Creature design in Monster Hunter
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- Опубликовано: 26 май 2022
- We take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly to see what the Monster Hunter roster can teach us about designing fictitious beasts - and all served with a fresh batch of hot takes straight from the oven.
Wyverns vs dragons terminology : monsterlegacy.net/2020/04/01/... 
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I think Brachydios would make far more sense as an ore-eater who is specialized only in certain ores, rather than a carnivore. Its powerful forelimbs could break apart smaller rocks, while its slime mold could be used to blast mine when the ore is deep inside a rock and its punches just wouldn't cut it. The delay on its slime mold, may have been to give Brachydios time to reach a safe distance when mining. Its hard back shell would protect it from raining debris and cave-ins to some extent. This still leaves a lot of questions, but it makes more sense than a giant carnivore who glows in the dark, causes noisy explosions, and has heavy plating on a body part that's never under threat.
yeah, it would be cool if it used those ores also to like, enich the area the mold grows or even empowering it.
I think Brachy does this explosion for many reasons.
For hunting, like, we see that on world, it takes down a Uragaan by just punching him and letting him get the mold and explode... so it takes less energy fo Brachydios to hunt.
Its also a territorial thing, like barroth, that uses his mud to mark points, brachy would do the same with explosions... probably it smells different when it happens.
Agreed, the way the jaws look seem like they'd do the job
in iceborne they feed on gastodon so it seems they are in fact carnivores. It is possible they feed on both, but unless the iceborne book clarifies it's diet it's hard to say.
counter point, it makes more sense for it to be a carnivore, mold doesnt like to be too deep in any rock (yes i realize this is a special type of mold but bear with me) so it makes more sense for a brachy to sniff out the mold, punch the rock get the slime blah blah blah, now, in its home is filled with extra DURABLE creatures, like really most of the volcanic monsters have a durability quirk, uragaan is tar and rock, agnaktor (best boi) is volcanic rock, gravios, azure rath, etc. Hardened monsters, now a solid rock puncher + blast means most of that armor is screwed, he can break them like their nothing, with all of the benefits you mentioned, quick punches, jump back, with enough armor to stand a quick blow and then all he needs to do is wait and reep the rewards. Well now said creatures are dead, their armor shells and scales destroyed, he can now eat at his leisure. Not only that but hes spreading the slime all over the place, making it easier to find for him and future brachy's and the slime doesnt explode very deep but it does go very far, wraps back around to the 1st thing i said, mold doesnt like to be very deep, especially with a symbiotic relationship
That being said, i would love another monster that has a similar symbiotic relationship, maybe ankylosaur type, we already have the skeleton with apceros, that would be fucking sick
Tldr; brachy fills a niche that no other monster in its area fills therefore carnivore
It is a meat tenderizer lol.
Something worth noting about bears that are comparatively outdone by other carnivores in their ecosystem:
They're oftentimes far, FAR scarier towards humans than their theoretically dominant counterparts. Sloth bears in particular are fucking nightmares. Sure, I wouldn't exactly want to be mauled by a tiger. But sloth bears have adapted a frankly disturbing amount of aggression explicitly _because_ tigers exist in their ecosystem. They can't really flee because tigers are faster and adept climbers, so their only real option is fighting back. The problem lies in the fact that they retain this propensity towards violence even with species physically inferior to them. Us being one of them. There are quite a few horror stories of sloth bear encounters, but the one I find the most chilling is a sloth bear being confronted by an entire crowd of people after killing someone in their village, only to charge into the crowd and absolutely mangle one of the people in it before returning to eat the one it had initially killed. Even a tiger would think twice about a confrontation with a whole crowd of humans.
And then there’s the Sloth Bear of Mysore.
You hear of this is in sun bears as well, if startled they tend to panic and maul whatever spooked them before fleeing. Quite a lot of cultures in areas with such bears fear them as much or more than tigers for such reasons!
@@unnaturalhistorychannel to be fair in his hunts zynorge mostly uses his tails and forelimbs along with his electric to attack so it makes sense why his head would be comparatively smaller and the former two bigger.
Dr. Bright who gave you internet access? Shouldn't you be tending to the various SCP's?
@@beastmaster0934 I was going to bring up this story. Animals are terrifying man.
When describing the genre of Monster Hunter's setting, I like the term 'fossilpunk', which also would describe other works that embrace the aesthetic and steampunk vibe of the world such as Dinotopia.
I like the term because it really expresses the feeling of the world, of bones and hides, hunters and trackers, with a degree of advanced culture similar to steampunk epics.
“Fossil punk” is a great term.
Ive also heard "cave punk"
I like that term. Can you describe it a little a more for me?
@@mystere4838 not entirely sure, like in the stage right before steampunk.
Technology exists but not alot and its typically primitive. Alot of things have bones or stone used in place of real wod steel or wood.
Idk, its like describing steampunk. Like yeah you know what it is but how do you describe it to someone who doesnt?
@@mystere4838 I'll try to, although honestly I think the reason I like the term is its very evocative- when you hear 'fossilpunk' your brain conjures images of giant prehistoric beasts, dinosaurs and strange monsters, living alongside humanity in parallel. While the human cultures of the world develop technology and science from the natural world the animals too are in their own evolutionary arms race; when humanity thinks they've bested all that the brutal natural world can throw at them and extracted all of the wonders they can from the bones, oils, sinews, meat, hide and viscera of the monsters they discover, something even more monstrous shows itself to challenge humanity for the top spot on the food chain.
As a purely descriptive term however, I think fossilpunk would be described as 'a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates prehistoric or fictionalised giant creatures into a world where the dominant humanoid culture is heavily reliant on and closely tied to the natural world, whether that be a hunter/gatherer culture or through reliance or reverence on materials and creatures cultivated in nature. Stories and themes in this genre tend to focus heavily on environmentalism, as well as human/animal conflict and how such conflicts impact nature holistically.' But honestly that sounds so dry by comparison to where your mind goes on it's own. Which is why I like the term I think.
-Got hit by every deadly attack possible but only faint
-Can swing massive weapons around with superhuman strength
-Can withstand extreme cold/hot enviroment (with the help of potions sometimes)
-Take no damage from falling from any height
Maybe the real monster are the hunters after all
That is why some monsters with spikes for armor and armblades for weapons like Magnamalo exist.
They are specifically-evolved in order to give them an edge against unsuspecting hunters. They show themselves up on daily rampages to feast on aggressive preys so that it can replenish its hellfire and so it can prepare itself before mauling another hunter that is after it.
-has a trained team of cats that stand on their hind limbs that seemingly appear out of nowhere every time they faint that masterfully extract their bodies from right under the monsters noses every single time without fail
You explicitly died if you got hit by some attacks in Frontier. In some cases there wouldn't even be remains left. Since you aren't picked up by palicos either, we can probably assume you die if you "triple cart" (actually carting twice, then dying), but of course the game must go on. IIRC there are also some details of Frontier that suggest the weirdly technologically advanced concept that the Guild _clones its top hunters,_ which is why by the time you get to Zeniths that can literally vaporise your entire body instantly you're able to definitely 100% die and then find yourself back at town.
Also a low-gravity high-atmospheric-density environment explains _most_ of the "problems" with MH's physics, like wingspans, the sizes of certain terrestrial non-elder dragons (like Ukanlos), surviving falls from any height (clearly humans' terminal velocity is not enough to seriously injure them, similar to squirrels on Earth) and hefting giant swords. Only problem is that humans in a low-gravity environment would also develop less muscle mass to begin with, so the sword thing might still be suspect.
@@tavianroberts4423 personally I've always imagined 3 teams of palicos. team 1 running interference and distraction, team 2 are the medics and team 3 being the kart runners.
@@vitriolicAmaranth I think to think that from a game mechanic prospective time is just rewinds time instead of cloning.
Your hunter? That died to white fatalis erasing your existence? Gone. In canon, they are dead no more fucking gone.
However making a game you only play once, die and can’t even play again. Isn’t very profitable unless it’s oneshot.
In defense of Valstrax, I am almost certain that its design is supposed to be taking design from falcons. It's one of, if not the fastest dragon in Monster Hunter, much like falcons are. When flying, it takes on a shape very similar to them as well. Its head has a distinctly beak-like, and the body is highly aerodynamic overall to support its high flight speeds. Its clawed feet exist to attack and carry its prey. Falcon's primary way of catching prey is also similar to valstrax whose strongest attack is a divebomb.
Also apparently its japanese name is a portmanteau of valor and falcon, so there's that.
It's diving attack is similar to a falcons dive as well as its voice
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Its Japanese name is Ballfark (or Barufaruku, not kidding) but we learned from a Puzzle & Dragon collab that its name is supposed to be Valphalk, so it's actually a portmanteau of valor, falcon and _alpha._ Alpha might refer to ace, as in a skilled fighter pilot, because of its technological/jetplane aesthetics.
Incidentally some facts most people miss about it are that it has a hard, clear eyelid that shuts when it flies at high speeds like flight goggles, and its scutes are actually ventilated ramjets that feed out behind it, allowing it to exceed its terminal velocity when divebombing. It also breathes through those (probably due to the altitudes at which it soars, where oxygen is scarce), with its nose being strictly for smell and not for survival respiration, which is why it sometimes sucks air into its chest (an action that can be interrupted, causing it to topple and flail helplessly). Which all goes to show that even objectively the most ridiculous monster, AND an elder dragon at that (all elder dragons use magic in some form, even if it's just supporting a colossal body that should collapse under its own weight abovewater like the mohrans, which Capcom generally uses to completely handwave one ridiculous thing per elder dragon, sometimes two, arguably with the exception of Lao Shan Lung), has a great deal of thought put into its biology.
If Valstrax was Wyvern with its forelimbs just being its wings. I feel that it would make more sense on how close to the Kestral/Falcon its base design was to be. Maybe moving around the battlefield like a VTOL and fighting similar to the Rath's.
funny when he complains about valstrax having long limbs, the clip in the background shows valstrax catching preys using his long limbs
My idea of "Why Predators evolve for killing, not fighting" when it comes to monster hunter is that in a world with so many various examples of other powerful predators, predators themselves can no longer specialize in simply killing their prey. They have to be ready to fight over territory, food, or their lives, and simply keeping evolving their claws would not always be a good answer with such a diverse ecosystem (rock monsters such as basarios come to mind as to why a Zinogre would want to have lightning for example).
I know he dissed Nergigante, but the reason he has those spikes is for a very simple reason:
Hes not hunting animals. He's hunting Elder Dragons. Elder Dragons are extremely dangerous, so nature responded with a spiky boi able to mete out and take a fair bit of punishment. There are of course limits to its abilities (sorry, Nergigante, but Alatreons busted), but it can be surmised it can 1v1 a very substantial majority of the Monster Hunter cast and come out surviving. That's its job after all.
This just got it's own video reply!
@@unnaturalhistorychannel
Really now?
Highly eager to see your take on how Monster Hunter takes a spin on the usual biology due to a lot of Monster conflicts.
Always fun to see these. Biology fun.
@@RyoIsamuGaming Nergigante’s main hunting method is to wrestle and slam itself into monsters in order to weaken them for an easy kill. The spikes make this method not only better, but because of their disposable nature and the fact they break easily means he’s not weighed down by them much.
So the spikes serve as an excellent offensive tool that makes nergi’s hits deadlier, while also not hurting nergi himself as much bc they shed as quickly as they grow
@@shagarumedic thatd be a good case, but then why does Ruiner exist? Those spikes end up being much harder to break.
One thing that you might want to consider when talking about some of those top-predatores you named with superfluous combat features: None of those predatores are truly at the top of the foodchain. In Monster Hunter "there is always a bigger fish" is very much in effect. Brachydios shares a habitat with Teostra and Lunastra. Magnamalo lives around Narwa and Ibushi. And even those creatures are not at the top. Gogmazio exists. Dalamadur exists. Fatalis exists. Yes, Elder Dragons are rare in the current time but according to the lore they were a lot more common back in the day.
Even with this knowledge, his point of Zinogre and Brachydios displaying themselves too much is something to criticize. Honestly, if Zinogre's general prey was something that was super fast that his immense bulk couldn't handle so the Thunderbug symbiosis was needed for stunning and shocking purposes, I can see it working sorta. Unfortunately, Zinogre, while not fast, is not exactly lumbering around like a Gravios or Duramboros. Another idea is that a long lost evolutionary trait of thunder sacs gained a resurgence when Thunderbugs naturally stayed near Zinogres to protect themselves from Gargwa, their main predator. The dormant thunder sacs then got naturally selected for again to react with the Thunderbugs crowding around Zinogres. This would make the Thunderbug symbiosis purely coincidental, but more of a sidegrade. And unlike other thunder-based monsters, Zinogres do not produce their own electricity, so the biological energy needed to cause thunderous damage is basically nothing, meaning they didn't have to tradeoff anything in particular.
@@norsehorse84 Zinogre probably use thunderbugs against stuff like rathalos and mizutsune.
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 thats the Deal , zinogre protects the Bugs from their Predators and for that the thunderbugs help him against other apex Monsters .
It also really Shows when you compare His normal moveset to His charged moveset . Without His charged state He would be No where near the top and would at best be a Solid middle
@@lucastolter6344 Unless maybe in World Iceborne, the rank of power there is probably more substantial as it was only found in the guiding lands, and I like to headcannon it as the Siberian Tiger equivalent of the species being the largest its ever been depicted as but of course still on the defense against other apex predators that gained a similar foothold in the resource rich lands.
