YMMV / Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin

• Ass Pull: For anyone who has not played the first game or watched the anime, the scene of Navirou becoming thunder-elemental and gaining enough strength to toss your character to an airship where Ratha and Ena are being held can come off as this, as the thing just happens with no commentary by anyone, despite Navirou being shown until now as being physically useless. The ability isn’t explained until a while later when something similar occurs, so the spoilered event can come off as coming out of nowhere.
• Continuity Lockout: Downplayed since the first game's events aren't connected to this game's story, but there are quite a few characters who appear from the first game and bring up characters from the first game who don't make formal appearances (such as Debli and Simone). And this game is many people's first Monster Hunter Stories game, so many jokes might fly over people's heads and they might not feel connected to the characters from the first game.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Bloodbath Diablos is one of the most powerful Monsties in the game. It is one of the fastest and is the hardest hitting Monstie the game offers. It's also not fragile, being in the upper tiers for both HP and Defense. It's only problem is it suffers from Poor, Predictable Rock as it's stats and setup more or less lock it into being a non elemental speed attacker meaning it relies on pure statistical superiority to carry it to victory.
  • Velkhana and Kirin are game breakers in the sense that they are the kings of Skill Seal and Paralysis. While technically any Monstie can be nearly as good at applying status as them they also back it up with formidable stats, come loaded with very good genes from the start, and have Kinship attacks that apply the status.
  • Palamutes, which were added to the game after the game's first major update, are (when you can first get one) a non-elemental version of Velkhana and Kirin but are accessible far earlier than those two Monsties. They always come with a heavy-hitting attack at a time when monsties had medium-level attacks at most, and built in Inflict Status Large. What's more, their unlocked skills upon being hatched are far more consistent than any other monstie in the game and are incredibly good, making it easy not only to max out a Palamute's built-in genes but also use additional ones as powerful gene fodder for your other non-elemental Monsties. Once you unlock post-game you get access to elemental versions of Palamutes, which allows you to customize your elemental coverage easily. Finally, they come with both Jump AND Ivy Climb, two of the more commonly-needed field abilities in the game, making them useful both in- and out-of-battle.
  • Nergigante is the king of Tank'n'spank as he's got some of the best defenses in the game and nearly has the highest HP on top of that. What really makes him overwhelming though is his regeneration and powerful non-elemental attack stat. Unless you can out damage his healing he'll simply smash you flat. He's essentially X-men's Wolverine in Monster form. To make it worse he's also extremely versatile in terms of stats for gene builds.
  • The second title update brings Boltreaver Astalos and Hellblade Glavenus to the table, who could be considered this, though not in the way you'd expect. Rather, it's because they provide specific, very powerful genes. (Though, being Deviants, they're absolutely no slouches in the stat department).
    • Boltreaver Astalos comes with the Thunderclad XL Gene, which provides the skill Azure Voltage, which is a Thunder Element version of the Pink Rathian's Valiant Flare, which is itself an amazing buff (For reference, the moves buff your defense and the move's respective elemental attack [Fire for Valiant Flare, Thunder for Azure Voltage] for five turns AND grants the Power Charge effect from Amplify Power, which is otherwise found on the Rajang's Charge XL Gene), which had the additional effect of power creeping the Thunderlord Zinogre's Ultra Voltage skill.
    • As for Hellblade Glavenus, it comes with the Onslaught XL Gene, which provides the skill Hellblade. Hellblade is a single-target heavy damage fire skill with a high chance to crit, which, if combined with something like Valiant Flare, can let it pump out ludicrous amounts of damage (It can also provide the gene which gives Hellblade to other Monsties, such as Teostra). Hellblade is far and away the strongest of the high-crit skills thus far.
• Good Bad Bugs: In normal gameplay, Anjanath doesn't become obtainable until after the player arrives in Loloska. However, it's entirely possible to obtain an Anjanath as early as Hakolo Island. The only downside is that, if you exploit this bug in the demo, the Anjanath in question will be missing some animations and not deal any damage while still in the demo. These issues are non-existent in the full game.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • In the beginning of the game when you hatch your first Monstie, which stays a baby long enough for the cutscene, the little one instantly nuzzles your hand and later on can be seen nuzzling your leg. Nawww.
  • The Protagonist is severely protective of Ratha, always moving in front of him, and running up to him to calm him down when he's Rage Rayed. In return Ratha, with The Power of Love saves the protagonist from falling off a great height with his wings sprouting just in time.
