History VideoGame / MonsterHunterStories2WingsOfRuin

''Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin'' is a RolePlayingGame SpinOff of the popular ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series and sequel to the original ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterStories'', developed by Creator/{{Capcom}} for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. The game was released on July 9, 2021.

* GenderNeutralWriting: As protagonists, both the Legendary Rider of the previous game and the Mahana Rider of this one are carefully never referred to as male or female in dialog, since they could be either depending on the choices made in the character creator.

** A myriad of monsters have special "charged up" alterations to their models, the same as they would in the traditional Monster Hunter games. most learn dedicated moves that shift their models to these states, but if you use the Rite of Channeling to teach them equivalents from other monsters, you'll still achieve the visual change.

* ModestyShorts: Due to the game being aimed for younger audiences and the player character being a 14 year old, shorts are worn underneath for armor sets and layered armor that have skirts and such to prevent panty shots.

* ModestyShorts: Due to the game being aimed for younger audiences and the player character being a 14 year old, shorts are worn underneath for armor sets and layered armor that have skirts and such to prevent [[PantyShot panty shots]].

* BonusBoss: As in the first game, there are various bosses you can only fight in the post-game, including most Elder Dragons as well as the Deviants, but the big one is the one that lies at the bottom of the post-game dungeon known as the Elder's Lair: [[spoiler:Fatalis, reprising its role as the Bonus Boss, just like in the first game.]]

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: The game offer a bit of an analysis of this with the Hunters early on. To the Riders, they're a pack of narrow-minded JerkAss outsiders trespassing in sacred grounds and hunting a monster that's no threat to anyone. The issue here is entirely a perspective shift, as in the main series games, these sorts of legends typically have some genuinely dangerous truth to them, and a singleminded determination to stop them at the source is considered a virtue of the [[PlayerCharacter protagonist hunter]]. Then again, some of these Hunters are later revealed to have ulterior motives.

* DelightfulDragon: The central conflict of is that Navirou wants to prove that the Razewing Rathalos can use its powers for good, and Avinia was saved by a Barioth when she got lost in the snow as a child.

** The game implies that many of the monsters you "slay" are not actually being killed. Notably Kayna refers to the Aptonoth you first fight as "good training partners," and other early fights as simply "getting past" monsters in the way rather than killing them. Further, a early subquest boss is noted to be a individual that local Riders have fought for training for years, and tasks you with doing the same despite it too being counted as "slain" when beaten. Most explicitly is the late game story quest where you have to defeat a [[spoiler:Nergigante. You will get materials from it and the monsterpedia will record it as slain, and the text under its boss entry will even state how slaying it powered up your and Cheval's Kinship Stones, but in the scene itself the Nergigante gets right back up, weakened but in one piece. Cheval even tells Yoomlana in the next scene that they did not slay the Nergigante.]] Further, in the post-game there is a quest where Lilia has you search for a Kirin den. Despite the quest requiring you to "slay" the Kirin, after you do Lilia will state that now that she knows what is living in the den she won't give permission to anyone but you to enter it, implying the Kirin is still alive. The Bloodbath Diablos quest has you slay it in gameplay like in most encounters, but the clerk who gave you the quest refers to the Diablos as having "retreated." All in all, "slaying" in the game's story can count as nothing more than defeating or otherwise driving away the monster, at least when no actual body is seen in a cutscene afterward.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: An Auguest interview with developers revealed that they originally intended for all large monsters to be available as monsties in the game. Unfortunately, for an unknown "variety of reasons" this did not pan out, leaving the likes Tetsucabra, Duramboros, Plesioth and more only as wild monsters.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Rather Subtley done at the Pit of Remembrance due to how a Nergigante was present for its opening. [[spoiler: The Nergigante was present due to the pits being produced by another Elder Dragon and he was poking around to see if there was a free meal]]

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Monster eggs now have only one pattern corresponding to every monster compared to the four in the previous game where egg patterns overlapped with others making it difficult to determine what monster came from eggs without a guide.

* Anti-FrustrationFeatures: Monster eggs now have only one pattern corresponding to every monster compared to the four in the previous game where egg patterns overlapped with others making it difficult to determine what monster came from eggs without a guide.