so i bought MHS1 and 2 in the bundle pack, i was like, ill play mhs1 first because why not and experience the game FWIW, and the story;. but the story from 1 has no relevance to MHS2. and the graphics and gameplay are overall as a whole, a bit worse. Theirs also more mechanics in MHS2 such as no battle pouch ( mhs1 made you keep a pouch for use in combat, with limited healing items) and in mhs2 you can just use what you have. Theirs a weird feature aswell where you can now swap weapons mid combat, and each weapon type deals something different on the battlefield, kind of like grass vs water type stuff in pokemon, which im not really a fan of but like whatever, i cant remove it. Graphics are better, some return characters, but even in new, non monster hunter stories games, the same characters also reappear throughout them all. more content, more updates then mhs1. just get mhs2 and skip 1 tbh. no regrets either way, mhs1 is a decent game, and it is fun, but mhs2 is just ... unsurprisingly given its the followup game, better and more QOL features.

Pokemon if it doesn't have a fanbase that'll gobble up every single slop gamefreak churn out

Enjoyed the gameplay, didn't quite enjoy the story, but the gameplay is all that is needed to play the game