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Monster Hunter Retrospective: Reviewing Every Monster
- Thread starter Toxi
- Start date
Well... I guess we have found the right pic to use in sales-related topics when MHR will have great legs.
I never noticed this. We just kind of started whacking every boulder until something moved. When it's out of the ground, I always mistake it for a Gravios as well.
And here I thought I maxed out my dislike of Plesioth already.
Indeed
I made a chart of this a while ago when I was bored:
Fire is by far and away the most common element. It's not even a competition. Water had its heyday in P2G and 4G through XX (usually because of Hermitaurs), but got completely shafted in 5th gen.
Ice does consistently have less rep than Water though (except in P3rd, vanilla MH4 and Iceborne), probably because it didn't exist in first gen.
Interesting. I always thought it was funny how the only drome with an element was Giadrome/ice and that 3rd gen abandoned that for sleep instead.
There's a reason Frontier has a reputation for just throwing on a bunch of spikes and calling it a day.
Can we take a moment to appreciate how bad of a design this is? Monster Hunter creates monsters that make biological sense, at least as much as possible.
How does this thing eat? Those... spikes prevent most prey from entering the mouth and don't seem to serve any obvious purpose.
You're putting way too much thought into Frontier's general design sensibility towards just about every variant monster they have.
Yeah, Hypnocatrice and Lavasioth (and possibly their subspecies?) were designed by the core MH team to help launch Frontier, but that's all. Frontier's designers didn't have the standard MH sensibilities, they just went completely overboard on the fantasy monsters.
Khezu, Plesioth, Basarios. I never fought these guy in the first Monster Hunter because they lock their quest behind Rathalos (which I never managed to beat).
For the longest of time (until Freedom 2), I thought these are considered harder than Rathalos.
Holy shit, I'm going to steal this as my new avatar
For the longest of time (until Freedom 2), I thought these are considered harder than Rathalos.
Indeed
Holy shit, I'm going to steal this as my new avatar
The first thing I did was Control+F for Hip Check when I saw the Plesioth post go up and I'm disappointed in Era that your the only one who mention it but I guess I shouldn't be surprised because New World Hunters vastly outnumber us Old World Hunters and it's just another reminder that Monster Hunter World really opened the floodgates for the player base.....I bet these New World Hunters wouldn't even know what I'm referring to when I mention THE CLAW.
OP
OP
I know, I know. It's just such a wide gap between the two, you know?
One is like: "Ok, how does this creature work?"
The other:
"Ok.... Spikes."
"But they get in the way of..."
"Shhhh, spikes."
Rathian, Part 1
OP
OP
Apologies to everyone for this write-up coming out late. I had some real life trouble distracting me yesterday and hadn't bothered finishing ahead of time. I'm still going to try and have Rathalos up on Saturday.
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Rathian
Premiered in: Monster Hunter (PS2, 2004)
Last appearance: Monster Hunter Rise (Switch, 2021)
Classification: Flying Wyvern
Habitat: Forests, Grasslands, Deserts
Hail to the queen!
Out of all the creatures in Monster Hunter, only two have the distinction of appearing in every game in the series. One is the big red overexposed posterboy Rathalos. The other is his oft-forgotten, but no less important female counterpart: Rathian.
Sexual dimorphism is common in the animal kingdom. It makes sense to have a monster where the female and male forms are different enough to have their own names. Just like cows and bulls, does and stags, mares and stallions, we have Rathian and Rathalos. Typically Rathian just gets discussed in the context of Rathalos, so I feel it's important to give the queen her due here and keep the comparisons with her hubby to a minimum.
After all the weird creatures we've covered so far, Rathian is a very typical "dragon" (Or more precisely, a very typical wyvern). Green scales and fiery breath are as stock as you can get, though the green color does at least fit very well into the places Rathian often calls home. The wing membranes provide further camouflage with some spots and swirls, like the patterns on a jaguar or leopard. According to the official book Dive Into Monster Hunter World, Rathian favors verdant fields and forests, but has difficulty defending such prime territory while parenting without the help of a Rathalos partner. Thus, Rathian will engage in vicious combat during mating season, with the dominant females gaining access to both the male's parenting time and his territory. The losers are forced to raise young alone in sparse environments, which is why Rathian are found in deserts despite sticking out like sore thumbs.
PS2 Rathian was pretty rough.
The original look for Rathian was rather different from the modern design used from Monster Hunter Tri onwards. Her old wings were smaller, her legs were longer, her toes were less flexible, her tail had more big spikes jutting out to the sides. Most importantly, the old head was less streamlined, with big jagged teeth and a shorter nose. Even ignoring the obvious improvements in graphics, I think the adjustments made were all for the better. Modern Rathian looks much more bird-like and less like a weird creepy goblin.
Speaking of which, Rathian's head still has some oddly human characteristics. The ears have pointed mammalian auricles that remind me of an elf. The bottom jaw has a forward-facing spike that looks almost like a sharp chin or beard. This strangely masculine trait is supposed to function as a meat hook that assists in feeding Rathian's young; I say "supposed to" because in the ecology video we have of Rathian, she just holds the meat in her mouth. Bit of a letdown there. I do like how much character the chin spike offers though! Rathian bringing a meal to her nest while it's still alive might seem unnecessarily cruel, but real birds of prey will often begin devouring their prey when its still alive.
The real anatomy of interest is the tail. Rathian's tail is tipped with a cluster of incredibly sharp and venomous spines. This is her primary weapon, even moreso than her fire breath, and the monster is adept at using spins and backflips to whip foes with the tail. On the back and the tops of Rathian's wings are many similar needles. These spines are also supposed to be poisonous according to the item descriptions, but sadly this feature isn't reflected in gameplay. Probably for the best, since I'm not sure how Rathian would use her back or the tops of her wings to strike hunters anyway. Perhaps the back spines are poisonous in the real world sense; venom is injected while poison is ingested. In this case, the back spines would be more for offering Rathian protection from other predators than active weapons.
Rathian's Japanese name, リオレイア ("Leolea") stems from "Leo", the Greek word for lion, with a bit of wordplay repetition. The name stems from Monster Hunter's concept as an exaggerated mirror of the natural world. Rathian and Rathalos are the top predators in Monster Hunter's grasslands and forests just like lions in the African Serengeti. The English name is a much more straightforward play on "wrath". I don't feel this was a great localization personally; Rathian isn't a monster associated with extreme anger, and I appreciated the reference to real world ecology the old name provided. Still, it's far too late to change Rathian's name.
Rathian and Rathalos shared their original roar, and said roar clearly shows the lion inspiration for the monsters. The vocalization starts as a hissing growl before transitioning into an earth shattering bellow. The call is truly impressive and one of the most iconic sounds in Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter World sadly changed Rathian's roar to a much less unique shriek. I get the intent here was to make the monster more bird-like and the new roar is still a very powerful noise, but I feel Capcom could have shouldn't have sacrificed such a recognizable sound.
Luckily, this is why mods exist.
On to the fight mechanics, Rathian is one of the most basic monsters in the series. She breathes fireballs, she charges, she bites, she swings her tail around. Remember Yian Kut-Ku? Think of Rathian as the next step up. Bigger, tougher, and more damage, yet still the same fundamental attacks you've seen countless times by now.
Rathian's only really unique gimmick is her signature move: The poison tail backflip. After a distinct windup animation where Rathian takes a few steps back and growls, she launches into the air with an impressive acrobatic tail spin. The backflip hits hard and poisons the player, so avoiding it is key. Moving backwards or forwards is not particularly effective because the backflip reaches further in those directions. Moving to the side on the other hand will consistently avoid the backflip. The attack is basic, but provides a very important lesson for players: You need to understand not just when to dodge, but where. The backflip also has a faster version Rathian can utilize in mid-air, without the normal start-up; again, this encourages players to move to the side while facing Rathian rather than forward or back. Cutting off the tail decreases the range of the attack, though until Monster Hunter World it could still poison players against all common sense.
Another important detail is Rathian's charge. She likes to charge not just once, but three times in succession. New players often struggle with the pattern. Sometimes they attempt to attack Rathian before she finishes all three charges and get hit in the process. Sometimes the first charge knocks a newbie down and they get hit by the follow-up. It can feel frustrating, but the key is patience. Wait until the third charge to counter-attack, and when knocked down delay your wake-up to take advantage of your invincibility frames while prone.
