on his head and face and the shine on his shoes. Nintendo really didn’t need to make him this detailed.

A big part of this game is the costumes Mario can get. These include, but aren’t limited to a New York businessman, a caveman, a scientist, builder Mario, Dr. Mario, Luigi’s outfit, Wario’s outfit, Waluigi’s outfit, Diddy Kong’s outfit which has a tail and even big ears, Peach’s wedding dress, Bowser’s (very dapper) wedding suit, Mario’s own wedding suit and even a Mario 64 suit that gives him a polygonal look. These are unlocked by collecting coins. You’re probably thinking “But I thought Mario coins were useless!” WRONG! They get you costumes and can even buy you power moons! Once you finish the game, you can buy 10 moons at once! There’s even a Skeleton costume you can get for collecting, not 5000, not 7000 but 9999 COINS. That’s a lot. You even get an invisible costume after beating this game’s hardest challenge level. It’s good for photo mode and nothing else.

Conclusion
Is this the best Mario game? Yes. Is it my favourite game? Yes. There’s so much I love about this game. There’s so much in this game that I didn’t even talk about all of it! I know there was a lot I forgot but I left it out because I didn’t want this review to feel bloated. But yeah, Mario Odyssey is spectacular. A masterpiece. Possibly the best platformer ever made.

Pros
-Good story, for a mario game at least
-Stellar graphics
-Good music
-Fun costumes
-Gives coins an actual use

Cons
-Far too many power moons
-Useful moves locked behind motion controls
-Disappointing completion reward, considering what you have to do to get it

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
10/10 Outstanding

@Jackpaza0508 great review! Looks like you put a lot of work into it… but that it was a labour of love.

So Super Mario Odyssey and I had a long stand-offish relationship that ultimately resolved itself well for both parties (bare with me). Personally I struggle to get invested in Nintendo as a whole, think it might be down to me being a SEGA fan growing up and therefore I have no nostalgia nor affinity. But what with all the praise SMO and BotW received, I simply had to try them for myself. So after buying a Switch and at most ‘dabbling’ with SMO (I played quite a bit of BotW btw) I gave the dust-gathering held-held to my partner.

She couldn’t get into BotW (she’s more of a mobile gamer but does feel the urge to branch out) but she did click with SMO. As a result, I myself got to see how great the game actually is when she hit the odd wall here and there and sullenly asked “Babe, will you do it for me?”. Some of the environments and problems posed really are ingenious… and the control of the plumber are pretty much pitch-perfect.

So after ‘taking the wheel’ here and there throughout Mario and my missus’ odyssey, I finally come around to giving the game the appreciation it deserved… and due to me ‘Switch-pushing’ on to my other-half a game that deserved to be played was enjoyed to the fullest by a relationship. While I will never really be into the Nintendo style of game, I can see the appeal for those that are.

@Jackpaza0508 Nice analysis. Your criticisms are fair, and mostly mirror my own. The moves requiring waggle are bad enough when you're in handheld mode (furiously shaking my $300 handheld when Mario has turned into a Cheep-Cheep so that he can attack enemies seems like an inherent design flaw), but the advanced techniques (like the upward hat throw) needed to attain some of the most difficult moons are only really consistently doable with joycons. Frankly, considering how good the rest of the game is, this obvious flaw stands out even more, like a giant, hairy mole on the face of a fair-skinned model.

I actually liked that there were collectibles everywhere, but I do agree there are too many of them. By the time you're having to mass purchase them from shops and randomly ground-pound otherwise non-descript spots, I think some of them have lost their value.

Agreed about the soundtrack. It's a pretty great one, but everything just sounds worse when you're coming off of Super Mario Galaxy.

Did you happen to do any of the Luigi Balloon World stuff that was patched in? I haven't really returned to the game since blitzing through it at launch.

@Ralizah I was addicted to balloon world when it first released! Not so much now but it is fun to turn the game on and have a look for some balloons.

Sorry it took so long, folks, but all of the review links in the directory should be fixed now.