Monster Train 2

Monster Train's single best idea — three stacked floors of a train to defend at once, heat rising from a furnace at the bottom while enemies push up toward the pyre at the top — was distinctive enough five years ago to help the game stand apart in an already-crowded genre. Monster Train 2 keeps that structure intact and builds substantially outward from it: new Room and Equipment systems, additional playable Pyres, more clans, a bigger enemy roster. Ten thousand reviews in, 95% of players recommend it. What makes this sequel worth examining closely rather than simply confirming that verdict is a genuinely detailed, well-articulated counter-argument running through a meaningful slice of the negative reviews — one that comes specifically from the players who know the original best.

What the sequel actually adds

The scope increase is real and substantial rather than cosmetic. New Rooms and Equipment systems give players more to build around beyond the original's card-and-unit economy, and one reviewer frames this as a logical evolution rather than bloat: bigger card pools, deeper synergies, and enough new mechanical space that veterans of the first game aren't just replaying a reskinned version of what they already mastered. Several reviews describe the change in almost the same terms — "Monster Train, but bigger," "the first game, but more" — treating that straightforward escalation as exactly what a sequel to a beloved roguelike should deliver. One especially detailed review calls it "the most standard kind of sequel" and means it as high praise: no early-access limbo, no half-measures, just the original formula expanded with genuine confidence.

Presentation-level care shows up in small, specific details too. More than one reviewer singles out something easy to miss: right-clicking to inspect a card surfaces the name of the artist who drew it, a small gesture of craft-attribution that several players call out unprompted as the kind of thing that shows genuine care went into the whole package.

Where the original's biggest fans push back

The counter-narrative here isn't vague nostalgia — it's specific, and it comes disproportionately from players with genuinely enormous investment in the first game. One reviewer opens by noting 1,500-plus hours in Monster Train 1 and roughly 40 hours in the sequel before deciding they were likely done with it. Another, with 700 hours in the original, describes the sequel as "less fun the more you play it," specifically pointing to card unlocks that dilute the pool with unhelpful options rather than meaningfully expanding strategic depth. A third, comparing the two games directly, argues that "base system changes make the gameplay much less interesting" and that difficulty and challenge options are meaningfully reduced relative to what the original offered.

One specific boss draws unusually concentrated criticism across multiple independent reviews: Corruption Seraph, described by one player as "completely unbalanced" and "easily the most unfun mechanic I've experienced across the genre." When a single named encounter shows up repeatedly, unprompted, across otherwise-unrelated negative reviews, that's a stronger signal than a single frustrated player having a bad run — it points to a genuine design rough edge rather than a skill issue.

Writing and tone are the third, more subjective front of the disagreement. Several long-time fans describe Monster Train 2's narrative additions as a step down from the original's voice, with one review specifically criticising new character-backstory content — framed around a father figure and feelings of personal inadequacy — as landing badly against the tone the first game had established. This is inherently the most subjective of the complaints raised here, but its recurrence across multiple detailed reviews suggests it's a real design choice being reacted to consistently, not an isolated taste mismatch.

Two honest pictures, both accurate

It would be a mistake to read the above as evidence the aggregate 95% score is somehow wrong or inflated. The two pictures coexist because they're describing different things: for players coming to the series fresh, or veterans who wanted more of what Monster Train 1 offered without needing it to stay identical, Monster Train 2 by most accounts genuinely delivers — bigger, more mechanically rich, still built on the same distinctive three-floor foundation. For a specific, vocal subset of the original's most dedicated players, the exact things that made the first game click — its tighter difficulty curve, a tone they'd grown attached to, boss encounters they trusted to be fair — took a step in a direction they didn't want, even as the sequel technically offers more of nearly everything else.

Post-launch support cuts in the sequel's favour regardless of which camp a player falls into. The "Destiny of the Railforged" content update ran from February through April 2026, nearly a year after launch, and the game's modding community was active enough to earn its own spotlight post in July 2026 — this is a title Shiny Shoe and Big Fan Games have kept building rather than one that shipped and went quiet.

Where this leaves a buyer

At NZ$35.99, Monster Train 2 is priced as a full sequel rather than an expansion, and for most players — new to the series or otherwise — the review evidence suggests that price is well justified by scope and continued support alone. The one group worth pausing before buying: if what you specifically loved about the original was its difficulty tuning or its particular tone, read a handful of the detailed veteran reviews before committing, because their specific complaints are consistent enough across independent accounts to be a real signal rather than outlier grumbling. For everyone else, this reads as a confident, well-supported sequel doing exactly what most sequels promise and rarely deliver: more of a good thing, built with real care.