Rathian is our first monster that really encourages the use of Flash Bombs (Or their World counterpart, Flash Pods). These items release a flash of blinding light that temporarily removes a monster's sense of direction. Flash Bombs are particularly useful against flying monsters. When blinded in midair, a monster falls to the ground in an undignified heap and is vulnerable to attack for several seconds. These items can't just be spammed though, as they only work if the flash is directly in the boss's line-of-sight. Rathian provides a couple obvious guaranteed opportunities to nail a flash while she's in midair. First, her aforementioned backflip always leaves her briefly airborne. Second, when Rathian becomes enraged in newer games, she will always take off after her roar. This quirk is a nice bit of training for her male counterpart Rathalos, where Flash Bombs are much more important.
Is Rathian a hard monster? No. Once you learn how to fight her, she's arguably the easiest mid-tier monster in the entire series. I feel Rathian is still important for what she represents. When I want to try out a new weapon, I usually test it on Rathian first, because she's so dependent on the fundamentals. Her fight has changed significantly over the years, yet Rathian has always remained a no frills experience.
Rathian's equipment names constantly call attention to her status as a female monster, referencing queens, princesses, empresses, valkyries, and specific heroines from mythology like Sieglinde and Brundhilde. There are also some rose motifs, to match the idea of Rathian as a beautiful and prickly beast. The actual armor designs continue the themes of femininity and royalty. The male armor looks like a European knight's plate armor, even having the distinctive long pointy visor. The female armor eschews that practical aesthetic for a more regal look, with a crown-like helmet and a bizarre metal skirt that looks like a ballgown. The dichotomy between the male and female sets calls back to the classic trope of the lady and the knight. Very fitting for a dragon as typical as Rathian.
Rathian was actually almost the mascot of Monster Hunter; Rathalos was created because the developers felt the flagship monster should focus more on fire than poison. One obvious trace of Rathian's original flagship status is the logo for the original Monster Hunter. You might at first think the logo monster is a Rathalos, but the spines on the wings and back give it away: That's Rathian!
Gotta wonder if Rathian joined the same support group as Clefairy.
Despite Rathian's iconic status, or perhaps because of it, she tends to be a punching bag. For example, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite's intro stars a hunter whose group defeated a Rathian together. The cutscene then shows how the defeated monster's body parts were used to construct the hunter's badass new armor and weapons. It's one of the better Monster Hunter intro cutscenes for showing off the series' core gameplay loop. Newer fans who started with Monster Hunter World might also be surprised to recognize the main character as the old Huntsman of Astera.
Another example of Rathian serving as the punching bag is Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. One of the game's mandatory high rank quests requires the hunter to capture a Rathian. When the wounded wyvern retreats back to her nest, the game's new flagship Seregios attacks and forces her away. It's a sobering moment for both the OG monster and the hunter, who automatically fails the quest. The only consolation Rathian gets is that she was already close to death, so the Seregios inadvertently saved her from getting captured and chopped up into materials for our armor and weapons.
In Monster Hunter Generations, Rathian gets shown up by another flagship monster: The sword-tailed Glavenus. This particular matchup is even more lopsided than the previous one. Glavenus easily dodges the queen's signature tail whip and then responds with a strike of its own tail, slicing through poor Rathian's wings like butter. This time Rathian doesn't even have the excuse of being injured beforehand.
"It's over Glavenus, I have the higher grou-"
In Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Rathian again suffers the wrath of Glavenus. The World hunter's intro to Glavenus sees the sword-tail corner a heavily wounded Rathian in her den. This time though, the queen is able to get her licks in and retreat without significant harm. Indeed, the battered-up Rathian will still be on the map during the hunt, so she can sometimes aid the hunters in taking down her old foe. Sweet revenge at last.
"We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete.
When I met you I was but the learner. Now, I am the master."
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Rathian
Premiered in: Monster Hunter (PS2, 2004)
Last appearance: Monster Hunter Rise (Switch, 2021)
Classification: Flying Wyvern
Habitat: Forests, Grasslands, Deserts
Hail to the queen!
Out of all the creatures in Monster Hunter, only two have the distinction of appearing in every game in the series. One is the big red overexposed posterboy Rathalos. The other is his oft-forgotten, but no less important female counterpart: Rathian.
Sexual dimorphism is common in the animal kingdom. It makes sense to have a monster where the female and male forms are different enough to have their own names. Just like cows and bulls, does and stags, mares and stallions, we have Rathian and Rathalos. Typically Rathian just gets discussed in the context of Rathalos, so I feel it's important to give the queen her due here and keep the comparisons with her hubby to a minimum.
After all the weird creatures we've covered so far, Rathian is a very typical "dragon" (Or more precisely, a very typical wyvern). Green scales and fiery breath are as stock as you can get, though the green color does at least fit very well into the places Rathian often calls home. The wing membranes provide further camouflage with some spots and swirls, like the patterns on a jaguar or leopard. According to the official book Dive Into Monster Hunter World, Rathian favors verdant fields and forests, but has difficulty defending such prime territory while parenting without the help of a Rathalos partner. Thus, Rathian will engage in vicious combat during mating season, with the dominant females gaining access to both the male's parenting time and his territory. The losers are forced to raise young alone in sparse environments, which is why Rathian are found in deserts despite sticking out like sore thumbs.
PS2 Rathian was pretty rough.
Speaking of which, Rathian's head still has some oddly human characteristics. The ears have pointed mammalian auricles that remind me of an elf. The bottom jaw has a forward-facing spike that looks almost like a sharp chin or beard. This strangely masculine trait is supposed to function as a meat hook that assists in feeding Rathian's young; I say "supposed to" because in the ecology video we have of Rathian, she just holds the meat in her mouth. Bit of a letdown there. I do like how much character the chin spike offers though! Rathian bringing a meal to her nest while it's still alive might seem unnecessarily cruel, but real birds of prey will often begin devouring their prey when its still alive.
The real anatomy of interest is the tail. Rathian's tail is tipped with a cluster of incredibly sharp and venomous spines. This is her primary weapon, even moreso than her fire breath, and the monster is adept at using spins and backflips to whip foes with the tail. On the back and the tops of Rathian's wings are many similar needles. These spines are also supposed to be poisonous according to the item descriptions, but sadly this feature isn't reflected in gameplay. Probably for the best, since I'm not sure how Rathian would use her back or the tops of her wings to strike hunters anyway. Perhaps the back spines are poisonous in the real world sense; venom is injected while poison is ingested. In this case, the back spines would be more for offering Rathian protection from other predators than active weapons.
Rathian's Japanese name, リオレイア ("Leolea") stems from "Leo", the Greek word for lion, with a bit of wordplay repetition. The name stems from Monster Hunter's concept as an exaggerated mirror of the natural world. Rathian and Rathalos are the top predators in Monster Hunter's grasslands and forests just like lions in the African Serengeti. The English name is a much more straightforward play on "wrath". I don't feel this was a great localization personally; Rathian isn't a monster associated with extreme anger, and I appreciated the reference to real world ecology the old name provided. Still, it's far too late to change Rathian's name.
Rathian and Rathalos shared their original roar, and said roar clearly shows the lion inspiration for the monsters. The vocalization starts as a hissing growl before transitioning into an earth shattering bellow. The call is truly impressive and one of the most iconic sounds in Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter World sadly changed Rathian's roar to a much less unique shriek. I get the intent here was to make the monster more bird-like and the new roar is still a very powerful noise, but I feel Capcom could have shouldn't have sacrificed such a recognizable sound.
Luckily, this is why mods exist.
On to the fight mechanics, Rathian is one of the most basic monsters in the series. She breathes fireballs, she charges, she bites, she swings her tail around. Remember Yian Kut-Ku? Think of Rathian as the next step up. Bigger, tougher, and more damage, yet still the same fundamental attacks you've seen countless times by now.
Rathian's only really unique gimmick is her signature move: The poison tail backflip. After a distinct windup animation where Rathian takes a few steps back and growls, she launches into the air with an impressive acrobatic tail spin. The backflip hits hard and poisons the player, so avoiding it is key. Moving backwards or forwards is not particularly effective because the backflip reaches further in those directions. Moving to the side on the other hand will consistently avoid the backflip. The attack is basic, but provides a very important lesson for players: You need to understand not just when to dodge, but where. The backflip also has a faster version Rathian can utilize in mid-air, without the normal start-up; again, this encourages players to move to the side while facing Rathian rather than forward or back. Cutting off the tail decreases the range of the attack, though until Monster Hunter World it could still poison players against all common sense.