Yes
I actually loved how Nergigante's oddly defensive spikes suddenly made sense in Iceborn, because it seems to be in an arms race with Shara Ishvalda. Developing spikes to prevent from getting grappled by those big old wing hands made sense, and then Shara went in for rock armor and ranged attacks to try and counter further. Nergi also supposedly hunts all Elder Dragons, so defensive tools against some of the Gigafauna (like Dalamadur) can prevent them from getting munched by their own prey.
I always assumed it was using its defensive spines as an offense against Elders of its caliber, like consider Teostra uses its teeth and claws a lot, imagine the spikes of nergigante wounding it instead when it tries to tussle with it and so it gives the eater of elders openings to counterattack until it eventually kills its prey.
So no its not like anything we have in our world where predators are all attack, but it seems like the logic is pretty sound. I mean a crocodile's scales protect it from thrashing prey animals like hoofed herbivores or lions, I think that's a slightly similar case.
Maybe it could have evolved from a prey species, but considering the spikes are also its means for reproduction its got too many useful traits to become vestigial.
It's a weird criticism when Nergi clearly uses the spikes offensively.
Came here to write exactly this. I can't think of any real world examples of an apex predator that predominantly feeds on other apex predators of equal or larger size. But if there were such a thing, being covered in regenerating spikes sure seems like it would be useful when grappling with your prey.
Now if we were to talk about spikes on Ultralisks from SC2...
I think one way valstrax could be cooler is if they leaned into the jet idea and have its legs “fold” in on itself like the landing gear of a plane and have the spikes do the same as a replacement for its chest vent when it needs to cool off
Starscream Valstrax is an interesting concept!
Something else that could have been interesting, we do actually see the front limbs of it in its cutscene being used to snatch the ludroth. What if it had vestigal back legs?
@@jurassician3725 it wouldn’t make sense to have them be vestigial. It’s still gotta land, and move about on the ground
@@unnaturalhistorychannel The two serpents from rise are pretty cool tho.
I think valstrax's limbs are good shock absorber
Oh hey, big reason I want Malfestio back in rise is to give him more "owl like" moves, the big reason why I love nightcloak is that owls are ambush hunters in real life, and they put that in the game in the form of nightcloak to make Malfestio more closer to an owl in ability.
I love that momster and he has only been in Like 1 or 2 games. Owls are cool but honestly my true "bring back from an old game who hasnt been seen in years" is Gobul. But I'm down for both
I mean i do like his design but i only want him back if they remove the dumb Confusion mechanic.
@@draw2death421 I mean they kind of have and he has other things they could do instead :)
@@mudshrooze oh man, I have a list of monster that I *want* back, vs my list of monsters that I think *should* be brought back, and I feel that monsters like Lagiacrus and some of the more unique monsters like Gobul deserve the top spots for Monsters that should be brought back.
@@draw2death421 Changes of course need to be made, but Malfestio can be a fun fight in Rise. You can also eat bitterbugs to get rid of confusion.
Regarding Magnamalo, I do believe that there's one core part of its design that could justify a bunch of the main complains about it. The fact that his main source of food are the rampages caused by Ibushi and Narwa(and perhaps other beings of their species). During the rampages, monsters are erratic and more aggressive than they are naturally, so is likely that the heavily armored and spikes are adaptations that Magnamalo had to take in order to fend off potential confrontations of the rampaging monsters.
The rampage would also explain why they are capable of make glowing parts of its body, to lure out the rampaging monsters out of their path and kill them off in solitaire, perhaps when they deem that the rampage is too wild to risk jumping into it.
It could also explain why is not only spikes but blades that it has. one of its hunting strategies wouldn't be to actively fight and kill the other monsters, but to inflict as much damage as it can in a fast way and then escape, likely thanks to its explosions, to let the monsters keep going and eventually die from their injuries.
Finally, if I had to try to figure out how it would hunt outside of the rampages. My first guess would be that similarly to falcons, using its explosive speed, to literally dive into a monster as a surprise and try to kill it with one hit.
But this just me, from the top of my head, trying to come up with good explanations to its design. I could be wrong, and would encourage people do add into this conversation if possible.
EDIT: Since I was discussing this elsewhere, and some people have pointed it out here, the Hellfire could very well be used to lure nocturnal monsters. Perhaps even targeting predators as it pretends to be a Hunter or a Trade person (who usually carry large amounts of food with them) using a torch. Magnamalo is one of the few monsters that can wield a controlled display of flames rather than erratic and volatile as other monsters. Since it targets predators, this would also explain why is so heavily armored, Magnamalo basically puts itself in the position of a prey to get its meal.
I have no doubt in my mind that when the rampage happens shortly after there’s a massive boom in magnamalo population the amount of free food they’d get from monsters simply running over each other in the chaos would be large, similar to chicken before they were first domesticated
If you didn’t know there was a population of birds lived in an area with lots of bamboo and once every 50 years they’d flower and drop things called bamboo rice it was like an all you can eat buffet to them and their population would explode as a result every time it happened.
I think it still uses the hellfire as a way of hunting outside of the rampage.
think at its intro cutscene how it glows in front of Tobi Kadachi.
maybe it hunts by making a light that instinctivelly attracts nocturnal creatures and snaps them.
sort of like an Anglerfish whose lure is a tail.
while for the rest of the gas holes is strictly for rampage/self defense.
I think magnamalo had to adapt to confront directly other top carnivores all the time, and this is part of why it thrives off rampages. The hellfire adds to this as a tool to both fight flying monsters and get off attackers from its back.
Magnamalo is likely a dormant creature outside of rampages. That’s why it becomes so aggressive when in the rampage because he needs to hunt and eat as much as he can.
Instead of Falcon hunting, I instead envision it more like a Komodo Dragon. Sure it's stronk enough to wrestle most things to death, but that's work. Instead you have a strong alpha assault that leaves the victim Creature damaged, crippled, and slowly dying. Then as it's limping away and dying, the komodo will follow behind at an even pace until the prey finally keels over and dies from the damage, and then you dig in and eat.
I love how Khezu's theme is basically silence. Typically in Monster hunter, a monster's theme sounds up when a hunter is spotted, and since Khezu is blind, it can't really "spot" hunters.
Gore Magala
@@DemoniteBL Gore Magala is still able to map out its environment via the frenzy virus, thus allowing it to still “see”, just without eyes
@@thewolfofcomedy5966 That's the same as arguing Khezu "sees" by smelling/hearing his environment.
Gore was a flagship, Khezu was a meme in the very game it debuted in. The real reason Khezu dosen't have a theme is because the developers were just making a high effort meme and made a funny monster. The whole 'it dosen't see you' was a fan theory that was basically accepted as fact
@@kingoflions827
I agree! Soulseer Mizutsune is literally blind and cannot track the hunter when it isn't enraged, but still plays his theme in both phases. Khezu can perfectly track you with scent, Gore Magala is also blind but perfectly tracks you with it's frenzy. Soulseer and Gore has a theme Khezu does not, I'm pretty sure Khezu just lacks a theme because it's Khezu.
I was honestly shocked when I found out Brachydios was an active predator because of how well it would've fit the 'neurotic herbivore' role, similar to Diablos. If it was a herbivore (or a forager of some kind), the slime could've been more easily explained as an anti-predator mechanism, sexual display, and foraging tool all rolled into one. Maybe it could eat rocks encrusted with a specific type of fungus, like lichen, by breaking them apart and eating them. This could also contribute to its heavy armor by giving it necessary metals and/or minerals. The slime could also be a sort of digestive aid, maybe even allowing it to consume large quantities of ore like Uragaan. Perhaps this could've been its original purpose before it also became explosive. Overall, Brachydios as an active predator misses out on so many other interesting possibilities in my opinion.
As a kid I always thought it (and ukanlos) were herbivores, if cap or won't make it make sense we will.
The only time we really see it used (outside of it's fight) is in it's ecology video where one is using it to win a fight with an Agnaktor. So yeah fair to say it seems way less silly when we see it used as a defence mechanism.
Agreed
They do use the slime mold for sexual selection the bigger explosion the tougher shell and thus filter mate so most of its for fighting each other
I wouldnt mind they retconing brachy into a herbivour
I think that sometimes there is a bias that herbivores are generally "pacific" or "timid" because people look at domesticated animals while predators are seen as always these "aggressive/hungry/dangerous" animals (which is not totally wrong)
But often times wild herbivores are extremely aggressive especially the ones that have poor vision that need to treat everything as a potential threat so there's no really a reason to not implement more herbivores that would also try to put you into a grave as soon as they see you
Yup - many trails guides would take lion or leopard any day over elephant, buffalo or black rhino. Plus the statistics from India show how dangerous elephants are
Well Diablos is a good example in that regard, there mainly eat cacti, and since there are scarce there evolved to became territorial and very agresive to anyone entering their land.
I always disliked that Apceros didn't fight back despite having a MASSIVE tail club with giant spikes!
anyone tells you herbis are pacifists, point them to the hippo kill count. a literal water cow is one of the most deadly animals on the planet.
hippos are just psychotic by nature. they kill crocs just because it's fun, and they are too big for them to even be a problem...
(really only newborns are small enough for nile crocs to prey on, but even then hippos use anything as a chew toy just because it exists)
@@genericcatgirl those clubs on apceros look flimsy when compared to how big predators are in mh.
my favourite thing about World really was how whole and full the locations seemed, and how everyone fit in their locations. Particularly Val Hazak, it looked moved and acted exactly like it belonged there down in the vale.
It feels like most of the monster's fantastical element is more of a result from evolutionary race. When you have fire breathing wyverns everywhere, it only make sense for any other predator with the same size to develop a more ridiculus weapon to compete (as a result of natural selection the one without power will need to grow smaller, to catch smaller prey, or have more muscle). And who is to say that spike can only be used as a defensive tool ?(venom was also once a defensive tool) Evolution is not a conciously controlled proccess, it is more of a mess of adaptability race.
So to say that monsters not having similiar feature or evolutionary logic with our world meaning a bad design, it may not be a fair critisism. Because after all the world of monster hunter is not the same with our real world.
couldn't agree more, honestly.
and what you described was poison; used in a defensive manner, entering your system through tact or ingestion (like Poison Dart Frogs).
venom is used primarily offensively, to catch prey. entering your system commonly through injection (like snakes and the Mexican Beaded Lizard). its defensive role is a side effect to its offensive nature.
i see poison and venom as two sides of the same coin. counterparts, you might say.
@@jacktheomnithere2127 yes, exactly. But what i'm tring to say is that venom was evolved from being used as poison.
@@martensit25 if it evolved from poison, then i wonder how it traveled to the jaws?
returning to the evolution race, i recall in an image of the wyvern tree that the primitive flying wyverns were literally flying lizards with a hard shell.
i mention this because i like to think that they developed Flame Sacs because the shell wasn't enough and they weren't expert fliers. their predators had to be much bigger to warrant the evolution of the Flame Sac in wyverns.
i believe the Flame Sac is primarily defensive; you don't see the Raths or Anjanath using their fiery breath against their prey, or used in other ways outside of self-defense.
@@johntrent1416 what?
@@jacktheomnithere2127 sorry my phone must have been unlocked or something in my pocket, ignore me
"Just being medieval in theme doesn't make it any more of a fantasy than age of empires is a fantasy"
Because when I think of the medieval era, I think of hammers longer than most flag poles with giant revolver barrels in place of their heads.
They were just limited by the technology of their time.
And dragons that control the weather and monsters that can actively drain energy from the environment. Or interdimensional portals
@@yourunclejohn984 be fair interdimensional portals was more cause of the witcher thing.
@@taddad2641 it’s also been hunter visually with white Fatalis
Out of interest, why is "fighting other monsters" not a good reason for predators to have specific traits? If these creatures live in a world where they are constantly competing with each other, wouldn't it make sense for monsters to still have defensive capabilities, even if they're higher in the food chain?
Obviously monsters like Magnamalo are just too much but, for example, Glavenus is an apex predator but still has to compete with other incredibly strong monsters in its habitat, which may warrant its large back spikes. Nergigante is constantly fighting Elder Dragons so some protection may be needed because of the risk of hunting such strong monsters (though I do think it's dumb that there aren't really any defenses on Nerg's underside). On the offensive side, Zinogre is harder to defend because of some cutscenes, but going off of the World cutscene it looks like Zinogre uses its flashy electrified form when it's in a dire situation, like being ganged up on by other monsters or chased down by a hunter when injured.
Wouldn't it make sense for predators to have more advanced defenses since the wildlife in their world is so beefed up? I imagine evolving purely to one-shot-kill isn't as effective when you take the size of everything into account.
Tbh, most of magnamalo and zinogre are related so stuff like horns and tails are used in combat.
i always thought of zinogres charge up like how animals show themselves bigger to intimidate
I feel like some people forget that most animals will try to not die when being killed. So when taking the sheer power and size of even the lower chain monsters, it makes perfect sense for things that aren’t incredibly strong to focus on defensive capabilities on top of offensive power. On top of that, we have no clue the calorie count of anything in the world of monster hunter or the cost of existing. Hell, how do the hunters survive?
