Thanks to a dear friend, I was finally able to dip my toes into Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin.

The Monster Hunter series has never interested me. I’ve tried a few of the games, but they’ve never hooked me. On the other hand, I love RPGs and story-driven games.

After watching a few videos and talking with some friends, I opted to give Wings of Ruin a shot since it fit the type of game I enjoy more. So far, I haven’t been disappointed.

It can always feel a bit off when a set franchise tries something new, particularly a new genre.

Some find a lot of success with it such as Mario RPGs such as Paper Mario and others. They don’t abandon the mainline genre, but rather embrace the spinoff differing genre.

I think it’d be cool to see more games that don’t lend themselves to much of a narrative try their hand at a “stories” format. For me, the games furthest away from story-focused, the better.

Think about how fun an Animal Crossing stories could be that allows you to experience a story leading up to when you leave for your new home. You could also do a story after arriving at your new home, one that follows other farming sims.

You could also do a Minecraft game that gets really weird with attacks from aliens or other supernatural beings. There are limitless possibilities.

I am not suggesting that franchises abandon the format that made them famous in the first place. Without the base genre, a spinoff wouldn’t work.

What I am clamoring for is more games to do what Monster Hunter and Etrian Odyssey have done and put out a narrative-driven spinoff. If games were to approach this, there are some caveats I’d like to see.

The first is there needs to be some thought put into the story. Not just a half-baked story that you can find in any other franchise.

Rather, I’d want to see a story that exemplifies what makes the franchise unique and explores a lesser-known corner of that universe. Monster Hunter Stories 2 does this by having you still hunt for monsters but turning it into a JRPG format similar to Pokémon.

Second, these games should stay a spinoff and never overstay their welcome. Nothing’s worst than having a good idea overstay its welcome.

At this point, Monster Hunter has two stories games and that seems to be perfect as it leaves some room for people wanting more without being too much.

While this approach may not hit for everyone, it does provide a great way anyone to try a new franchise, especially if the base game isn’t their cup of tea,

I know plenty of people who don’t really enjoy the Mario platformers but really enjoy Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario. To me, that’s the mark of a really good franchise, one that has a little bit of something for everyone.

So what do you think? Would you like to see more games embrace a “stories” approach? Which series would be interesting to play as a more narrative-driven spinoff? Let us know in the comments below or head over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Capcom (via iMore)

The Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast About Video Games

The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of The Boss Rush Network and Boss Rush Media. Each week, hosts Corey Dirrig, Stephanie Klimov, LeRon Dawkins, and Pat Klein come together with their friends, colleagues, and fellow creators to talk about their week in video games, discuss industry topics, conduct interviews, answer listener questions, and more. New episodes every Monday. Get each episode one week early and more perks over on the Boss Rush Network Patreon page.

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