Another important detail is Rathian's charge. She likes to charge not just once, but three times in succession. New players often struggle with the pattern. Sometimes they attempt to attack Rathian before she finishes all three charges and get hit in the process. Sometimes the first charge knocks a newbie down and they get hit by the follow-up. It can feel frustrating, but the key is patience. Wait until the third charge to counter-attack, and when knocked down delay your wake-up to take advantage of your invincibility frames while prone.
Rathian is our first monster that really encourages the use of Flash Bombs (Or their World counterpart, Flash Pods). These items release a flash of blinding light that temporarily removes a monster's sense of direction. Flash Bombs are particularly useful against flying monsters. When blinded in midair, a monster falls to the ground in an undignified heap and is vulnerable to attack for several seconds. These items can't just be spammed though, as they only work if the flash is directly in the boss's line-of-sight. Rathian provides a couple obvious guaranteed opportunities to nail a flash while she's in midair. First, her aforementioned backflip always leaves her briefly airborne. Second, when Rathian becomes enraged in newer games, she will always take off after her roar. This quirk is a nice bit of training for her male counterpart Rathalos, where Flash Bombs are much more important.
Is Rathian a hard monster? No. Once you learn how to fight her, she's arguably the easiest mid-tier monster in the entire series. I feel Rathian is still important for what she represents. When I want to try out a new weapon, I usually test it on Rathian first, because she's so dependent on the fundamentals. Her fight has changed significantly over the years, yet Rathian has always remained a no frills experience.
Rathian's equipment names constantly call attention to her status as a female monster, referencing queens, princesses, empresses, valkyries, and specific heroines from mythology like Sieglinde and Brundhilde. There are also some rose motifs, to match the idea of Rathian as a beautiful and prickly beast. The actual armor designs continue the themes of femininity and royalty. The male armor looks like a European knight's plate armor, even having the distinctive long pointy visor. The female armor eschews that practical aesthetic for a more regal look, with a crown-like helmet and a bizarre metal skirt that looks like a ballgown. The dichotomy between the male and female sets calls back to the classic trope of the lady and the knight. Very fitting for a dragon as typical as Rathian.
Rathian was actually almost the mascot of Monster Hunter; Rathalos was created because the developers felt the flagship monster should focus more on fire than poison. One obvious trace of Rathian's original flagship status is the logo for the original Monster Hunter. You might at first think the logo monster is a Rathalos, but the spines on the wings and back give it away: That's Rathian!
Gotta wonder if Rathian joined the same support group as Clefairy.
Despite Rathian's iconic status, or perhaps because of it, she tends to be a punching bag. For example, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite's intro stars a hunter whose group defeated a Rathian together. The cutscene then shows how the defeated monster's body parts were used to construct the hunter's badass new armor and weapons. It's one of the better Monster Hunter intro cutscenes for showing off the series' core gameplay loop. Newer fans who started with Monster Hunter World might also be surprised to recognize the main character as the old Huntsman of Astera.
Another example of Rathian serving as the punching bag is Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. One of the game's mandatory high rank quests requires the hunter to capture a Rathian. When the wounded wyvern retreats back to her nest, the game's new flagship Seregios attacks and forces her away. It's a sobering moment for both the OG monster and the hunter, who automatically fails the quest. The only consolation Rathian gets is that she was already close to death, so the Seregios inadvertently saved her from getting captured and chopped up into materials for our armor and weapons.
In Monster Hunter Generations, Rathian gets shown up by another flagship monster: The sword-tailed Glavenus. This particular matchup is even more lopsided than the previous one. Glavenus easily dodges the queen's signature tail whip and then responds with a strike of its own tail, slicing through poor Rathian's wings like butter. This time Rathian doesn't even have the excuse of being injured beforehand.
"It's over Glavenus, I have the higher grou-"
In Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Rathian again suffers the wrath of Glavenus. The World hunter's intro to Glavenus sees the sword-tail corner a heavily wounded Rathian in her den. This time though, the queen is able to get her licks in and retreat without significant harm. Indeed, the battered-up Rathian will still be on the map during the hunt, so she can sometimes aid the hunters in taking down her old foe. Sweet revenge at last.
"We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete.
When I met you I was but the learner. Now, I am the master."
Last edited:
Rathian, Part 2
OP
OP
Subspecies: Pink Rathian
Premiered in: Monster Hunter G (PS2, 2005)
Last major appearance: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (PS4/XBO/PC, 2019)
Habitat: Forests, grasslands, deserts
Out of all the subspecies I've covered so far, I think Pink Rathian is easily the most important. This wasn't always the case. In the first and second generations, Pink Rathian was basically "Rathian but slightly stronger." Things changed significantly with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, which is also when I first faced Pink Rathian. At that point, I was used to what a Rathian fight usually entailed. Charge attack? Kite the monster until she finished a triple charge. Poison tail backflip? Move to the side a bit and laugh as the tail misses every time. I assumed Pink Rathian would be more of the same.
I was very wrong.
Pink Rathian is specifically designed to force players out of their comfort zone. Try and move around her during the charge? Pinkie ends the charge with a monstrous fire bite that covers her left side. You have to start only moving in the opposite direction. Think you can easily avoid the poison tail backflip just by moving slightly to the side? Pinkie complements the old backflip with a new and improved spinning version that covers those angles. You have to learn to I-frame the attack or adjust to the new blind spot if you want to keep close to Rathian for a punish.
All these traits have made Pink Rathian one of the most infamous walls in Monster Hunter, especially since she keeps showing up as a mandatory high rank quest. In Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, it was "Pink Queen of the Peaks". In Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, it was "In the Pink". In Monster Hunter World, it was "Old World Monster in the New World". Each time, Pinkie taught a generation of hunters not to
Aesthetically, I find the subpspecies's new pink color scheme very appealing, and it contrasts well with Rathian's usual pink. Pink feels a bit stereotypical when the Rathalos subspecies is blue… But I still really like how Pinkie looks. Pink is also the color of cherry blossoms, a staple of Japanese culture. Appropriately, we often see Pink Rathian in the Japanese-themed Misty Peaks map.
Rare Species: Gold Rathian
Premiered in: Monster Hunter G (PS2, 2005)
Last major appearance: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (PS4/XBO/PC, 2019)
Habitat: Human ruins
Gold Rathian, or "Goldie", is our first rare species. While a subspecies can be slightly more powerful than the original monster, the rare species is explicitly an endgame challenge. There have only been five rare species in the main Monster Hunter games, so they're quite special. They often have a more supernatural feel to them than the original monster. Gold Rathian for example is not just yellow, but a shining metallic gold like metal. The gold also is supposed to resemble the color of the moon, often a feminine object in real world culture and mythology. I do like how unique it is for the female version of the monster to be gold; usually that color is just reserved for the dudes.
In addition to the typical maps, rare species are often encountered in a more ominous environment: The Tower. The Tower is a map that has been around since Monster Hunter Dos in some form or another. Amongst all the natural environments of Monster Hunter, the cold gray stone of some long forgotten ancient civilization really stands out. What happened to the people that built this place? Why is this so far beyond the architecture of modern society? Why are the toughest monsters found here? These are frequent topics of fan speculation, but Monster Hunter as a series is generally not interested in the ancient history, only the here-and-now. I appreciate this tight-lipped approach. For as much as we would appreciate some explanation, sometimes the mystery is more intriguing than anything the writers could dream up.
The first person to mention the Equal Dragon Weapon gets thread banned.
Back to Gold Rathian, the most immediately noticeable change to the fight is how damn tough she is. Goldie's head, neck, and most of her tail are incredibly resistant to attacks, to the point that virtually all weapons will bounce off them. The weak spots are the back, wings, and tail tip, but these are also some of the more difficult spots to attack. The head can also become a weak spot when broken, which has always been my approach with weapons like Hammer and Hunting Horn; I like hitting the noggin too much to switch to something more optimal!
Attackwise, Goldie is incredibly aggressive, even moreso than Pink Rathian. This makes for an incredibly tense fight, as Gold Rathian can follow any knockdown with a vicious chain of attacks to combo the player into oblivion. Goldie's fireballs are particularly dangerous, with an enormous AOE fireball explosion being her "signature move" in my eyes.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne brought back Gold Rathian with one of the most impressive glowups any monster has ever received. Monster Hunter content creator Herny has a fantastic video detailing how the fight (as well as Goldie's husband, Silver Rathalos) has changed for the better. Of particular note is the new "hellfire mode", where Goldie charges up blue fire in her throat and chest. The new blue flame attacks are absolutely devastating and a nice way to compensate for the additional buffs Hunters have received over the years.