To me beach todos used it’s slime to define its territory and the slime on its head is for sexual dimorphism. A male brachy with bright slime on its head is a good partner.
predators don't have the luxury to fight other monsters, it's better to flee than wasting energy fighting something you can't eat
You mentioned that the reason "to fight other monsters" isn't a good reason for many of these evolutionary traits, but- and this comes from a place of zero training or study as a biologist- considering the types of creatures in this world and the fact that the elemental abilities they produce have an actual impact on their life, it could make sense for some to develop these more flashy hunting abilities. If say, Zinogre originated in an area where monsters have a vulnerability to electricity, and they were either prime prey or competitors for hunting, wouldn't it make sense that developing the symbiotic relationship with something that could produce these effects be beneficial for survivability? And consider the resistances they provide. In rise, Zinogre and Tobi-Kadachi tend to inhabit the same areas. Wouldn't developing these abilities help protect them against other creatures that they may encounter and have hostile relationships with?
The mh universe ecosystem is more like an ocean ecosystem than a land one lol. There always is a bigger monster.
Zinogre despite being called the thunder wolf wyvern, probably lived more like hyenas of the past.
It's also said in one of those juvenile monsters lorebooks that they do form packs, and the ones that you hunt are adult-subadult bachelors that dispersed from their original pack.
On another note, the MH universe very obviously had a different evolutionary situation with all of the giant monsters running around
Don't forget that zinger gets its lightening energy from lightening bugs. He provides them protection while he stores and uses the electricity they provide.
@@user-wt8zh1bx8y the females will group up to breed, but zinogres are otherwise entirely solitary.
I feel like the challenge of every monster Hunter game is is the theme Vs monster design. Well more so with world/iceborn, and rise/sunbreak. World had more of a grounded monster design concept. But Rise/Sunbreak concept and designs are based off of folklore. Rise being more Japanese folklore and Sunbreak more European, Western folklore. I think each game has its share of hits and misses. I love your critique of this franchise.
Yes
I noticed nobody stated this (that I saw) but I figured I'd note this, Magnamalo follows specifically the Rampage itself angered monsters who are itching to fight and well rampage, so it doesn't need to hide all that much when the rampage occurs (Rise being a rampage active currently) also Nergigante follow any kind of elders so I think due to the wide variety of elders the spikes could be useful (imo) plus the quick regrowth n all.
Yeah that's what I thought about Nerg too
It probably has spikes because it's a specialist hunter of Elder Dragons it needs them to regularly tussle with elders
@@yof2210 considering how fast they regrow I could say that's the best conclusion because other Elders have stuff that are way different than those natural to the New Old to be fair
@@yof2210 Not to mention Nerg literally uses it's whole body to slam into things. Being spiky as hell while crashing into your prey is a viable strategy.
Nergigante's spikes could also be used as a way to protect the more vulnerable body from taking significant damage when it uses all those bashing, sliding, and dive-bombing attacks. Having a layer of hard, dead spikes that can painlessly be destroyed in place of its skin and flesh might allow it to be more rough when it attacks, giving it an advantage over other elders who have exposed skin or more temporary armour and have to be more careful about how they use their bodies while attacking.
Plus, a biological battering ram covered in knives is probably not a terrible weapon for it to have.
@@debleb166 True I always thought that his spines were supposed to be throwaway in a sense with how fast they regrow with how reckless Nergi is and how wild his attacks are comparable to other Elders besides Frontier (I like it sue me) we don't have many Elders who are as fast and as crazy as Nergi is because, Teostra/Luna relies on blast powder and flame attacks most of the time which keep it either close or medium distance away unless it's flying unless it does some basic non element attacks plus the heat it gives off make things not want to even get near it because it's that hot it hurts. Kushala is self explanatory but. Made of metal, flies a lot, no like touchy touchy. Chameleos well invisibility and poison but it has the closest range style of elders besides Nergi. Amatsumagatsuchi it's swimming on air and uses mainly water beams n such and like short movements for close and a giant tornado to say: get close to me u get hurt or get off of me.
I think you're going too hard on nergi, his whole deal is hunting elders. Yes it's gonna get beat up a lot. The spikes would be an amazing advantage to either absorb attacks and deal damage at the same time.
That's a good point. Maybe Nergigante aren't weak without their spikes but they had to evolve up to eating Elder Dragons, so the competition was heavy.
Valstrax's legs do make sense. It still needs to grab and carry large prey as well as dismember them for consumption. It also still needs to walk because it makes its home on tall cliffs and towers. Robust legs is practically a requirement for its lifestyle.
Carrying large prey while in flight actually has more to do with a creature's wings than its legs, and considering Valstrax is basically a biological jet plane, it's got that part covered. The philippine eagle often eats prey nearly as large as itself, even going so far as to hunt monkeys, but its legs are fairly thin just like any other bird of prey. Dismembering prey is better accomplished by a hooked beak than talons and Valstrax has one of those. As for needing to walk, I don't see why it would. Nesting on tall, fairly narrow perches means you need to walk LESS, if anything.
jet dragon is so cool
It really only needs its wings and mouth for those actions. It can carry, kill, and dismember prey with its mouth (the act of getting shoved in the mouth of a supersonic dragon will, at the very least, stun most prey), and its large, unique wings are clearly quite dexterous, so it could walk on those when resting. Having its unnecessary legs degenerate into fins or flaps for steering would have lent it a more interesting, and perhaps more believable design. And having this apex predator that rules the heavens alternate between wing-walking and flopping around like a seal when grounded would have been rather memorable.
@@Thesaurus_Rex
My counter:
Could be a case of 'early evolution', but it's just that physics makes it a lot harder for it to lose the limbs barring Elder Dragpn hijinks. It's already using a mystical element to achieve jet speeds.
We HAVE seen monster subspecies that have managed to acquire elements normally out of their reach; just look at Odogaron. Ebony Odogaron can't actually use their dragon element they evolved to help protect themselves in environments where Elders frequent, so their workaround is by using the Dragon in their mouth to basically seep into chunks of meat they chew. They then fling it at high force against threats to use as Dragon projectiles. It just has yet to refine this process.
Elders aren't entirely meant to be 100% natural too. Nergigante is a 18ft asexual creature that asexually reproduces via its spines. Its as unrealistic as it gets, which is why it remains an Elder Dragon. All we really know is that it acts as a balance against other Elder Dragons, who are often above Apex predators.
@@pastelsunset and yet eagles have legs too hell even they're main killing tool is at the end of those legs
Yian garuga is ABSOLUTELY a raven; in every way but aesthetic.
It is closely related to a weak creature (corvids are passerines) but its intelligence and adaptability have brought it up to being able to survive amongst and compete with primary predators. It is talented at harassing and misdirection.
but ravens are social animals. Yian Garuga are loner animals. it is stated in-universe that they are highly aggressive against anything that they deem threatening, owing to their "Blood Knight" characterization, hence why there's always a heavily scarred version in every game it appears in post MH Dos.
My theory as to why Brachydios needs explosions is that he uses them to blast open rocks for minerals. He may need these minerals to help maintain his keratinous armor.
That makes sense
Isn't his armor supposed to be made of Obsidian? I remember some of his parts say they're made of obsidian.
@@MegaGeewee As a Brachydios grows it slowly gains its obsidian armor. It's also why life as a young Brachydios is literally hell, as until it reaches a certain stage in life, its own body physically can't handle the slime it uses.
@@MegaGeewee they say that, but if they were they would shatter like glass since that’s what obsidian is; volcanic glass. So it can’t be, it can be colored like obsidian, but it definitely isn’t obsidian
@@TsulaAngenati2292 It could be Monster Hunter's obsidian, in the same way how the hunters use GOLD for some weapons/armors (kulve)
Honestly, the idea of setting a Fulgur Anjanath loose in Scunthorpe brings me great joy
I always saw the flashy aspects of non elder dragon monsters as means to dealing with coexistings with elder dragons, humans, and other creatures equipped to do so including other of their same specie, a great example of this are turf wars and idle animations, especially for zinogre, where he never uses his elemental powers outside of his fight, and magnamalo, where its shown that he only use his gas to literally fly, displaying full dominance on any flying creature, wich are numerous in mh.
WE DEFINETLY NEED MORE HERBIVORES
Even then, it prompts the question of how much the presence of human hunters could really influence such specialist anatomical features.
Most animals we see today that have interacted frequently with humans, or even evolved along side them, only really change in comparatively minor ways.
It would be one thing if there were Monster Hunter equivalents of peppered moths, where human pollution influenced color mutations to become more favorable.
But I can’t quite think of many instances of animals evolving entirely new and expensive features explicitly to contend with people.
Or, you know... because they're designed to be distinctive, memorable boss fights. This isn't rocket science, my dude; not everything *needs* to be 100% grounded.
@@glarnboudin4462 i know, but it makes sense full circle that way
@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick only example I can give would be spitting cobras but that isn’t exactly concrete. But it is a minor change to the fangs to allow for their ability to spit venon
@@victory8928 Even then, they do that just as often to prey as they do to people.
to me it kind of feels uninteresting to fixate so heavily on making sure monsters are grounded in such a way that matches up with actual biology. to me it feels just as grounding for a monster like arzuros to be so clearly based on our cultural perception of bears as it is for goss harag to be more closely based on the biological reality of them.
Similarly, I don’t think the inaccuracy of Zinogre’s “lone wolf” lifestyle actually detracts at all from either its readability as a “wolf-like” creature or its overall design quality and depth. Even if howling is the only action it technically has in common with real wolves, its body structure, mannerisms, and lifestyle all come together to give the impression of a draconic wolf, which serves as a base for the many other intricacies of its design.
in my opinion, one of the biggest strengths of the designs of monster hunter is the vast diversity of inspirations for said monsters. The cultural shorthand used in monsters like zinogre and arzuros allows them to give these monsters interesting and diverse ecological niches as well as, more importantly, PERSONALITIES within the world of monster hunter that dont have to have one to one equivalents in the real world.
Believability in character design is not determined solely by what is or isnt possible in the real world. You use bazelgeuse as an example of believability for its massive wings giving it the ability to fly, but just because we get that impression from its wingspan doesnt make it actually realistic. Im sure you would agree that even with its enormous wings, its physiology certainly would never allow it to fly in the real world, much less in the manner it does in game. The reason this is grounded is because, generally, we expect things with big wings and a silhouette like an airplane to be able to fly, and bazelgeuse checks those boxes very effectively.
You criticize Valstrax for having evolved powerful legs in spite of the time it spends in the sky, and while I disagree that these limbs are even all that unbelievable, it seems silly to me to levy that as a criticism even if we accept that it’s true. elder dragons in general are meant to be creatures that go beyond natural selection and have developed features that give them absolute dominance over their ecosystems. They essentially exist outside of their own food chains, being so powerful that nothing short of another elder dragon should naturally be able to come close to threatening them. vaal hazak’s effluvium is such a dominant force in its ecosystem that we could easily imagine even an immobile, frail creature would be able to survive or even thrive given access to an ability like that. And yet, in spite of most creatures being unable to even approach it, vaal hazak is an enormous dragon with many features which make it a threat even without its effluvium. Why? because its an elder dragon, a living legend.
the same can be said of most elder dragons. Why should dalamadur be so much exponentially larger than any monster who could even begin to threaten it? wouldnt the costs of such size have long since started to outweigh the benefits? dalamadurs almost incomprehensible size is incompatible with any sort of realism, and the same can be said of monsters like jhen moran or lao shan lung as well. These monsters are absolute forces of nature, and their size succinctly communicates this legendary status.
Why, then, is it such a flaw for Valstrax, a monster who is meant to be an enormous and uncompromising threat to any ecosystem it visits, to have limbs which are developed more than we would expect an aerial hunter to have? Like other elders, it has evolved traits not for the sake of survival, but for the sake of being absolutely untouchable. It excels at hunting for prey in the air, but when encountering something that can put up more of a fight, it shows itself to be just as intimidating a threat on land as in the sky, because it is just that far above the laws that govern the rest of this world’s monsters. That’s what makes these fights so satisfying.
Valstrax is so much more interesting of an elder dragon to me than something like kushala daora, who is meant to be a portent of disaster but really only ever seems to be able to make storms just big enough to knock around its enemies a little bit. not just because Valstrax has a “cooler” design, but because it is so evidently powerful and threatening that fighting it and taking it down creates a palpable feeling of triumph. This comes across in its design, but also in its vicious attacks and very difficult fight.
This is an excellent comment. I agree with your overall point. I find the strict adherence to needing to have a design be ‘realistic’ or ‘grounded’ (by our world’s standards) to be overly limiting for a long running series like MH. There are benefits to having a variety of designs. The contrast between more ornate designs like Zinogre, Magnamalo and Glavenus and more reserved ones like Nargacuga and Tigrex help make MHs world and settings more interesting. Just like there is a place for Ravens and Birds of Paradise in our world. Although of course, MHs fictional world is far more extreme than our own.
I also agree with how your view on a design not necessarily needing to entirely represent its inspirations. Capturing the overall hallmarks of them to be readable as such, is a perfectly justifiable approach. I find that that mindset can become excessively limiting as to what you can achieve with a design. While there is a place for limitations and being reserved, there are also times that one can be more daring. Pushing the boundaries of what is expected or believable.
Just putting down that this is a fantastic comment and really nails what my ideas towards Monster Design in the franchise should be. Grounding it in realism early on and getting more strange and fantastical with a finale against something that is more akin to a force of nature or mythological creature.
