This game, for the most part, is a step-up from the original Monster Hunter Stories. The combat is more predictable (which could be worse to some people, but it makes the game a lot more enjoyable for me personally). The story is definitely more interesting, with the conflict around Razewing Ratha, and the majority of major characters from the original game returned (Reverto, Cheval, Lilia and Avinia mainly). Navirou also DOES return but his personality took a major nose dive from the original. In the original, while his voice was annoying, he was at least likeable, but this game took his personality and made him much more cocky, lying to people and make the MC seem arrogant when it's Navirou that's such. He barely does anything for the story and just feels out of place, and really, it feels like they should've made us a new Felyne partner like what they did in Monster Hunter Stories 3.
The final boss is very frustrating as well. It literally does AoE that leave your party on 1hp at the beginning on every phase, essentially making it a 'spam heals' fight and a lot of the attacks don't have types, meaning you have to tank them or ride your monstie at just right the time. The end-game boss in Fatalis ends up feeling a lot more enjoyable because of it, because he has a strict attack pattern you have to learn, and very few of his attacks aren't counterable (just in the final few phases). You almost always have a 'partner' with you, and they're definitely make bosses easier, however the Riders end up being completely useless as when they lose all hearts, the fight will end for you too. This is the case in the multiplayer too but usually the human partner is less likely to make stupid mistakes (I've seen my AI partner fail several head-to-heads in a row and even lost a fight because of it)
Speaking of the end-game, the post-game grind for 100% achievements is one of the worst I've done. The post-game itself is lacking, with only the Elder's Lair, while the original had the Rider's Arena, Shadow Labyrinth and Tower of Illusion). There IS the Special Elder's Lair but it's literally the exact same as the Elder's Lair just with tankier monsters and a second Fatalis fight. Not only do you need to beat the Elder's Lair and Special Elder's Lair (and only for the Catavan Stands), you've got to see every Kinship Attack, collect every Monstie and complete the Monsterpedia. Worst of all is the RNG that is 'collect all genes'. This is pure rng and quite frankly incredibly frustrating. Some genes are available on such a massive variety of monsters (all of which have a bunch of OTHER genes they could get so the chance you get the gene you're looking for is INCREDIBLY low) and certain genes are RARER in the post-game because it seems you're more likely to get XL genes in the post game than M or L.
Still, overall, I'd definitely recommend this game to at least play through the main story. It's a good creature collector, I just wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants to 100% achievements because of how much of a pain it is.