  • In Mahana Village you can see a child sitting next to a sleeping Royal Ludroth. During the endgame that same Royal Ludroth is curled protectively around the child.
• Narm:
  • In general, some players find that the monsters being called Monsties in serious moments tend to deflate some of the drama.
  • There is a scene where Ena confronts Kyle on his reservations regarding Riders that is meant to be taken quite seriously. But while the voice acting for the game is overall excellent, this scene (at least in English) is marred by an excessive number of responses from Kyle that consist of nothing but exaggerated grunts and gasps that simply end up feeling very awkward and unwarranted. In particular Kyle acts shocked that the pits are linked to monsters, when that was the theory everyone was going by until now anyway.
• Nightmare Fuel: Oltura. A gigantic, metallic worm-like Elder Dragon, it is the true source of the pits and the light coming out of them, and was defeated hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of years ago by a Razewing Rathalos and its Rider. When it begins to reawaken some fifty years before the events of the game happens, it ends up indirectly causing the death of Red, your character's grandpa, which also ends up setting Zellard on his dark path. When Razewing Ratha is close to hatching, it becomes more active, opening up more and more pits around the continent, one of which becomes big enough to take out the unlucky village it opened under, more than likely taking a lot of people with it. The light it generates from its body lures in Rathalos, which it preys upon, and drives other, weaker monsters into frenzied rage that threaten the surrounding villages. And all this is before it even makes a physical appearance. When it DOES finally show itself, it's in a veritable minefield of pits where it drags an unfortunate Rathalos down one of those pits before setting its sights on Ratha and your party. Even its design is unsettling, as the light is visibly glowing out of openings in it scales, and this is before it opens its mouth revealing another mouth, which then opens to reveal a glowing ball of light on the inside. In the end-game, it returns to its lair to begin its metamorphosis into its matured form, because the worm is just the juvenile form. It's then revealed that the damn thing has THREE worm bodies attached to god knows what below, at which point Zellard tries to sacrifice HIMSELF and Razewing Ratha to all three mouths. Guardian Ratha knocks them away, sure, but it then gets messily eaten itself by all three mouths at once, complete with blood splattering everywhere. Its adult form initially looks like a regular winged Elder Dragon, until it unfurls up to two extra pairs of wings, making it look more like Ultra Necrozma or Bahamut Zero than anything. Even the reveal that it's a Non-Malicious Monster only seeking to experience life doesn't take away from the nightmare, as it still brought untold amounts of destruction to the world and led to the formation of an apocalypse cult that wants it to create a new world without humans.
• Popular with Furries: While the Felyne race is already popular in the furry community. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin introduces Tsukino, a female Felyne who is one of the few Feylne from the franchise that is able to speak normally. She quickly gained popularity due Tsukino's design containing some humanoid features (such as having long pink hair) and a unique hoodie.
• That One Boss: Oltura, mentioned above in the "Nightmare Fuel" section, counts as this, being one of the most difficult boss fight in the game, even for Final Boss standards, and this is before the much harder fights post game. It makes the previous Nergigante story fight look like child's play. As the final boss, Oltura can unleash power orbs that really do major damage to the Player, Monstie, and Kyle. Plus once Oltura starts opening up its wings, prepare for hell to break loose. Not only can Oltura attack more than once, its special moves can really ruin your day and take out Hearts with ease. These include its spreading Tempest attacks, which will target the entire team and cannot be counteracted with Head-to-Head tactics. And the kicker, should you have only two hearts left, its ultimate move during the final phase can totally destroy your final two hearts with one hit and force you to restart the battle all over again. This focuses players to constant health items used nearly every turn, especially with Ancient Potions and Vital Essence to ensure they survive a brutal beatdown from this brutal dragon.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Downplayed as it's only with those who've played the first game, but some of said players know that you could originally change a Monstie's primary element and their colour by using the Rite Of Channeling, allowing you to not only have extremely versatile builds for every Monstie (ex. you could give a Deviljho the thunder element), but also give a form of personal customization. Unfortunately, the sequel doesn't allow that, as this video shows, it's impossible to permanently switch a Monstie's main element to another, as their original element stat will eventually overcome the added element. Several old players have expressed disappointment that what was one of their favorite features of the first game has not been expanded upon. A later announcement by Capcom outright confirmed the feature would be removed entirely in a future update as it was intended to not be present to begin with (due to lack of people using it in the first game), which was met with outcry by some players.
• Unexpected Character: Cheval makes an unexpected return during the story.

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