Even as far back as MH1, which had a final boss of a big black dragon, there was legends and such spoken of hunters becoming Fatalis by wearing its armour as if it were a corrupting magical force. Stuff like that is littered all over the descriptions of end-boss monster parts. I think that while it is true Monster Hunter is not inherently magical in its setting, it INVOKES a feeling of magic in its tales and myths spread throughout. It never has anything too "magic" happen to be explained away by pseudoscience, but it makes you ask yourself "could it be something too great for nature to have made?" with each passing Elder Dragon
Dang dude, I ain't reading all that. Go write a book.
I heavily agree, I think a grounded realistic design is something to always have, but the other kind of designs are still very important. How a monster succeeds in personality and gameplay is both very important as well. To use an example, my favorite monster is Mizutsune and it's silly as hell, it's a serpent fox that shoots bubbles, from a realistic point it's silly and stupid. But I think if grounded realism was the only criteria MH would be kinda bland.
From a personality standpoint he's a beautiful monster, it looks sleek, slithering around gracefully, but when he enrages the rhythm quickens it's like watching a dancer lose their temper and dance the hardest you've ever seen! And from a gameplay standpoint he's fantastic, it's slippery and tricky leading to a very dynamic fight, with a rhythmic tempo and a steady pace, it's a dance both in gameplay and character! And they still try to ground it, the bubble foam is said to be a secretion, the reason you hunt them is because they get dangerous during mating seasons, MH tries to make sense of their creatures no matter how outlandish.
I personally think MH is at it's strongest when realism, personality and gameplay is balanced, the best of the best are monsters that succeed at all three of those things. They are grounded, you understand them clearly and could picture another world where they exist! And they're a joy to watch move and react to everything, full of life and character! And wonderful to fight, dynamic and rewarding, being able to fight them dozens of times before they get old.
At least that's my thoughts on creature design, MH is such an open series, you can talk about many things about it and still have more. I mean, this discussion has nothing to do with the flow of the weapons or the village communities, which I say are equally great. MH has many strengths and talking about one of them is always fun, but it's important to remember it's so good because of all of the strengths combined. Thank you for the comment, it was a very good read.
@@ApotheosisterIt's not that grounded realism is the only criteria, it's that it should always be a cornerstone of every design.
It's more about execution than concept. Unless the concept is just very outlandish, like a ghost-samurai-armor that flies around, it's about how you implement it. For instance, yes, Mizutsune is a serpent fox that shoots bubbles, but it's all about how you work it in. How it shoots bubbles? Why? Of course, it doesn't need to be 100% believable either, just good enough. As long as it's just a couple of such more outlandish elements in what's otherwise a sensible design, it'll work.
Aknosom does show more similarities with one of the Yokai it's based of. During the fight it has a attack where it stand on one leg and then jump around for example while slashing the hunter with its wings (there are more examples but this is one the examples I can think of right now). The other behavior of Aknosom if I remember correctly also can also be inspired from the Basan a bird like yokai who can breath fire, is active at night, is very colourful and it lives in a bamboo forest.
I actually think Aknosom not being too similar to its yokai inspiration works far better. The umbrella part is just a regular frill that a lot of modern birds have, and it's a crane, so the spindly legs work fine. Honestly, even if it didn't do the cloaking "jump" that it did in its intro to get the point across, it still works really well.
What I love so much about Aknosom is how creatively it reimagined its chief inspiration. Obviously a possessed umbrella isn’t something you’re going to see in nature, so Aknosom instead incorporated some of its visual elements into a very grounded yet still unique design. The one complaint I do have about it is it’s hunched posture - I’d much prefer it strutting proudly about like a real crane.
After thinking on the design, I believe that there may be a reason for Aknosom’s odd posture and umbrella stance: it is to confuse predators by shifting its silhouette. After all, on land how many other potential prey items have the same silhouette as an umbrella?
It's also mixed with the umbrella yokai with the giant crest.
I wish that Aknosom would stand like a Flamingo when it stood still- that would probably sell the Umbrella aspect more
The series is masterful at using grounded elements to elevate fantastic (both functionally and visually) designs while adding interesting lore and info in the process
What I like about Monster Hunter a lot, is that it has an extensive fictional ecosystem.
My head cannon has always been that zinogers evolved with fulgar bugs because they just felt good on their fur. And the monsters did it so often it became part of their nature eventually and using them for fight etc came afterwards because they already have them permanently now
Zinogre just been chasing a massage this whole time
@@unnaturalhistorychannel the most dog-like thing about it
@@unnaturalhistorychannel With how stressful it must be to live in the Monster Hunter setting, he’s got the right idea.
Also Fulgurbugs are protected from Gargwa which are the natural predator of the Fulgurbugs by Zinogre
Grounded design elements in a fantastical setting is something thats really helps making your fiction more immersive, compelling and allows you to maintain your audience's suspension of disbelief, which is a core of storytelling and world building. It doesn't have to be 100% realistic, just grounded in things that we can recognize as natural or real. You want to make creatures that make sense within the rules you make for your story
Take into consideration that some of the monster designs are based on Yokai or popular monsters as well. Zinogre is based on the Japanese lightning beast called Raiju and they are described as lupine in some. Of the stories. Zinogre being solitary could be representative of how lightning rarely ever appears in the same area more than once. Another thing to consider is how some animal traits could be combinations of different species. Arzuros could be as aggressive and goofy as it is because it's three species all mashed up in one animal. Animals like Tetranadon are based on the kappa myth and somnicanth based on a siren and so on.
Exactly; while monster hunter is relatively grounded, I don’t think it needs to be ONLY based on real world ecology to work, and it’d be missing out on a lot of design traits if mythology were thrown by the wayside. Whether they’re ecologically grounded or not, the thing I love about the series is how each monster (between their looks, music, and animations) is instantly recognizable, their personality is clear, and they’re hard to forget.
Lightning does appear in the same place rather frequently though. That's why we have lightning rods.
Yeah while there's a lot of good points he seems to wholy ignore this a Japanese game by Japanese developers.
The influence of yokai and Japanese mythology and views has been there long before even Rise where it took the center stage because of the setting.
@@Robin-tt4lo in exactly the same place?
@@Robin-tt4lo seems that Zinogre is based on two long-held misconceptions about nature which I don't think is a bad thing
I definitely agree we need more powerful herbivorous monsters, or atleast a fish eater or insect specialist. Its why I especially love Gammoth because aside from being a giant mammoth (which are cool), its completely unique amongst other monsters and its a very powerful plant eater that can probably easily defend itself from anything other than possibly Tigrex or Deviljho (and even then, they'd likely fail considering Gammoth's size and power). Monsters like Diablos, Banbaro and Duramboros are other good examples of powerful plant eaters but I definitely think we need more.
Personally, I wish we have some sort of strong Sauropod-like monster that is not Larinoth. I think it could make for some interesting design elements to create a sort of monstrous Sauropod that used its size, weight and some other defense to survive in the world of Monster Hunter.
honestly with the MASSIVE amount of different structures/body plans sauropods have im surprised there hasn't been one that just mashes em all together.
amarga/baja sails and/or spikes, salta armor plating, shuno tail club/spikes (yes it had BOTH on the end of it's tail), and that old defunct/funny idea of sauropods vomiting and letting gravity accelerate it so it hits with the impact of a looneytunes-style anvil. this monster practically writes itself. (and since most these sauropods oddly had defenses on their necks/backs mostly, they would fit in well defending against monster hunter's much more common aerial predators)
We just need more herbs based on the ancient world tbh the current herbivore are kinda lackluster in terms of cool fight they can provide
Maybe more ceratopsid wyverns I personally want one based on the Nasutoceratops bit other cool ideas are sauropods (as you mentioned) Therizinosaurus with it's giants arm blades can make an interesting fight. I'm surprised we haven't gotten a extremely beefed up Anky or Stego yet
@@yof2210 probable reason for not much 4 legged herbivores is that they are just bullet spongy like gammoth.
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 that's kinda the problem herbivores are usually tanks if they want to fight
If you want more speed you sacrifice a lot of defense (looks at Nerg) usually if speed is the game they might want more specialized eaters like piscivores ,insectivores or Mineral eaters
@@yof2210 mineral eaters are also on tankyness right?
In Magnamalo's defense I think he's supposed to be a monster who feasts on everything in the rampage. Given that rampages often contain monsters as strong as the Apexes, I guess he has to deal with some strong monsters who will fight back and can't just be taken down with sharp claws and strong bite, and that's why Magnamalo needs to produce hellfire. But yeah the antlers are completely unnecessary they are just there to create an image of a ghost samurai because Magnamalo is a natural born weeb.
I thinking the horns are more pronounced in males than females to show how healthy an individual is and to serve as a sexual display.
The antlers are probably from being related to zinogre as it also has horns.
They could be for display, we do know the magnamalos we fight are male, after all.
Adding to your speculation on hellfire, I think magna is actually a good example of why a monster would need elements, it "farts" to get the upper hand against flying monsters, which typically have an advantage over landlocked monsters, and for hunting it could propel itself over a long distance and take out its prey in one hit
The hellfire is a byproduct of the immense amount of biomass Magnamalo consumes every Rampage. I think biologically it would be explained far better as a sort of "anglerfish" type deal where Magnamalo uses a small piece of hellfire, like in its intro, to lure creatures away while it stays in the brush, waiting for a chance to impale its foe with its tail for a quick kill from a distance. This also explains the dark purple, as it matches the moonlit night a bit better.
I think seeing Magnamalo ecologically when a Rampage is not going on would help its presentation out tremendously. Maybe it doesn't overuse hellfire and goes for more ambush predator tactics with small bouts of hellfire for luring the hunter, and like some animals with cyclical behaviors, it only goes full apex mode when a Rampage is happening?
Also, the antlers could just be a sexual selection thing. It's not uncommon in the real world to have seemingly awkward features be based around sexual selection and not much else.
@@norsehorse84
I agree with that man, personally I think that magna's weapons and spikes probably grow larger during rampages, and when out of it it's pretty much just a big tiger which would be a lot less fun to fight.
Brachydios might have those excessive points of concentrated slime (Fists and horn) because it's Rivals in the volcanic regions are so heavily armored. Volvidon, Agnaktor, Gravios, Uragaan, maybe even Akantor are all heavily armored so perhaps the blast is there to counter it. As for why it needs the horn it could be intimation? Or possibly used as a long resort when it's slime runs out on its fists.
Another reason for the explosions could be because it can help shock Agnaktors out of the ground, and maybe topple over a charging Uragaan. Now i don't much about Brachy ecology but I've heard it eats ores as opposed to meat. Which I think can further explain its need for blast, to blast rock off the sides of walls, or to even eat the backs of Uragaan or Gravios as Gravi can drop firecell stones and Uragaan is literally a moving mining spot. If he does eat meat then these adaptions continue to make sense, break the armor, get inside the cushy entrails. At least that's my theory
For Zinorge I have no idea, the ligh could be an intimidation supply? Perhaps the electricity used to paralyze or stun? I'm not all too sure.
Its never really elaborated on, but amatsu has sparks coming out of its chest, where the specialised organ lies that allows it to float (if i remember correctly its called a storm visikel), this organ could be seen as an internal version of the sacks that allow the serpents to float, with the external fins and such allowing for updraft in the wind to counteract the small size of its specislised organ in comparison to narwas and ibushis.
I believe amatsu is a more primitive/ less derived species in comparison to the serpents as it still has adaptations clearly meant for an underwater environment that and i presume that it cannot fly without the updraft of the storm and its specialised organ only allows it to controll how it floats inside the storm, maybe young amatsu hatch in the sea and live there untill a hurricane swoops by and picks them up. Another possebility for how amatsu floats could be electromagnetism but i dont wanna get into the legistics of that.
All this is just me speculating, the lore arround amatsu isnt very fleshed out so theres a lot of speculation on how it could work or even how it lives.
Yea can see that, considering that it's based upon the myth of carps reaching the source of the river in where they're born become Dragons and the item descrption of its claws says that they're still adapted for swimming, maybe they're still like that because it starts as a water dweller.
Also yeah, it's defentally a relative of the Elemental Serpents, so maybe the same can be said for them.
Consider that Narwa doesn't lay the eggs, she leaves them in her sac, so maybe she stays pregnant untill the youngs can't fly on their own, maybe with the childs eating each other in the sac like Bull Sharks.
It was stated at one point (I don't remember exactly when) that Amatsu can manipulate water vapor to an extent
I've read this somewhere but kinda forgot, but someone did mention (and I believe it myself) that Amatsu has a certain trait regarding its ability to float. Just like Daora which supposedly "control the wind and storm" but theories goes even further to speculate whether the storm follows him or he is the one who moves along the storm. Amatsu is really a special case for me because, with the same approach, we could say that Amatsu rises in the storm by riding the updraft and floating inside the wind current. Yet, it is strange to consider Amatsu as aerial Elder Dragon, meanwhile Daora's still clearly a terrestrial one which shows some "grounded" design. The best we could do is imagining that Amatsu's true nature is aquatic Elder Dragon as you all have been said!