Seriously, check out Herny's channel. It's top notch stuff.
Deviant: Dreadqueen Rathian
Premiered in: Monster Hunter Generations (3DS, 2015)
Last major appearance: Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (3DS/Switch, 2017)
Habitat: Forests, grasslands, deserts
Monster Hunter Generations introduced a new kind of monster: Deviants. In the lore, a Deviant is a particularly tough individual of a monster species. Over the course of countless battles, Deviants develop refined tactics and physical characteristics. Outside the lore, Deviants were designed around the Nintendo 3DS's streetpass function.
I'm split on Deviants. On one hand, I love the crazy new buffs and movesets designed to make these monsters endgame threats. On the other… Good God is the actual Deviant system tedious. Do you want to make a Deviant's armor set? You generally get two tickets per quest and there are 10 (In Generations Ultimate, fifteen) different levels of ticket per deviant. This means you have to fight each Deviant at least sixty different times just to make a full suit of armor. Generations Ultimate thankfully only had five levels of Deviant tickets for the new G-Rank Deviants, but also added another five levels of tickets for the Deviants from the previous game. The music only adds to the monotony. I love most Monster Hunter music, but the Deviant track is grating on the ears. This wouldn't be an issue if it played for only a few fights, but almost every Deviant monster has this music play exclusively, and given how many times one has to fight the Deviants, that's a serious problem.
Most Deviant battles are just the original monster but more. Deviants take the key aspects of the original fights and exaggerate them to absurd levels. For Rathian, this would be her poisonous tail. Dreadqueen Rathian inherits all the unique tail attacks of Rathian and her subspecies, and also inflicts poison with the "standard" tail sweeps. This deviant's poison is also far beyond that of the normal form. Dreadqueen's new "fatal poison" acts so quickly that it will delete much of a health bar before a hunter even has a chance to use an Antidote, and no amount of poison resistance can actually provide immunity. Just avoiding the tail sweeps isn't enough either. Dreadqueen will fling the venomous spines across the battlefield with her attacks, turning it into a minefield.
Beyond poison, Dreadqueen has some other considerable buffs. Most obviously, she's huge. A big monster is always harder to avoid, and Dreadqueen is bigger than any other Rathian the player will face. The Deviant is also immune to the usual Flash Bomb weakness as long as her wings are undamaged, and like Gold Rathian the head is resistant to attacks before being broken. When fighting Dreadqueen, I generally target a single wing first, using traps to immobilize the monster. Once a wing is broken, it becomes far easier to attack the head and break it. Each part break makes the fight easier, so Dreadqueen Rathian is at her most dangerous at the very beginning of a hunt.
Deviants follow a very different Japanese naming scheme than subspecies and rare species. They actually have unique titles written out as Kanji before the standard monster name in katakana. The kanji typically include some kind of rank or status. Dreadqueen Rathian for example would be 紫毒姫リオレイア, with the additional 紫毒姫 being the kanji for "purple poison princess". I feel this name misses the mark a bit; while the deviant is indeed purple and focuses more on her poison attacks, "princess" feels more diminutive than I'd expect for Rathian. The English convention for Deviant names is to combine two words, in this case "Dread" and "Queen". I think "queen" feels a lot better than "princess" for Rathian. "Dread" is generic, but it also matches the male Deviant Dreadking Rathalos. Again, Rathian can't help but be tied to her male counterpart, which is a bit of a shame.
Other games and media
In Monster Hunter Stories, Rathian and Pink Rathian are both available Monsties. They are focused on Speed attacks, and are quite strong for the stage in the game they're available. A regular Rathian served me well in my own playthrough, especially with her poison immunity and attacks. In the story, the angsty rival Cheval bonds with a Rathian. Cheval hates monsters after a Nargacuga killed his mother, and now has a fanatical obsession with killing them. The character is clearly supposed to be sympathetic and understandable, but most Stories players found him annoying at best. Cheval's rants about monsters are especially obnoxious when he is riding one, a contradiction the game loves to dwell on. At least the Rathian is more sympathetic than her rider. Cheval and Rathian also hold the honor of being one of the game's Amiibos.
Pink Rathian has a less significant, but no less memorable role. In front of the city of Gildegaran, players will find a sleeping Pink Rathian. Those who dare wake this beast up are in for a vicious fight that is far above the difficulty of anything in the surrounding area. I love when games provide that sort of "schmuck bait", optional challenges that no rational person would trigger. It's a nice way to keep in check players' hubris.
Monster Hunter Frontier shamelessly reuses Rathian's model for another monster: The nameless "Unknown". This monster is a ridiculous challenge, but design wise... It's an edgier Rathian. The only noticeable difference besides color is the tail, which lacks Rathian's thorny bouquet and instead is a much simpler spiky club.
I guess Cheval rubbed off on her.
In Teppen, Rathian has received several cards. Most of them are boring high-toughness creatures with the "flight" ability, which allows them to fly over enemies to strike the opponent. The most important and interesting version of Rathian is a legendary card in the Monster Hunter-themed set "Adventures of a Tiny Hero". The misleadingly named "Dreadqueen Rathian" is clearly not the Deviant form, as she lacks the purple coloration and enlarged tail spikes. Still, Rathian's such an iconic monster that I'm happy to see her get her due here. "Dreadqueen" has a very cool and fitting ability: When she completes an attack, she poisons every other unit on the board, dealing gradual damage over time. This unique effect is designed to synergize with the many monsters in Adventures of a Tiny Hero that provides benefits when damaged, and also seriously pressures any units your opponents will have. "Dreadqueen" is rather hard to use and I don't think she's particularly powerful, but she's fun and nails Rathian's identity as a poison-themed monster.
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Rathian is the most deserving of being in every Monster Hunter game, tbh. The redesign she got in Tri was the best thing that could have happened to her.
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I really feel like Rathian should have stayed the series mascot instead of switching to Rathalos. Rathian's easy, sure, but she's so simple and effective. Meanwhile Rathalos has long been an obnoxious and binary fight dependent on Flash Bombs to make it even mildly tolerable.
Plus Pink Rathian IMO turns her into a flagship-level threat.
Glad I'm not the only one who prefers Rathian over Rathalos. She feels super easy to fight nowadays since several generations of games have trained me on her patterns so thoroughly (I really hope Rise brings some new revamping to her moves, but I'm not holding my breath) but I'll take her simplistic approach over Rathalos being a flying pain in the ass any day. She's definitely the ultimate hammer training weapon, with her predictable movements and fairly high impact weakness.
Then I think back to my first encounter with Pink Rathian back in 3 Ultimate and all the talk about Rathian being super easy crumble away in a hurry. The corkscrew tail attack has always looked fantastic but hit with disturbing effectiveness, and I'm not sure I ever fully got over the hitbox size of her flaming bite attacks. I distinctly recall her being one of the bigger and more jarring walls I faced in that game, but in retrospect I really appreciate just how much her fight changed, compared to the tendencies of other monster subspecies. Pinkie felt much, much easier in World compared to that, and unlike World-Rathian I don't think it's simply because of more familiarity with the fight now. I think the range of her signature attacks, the flaming bite especially, were cut back.
Still, Rathian is a true classic and a franchise staple, and a fight I'll never be unhappy to see in a new game, even if the patterns don't change as much as I would like.
(...But I'll be honest I'd probably rethink the armor design)
Then I think back to my first encounter with Pink Rathian back in 3 Ultimate and all the talk about Rathian being super easy crumble away in a hurry. The corkscrew tail attack has always looked fantastic but hit with disturbing effectiveness, and I'm not sure I ever fully got over the hitbox size of her flaming bite attacks. I distinctly recall her being one of the bigger and more jarring walls I faced in that game, but in retrospect I really appreciate just how much her fight changed, compared to the tendencies of other monster subspecies. Pinkie felt much, much easier in World compared to that, and unlike World-Rathian I don't think it's simply because of more familiarity with the fight now. I think the range of her signature attacks, the flaming bite especially, were cut back.
Still, Rathian is a true classic and a franchise staple, and a fight I'll never be unhappy to see in a new game, even if the patterns don't change as much as I would like.
