Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin review on PS4 — A solid port

The lesser known Monster Hunter spinoff series is about to have its second game ported over to PlayStation consoles real soon. June 14th, 2024 to be exact! Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin released as a Nintendo Switch and PC exclusive almost three years ago, and garnered relatively positive reviews! For more information, our editor David Flynn shares his thoughts on the Switch version of the game here, scoring it an 85. You can also check out our PS4 preview of the title here if you missed it earlier.

Note that this is simply a port of the original experience over to PlayStation. No new material or content has been added. You do get an outfit for Ena, the Kamura Maiden Outfit for pre-ordering along with the ability to Kamura Garb if you link your Monster Hunter Rise data over, but that’s about it. As such, this review will focus more on the actual port of the game, rather than the contents of the narrative and gameplay, which you can find above from our previous review and preview.

As a quick recap and refresher, Monster Hunter Stories is a turn based party JRPG that is akin to games like Pokemon, rather than the mainline Monster Hunter games. You play as a silent protagonist that can use up to five different Monsties in combat (six when you get Ratha), along with three different weapons that can be swapped mid-combat. Battles play out in a simple rock-paper-scissors fashion, where you must pick between strength, speed, or technical attack types. The gameplay loop remains unchanged from the original and you’ll be collecting eggs that later hatch into new Monsties to join your party.

The narrative of Wings of Ruin is centered around an ancient dragon named Ratha, who serves as the protector of Hakolo Island. Rathalos around the world begin to disappear as an abnormality begins to plague the world. You set off on a journey with a Wyverian girl named Ena to uncover the truth behind the wings of ruin!

Now let’s dive more into the technical aspects of this PS4 port. I played it through backwards compatibility as there is no PlayStation 5 native version of the game. Wings of Ruin clocks in at 25.11 GB, which is a sizable amount for a game of this nature, but isn’t too much to require deletion of other games on your drive. The frame rate is locked smoothly to 60 frames per second but load times are quite lacking. It takes on average 15 seconds to load into the game from a fresh launch. On top of this, there are frequent loading screens between areas, which take around 5 seconds each. Aside from simple rumbling in the controller, not much else is utilized on the DualSense, which makes sense since this is a PS4 port. 

The overall visuals and UI do look a bit outdated in 2024. However, the cel-shading technique provides a refreshing and modern twist to the visuals, making the characters and monsters pop with vivid colors and bold outlines. I’m a big fan of the soundtrack as well, as it conveys the emotional depth of the narrative and the thrill of adventure. The battle themes, for instance, are dynamic and change depending on various factors, ensuring that the combat sequences remain fresh and engaging.

Accessibility settings are standard, but nothing to write home about. Multiple text languages are featured, including but not limited to English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese. Audio language is only offered in English or Japanese. Controls can be rebound, which is always a nice and appreciated feature. Aside from adjusting screen brightness, volume, and camera controls, there isn’t much else to configure. In-game menus are intuitive to navigate and text size is large enough to read, despite not being able to change it. There is an online portion to the game, but it unfortunately requires you to pay for PlayStation Plus in order to use it.

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