Regardless, the idea of "living/walking" calamity embodied in Elder Dragons is really fascinating to me and MH developers really embrace it too. We can see the storm in the real calamity, then Amatsu/Daora/Ibushi/Narwa etc. came to represent "the monster" within. In my opinion, why the Elder Dragons are feared across the land of Monster Hunter if not their prowess and power are beyond human (and wyverian) imagination. It is like...lowkey talking about how God(s) create this universe...I guess.
Ya. I was a bit surprised he completely didn't notice how Amatsu floats, I always thought it was pretty obvious. Amatsu is my absolute favourite design just because of how well they potrayed the concept of a "Japanese Kami Dragon". In the asian countries, dragons are almost always potrayed in a serpentine like manor, so ofcourse they made Amatsu a Leviathen in design, as snake wyverns weren't a thing back in 3rd, so Leviathens where the closest thing. Then there's the fins, Kami are almost always potrayed wearing Kimono-esk clothing, so making that into fins, that also help in its biology of catching the updraft it creates using its Storm vesicle organ, is great. The golden horns that glow brightly, the golden eyes whem enraged, the red color appearing on its normally white fins, its gets this image of an enraged divine being, but never being too out there that you don't forget its still just an Animal, an elementally powered animal, but still an animal.
Related to what you said about how Amatsu seemingly floats:
For Amatsu's water beam attack, it has been noticed by some that Amatsu's mouth seemingly sparks, ignites, and combusts before releasing the water beam. This has led to some theorizing and stating that how Amatsu creates the water beam is by reacting and combusting gaseous hydrogen and oxygen together to make large quantities of water with the sparking of the flint and steel-like materials in its mouth providing an energy source for the reaction to occur. Additionally, I personally believe that Amatsu provides some stored water of its own in order to supplement the water created as well as provide some velocity for the beam, which may also explain the smaller "water spit/glob" attack it has.
For the source of these gases, assuming that the Monster Hunter planet's atmosphere is anywhere similar or analogous to ours, it should have plenty of oxygen floating in the atmosphere-if not a higher oxygen content than our world in order to explain where the energy needed to naturally fuel all this gigantism and all the requisite high metabolisms likely required to maintain both the monsters' massive sizes and the contradictory physical dynamism. And furthermore, Amatsu is likely capable of gathering up and concentrating high quantities of air-and the oxygen contained within-due to its ability to control storms and winds.
As for the hydrogen, it might be stored in Amatsu within sacs for example in order to circumvent low atmospheric hydrogen content. This is important because we know that hydrogen is a lighter-than-air gas that can and has been used to float large vehicles ("Oh the humanity!"). This may be part of what enables Amatsu to fly as the hydrogen sacs supplement Amatsu's floating in addition to using its fins to catch the wind. Part of the reason it uses the water beam only in its enraged mode (if I remember correctly) may well be that as its wind powers grow stronger and the storms grow fiercer, the Amatsu has more wind to carry itself around and thus can expend its hydrogen in gas-expensive moves like the high-pressure water beams without fear of dropping out of the sky.
People are often surprised when I say Seregios is my favorite monster, and this video explained it better than I could’ve. The zygodactyl (idk if thats spelled right) talons are a deliberate design choice thats incorporated into its ecology, taking a page from similar carnivorous large birds like owls. This was a very well-put together video essay!
I agree with pretty much every thing your say here, more monster diversity, more thought, talk about monster more, etc, BUT! I believe Monster Hunter is best when it is balance as all things should be, a mix of real would ecology and ancient myth has always suited this game quite well, for with out a bit of myth where would some of the best monster come from? or game for that matter?
On the business of Valstrax, he get a pass, he's an elder dragon and he is relativity tame compared to the "cough" "cough" regenerate from my heart dragon "cough" "cough". But I think it a little unfair to see such creatures thought only a ecology leans instead of a more "wider" leans, and honestly I don't think any monster should be 100% shackled to grounded rule's, especially elder dragons of any kind. Like I said above a mix of many things is much preferred then just one or two thing, but I digress.
Fatalis is just a cool dragon along with the other black dragons. It doesn't need understandable biology to fit in to the world of MH. It's just cool and mysterious
Honestly an irl lizard with a jetpack would be rad as hell, and Valstrax lives up to that hype pretty well. If it was up to me I'd make it look a little cuter, but I'm not a designer
The regeneration regarding fatalis is mentioned as just a story as well and isn't actually hinted at being true. Still though the thought of being possessed after wearing its armor for a period of time makes for a good dark story
@@ryojimata3708 right idea wrong black dragon, I was talking about Dire Miralis who is the one who could regenerate from it's still "beating heart". Both black dragons have crazy feats of regeneration, are they likely a myth? Maybe but both being black dragon can go full bore and into the abyss with thier fantasy side of things.
I feel the game would be more boring if it followed this dudes strict guidelines lol
It's probably best considered that carnivores *can* have some pretty interesting display structures. Theropods often have weird headgear like crests and horns, Dilophosaurus probably being the most famous and extreme example, but it should also be noted that outside of that these animals are otherwise sleek, with the rest of the body being fairly reserved outside of the exception of spinosaurs (who are mainly eating fish rather than large terrestrial prey items)
I completely agree that more herbivorous/non-carnivore herbivores would be the way to go, my favorite (or at least one of my favorite) monster is Diablos. Ceratopsids are my favorite dinosaurs so it shouldn't be a surprise that the draw for me is the big horns and frill of Diablos. Monoblos is also up their but I feel like it's head could be distanced from Styracosaurus a bit more. Hopefully we'll see more species of non-carnivorous monsters and how they might defend themselves against human predators both physically and psychologically.
I feel a lot of these features could be useful when you consider they could also be fighting each other for territory or mates. Brachy having blast resistant plates make sense when you assume it'll mostly be threatened by members of its own species, and the slime would be useful hunting heavily armored prey like Urugaan.
Protection against disputes with cosnpecifics is a plausible hypothesis, even if there isn't a way to properly set up parameters to conduct a study since, you know, mh is a fictitious world.
Plus if you go deep into the MH lore, like REALLY deep, it's possible monsters rapidly evolved specifically to fight hunters.
And we saw one hunting an urugaan in World but never saw the fight
@@profdracko it could be that Uragaan is the Brachydios' main source of food, and evolved the tools to hunt it.
so it's baffling to see Brachy in the Frozen Seaway (i remember that one quest in 4U).
just throwing this out there.
Absolutely. He constantly forgets that monsters are fighting each other for defense, territory, and good constantly like in realmlife
Man you weren't kidding with the batch of hot takes- A few counterpoints to the things that stood out to me as particularly contentious.
1. I'm not convinced that Magnamalo's design is so divorced from function as to warrant the level of criticism here. There are other reasons to have extraneous "antler" or "bone-like" protrustions outside of pure hunting or fighting displays. For example, they can be used as a means of displaying mating fitness or for age (and thus strength in a way). I think based on design you are meant to try to associate it with tigers in their hunting, but I would argue the existence of hellfire implies a different method of hunting. Tigers hunt covertly because they literally cannot keep up with most of their prey in a full sprint, but if the tigers had a means of hunting in which they were able to literally give themselves massive speed boosts in most directions at any time, than you can bet their hunting patterns would change to be far more aggressive, since hunting would be much less costly for the price of failure. I am not going to argue that everything is perfect- the arm blades and back spikes seem a bit excessive, but it seems like the idea was that tigers= Magnamalo, and therefore all deviance is "bad design" rather than alternative hunting.
2. I think overall the Valstrax criticism is only half warranted- while the jet engine function is a bit over the top, I think I find more issue with the omnidirectional wings that seem to rotate without real purpose. Dragon element in universe is considered to be highly unstable, and I think a method of dragon energy "venting" having a side effect of massive speed or flight is grounded enough in universe to be acceptable. To your point, I don't see the function of a "wing" being rotational as being functionally useful, for any purpose, other than a cooler fight.
3. I thought it was an interesting point to point out that six limbed creatures, particularly avian or mammalian animals, basically don't exist in nature as a way to point out how otherworldly the elder dragons are, but then you seem to imply that Narwa and Ibushi are even more outside of nature when I would argue they resemble it, since they are obviously based on deep sea eels. The "air sacs" help explain the flight of the two, that rather than their arms being unnecessarily vestigial, they act as counter balances to the the heavier sacs in the "lower" part of their bodies (particularly Narwa). You can see that both Narwa and Ibushi can fly both vertically and horizontally, so the air sacs in their arms would likely be used for rotational ability and other balancing.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty interesting video. I thought that the Brachy "what even is the point of this" section was pretty well argued, and while I don't necessarily agree with Zinogre, I do think you raised a lot of valid points on him. I thought your strongest argument was definitely on your comparison with Steve and Malfestio, and how Steve actually hunts like an owl while Malfestio just looks like one. I think that monster design is definitely a thing to admire about the series, especially how it relates to the actual world, but I think the danger in making monsters too grounded is that you will inevitably have more and more samey fights, since virtually all active predators hunt in two or three ways, and most herbivores method of defense comes down to "run away as fast as possible", "camouflage", or "stave them off with muscle/ boney appendages". There are a lot of reasons to love the series, but I actually rate World as the lowest of the bunch because it tries too hard to lean into realism and for that reason the monsters tend to be the most forgettable. If Monster Hunter has to go in the direction of Great Jagras vs Great Macao, I'm picking the latter every day.
For Magnamalo, I think that'd make sense for a mountain region specialist, expending energy to bound up cliffsides rather than waste time climbing, but none of Rise's maps seem like he'd make particularly good use of such a ridiculous ability. Also his introduction cutscene does a REALLY poor job of showing that style of hunting. An exhilarating, rushdown hunt where Magna tears through the sky towards its prey would have been pretty cool, but instead we got him "ambush" hunting a Tobi in the forest at night. Tobi Kadachi is way more mobile than Magna in that region and would have had an easy time slinking through the trees away while the big cat is left barreling into obstacles and getting concussions. Instead we get a Tobi Kadachi deciding it wants to fight the huge glowing cat I guess?? He's also stupidly bulky for what's supposed to be an aerodynamic big cat. I don't think Magna's the absolute worst design, but he's certainly down there.
@@prawn1717 Maganamalos area is literally misty peaks but muddy.
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 ...and everywhere else because he's an "invader" by Rise's standards. Plus, again, the opening cutscene shows him stalking through the woods for some godforsaken reason.
1. Apex predator don't have typically elaborate display structures.
2. While I valstrax is cool for what it is, The execution of the "jet propelled dragon concept" isn't done justice here. They could have done alot more. Like squid they use jet propulsion.
3. Narwa and Ibushi ( to me atleast) seem to be inspired by 'Blue Sea dragons'. Blue sea dragons are slugs found in the the Pacific Ocean. They ( blue sea dragons) also swim upside down.
Lastly can someone explain how is brachydios a carnivore? it doesn't even look like one.
@@prawn1717 I just told you a mountanous map.
While I agree with most of the video, I do definitely disagree on some points. I am a huge fan of making monsters make sense and argue for it constantly, but for me there has to be a fine line walked between "believable monster" and "Video game boss". I think ultimately some monsters should appeal more to one side than the other, and while I dislike the design of Magnamalo for instance, I think it as a fight in a video game about fighting monsters is genuinely fantastic and one of the few redeeming fights in Rise overall. Same goes for Zin and Valstrax, except for them I *do* like their designs, Zinogre's more realistic looking Iceborne iteration especially. They took the time to make it a lot leaner and more of a plausible animal, only to backwalk that in Rise for some reason. Overall, I think that making an entertaining enjoyable fight should be the number one priority, with the secondary aspects of ecology coming second even if they do make it feel less realistic. My favorite monster in the entire series is Bloodbath Diablos, and it's not exactly what I'd call realistic, even if there is explanation for it, but everything else about it is so actually fantastic that it supersedes monsters with my favorite designs such as Glavenus or Narwa.
"only to backwalk that in Rise for some reason"
Rise was in development during the same time as World, so they probably already had that model before the Iceborne one came along.
They have two separate teams working on the console/hand held iterations. Plus game engine limitations. Remember that rise was mainly made for the switch while it does have impressive hardware, it's still got limitations that the consoles and pc dont.
jet dragon is so cool
few redemming on rise... i dunno, they made the games kinda at the same time... one off the first thing i didnt get on world was the lack of logic... fo some reason, old world monsters were on the new continent... nobody complained, ut when rise did the same with world monsters, thats when everyone got angry... totally bias towards a game that, looks amazing, and just ecause of that, its way better.
tbh you can take some people comments and make those "flashy anime monsters" grounded... maybe valstrax its the most extreme, of course, but even him.
magnamalo has been discussed way better, and it actually makes sense for him to be so spiky, and even ie toke a role, and explain why zinogre charging before hunting isnt stupid... none of those are my fav monsters, even tho i like them a lot... so i didnt even tried to defend my... fav one
I’m gonna be honest, some of my favorite designs from the series are the ones that make the least ecological sense. Especially the Yama Tsukami, which is by all means the furthest thing from natural I’ve ever seen in the series. But you’ve shown me how they can make sense and my appreciation for the little details has gone way up thanks to this channel
In my opinion, colors are the most important thing in Monster Hunter Monster 's design.
it's really what makes them stand out and feel more natural.
just look at Magnamalo in the concept vs the one in-game, the one in the concept art is a lot more watered down in colors (also it's black instead of violet...wich is though a change for the better for me)and looks a lot better that the plastic-ish colored with an airbrush action figure that it is in-game.