(...But I'll be honest I'd probably rethink the armor design)
At least the Rathian fights you, unlike his male counterpart that loved to fly around wasting your time.
I think you could call rathian generic compared to other monsters but honestly it's an amazingly strong dragon design. It's like, almost the platoic ideal to me, when I imagine the word dragon, nothing else comes to mind quicker, it just feels so real. The spikes, various scale sizes, wing fibres, everything is just the right colour and in the right place
Except the ears are freaky. Why does it have those
Except the ears are freaky. Why does it have those
Stories also had the golden Rathian.
Agreed, just fought one in Generations a little while ago. It was fun.
Agreed, just fought one in Generations a little while ago. It was fun.
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Yeah, I probably wasn't giving the design enough credit there. Rathian and Rathalos, especially post gen 3, just work. The ears are pretty freaky, but they also give a touch of character that wouldn't be there without them.
I especially appreciate how the Raths are more bird-like in their posture and mannerisms than other fantasy wyverns.
I'm glad someone else had a similar experience to Pinkie in 3 Ultimate! I agreee the World Pink Rathian was easier, but I've still seen many players triple cart to her.
I feel the armor designs would be fine if they didn't represent the norm for Monster Hunter armor. I like the fantasy trope reference, but it loses its impact when every armor design has a similar "knight vs lady" dichotomy.
Thanks for pointing that out! Really have to try her as a Monstie.
Rathalos
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Rathalos
Premiered in: Monster Hunter (PS2, 2004)
Last major appearance: Monster Hunter Rise (Switch, 2021)
Classification: Flying Wyvern
Habitat: Forests, grasslands, volcanoes
You know this one. Rathalos is Monster Hunter's Pikachu, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, or Mario. He's the mascot of the entire series, the OG slapped on all the marketing, one of the two monsters to appear in every game. Even people who have never played a Monster Hunter recognize the fire wyvern's face from other games like Smash Bros.
Rathalos is also our first "flagship" monster. The flagship monster is a concept similar to the box art legendary in Pokemon: An immediately appealing creature featured on the cover art and most of the merchandising of a particular game. Flagships tend to be the monsters with the most love put into their fights and gear, and so understandably are also the most popular monsters. Rathalos is the ur-example of a flagship, appearing on the box and starring in the intro of the original Monster Hunter. He again featured on the cover of the PSP game Monster Hunter Freedom, making him the only monster to do so twice… In Japan. Internationally, Rathalos became a flagship again in Monster Hunter World, replacing the Japanese flagship Nergigante. I'm not sure why the localizers changed the cover art, but given the overseas success of World, it was probably the right decision.
Gee Rathalos!!! Why does Capcom let you have three cover arts?
Rathalos is very similar to Rathian, so when assessing the design I'll try to focus on the differences. Starting off with the color scheme, I dig the male's red and black hide. The colors fit a fire-themed monster and really pop. Many birds like cardinals exhibit sexual dimorphism between a brightly colored male and a muted female, so again Monster Hunter probably took inspiration from the natural world. The flame patterns on the wings are also nice and just as flashy as the red color; again, I can't help but think of real display patterns. I also need to talk about Rathalos's eyes. The blue sclera and narrow yellow irises really stand out, to the point that I can recognize the fire wyvern just from a close-up of his eyes. Rathalos lives much like a bird of prey, so it makes sense that shares their excellent eyesight.
Rathalos's tail is simpler than his female counterpart's, with a large spike instead of a cluster of venomous spines. The male instead delivers venom through his talons. This brings me to one of my few problems with a design: Rathalos has nothing to indicate the claws are venomous. A splash of poisonous purple™ on the feet or some bulging venom glands would have better sold the idea.
The physical differences between Rathian and Rathalos play into the different lifestyles of the two sexes. Rathalos is "The King of the Skies" and dive bombs prey from up above with his talons. Rathian is "The Queen of the Land" and stalks victims at ground-level with her camouflage. I really like this idea from a biology perspective. Rathalos and Rathian are both massive predators that require a ton of food. Thanks to their different hunting strategies, a mated pair can better split the resources in their shared territory. The dimorphism also reflects their parenting roles. Rathian sticks close to the nest and defends her young from small predators. Rathalos patrols the skies and scares away larger threats across a wider territory.
Top row: Gen 1 and 2; Middle Row: Gen 3 and 4; Bottom row: Gen 5
Rathalos has had two major visual overhauls. Some people say the only difference between these designs is the number of polygons, but that's clearly not true when I can still recognize each look from drawings and other mediums. The original Rathalos design had very lanky proportions, a short lipless face with large teeth, and a darker shade of red. Monster Hunter Tri gave him more compact body, a long expressive muzzle, and brighter colors. Monster Hunter World further lengthened the monster's face, changed the color patterns, and muted the red. Like Rathian, the sound design has also changed significantly in Monster Hunter world. Again, I think the new shrill bird-like call is great, but the old one will always be how I imagine Rathalos.
Rathalos is kinda infamous among players for not being fun to fight. He's basically a Rathian that flies more, and that comes with problems. A flying boss can be difficult to design when the player is ground-bound, and the games have taken several different approaches, none of them perfect.
In the first Monster Hunter, Rathalos was very similar to other wyverns. He charged, he spun his tail around, he shot fireballs in front of him. Things changed when Rathalos occasionally lifted off into the sky to rain down fireballs or to just… Fly around in circles for a while. Fans humorously dubbed the latter behavior the "Rathalos World Tour." The World Tour ends with a diving poison claw attack, but it's so telegraphed that the entire thing is just a boring time waster. Future games would have Rathalos use the World Tour less and less, until it completely disappeared in Generations.
One move from the first game that has persisted to the modern day is the jump-back fireball. This attack has Rathalos take flight while torching the ground in front of him. The jump-back fireball has a very short start-up and can be aimed, so one must always be cautious when getting close to Rathalos. Getting greedy and attacking when the monster isn't recovering from another move can at anytime be punished with a fireball. Rathalos also always performs the humpback fireball after he gets angry and roars, catching any unfortunate players stunned by the sound. For experienced hunters this is a perfect time to nail Rathalos with a Flash Bomb, knocking him to the ground.
Appropriate punishment for mankind's hubris, or cheap rage-inducing nonsense? You decide!
In Monster Hunter Tri, Rathalos' moveset was seriously revamped to put more emphasis on flying. The monster could now hover around the battlefield at a low height, tossing out fireballs and poison claw attacks without touching the ground. These changes made Rathalos feel more unique, but also made a more annoying fight for weapons with limited reach. Players often had to rely even more on Flash Bombs to knock the wyvern out of the air, leading to more binary fights. Do you have Flash Bombs? Rathalos spends all his time writhing pathetically on the ground. Don't have Flash Bombs? Have fun waiting for Rathalos's to land. It's possible to bring Rathalos down with enough damage, but most players had to depend on Flash Bombs.
Rathalos didn't change much in the fourth generation, but I need to bring up a certain gameplay mechanic: Wind pressure. When a monster blows wind around with its movements or attacks, the wind can briefly immobilize hunters. Rathalos in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate abused the hell out of wind pressure. Takeoff, landing, and flight all had large invisible windboxes that left players open to attacks. Even the fireball explosions had huge windboxes, so a missed projectile could still easily combo into a kill. Without a skill to negate the wind pressure, the fight was just miserable. These aspects were thankfully toned down in Generations.
In Monster Hunter World, Rathalos was heavily revamped again. Many old moves like the charge and tail whip gained more fluid animations, and when flying Rathalos now hovers much closer to the ground. For new moves, Rathalos can now into the ground and release a cloud of poison. I understand the developers wanted to give Rathalos a way to poison players when grounded, but the animation looks very odd. Still, the modern Rathalos is easily my favorite version of the monster to actually fight.
The poison cloud is so subtle, I at first just assumed it was dust and the move had janky hitboxes.
Rathalos isn't the best monster to fight, but I can still appreciate what an impact he has had on Monster Hunter from day 1. Players could work through overcoming annoying raptors, fish, and birds to find the satisfaction of slaying a dragon. And the Monster Hunter developers have worked hard over the years to improve Rathalos and make the monster's fight match the fantasy fans had since 2004.
