Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a sequel to the first game by a similar name, and a good iteration on it at that. However, the chances are if you're looking at this game, you probably didn't play the first, so I'll keep this review focused on the game by its own merit.

1. You do not need to have played the first Stories to be able to play this game. That said, if you have played the first, you'll see some familiar faces in this game. (And to be fair, it might... make you a little bit angry.)
2. Similar to Pokemon, this game is easily accessible and has a low skill floor, but has a higher skill ceiling and a lot of room for customisation and optimisation. (And, unlike Pokemon, you probably won't need to waste hours of your life trying to breed for perfect IVs and special moves just for one single creature.)
3. If you're familiar with typical cartoon stories or anime/manga, the story isn't particularly mind-blowing in any regard. It's fairly average at best; good enough to follow along, but not really enough to get you on the edge of your seat.

The basic gameplay of Stories involves combat that focuses on a Rock/Paper/Scissors system - or in this case, Power/Speed/Tech. All monsters in the game have a preference for the type of move they like to use, and this preference might change as the battle goes on and the monster becomes enraged, or maybe charges itself up with a special move. The basic goal of the game as you progress is to learn these monsters' different preferences, and then counter them with the corresponding correct type. So, if you're fighting a Power monster, you'll want to use Speed moves.

From there the game builds on this system outwards: you can have three weapons equipped at a time, and can swap between those weapons once per turn. There are six weapons in the game, two of which that deal Slash damage, two that deal Pierce, and two that deal Blunt. Like in the mainline game, different monster parts are weak to different kinds of damage, and so the game encourages you to make use of the once-per-turn weapon swap to switch to a strong weapon to break a part off a monster. Similarly, monsters have a variety of elemental defences, in this game all streamlined so that they are resistant to one, and then particularly weak to another. (So, for example, the titular Rathalos of the game is more resistant to Fire, but is weak to Lightning.) Weapons can also deal elemental damage, meaning that you can truly capitalise on monster weaknesses by using the right type of weapon with the right type of element to deal large damage each turn.

Throughout all the game, you'll also be playing together alongside your AI monsters, known as Monsties. There are over 100 to choose from, some of them being variants of others, and many all have a unique gene of their own while also potentially carrying several "cross species" genes. The goal is to go out and raid Monster Dens to get eggs, hatch these eggs, and then slowly build up monsters with good gene boards - aiming to align their elemental genes or their move type genes in a row or column of three within the 3x3 gene board to get bingo bonuses. Bingo bonuses will ultimately dictate the strength of your monster, as they can increase the power of an element or a specific type of move (power/speed/tech) by 10% each per the first two bonuses, and then an extra 5% for every bonus after.

And... that's it! The game takes a very simple idea, like rock/paper/scissors, and then rather masterfully elaborates on that idea to create a game around it while interweaving more familiar aspects of the mainline Monster Hunter games. The core game isn't particularly challenging, but the post-game challenges in the Elder's Lair can require incredibly specific strategies if you want to beat them. The game is easy to start playing, but offers a lot for those who also want to try and be more optimised in their builds, and unlike similar games such as Pokemon, Stories 2 is respectful of your time and doesn't require hours upon hours of monster breeding just to get decent base stats. (Bingo bonuses make the initial base stats generally irrelevant unless you're looking to be as optimised as physically possible.)

• Excellent gameplay that's gotten me to sink in 120+ hours on the Switch and nearly 50+ hours on PC.
• Beautiful graphics that, when you think about it, put Sword and Shield to absolute shame.
• Great soundtrack with some real bops, though sadly a lot of the overworld doesn't have a soundtrack and I... don't know why. It's actually a huge shame.
• Easy to learn combat with a lot of potential for customising builds and monsters, where I've never found grinding for monsters or genes to be unreasonable.
• Huge variety of monsters to ride around on and be your friend! That said, the movement skills in this game are a holdover from the first, and kind of a disappointment. The game should really allow you to teach monsters certain viable movement skills that are, within reason, things they could learn to do. As it stands, movement skills can leave you feeling hamstrung on what monsters to take to certain areas, which is a real negative.
• The base vanilla game was honestly not too challenging for me even on my first playthrough, outside of a couple of snags. Replaying the base game my second time around was even easier. Thankfully, post-game content is challenging and there's many hours of it to enjoy, much of it that will really push you and your Monsties to the test.