I would like Magnamalo more if it wasn't neon yellow
Colours are very important indeed - much of magna’s concept art still looked a bit nutty but far better than what we got
@@unnaturalhistorychannel
I do like Magnamalo in the concept art honestly.
It's not a 10/10 design like Legiana but I like it.
I think they can tweak it a bit and make its design amazing (like how they did with the Raths from gen 1/2 to gen 3)
The worst design in the game for me it's Valstrax, now THAT'S a 5 year old's OC.
Speaking of colours I think Zinogre's are the biggest issue I have with it.
Blue with yellow, those are colours not found in apex predators since there stand out too much in nature, such only is done during mating season or to warn other animals of being poisonous. Is just there to make it clear its element is lightning, exactly like the Pokémon Manectric which funny enough is like a tiny Zinogre.
@@yurei4414 I mean zinogre between rise and world are vastly different between eachother, so we can predict magna gets redesigned again. Also I mean astalos exist.
@@nidohime6233 I mean, there are no fire breathing lizards. So I kinda dont get that a blue predator is more immersion breaking than a red flying wyvern.
the insectoid monsters I generally find do a very good and i'd love to see more of them, Seltas makes for a good early game monster as a general horned beetle, but it then gets a whole other diimension added to it when the Seltas Queen gets involved, the female being almost scorpion like and often taking advantage of the much lighter and more numerous males with Pheremones and using them alongside her to fight the hunters, often resulting in the males death due to how destructive the symbiotic relationship is, especially the desert variant who is a lot more agressive.
Nerscylla is another, it mainly hunts Gypceros and due to its dislike of thunder it tends to flay them when dead, using their rubber skin to coat themselves, the dark coat working well for camoflage 'and' to help protect itself from thunder. it even has a few little gimmicks to it too, like if you lay down or take a while to stand up after getting knocked down, it'll often move over and prod you a few times before attacking, mainly due to Gypceros having a habit of 'playing dead' in the hopes of a counter-attack or to escape so its an almost natural reaction for it to check its 'prey' out of paranoia to make sure its actually dead.
As for Ahtal-Ka, the fight is more so a celebration/swan-song to old gen monster hunter so its certainly very over the top and flashy in a very cheesy way, but the fact that Ahtal-Ka uses silk for various things and even includes 'tool-use' is quite interesting.
in general I just love how intelligent a lot of the insect monsters are and i'd love to see more of them in the future, they don't have immense destructive power so they often have to use other elements or abilities in order to fight... be it Rakna-Kadaki using her own spiderlings, Ahtal-Ka using tools and silk or Seltas Queen 'combining' with her male variant to become more imposing.
A large centipede or Hercules beetle could make for a pretty imposing enemy I feel, or imagine an 'Ant' like monster which sicks an entire colony on you.
dang. I jus realized nerscylla did that. no wonder they circled the hunter before continue the second strike. nice observation man.
maybe a new insectoid large monster that resembles a Bullet Ant or Bulldog Ant would be cool
Also Boars are 100% NOT herbivores. Yes they eat plants and mushrooms and such, but they will gore you and eat you given the opportunity. They are omnivores that mostly eat plants but opportunisticly eat meat when they can.
So do herbivores, though.
I’ve seen enough animals that evolved to eat exclusively plant matter snatch birds out of the air or rats off the ground because one of them equated to about an hour’s worth of grazing.
@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick That rarely ever happens and usually only happens when the food they have is severely lacking in a nutrient they need. I was raised on a farm (ranch but ma kept calling it her farm) and none of our animals would eat meat except the chickens and pigs which are both naturally omnivores. Our goats wouldn't, our horses wouldn't, our donkey wouldn't, nothing else would. They might bite at it and kill it but they won't actually eat it. Cows commonly do this and will chew on snakes but they are not eating the snake. It just appears that way since they are chewing on it
I think the reason why not many other people, mainly on RUclips, discuss the monsters in full detail is likely due to them seeing other aspects to be more important than the biological implications of a monsters design. Usually the fight with the monster, the theme music they have (if they have one), and the gear you get from it, is all most people need to be happy. It is, after all, a video game first and foremost, and so those parts that people usually get enjoyment out of from video games are gping to be what's focused on, rather than the reasoning behind something like Nergigante or Magnamalo needing an excessive amount of spikes.
Also, most people don't know much about ecology to dive deep into it.
I once made my own shot in the dark theory about Brachydios slime-mold relationship, and that it could’ve been used to predate the hammer jaw Wyverns. The Slime sticks to the shell, explodes and sends a shockwave that ripples through the body, shortening the fight significantly or outright killing it. Uragaan also is 2 stars weak to blast, but I’m not sure if that was really anything to by..
the MH world Brachy fight starts with it killing an Uragaan, and the 3U ecology has it hunting an Agnaktor, which are known for having in insanely hard shell when cooled off
so I think this idea is pretty valid
While this may not be cannon I had always considered that Magnamalo is a kleptoparasite that will also take out monsters injured in territorial dispute or things such Ibushi's storms. This would explain why it is a heavily armoured, bulky carnivore and its ties to the rampages caused by Ibushi.
Yeah, it apparently is known to feed on the weakest rampage monster.
Your footage of Valstrax shows you why it needs legs like that. Muscular legs let it hold onto prey when flying fast, it also has raptor talons to better hold on.
Frontier actually had some pretty diverse environments. A craggy canyon region that has frequent thunderstorms, Barren salt flats where only the hardiest could survive, A pastoral field of flowers with unique properties with some that were carnivorous, and a tropical Island that had expansive tidal caves. The monsters that lived there were also highly unique without soley relying on "Big scary edgelord carnivore" tropes.
Ok,the reason behind valstrax having legs is simple,the one reason all vertebrates will come together,and draws the sea turtles to the land.
*A good night with the Misses*
Exactly what I was thinking
Colubrids seem to do just fine without them
Brachydios and its explosive slime would make a lot of sense as a lithovore. Using the explosives for mining to acquire sustenance rather than for hunting prey.
My issues with this video:
1: rule of cool exists
2 : monster hunter is not real life
3: motifs are an important aspect of design
1: rule of cool does not excuse downright stupid stuff like Magnamalo
2: so?
3: you can do motifs without going into stupid territory.
I feel like In anjanaths case, having a dwarf anjanath in the old world could make more sense, since in the old world, there is more competition, so being a smaller slightly less powerful version would make sense as it could be considered too small to be a threat for larger monsters but big enough to be able to catch food fairly easily as well as allowing it to be more nimble to catch prey.
I think Magnamalo is more of a stalking predator, using the hellfire to glow as a lure or warming to prey. So the prey will either approach or run until it doesn't think it's able to escape so it turns to fight.
i think theres something that you seem to forget when it comes to monsters in monster hunter,it's shown that it's fairly easy for predators to hunt most prey, so the easiest conclusion as for why they're so flashy? they can already afford all of these adaptations, which are adaptations for fighting against other monsters over resources? why would something evolve to have explosive punches? because it lives next to other creatures that evolved similarly over the top combat abilities in an evolutionary arms race that began so long ago over the top defensive and offensive capabilities are just the norm now in monster hunter.
So i never thought there was anything needed to explain why, exactly predators needed all those flashy abilities: to compete agaisnt everything else that developed them
Among my favorite Monsters are definitely Tigrex, Nerscylla, Daimyo Hermitaur and Uragaan.
Tigrex is neat because it's a true brute, combining the agility of a Tiger with the loudness and physical traits of the stereotypical Jurassic Park Style Tyrannosaurus Rex. It's believable to me to find such a Monster in all sorts of environments, from mountains to the icy tundra as it definitely would be able to not only hunt actively but also make use of carrion with it's strong Jaws. I personally see Tigrex as a Hyena-style monster. Rather than Barioth or Nargacuga which seem more fragile and specialized to me.
Nerscylla is cool because I love the aspect of it having developed hunting techniques specifically suited to it's preferred meals, Gypseros. The fact that it wears their skins make it seem like a horror monster at first, but using the rubber like skin of its prey further is an interesting idea that reminds me of some insect larvas in nature.
Daimyo Hermitaur is really just a big hermit crab, but that's enough for me. I like the idea that adult Hermitaur use the skulls of monsters like Diablos or Monoblos as shells. It's such a small detail but it is really intriguing to me. Because it takes a well known real world concept, that hermit crabs use other things as shells, and puts it into the context of the monster hunter universe. I also just think that crustaceans are pretty interesting and that the design is beautiful in its simplicity.
Uragaan as a giant metal ore eating, in tar(?) covered, rolling behemoth is also just amazing. It's extremely unique on its own, but it's form of movement, it's physical adaptations and behavior just fascinate me. Not to mention that it's not a generic carnivore brute wyvern, but a highly specialized animal that is perfectly suited for its preferred habitat through logical adaptations.
Stuff like this is why I play monster hunter, the game play is cool, but the fictional ecosystem is so unique and for the most part well thought out, that I can't help but be amazed by it.
And I didn't even mention other cool monsters like Khezu, Rajang or Gammoth :')
(I really like more serious mammal-like monsters in MH, or anything that isn't just a Reptile tbh)
Personally, I like what in MH there are both types - more grounded and believable monsters as well as those "rule of cool” monsters.
Imo, those two categories are very well complimenting each other so MH never delving into only realism or only nonsense in its creature designs.
My main guess is that magnamalo has so many weapons because it preys on the rampage which usually has very dense amounts of monsters
Yeah that’s basically it. I suppose the simplest way of viewing it is that it’s a monster adapted to hunt in the incredibly chaotic environments brought about by events like the Rampage.
It seeks out huge populations of animals and voraciously feeds to supply itself with the necessary energy to support its abilities. It’s a bit cluttered but I guess it’s like what you’d get if you combine Deviljho with Odogaron. Or just a mustelid lol
One... little note about Rise and World... I will say, while I think World has a lot of good qualities from an ecology perspective, it's ultimately torpedoed for me (at least by compare to Rise and other titles in the series) by the series of problems it has. World's progression is poor, with Low-Rank being more of a glorified tutorial than a well-considered part of the game, making any story progress held within feel less meaningful; the whole experience seems more just tacked-on, from a gameplay perspective, despite the serious work that was put-in-it's just too easy and generous, and the early-game resource grind has been so reduced that you just don't spend as much time in the environments your exploring (or have a reason to explore them as thoroughly) compared to previous titles. Rise has this problem as well, but at least gives Low Rank a bit more meat and, to my recollection, challenge.
Also, World's weapon designs are abysmal, which really make progress feel even less rewarding. Especially in Iceborne, where some of the returning monsters' weapons lost their old, unique designs in favor of World's cookie-cutter ones. Its armor designs are far better by compare... and it does at least provide a solid attempt at rewarding both full-sets and mixed & matched ones respectively... something I wish Rise hadn't abandoned.
Lastly, its UI is undeniably the worst in the series. Monster Hunter, though its environments play a big role, are not the place for a minimalist UI. The Health and Stamina bars should stretch the full screen if at their maximum size, not be squirreled away in the corner where you can barely see them and you have a much harder time judging how much damage you took. Inventory is... don't even get me started. Box management is marginally improved, at least for items (equipment, on the other hand, I am very insistent on organizing myself and the extra menus make this more difficult), but the fact that your item bar places things based on recency of acquisition rather than where they are in your inventory... with no option to change this to "just organize it in the order it sits in my pouch in," as was the norm in previous games is just a mind-numbingly poor decision.
So, while I do agree that I'd like more of World's care and attention to monsters and environments in future titles... I'd prefer a bit more of Rise and also many of the older games be the guiding light for the actual gameplay.
I'm somewhat surprised that when talking about big high threat herbivores you didnt bring up duramboros. Still really liked the video and you definitely really make good points. Looking forward to the next video.
While I like Duramboros, I suspect the helicopter camel does not contribute to grounded-if-not-realistic design.
@@blackhammer5035 I mean by that logic, 90% of monsters do not contribute because of elemental abilities.
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 Generally, he seems to avoid dallying much on the elemental abilities, preferring to consider their more grounded traits and behaviors.
@@blackhammer5035 His design is grounded. He literally uses physics in his fight to be able to launch his heavy body into the air.
@@blackhammer5035 I wonder, Duramboros was a monster designed by the Portable team, and given their propensity for more stylistic monster design, the spin into the summersault attack and even the less crazy launch would be moves this dev team would think of naturally.
If Duramboros was a Main team monster, would they have given it those aforementioned attacks, or stick to something more grounded like its simple tail slams and ram attacks?
Objection to the Nergigante spike critique. Nerg’s fighting style is a variation of endurance hunting where it will fight rival elders repeatedly, with each fight ending in a draw. What lets Nergi win is that it takes that punishment and can come back for round 2, 3, 10, whatever it takes. In that sense the spikes are an evolutionary advantage because they, along with Nergi’s rapid regeneration, are what enable this high risk attritive hunting strategy.
I like zinogre and only thaught of it as a "wolf" in name alone, it is just a cool design and I think its design is definately for gameplay alone and not natural habits evolving specialised tools. That being said, I still think if they had him be in environments like the coral highlands where being glowy wouldn't be an issue as that environment has glowing elements. Also I love nargacuga because his only flashy weapon is his tail which I think is used more for defense against other predators like rathalos that might pose a threat.
edit: I also think that monsters shouldn't have more health and do more damage at later levels than starters because naturally it would be adaptations making something tougher, not when you encounter them, so by that logic, rathalos should be harder to kill than narcaguga because he has harder defenses in the form of thick scales instead of fur/feathers of narca
“AAAAA! Is that a popular but unnatural m-monster!? I-I’m going INSAAAAANE!”