Subspecies: Azure Rathalos
Premiered in: Monster Hunter G (PS2, 2005)
Last major appearance: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (PS4/XBO/PC, 2019)
Habitat: Forests, grasslands, volcanoes
Rathalos's blue subspecies was thought up because the developers thought Rathalos armor would look good in blue. I agree for the armor, but the color doesn't look as fitting for the actual monster. Yes, the sky is blue, but it's still very odd to see a blue dragon breathing fire or flying around a volcanic environment. I also am not a fan of the greenish tint the subspecies had in the older games, since it makes him look too much like Rathian.
For gameplay, Azure's gimmick has always been "Rathalos but more flying". Considering how annoying Rathalos can be while flying, that's not great. Azure also doesn't feel that different from Rathalos beyond the extra flying around; I always forget what unique moves he has.
Monster Hunter World has a certain infamous arena quest that pits the player against an Azure Rathalos. It suuuuuuucks. Azure spends so much time flying and the limited supply of Flash Pods just can't cut it. The terrain of the Arena also provides few opportunities to jump at Azure.
Azure Rathalos is technically our second flagship! He was on the cover of Monster Hunter G, and later on the cover of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate outside Japan. Just like Rathalos on the cover on Monster Hunter World, I'm perplexed as to why localization decided to change the monster on the cover art. It's not like Azure Rathalos is particularly important to 3 Ultimate outside showing up in the game's intro.
Here we have one bold hero proudly facing death head-on, and one bold hero proudly looking the wrong way.
Rare Species: Silver Rathalos
Premiered in: Monster Hunter G (PS2, 2005)
Last major appearance: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (PS4/XBO/PC, 2019)
Habitat: Human ruins
The rare species, Silver Rathalos, is a nasty beast and is a classic endgame monster. His entire body is hard as steel, and he ramps up all the aggressive traits of previous Rathalos versions. While Gold Rathian is associated with the moon, Silver Rathalos is associated with the sun. I personally always felt like gold fits the sun better and silver fits the moon better, but what do I know?
One of the most infamous Silver Rathalos quests in Monster Hunter Generations was a DLC Fire Emblem crossover. The quest reward could be used to craft armor that makes the hunter look like the hero king Marth. Unfortunately, to get that reward players had to face a Hyper Silver Rathalos with incredibly buffs to its health, damage, and the AOE radius on the fireballs. This was one of the most popular online quest requests for Generations. I can only say I'm glad I'm not a Fire Emblem fan and never tried grinding for the Marth costume… But Generations Ultimate made Hyper Silver Rathalos' G-rank armor some of the best in the game. This is one monster I will never even attempt to solo.
Iceborne heavily revamped Silver Rathalos. Like Gold Rathian, he received a "hellfire mode" that augments his fire attacks with blue flame. The addition of the Clutch Claw also allows players to tenderize the hard parts of his body, negating some of the annoyance the fight had in previous games. Silver Rathalos is an extreme late-game challenge, only accessible by leveling up the Coral Highlands section of the Guiding Lands region.
Deviant: Dreadking Rathalos
Premiered in: Monster Hunter Generations (3DS, 2015)
Last major appearance: Monster Generations Ultimate (3DS/Switch, 2017)
Habitat: Forests, grasslands, volcanoes
Dreadking's design differences from normal Rathalos are subtle. The most obvious change is the dark wing membranes with bright orange fiery patterns, fitting into Dreadking's greater emphasis on fire attacks. Still, I can't help but wish Capcom had changed the body's color scheme more, as the differences from normal Rathalos are a bit too subtle. Dreadking's English name fits well as the king to Rathian's queen. His Japanese name, 黒炎王リオレウス ("Kuro yan wang lioleus"), again follows a pattern of a kanji title before the monster's katakana name.. 黒 means "black", 炎 means "flame", and 王 means "king". Dreadking is indeed a darker color than normal and has much more powerful fire attacks, but I feel the title should have matched Rathian's better by calling Rathalos a prince instead of a king.
As a fight, Dreading Rathalos is designed to exaggerate the most challenging aspects of Rathalos. Dreadking flies near constantly when enraged, forcing players to constantly strafe him so they don't get nailed by the poison claws and fireballs. Like Dreadqueen Rathian, Flash Bombs are no longer effective until you break at least one of Dreadking's wings, so it's imperative to do that as early as possible. There's also an annoying new attack that fires a huge fiery rock into the ground. The heat of the rock causes a damage over time effect, and after a few seconds, the projectile detonates in a giant AOE. Players have plenty of time to avoid the explosion, but it also blocks off a large area and makes the battlefield difficult to maneuver.
Pictured here: A hunter who really wishes he was anywhere else.
Dreadking's armor was one of the best sets in Generations, and grinding for the armor was a grueling process. Of particular note was the infamous Dreadking VII capture quest. The quest only allowed use of onsite items, limiting players to two traps. Wasting the traps or accidentally killing Dreadking failed the quest, and both situations were common in a party of four. Generations Ultimate thankfully power crept Dreadking's armor to the point it was no longer optimal.
If you're a masochist like me, you can try to fight EX Dreadking. EX Deviants have massively buffed damage and health and serve as the ultimate endgame challenges in Generations Ultimate, and EX Dreadking is no exception. Weathering this monster's barrage of one-shots and chipping down his massive health pool rewards only an armor pigment and the personal satisfaction of overcoming the embodiment of bullshit.
Other Games and Media
In Monster Hunter Stories, Rathalos, Azure Rathalos, and Silver Rathalos are all playable units, but the real star of the show is Ratha. Ratha is a baby Rathalos who imprinted on the main character and defended them from a Nargacuga infected with the mysterious black blight. The incident cost Ratha his eye and infected him too with the blight. Luckily, power of friendship and all that allowed the protagonist to save Ratha. The monster subsequently became a permanent member of the party, only allowed to leave at the end of the game. I was personally annoyed with how the game forced me to use a monster, but at least Ratha can hold his own in battle. Monster Hunter Stories 2 will apparently be focused on
Stories Rathalos apparently also moonlights as a Kamen Rider.
In Capcom's mobile CCG Teppen, Rathalos was one of the main playable heroes the game started with. This particular Rathalos is an old specimen who barely survived an encounter with a Hunter. The attacker's greatsword was buried in the monster's back. When Rathalos revived, his inner fire surrounded the weapon in a blazing mantle.
As a hero, Rathalos is part of the aggressive Red faction. Red cards can damage enemies and power up fast-attacking and/or evasive units. While other Red heroes like Ryu and Jill Valentine can directly assault foes, Rathalos is more of a support player. All three of the monster's hero arts buff friendly units at a cheap MP cost. The first hero art, Dive Attack, gives +2 attack to all friendly units. It's best used in a deck that can keep multiple attackers on board. The second hero art, Wrath Awoken, grants a friendly unit the evasive Flight ability and an attack boost based that scales with previous attack buffs. This ability is strongest in a deck that plays lots of attack buffs. The third hero art, Blazing Wall, protects a friendly unit with +2 hp and a damage-preventing shield. This one is my personal favorite; any aggressive deck appreciates being able to keep key units on board longer. Rathalos has varied in competitive viability over Teppen's lifespan. At one point, Wrath Awoken was so strong it was nerfed to only provide a maximum of 3 attack. More recently, Blazing Wall decks dominated until key cards like Valstrax were nerfed. Rathalos in general favors easy and linear strategies, but I think that's fine. Card games need to appeal to a variety of players, and some people just want to smash face.
The MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV had a double crossover with Monster Hunter World in 2017. World got the iconic Final Fantasy creature Behemoth, while FFXIV got Rathalos. The fight is designed to feel like Monster Hunter; Rathalos has no AOE markers and never holds aggro on a single player, so all players need to watch the monster's movements and move out of the way accordingly. Later in the fight, all healing is disabled except for a limited supply of Mega Potions. It's apparently a neat fight, but I feel like Monster Hunter World players got the better side of this crossover event. At least FFXIV players can obtain Rathalos as a flying steed!
Enjoy this sneak preview of Monster Hunter Stories on PS5.
In Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Rathalos appears as both a boss and assist trophy. The boss fight does a great job of replicating the Monster Hunter experience, with flash bombs to knock him to the ground and pitfall traps to immobilize him. The stage is the Ancestral Steppe from Monster Hunter 4 for the 3DS.
Even Rathalos spams up-airs in Ultimate.
