History YMMV / MonsterHunterStories2WingsOfRuin

** 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 form 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 jumper AND ivy climb, two of the more commonly-needed field abilities in the game, making them useful both in- and out-of-battle.

** In Mahana village you can see a child sitting next to a sleeping Royal Ludroth. [[spoiler: During the endgame that same Royal Ludroth is curled protectively around the child.]]

* NightmareFuel: [[spoiler: Oltura. A gigantic, metallic wormlike 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 NonMaliciousMonster 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.]]

* ThatOneBoss: [[spoiler: Oltura, mentioned above in the "NightmareFuel" section, counts as this, being one of the most difficult boss fight in the game, ''even for FinalBoss 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, Mostie, 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 Heart healths 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.]]
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: [[DownplayedTrope 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 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5um3YOS-LK8&t=632s 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 [[https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterStories/comments/ooxi7p/the_death_of_a_king_looks_like_this_was_indeed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf later announcement]] by [[WordOfGod 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.