-This Channel
Counterpoint: The predators of the MH universe can afford to have flashy elements that make their presence known because they outpower their prey so much that they don't have to be stealthy and catch said prey off guard. One thing that the prey animals of the MH universe have in common is that they are all incredibly inept at escaping threats, to the point where they can't even escape from or fend off a regular human that's slowly walking right up to them in plain sight. Zinogre and Magnamalo can announce their presence to the entire world and still catch prey, since their prey literally isn't going anywhere.
I think that’s just for gameplay since in cutscenes for example the tigrex hunting popo in freedom unite the herd are able to run away successfully while one gets caught but does juke tigrex for a second.theirs also the mh tri trialer showing a herd of aptonoth running away from a pack of jaggi and ludroth in the water.
@@namealreadytaken7116 tbf, Jaggi and Ludroth are much less powerful monsters than creatures such as Zinogre or Magnamalo. So it makes sense they would struggle to keep up with their prey more. TIgrex is a very basic monster but in what we've seen of it so far, it doesn't struggle much at all to catch prey. Like the Popo you mentioned were only able to evade one of his lunges before he caught it.
In defense of Tetranadon, the turtle, platypus, and sumo wrestler parts are all part of the the kappa representation, so Tetranadon is really just a giant kappa frog.
I was thinking about Magnamalo's Hellfire the other day. I was trying to think about how it works in relation to other explosion monsters which have more detailed explanations as to why they explode (Bazelguese has specialized scales that store secretions, fall-off and react to the air, Brachidios has a combination of its own saliva and a kind of mold being exposed to the air, Congalala eats mushrooms that are used to make gunpowder). I came to the conclusion it's like a pheromone. To paraphrase a similarly edgy and spiky explosion hero from a popular anime, it has nitroglycerin-like sweat. The intro video for Magnamalo explains that upon coming into close contact with Hellfire causes the creature to want to fight to the death; much like a pheromone or hormonal reaction. The color of the fire might also explain why it does that. The most straight-forward explanation is that this pheromone is potassium-based. Potassium burns purple, is a key component in gunpowder, and is important for helping keep nerves and muscles function (considering it has so many moving extremities and is so agile, that also checks out) as well as regulating the heart, but too much could cause irregularity in heartbeat and possibly a heart attack (which is why it releases it in the form of Hellfire and its subsequent explosions, why Magnamalo hunts so much despite not seemingly needing to as to burn-off excess potassium, and why other monsters enter a fight-or-flight mode upon coming in contact with these flames).
This is now canon
THIS
In regards to Nergigante's spikes.
Most of the other elder dragons have highly destructive elemental abilities and are able to cover themselves in a aura to protect against altercations with other elders.
As Nergigante is a super predator that hunts other super predators and does not use elemental abilities, it has evolve a physical defense mechanism in the form of regenerative spikes that then harden.
This gives it the ability to resist the attack from the other elders for a period of time while it does its level best to overpower them with raw strength.
The reason it seems so out of place for such a defense mechanism to be on a predator, is that we don't have a real life analog of a predator that actively preys upon other highly dangerous super predators.
Yes we do orca whales a apex predator that has no rivals in the ocean it reigns supreme over other animals not including humans obviously. They hunt sperm whales not the males though to big of a threat to tackle,great white sharks to the point where great whites migrate out of the way of orca territory since they don’t want to mess with them and are considered super predators,false killer whales another dangerous predator that also hunts sperm whales but even they get eaten by orca whales and even at times harass blue whales and eat the pups or juveniles of blue whales and other whales. Look at lions they tackle heavily armored prey they work as a group to complete their goal like most African animals and grizzly or polar bears they eat big and dangerous prey but their heavy coats give them some protection from attacks but it doesn’t save them all the time especially against things like moose,bison walrus for polar bears they have to be careful when attacking. Its just that animals in real life wouldn’t need spikes or thorns when it’s a predator it’s unneeded even for predators that have no rivals wouldn’t need it since you’d rather be quick then heavily armored since that is a disadvantage when preying on other things that could be as dangerous as yourself.
About Magnamalo's seemingly useless antlers, we could have an example of sexual selection in a predatory animal, it's not as far fetched as it seems, since we have examples of predators where males have stuff that can handicap them, like in Pterosaurs with ridiculously big head crests such as Nyctosaurus or Barbaridactylus, granted, these two were probably not hunting big animals that could really fight back, but since everything is cranked up to eleven in Monster Hunter, the possibility of the antlers being only present in males shouldn't be ignored...
This is exactly the case with Mizutsune. A lot of the crests and fins are pretty useless, except that they are for sexual display and only found on males.
This is in fact the case. Their horns are for mating and are necessary for the males to be selected by females
@@dangernoodle5831 Yeah, Scorned Magnamalo literally confirmed it.
Honestly with Nergigante's spikes, I can fully believe it started out being lunch to many other elder dragons. It not having any elemental powers while so many elder dragons tend to be masters of at least one could have led to it needing to evolve more defensive measures? That it simply made do with later on as it got more aggressive and started feeding on the elders that would have bullied its kind in the past. Not an expert in any field of biology whatsoever, though, so this really is just my speculation.
27:03 Wait a minute, isn't Brachydios on the smaller side of Brute Wyverns? Take away the Slime and you'll find Monsters more extreme than a Giant Boxing Kangaroo Rex. Also, I took the 'its shell defends it from explosions' as a case of 'its shell chemically numbs the Slimes ability to explode'.
I mean, there are hawks in australia that'll carry and start bush fire in order to flush out prey. A monster harnessing an exploding slime for the explosions makes plenty sense.
My thoughts on Zinogre: I thought that Zinogre provides the fulgurbugs protection from most insectivores and then the fulgurbugs act as a beacon for insectivores like how anglerfish use their bioluminescence to attract prey. I always thought their relationship was so natural but I haven’t thought about how it would actually start or come about.
To be fair to Valstrax, the only reason it probably hasn't lost it's limbs is due to the fact that it uses those limbs the same way Eagles and Hawks do in our world, to grasp be it prey or a perch.
And to land as well, I'd imagine.
@@HSnake5 Yes. Because Valstrax doesn't live in the sky, he only mastered flight.
While I agree with UHC about how it's better to maintain a sense of realism within the confines of MH's world I truly believe that some monster designs are so creative that it's a shame to write them off as just "over designs". We all meme on Valstrax but a Dragon/Falcon/Jet is too creative and cool to not love.
Valstrax to me looks like a bird. Like, clearly a continental dragon and reptile, but even in the picture you use of it against the white background, it has some bird traits. It's a bird-like head, it's front claws look like a real-world raptors legs, and it's back legs are pressed against it's hind body so much you can barely see them. The end of it's tail looks like the tail of a plane, with two spikes (wings) on the side and one on the top in the middle, meaning it could be used for direction, and some of the spikes on it's back may be used to create more of a slipstream (though I really don't know much about aerodynamics, so I may be completely off kilter on this point). If you just fused the back legs to the back of the body and had him stand on his front legs he'd look like a bird with a long tail. Although he travels long distances and hunts on the wing, I'd assume the species would need to land to eat their food (as we see in the animatic you use), as well as to court, nest and rear young. Since it seems to use dragon element to fly, it might not be able to get the minerals that you hypothesized it needing from the prey it snatches, so it may need to land to look for them. I also doubt that any offspring it has can fly as soon as they're born, unlike Narwa and Ibushi. That species seems to float, like, they could just take a nap and float in the sky. Valstrax is more like a plane: it needs powered take off and sustained flight, but if it just turned off it's jets it would plummet like a rock. While travel and hunting is what it does in the sky, there are still many parts of it's life that would seemingly be on the ground. It does look metallic and heavy though.
This is exactly why I was thinking.
Though it does have to land, I think the idea is that it's not doing anything particularly demanding while grounded except for fighting the hunter for some reason. Birds of prey are still able to eat, nest and sleep with only 2 legs. Hell, even Diablos is bipedal when it's obviously a ground-based creature. The point is Valstrax definitely doesn't need 4 legs, and even the shape and muscularity of the legs doesn't make as much sense when you compare it to other air-based monsters.
@@Sam-xl4cx To be fair, Val's wings have got to be heavy, so the four legs may be necessary for supporting the weight of the wings during those instances when they're on the ground.
@@Sam-xl4cx Being an Elder Dragon, it evolved from a creature with four legs. It's front legs are larger and more developed than it's smaller back legs, because those are what they used mainly for hunting, and it's back legs are in the process of becoming vestigial (though that still won't be for many millions of years most likely, since they are still fully functional). That's why I said it's more like a bird, because it's head, wings and front legs are highly like a bird of prey, while it's tail and hind legs are more like a long tail that will most likely be lost after numerous generations.
Diablos is a flying wyvern, evolved from a flying creatue, but is most likely also early in the process of it's wings becoming arms, like Akantor and Ukanlos, also flying wyverns who no longer have wings. It already can't use them to fly, so now they are going into the process of being better shaped for what it uses them for, digging.
Exactly this, Valstrax isn't a species that lives in the sky, it's just highly specialised in airborne travel.
even tho i'm a big defender of "all monsters are great and fit their role well" (and also a fan of the bright reactor that is valstrax) i agree with a lot in your video, and i wish that, if monster hunter goes the route of full open map, older monsters like magnamalo (which seems to be adapted to hunt animals already in a movement of panic, like with the rampaging animals or maybe even the ones fleeing zinogre which seems to be magnamalo's closest cousin) get a more fixed niche, Valstrax already has quite a bit of lore behind how it function (also prob more thanks to shara ishvalda which looks to be, again, a close cousin) but i would have love it expended on its "grab the prey and leave" that was show in genU's ecology (i understand crimson glow is prob in the same crazed state as a savage deviljho, but why killing everything on Kamura's map and not eating anything, maybe a chickenpen situation) and it somewhat was with the ambush, anyway all of this to say even tho i am a fan of most monsters, even a lot of hated ones or "pure cool" ones, i still agree with a lot of points you said (also hope for more dangerous herbivores).
yeah, Crimson Glow is in a similar boat to Savage Jho - the quote the game itself -
"A mutant Valstrax fearsomely dubbed the "Crimson Glow". This elder dragon typically secludes itself in the upper atmosphere, but it has been driven mad by its own rampant energy, causing to lash out at anything in its sight"
While Valstrax isn't aerodynamic and is functionally incapable of having an equivalent trade off of energy expended for a limited biomass intake without waiting nonstop, it might have some unique evolutionary history phylogenetically if we considered Shara being a more derived yet extant example of what the ancestral species of Valstrax would've been.
Here is the thing: from a game developing perspective, it is very difficult to always confine yourself to realism when it comes to creature design. Overly focusing on making creatures "make sense" can only be limiting to the variety of creatures and game experiences the developers want to show you. I love to dive into the ecology of different creatures in different games too, but the design for them should always put gameplay at first priority. Does it suck that magnamalo have little to no explanation why he is the way he is? Yes. But he is still one of the most interesting monster I have experienced in a video game. TLDR, over fixation onto realism can limit creativity. Sure they can only design monsters that are grounded and accurate to nature, but how much more difficult and taxing would it be for them to come up with the diverse roster we have today?
This is a great point, but I disagree to an extent. A greater knowledge of the natural world can often yield far greater inspiration for monsters as well as grounding them, it’s just a question of how deep you dive. It’s a bit like one of Dawkin’s books about how science increases rather than ruins wonder.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel science can also reveal limits. It's not 1 dimensional.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel The other problem you're running up against is gameplay. Sure you could design a Valstrax that never lands...but that would fucking SUCK for the player to fight (there's a reason why higher ranked versions of Rathalos and Rathian are hated because they spend a lot of the fight in the air). I get you want things to be 'realistic' but sometimes you've got to sacrifice realism for player enjoyment.
"hypnocatrice is perhaps the most avian of them all" bro forgot about malfestio, a literal fucking owl, still good vid
In argument for Zinogre and Nergigante, I do think that they still fit good monster hunter design despite the proper realism of anatomy and niche. Personally, i think monster hunter is a healthy balance between designing a monster for a natural role first and fighting role first. I love the naturalistic design of Great Jagras but that also leads into it being less of an exciting fight. Brachydios is an awesome fight and cool-looking monster but lacking in how it fits into the natural order of things. I don't like a majority of Frontier monster designs because they feel like just being designed for the sake of looking like a fantasy creature. I like monsters like Brachydios, valstrax, and Zinogre over Frontier monsters because they feel like they have a major increase in love, thought, and realistic detail into their design even if they don't exactly act like actual animals. One simple but major reason I like Lavasioth over Hypnocatrice is because I think Hypnocatrice looks ugly. I already think Jyurotodus looks cool as a giant fish wyvern and I think Lavasioth using hardened magma to cover itself like with Jyuro with mud is really clever. Personally, it doesn't just feel like magma Jyurotodus to me.