Rathalos was "lucky" enough to star in Paul WS Anderson's 2020 cinematic masterpiece Monster Hunter. The movie's "Greater Rathalos" is absurdly oversized, over three times the length of a normal Rathalos. He also acts more like a mindless attack dog than an actual animal, attacking anyone who comes close to the ruins of ancient civilization and burning down massive swathes of forest for no reason. The Greater Rathalos also appeared in a promotional DLC quest for Monster Hunter World, and was just as comically big there as it was in the movie.
Merchandise
As the mascot of Monster Hunter, Rathalos's mug is plastered on all sorts of knick-knacks and doodads. I'll end this write-up with a look at some of the more ridiculous Rathalos-themed products out there.
Bandai's toy division Tamashii Nations took on Rathalos for their Soul of Chogokin line. Soul of Chogokin figures are designed around transformation, so rather than a traditional figure we get the bizarre concept of a hunter with Rathalos equipment that transforms into a Rathalos. Both modes aren't perfect, with the Rathalos mode looking more like a robotic chicken than a wyvern, but I can't help but admire the creative madness at play here. A silver version was also available. Nowadays, you can only buy these on the aftermarket, and they go for quite a decent price.
The company Seiko created a set of Monster Hunter themed luxury watches for Monster Hunter's 15th anniversary, and of course Rathalos got one. I've seen some people call the designs garish and others sleek, but at ¥15,000 these were quite pricey. It's hard to imagine there's a huge overlap between the market demographics for luxury watches and video game merch, but what do I know?
For those with a sweet tooth, cake maker Chara Shogu Net collaborated with Bandai for a cake based on a severed Rathalos tail in 2013. The confection is a strawberry cream-filled sponge cake wrapped in a crepe and topped with strawberry and chocolate icing. SO TASTY!
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Waferlos! Love-hate 4U's G-rank Azure Rathalos. A glorious but absolutely spiteful evil.
Fun fact! The two monsters that helped me 'figure out' how the monster zone movement mechanics worked back in MHFU was Azure Rathalos + Kut Ku. Kut Ku clued me in at first, while Azure Rathalos helped confirm things. Why did I learn this? I HAD TO DO TAIL RUNS FOR THE BLUE TAIL LANCE. SO MANY TAILS. I NEVER GOT THEM, EVER.
PAIN.
Anyway, back then the per-zone movement was determined by the Quest Host's position (not like in a zone, but per zone). If Host was in Area 1, mons in 2, and the pattern said "if 1, got to 3" that'll happen 100% of the time. So why does it seem random? Well, each zone-switch the game determines a new 'timer' for when the monster'll HAVE to leave. This timer is random for the first load too, meaning as the player walks to a zone, they can shift zones & cause the 'randomness' because the mon may leave when you're in the 'wrong' zone. LIkewise, if 2 mons are in a zone and you're in another zone - they go to the same zone if you stay in that zone. That's why double-mon zones are rough if you don't paintball both, wait for one to leave, then switch zones (quest host specifically). High Rank further added to randomness by spawning players in non-camp zones, making replicating things in those ranks and above very very hard.
Pure evil design and I love it. I think down the line, they added some possible options rather than concrete options, maybe even back in MHFU honestly. Hard to test ofc.
Fun fact! The two monsters that helped me 'figure out' how the monster zone movement mechanics worked back in MHFU was Azure Rathalos + Kut Ku. Kut Ku clued me in at first, while Azure Rathalos helped confirm things. Why did I learn this? I HAD TO DO TAIL RUNS FOR THE BLUE TAIL LANCE. SO MANY TAILS. I NEVER GOT THEM, EVER.
PAIN.
Anyway, back then the per-zone movement was determined by the Quest Host's position (not like in a zone, but per zone). If Host was in Area 1, mons in 2, and the pattern said "if 1, got to 3" that'll happen 100% of the time. So why does it seem random? Well, each zone-switch the game determines a new 'timer' for when the monster'll HAVE to leave. This timer is random for the first load too, meaning as the player walks to a zone, they can shift zones & cause the 'randomness' because the mon may leave when you're in the 'wrong' zone. LIkewise, if 2 mons are in a zone and you're in another zone - they go to the same zone if you stay in that zone. That's why double-mon zones are rough if you don't paintball both, wait for one to leave, then switch zones (quest host specifically). High Rank further added to randomness by spawning players in non-camp zones, making replicating things in those ranks and above very very hard.
Pure evil design and I love it. I think down the line, they added some possible options rather than concrete options, maybe even back in MHFU honestly. Hard to test ofc.
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I'm late to the Rathian write-up, but just going to throw in that Rathian was pretty much my lesson on the benefits of severing tails (especially being a LS main, and all lol).
Going to read Rathalos' now!
Edit: Eh, just moved it to a new post
Going to read Rathalos' now!
Edit: Eh, just moved it to a new post
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Normal Rathalos flies way too much
Ratha, however is really likable, well rounded (bit OP at times) and stylish with that kinship attack.
I love how the big Rathalos looks in Stories
Ratha, however is really likable, well rounded (bit OP at times) and stylish with that kinship attack.
I love how the big Rathalos looks in Stories
I played hundred of hours of MHW and never realised that Rathalos had that poison cloud attack... Huh. Then again I hate fighting Rathalos so much (probably one of the least enjoyable monster to fight along Kushala Daora and MHW's Lunastra) that I didn't really fight him often.
My theory is that it's "Red's" Ratha but grown up. He doesn't have the scar of the MHS1's Ratha.
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That makes a lot more sense. Thanks for clearing that up!My theory is that it's "Red's" Ratha but grown up. He doesn't have the scar of the MHS1's Ratha.
Wow, that's wild. It's interesting how much later games simplified the zone transition patterns. In the 3DS games it's basically always the same depending on the damage you do.
Also always fun to read a Desire Sensor angst story.
Got some quick catching up to do
Plesioth: My main enduring memory of Plessie that doesn't involve hip checks, is when I got Freedom unite on PSP, my friend who got me into the series and was at endgame level decided that we were gonna make me some plesioth armour, now I'm pretty sure this was because he'd just made an endgame level bow and wanted a target to test it on while carrying me up the ranks, so I'm sitting there on the jungle shore dodging water beams while he just goes to town with the bow, not a particularly thrilling experience and in the end I got the armour and yeah, I'm not a fan of its style at all!
Rathian: the monster that truly allows you to view your progress, one of the first notable learning curves that when mastered becomes one of the most satisfying punching bags in the series, a head that just places itself in optimum hammertown territory. Dicking on the queen aside, I'm a big fan of this one.
The writeup is correct, this is a prime weapon tester candidate.
And then after all these years the Dreadqueen was her horrifying revenge, I don't think I ever went any deeper into Gens deviants after this harrowing poison factory.
Rathalos: Well....I enjoy fighting it as a Smash Bros Boss, the less said about the games the better? well it's not that bad, but I've had too many bouts of wind pressure, barely out of reach time wasting (also lol at the world tour, I almost forgot about that move).
Also gonna echo the sentiments that its theme is pretty lame (to go back to smash bros, it sucks that we've only got two MH tracks and one of them is this).
Looks cool though, armour is worthy of being plastered everywhere.
Plesioth: My main enduring memory of Plessie that doesn't involve hip checks, is when I got Freedom unite on PSP, my friend who got me into the series and was at endgame level decided that we were gonna make me some plesioth armour, now I'm pretty sure this was because he'd just made an endgame level bow and wanted a target to test it on while carrying me up the ranks, so I'm sitting there on the jungle shore dodging water beams while he just goes to town with the bow, not a particularly thrilling experience and in the end I got the armour and yeah, I'm not a fan of its style at all!
Rathian: the monster that truly allows you to view your progress, one of the first notable learning curves that when mastered becomes one of the most satisfying punching bags in the series, a head that just places itself in optimum hammertown territory. Dicking on the queen aside, I'm a big fan of this one.
The writeup is correct, this is a prime weapon tester candidate.
And then after all these years the Dreadqueen was her horrifying revenge, I don't think I ever went any deeper into Gens deviants after this harrowing poison factory.
Rathalos: Well....I enjoy fighting it as a Smash Bros Boss, the less said about the games the better? well it's not that bad, but I've had too many bouts of wind pressure, barely out of reach time wasting (also lol at the world tour, I almost forgot about that move).
Also gonna echo the sentiments that its theme is pretty lame (to go back to smash bros, it sucks that we've only got two MH tracks and one of them is this).
Looks cool though, armour is worthy of being plastered everywhere.
To illustrate a further point about why "Wrathalos" decks were so powerful in that season's Teppen meta, Wrath Awoken did not have a cap on how many times you could raise the attack by originally. Much like Nergigante's Spike Launch in the first season and its insane board wipe capabilities as a result, the lack of a cap was a very, very large problem as flying units didn't have much of a counter back then, and already had access a very valuable card in the form of Reckless Charge, which granted the unit that it was applied to the always powerful instant attack status, making it especially nasty with cards that had Combo as an ability, making it possible to end the game right then and there without some hard removal options for the likes of Seregios or Heavenly Kicks Chun-Li (red/green decks are still very popular to this day, even). It's no mistake that the expansion that debuted after that season introduced the new mechanic Anti-Flight (a unit with this can block flying attacks) to prevent further shenanigans of what would wind up becoming a heavily nerfed Hero Art on top of every other change they made that season, but make no mistake: if you were ever going to have an easy time getting to Champions in the game, that was the deck to do it with!
Blazing Wall has consistently been Rath's best HA since then, as it gives red a sorely needed defensive option for a color notoriously lacking in them for units, but the Valstrax nerf has kept them relatively quiet as far as competitive threats are concerned. The irony of it all is that with how much of a check the two actual monsters of Monster Hunter in the game have been getting ever since, the diminutive Felyne may prove to be the strongest Hero to represent the franchise of them all...
Blazing Wall has consistently been Rath's best HA since then, as it gives red a sorely needed defensive option for a color notoriously lacking in them for units, but the Valstrax nerf has kept them relatively quiet as far as competitive threats are concerned. The irony of it all is that with how much of a check the two actual monsters of Monster Hunter in the game have been getting ever since, the diminutive Felyne may prove to be the strongest Hero to represent the franchise of them all...
Alright, all caught up!
- I think my first Pink Rathian experience was 4 Ultimate. Come to think of it, I think the only subspecies I fought prior to that was an Emerald Congala. Didn't have any idea of what to expect going in. That fire bite attack was a rude awakening. When I played through 3 Ultimate this year, I got to Pink Queen of the Peaks thinking "You're not getting me with that fire bite to your left bullshit, I know to dodge to your right now!" and met another rude awakening when I realized it actually sweeps from one side to the other in 3U. Good times. Still my favorite subspecies, though. Might actually load up 3U just to fight her, lol.
- I'm glad I decided against bothering with Deviants beyond the first few in Generations.
- The first Rathalos I ever took down was in Generations Ultimate, since that was my first MH game. I remember being so pumped to take it on and enjoying the fight. Now when I see him, I'm all "Ugh, this shit again."
- I need to actually go unlock Gold Rathian and Silver Rathalos in Iceborne. I've beaten some of the endgame stuff like Brute Tigrex, Stygian Zinogre and Raging Brachy, but never bothered getting my MR and guiding lands levels high enough to unlock them.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up the Rathalos boss fight in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker!
- I think my first Pink Rathian experience was 4 Ultimate. Come to think of it, I think the only subspecies I fought prior to that was an Emerald Congala. Didn't have any idea of what to expect going in. That fire bite attack was a rude awakening. When I played through 3 Ultimate this year, I got to Pink Queen of the Peaks thinking "You're not getting me with that fire bite to your left bullshit, I know to dodge to your right now!" and met another rude awakening when I realized it actually sweeps from one side to the other in 3U. Good times. Still my favorite subspecies, though. Might actually load up 3U just to fight her, lol.
- I'm glad I decided against bothering with Deviants beyond the first few in Generations.
- The first Rathalos I ever took down was in Generations Ultimate, since that was my first MH game. I remember being so pumped to take it on and enjoying the fight. Now when I see him, I'm all "Ugh, this shit again."
- I need to actually go unlock Gold Rathian and Silver Rathalos in Iceborne. I've beaten some of the endgame stuff like Brute Tigrex, Stygian Zinogre and Raging Brachy, but never bothered getting my MR and guiding lands levels high enough to unlock them.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up the Rathalos boss fight in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker!
I find it kinda funny how it seems the characters in MH Stories 2 immediately think something sinister is going on with the rathaloses dissapearing and not thinking "hmm maybe it because we're hunting them alot so they moving away to escape?"
Funny enough, this is kinda addressed in the in-universe lore that hunters aren't actually overhunting monsters to the extent that they used to in the olden days, as nature has a lot of countermeasures in place to restore the balance, often manifesting itself in the form of Fatalis. A key element of MH4's story is that Gore Magala is such an invasive species with its ability to propagate the Frenzy virus that it threatens to completely throw the balance off again, which is why killing it is such a major priority in the story until you find out that the situation is a bit more complex than you initially thought it would be.
...of course, this all gets hand-waved away in terms of the gameplay part, as you'll need as many materials as you do, but ignoring the actual story is a time-honored tradition for the series!
I just fought this bastard on MR in World's Ancient Forest, and let me tell you, it was a horrid experience. Son of a bitch loves to fly miles away whenever it's time to move to a new zone, making you waste a lot of time chasing him, potentially to the point where he moves to a different miles-away area before you can reach him. His penchant for flight combined with all the flora tending to block your view makes keeping the camera on him a nightmare. Rathian loves to swoop in and make the fight even more of a visual clusterfuck (and I'm colorblind, so I can barely tell the difference between the two). He loves going to that agonizing multi-level zone where accidentally jumping down three stories is common...
Makes me look forward to Rise's aerial mechanics and (seemingly) simpler maps.
Makes me look forward to Rise's aerial mechanics and (seemingly) simpler maps.
Yeah...Rathalos is not a fun fight in Gen 1/2. Spends half the fight flying all over the place; especially terrible on the Volcano map where it can fly outside of the boundaries and land on a little island you can't even get to! Gen 3 improved him quite a bit, but made his dive attack much deadlier (I still have awful memories of Azure/Silver with their homing dives from 3U...)
As for Stories, Ratha's pretty damn strong when you get it and it's not hard to make it even stronger considering you get it with all of its Gene Slots unlocked. It carried me pretty hard until the end of the game.
But speaking of other media, MH had a great Collab Event with Dragalia Lost that featured Rathalos and Dreadking Rathalos (as well as Fatalis as a Raid Boss). You could get both of them as Dragons (despite not being technically dragons...but you could argue that about a number of other "dragons" in the game) and fought them as Bosses in the Event, including a tough one where you fought both at the same time; they have a fairly similar moveset from the games, which was how I managed to beat the fight despite being heavily underpowered.
As for Stories, Ratha's pretty damn strong when you get it and it's not hard to make it even stronger considering you get it with all of its Gene Slots unlocked. It carried me pretty hard until the end of the game.
But speaking of other media, MH had a great Collab Event with Dragalia Lost that featured Rathalos and Dreadking Rathalos (as well as Fatalis as a Raid Boss). You could get both of them as Dragons (despite not being technically dragons...but you could argue that about a number of other "dragons" in the game) and fought them as Bosses in the Event, including a tough one where you fought both at the same time; they have a fairly similar moveset from the games, which was how I managed to beat the fight despite being heavily underpowered.
Hell yeah! Funnily enough, this was the first time I fought a Rath and introduced me to Monster Hunter. I had ZERO idea where the hell this cat was taking me/Snake and why I had to fight against those things. I then read up and figuring I'd start with 1st Gen MHF, bought it and plopped it into my PSP and... well.... let's just say that it took World to make me fall absolutely in love with the series!
OP
OP
I think the Deviants are really enjoyable to fight even if the gear grind sucks. Just forget about the gear and think of them as a fun extra personal challenge. I joked about Dreadking Ex being complete bullshit, but I grinded up Dreadking to Ex because I wanted to face the bullshit.
The Deviant music still sucks, but what ya gonna do?
Technically no, but let's be honest, it's him. :P This is the same game that has the Ace Cadet, a callback to the Glavenus vs Rathian ecology, and references to village music in all the redone Monster tracks.
I was originally planning on mentioning the Dragalia Lost collab... But I really am not the right person to talk about it. I know nothing about Dragalia Lost and the second-hand knowledge I had on the collab just confused me. Any description of the crossover by me would just sound like the wikipedia entry. I'm happy you brought the crossover up since you actually could describe it much better.
I'm worried about the longer write-ups being boring or annoying. Rathian dragged especially hard and I tried to make sure Rathalos was easier to read. Hopefully I can clean things up further with Diablos.
This crossover on the other hand I completely forgot, and I'm kicking myself for missing it.