Damn never realized how great Khezu’s design was. Diablos is also hella well designed
On its face, I find the whole 'design needs to be grounded' arguement I see thrown around in the MH circle eyeroll worthy given how everything about the game's presentation is just over the top the begin with but I find myself time and time again agreeing with the motives and end results of heavily leaning into spec-evo to create good creature design. Isolated, I think the tokusatsu designs of Magnamalos and Zinogres and all the other 'Cool for cool's sake" monsters are really charming, creative and fun, but I'd be lying if I said that on the long term, more ecologically grounded designs are what make this whole series unique.
In my opinion, the series should ideally have a nice middle ground between "Grounded" and "Cool" when it comes to designing the monsters.
And yet most of the monsters in the first game had grounded designs...funny how that works.
@@tylerleach8796 Can't deny that! your point or just an observation?
Funny enough after looking at its history Zinogre strikes me on my first encounter as being more like a wolverine, fox or hyena. Initially it was also very heavily built like a bear and I keep hearing in its debut it was a whole pack driven from the mountains by Amatsu.
Edgy as the lone wolf thing is we do kind of always meet monsters solitarily by default, and for large predatory animals like Zinogre it might do them better to be so. Much like Tigers. Maybe they gather only for breeding. Its flat horns feel like they're more for interspecies conflicts.
And so maybe the moments we see it scaring off other animals might just be intentional threat displays.
Or at least it should be. I always liked the idea it possibly adopted fulgur bugs to combat Rathalos or the more common Elder Dragons in the New World alongside providing an energy boost like the Fulgur Anjanath.
Because of their place against wyverns like the Raths as more defensive despite the size and hunts birds I also think that it might rank between them and smaller predators.
But at the same time despite its lack of adaptations I wouldn't really change my favorite monster for the world. Though maybe a more upright hyena build could work to show its balance of speed and physical strength as a predator. And a more subtle "stealth mode"
I get where you are coming from but I think Elders generally get a pass on being less "grounded". Normal monsters are just animals but Elders are the stuff of legends. They aren't bound by the same logic as others and I think they should be looked at through a different lens. I don't think that MonHun should stay 100% overly grounded cause its really not. The regular monsters fill that grounded role really well and i think that Elders fit the more fantastical side of things while maintaining just the right amount of grounded. Stuff like Amatsu not having a source of buoyancy and Valstrax having spikes and such are perfectly fine design decisions. Elders have always had more nonsense tied to them. Like Kushala making tornadoes, Chameleos just straight up turning invisible and so on. I'm not saying you have to like Valstrax for example but its not a "lesser" design because it doesn't follow logic quite as close as you'd like cause Elders have always been the point where "this stuff isn't making nearly as much sense anymore" and everything gets more handwavy Don't have to agree with me but that's just my perspective on the matter. Your videos are always interesting though keep up the great work.
agreed.
in World, the Chief Ecologist stated that any monster that defies classification/nature, is classed as an Elder Dragon.
in Monster Hunter, the dragons are unnatural life forms.
@@jacktheomnithere2127 Even Kirin gets classified as an Elder Dragon. It doesn't even look dragon-like.
@@Martin-yh7vi precisely.
jet dragon is so cool
In real life, mantis shrimps do kinda use the Brachydios strategy- they hit a hard target with a punch from a claw-turned-club, and then a secondary explosion helps breach the shell. Granted, this is within milliseconds, but I think you could combine it with World's cutscene to get an idea of what he's doing. He's in an environment with lots of creatures with hard shells, powerful attacks and quick escape mechanisms but low agility otherwise, like Lavasioth's lava-swimming and magma-hocking, Urugaan's rolling and explosive farts, or Rathalos's flight and fireballs. Brachydios can launch an ambush, and when the enemy tries to retreat, the delayed explosives are going to interrupt them long enough for the Brachy to set up again.
Say with the World Urugaan; Brachy attacks, Uru rolls away, gets knocked off-course by the explosions, turns and fights, Brachy's hard shell protects it from explosive farts, rinse and repeat in varying combinations until Uru's left staggering away with a giant predator trailing behind it, with occasional rushes or jabs to deal more damage at minimal risk. Then, when the Urugaan falls, the Brachy approaches to deal a finishing blow.
(Granted, I don't think there's enough similarities for it to be intentional, and this isn't communicated by in-game behaviours- e.g Brachy noticing you've been blastblighted, backing off, and timing an attack to either hit you while you're trying to shake it off or after the explosion- but I wouldn't be surprised if somebody mentioned mantis shrimps in the design process.)
You're the only channel that really refined the niche some people tried to fill and I enjoy you challenging ideologies that majority of the fanbase just agree upon.
Personally I think the point about Brachy and Zinogre not having their specific adaptations explained seems a bit biased, cause that can be said about most monsters, ever since the very begining. Why does Yian Kut Ku need fire breath? it feeds on small neopterans that don't fight back and when a predator shows up it runs away rather than fight. why does gypceros need a stretchy tail? the only use it seems to have is to fight hunters. why does khezu have electric abilities? is not something it uses while hunting and usually doesn't have to deal with predators due to where it lives
the worst offender of this from the first gen is probably basarios. the thing eats ore and it's main defense mechanisim is to disguise itself as a rock. despite that, it has the ability to produce sleep and poison gas, can also vent fire, it can produce globs of lava and can fire a fucking laser. none of those things seem to have anything to do with it's lifestyle. you could arguee that the fire abilities are a side effect of it needing high temperatures to digest the ore, but that seems a bit of an excuse. I produce acid in my stomach to melt down food, but that doesn't give me the ability to launch acid
most monsters have the trait of having abilities just for the shake of having them, I don't get why single out some monsters for it but with others there's no issue
It’s either for defensive purposes, hunting, or display,
It can also be a trait used for defense in the past but then evolved into something more
Also you have to take into consideration that basarios lives with monsters like rathian, deviljho, nargacuga, ext. so it would king make sense on why they would have these adaptations, plus they lose some of em when they grow up
With a few of those, in the lore khezu does indeed use thunder for hunting and likely to acquire carcasses for its whelps. Kut Ku may not imminently need fire but it may use it to fight when cornered.
Considering Basarios is slow and not especially well armed with teeth and claws, being poisonous could well save it from larger predators once its cover is blown. Especially as it lives with things like Akantor.
It's worth noting these things don't leach into the monsters design too. Take Basarios' fire away and he's still basarios. With Zin and brachy, they're arguably more inseperable from their extra weapons.
I will also admit I'm more lenient on breath attacks as they're something of a sterotypical staple for dragons, despite the fact no giant, aerial predator would likely ever need them. I could criticise it, but it'd be a bit pointless as it applies to every dragon ever made just about.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel yeah, the breath attack thing is fair enough, is a pretty generic trait for dragon like creatures to have. Maybe is some short of ancestrial trait from a common ancestor wyverns have wich is why is so common
To my original comment I would like to add that, in the specific case of zinogre, the origin of his abilities are kinda easier to explain if you look at it from the point of view of the fulgurbugs, rather than zinogre itself. The main predator of the fulgurbugs is the gargwa, wich coincidentally is also one of the main prey items of the zinogre. By sticking near a zinogre, the fulgurbugs had higher survival rates, as usually a gargwa wont get anywhere close to a zinogre. If we asume that zinogre is a close relative of tobi, we could asume that it already had limited thunder abilities through a similar method tobi does, charging up static electricity on it's fur. Zinogres that had fulgur bugs near them had an easier time charging up since all the electricity produced by the fulgur bugs around them was absorbed into their fur, making them more likely to survive. So over time, the zinogres that bred the most where those better adapted to acomodate the fulgurbugs. Long story short, is not something that evolved due to a necesity of the zinogre, but due to a necesity of the bugs, and it just so happened to benefit the zinogre in the process, so even though it didnt need it originally per say, it still made them better survivors
Dont know how much sense that actually makes, my knowledge on the process of evolution is limited, but is still fun to try to explain
I think magnomalo committed a little too hard to the whole Samurai bit. His antlers and broad shoulders are really evocative of waring states period Era samurai armor, and his mouth is very oni mask looking. Rise takes a lot of cues from Japanese culture and mythology, and I feel like too much of that seeped into the momster designs in some places
>the massive watch time spike where magnamalo's pic is
Aight, I'll be honest. I agree that Magnamalo is hilariously over-designed and clearly exists to be cool rather than realistic, but as a closet biologist and veteran overthinker of stuff, I feel there ARE some potential saving graces regarding parts of its design.
The "Hellfire" is often described with supernatural bullshit about being souls or something, but in reality is flammable gas from rotting corpses. This gave me an idea. What if Magna eats rotting meat specifically, and I don't just mean as a scavenger. What if Magna's niche is that it draws sustinance from decaying flesh? Imagine that, instead of stomach acid, anything it eats is allowed to naturally decay and ferment inside its body, and it somehow draws energy from this, with this strange pink flammable gas being a bi-product?
This ties into him being attracted to Rampages, as they result in mass casualties, and thus he can just sit around and gorge on all the corpses and dying monsters. His bulky body and lazy attitude outside of battle even support this too, as he would need a big body to store all that decaying biomass, and would likely laze around while it rots inside him.
And that stupid comment about his prey wanting a warrior's death? Instead, consider this being Magna seeking out old, injured or sick monsters, which might already be on their last legs, and thus will stand and fight instead of running away. This affinity with death could have fueled all the myths and legends about it too (Magna might kill a monster and then simply walk away, as the body hasn't decayed enough for its taste yet, and thus people think it is cruel or vindictive.) At a stretch, the fact that they constantly glows could even serve the purpose of scaring away healthy prey, because that's not what they want. Though that said, I did wonder if the glowing tail might be used in some kind of dazzling display or as a lure, like an angler-fish, since a lot of focus appears to be placed on it. And eh, maybe it is, since Magna can turn the glows off from different parts of its body, and I sometimes see it just walk around with a glowing tail, but that might just be a fluke.
Why, then, does it do crazy shit like using its own gas explosions to rocket jump and why is it such an efficient predator when it would make most sense to basically be the inversion of Nergi, aka, the killer of the weak? Eehhhhh...yeah, I got nothing for that.
BUT, in regards to its whacky looks and design, that HAS been explained. According to the Rise artbook, Magna's grow their boney spines, blades and antlers as a display to ward off other predators or rival Magnas from their territory, but also to advertise sexual maturity. This, however, has a caveat, which is that the spines and antlers grow VERY slowly, and do not regenerate very well if broken. As such, if an adult Magna was to have its horns and spines broken, even if it was a in its physical prime otherwise, it would be totally ignored by potential mates. This reminds me of how peacocks will intentionally grow a disadvantageous feature that makes no biological sense JUST to flex the fact it has survived at all to potential mates.
This ALSO explains why Scorned Magna is so violent and dangerous. It is a Magna which lost its spines and a horn in a fight, leading to it compensating for this with extreme aggression, and having its arm-blades become over-developed. Fun Fact: Tigers are one of the few animals in the world that are known to seek revenge or hold grudges, so it should come as no surprise that a Magna will aggressively seek revenge on humans who both injured it and ensured it would never be able to reproduce again.
In short, is Purple Farting Garfield over-designed and the pinnacle of anime BS ? Yeah, kinda. But I don't think it is irredeemable. It has a niche, at least in my mind, and some of its absurd design features can be explained by sexual selection taken to ludicrous levels.
Poor scorned, literally blue balled to the point of ludicrous aggression.
@@reallycantthinkofausername487 Pretty much sums up its situation.
Yeah he's completely disregarding lore as "cool stuff" to be ignored. When lore is the human interpretation of the animal's behavior, and behavior is biology+environment.
Magnamalo is not an overdesigned tiger with twenty more weapons than it needs to kill poor Gargwa. It's a wolverine picking up derelicts and carrion from a chaotic migration that attracts extremely powerful animals it needs to defend against with the loudest, most absurd threat display possible. Because it loses half it's turf wars and it's actual prey-catching weapons are fit for slaying Arzuros and Tobi Kadachi, not Teostra and Kushala Daora.
The key difference between wyverns and dragons in fantasy is generally that wyverns are used as “lesser” dragons, or regional variants alongside Chinese lung dragons and Indian nagas.
In grounded fantasy, the terms are usually just blended together, with wyverns taking the place of dragons because, as you said, they’re far more believable in that setting, and I agree. My one gripe with the wyvern issue in modern fantasy is when dragons who were described/depicted as hexapods, are turned into wyverns to fit into a modern aesthetic or trend, thus reducing the impact of what is supposed to be a huge imposing monstrous beast like Smaug into a big scaly bird.
In series that have always had bipedal dragons (the elder scrolls, game of thrones etc) it’s not egregious at all, because fantasy can be whatever the author decides it is. It works for monster hunter especially well, with how diverse the monsters are, the wyvern/elder dragon labelling seems to be a callback to old fantasy trends of using wyverns as lesser/more common dragons, and saving dragon dragons for final boss fights and big spectacles.
20:00 Nergi evolved incredibly slowly presumably due to its reproduction style so maybe it needed defense earlier on and later evolved to repurpose its defensive/reproductive tool for hunting
It also might have a long growth cycle and little parental care, leaving it as a delicious baby hedgehog-dragon for the first decade or so of its life before growing up into something much more threatening and switching the spines from "Please don't eat me, I am very spiky and will probably give you indigestion," to, "RAIN OF NEEDLES!" mode.
They could also kept their spikes in order to help defend the selves when fighting dangerous prey; their spikes providing defensive and offensive measures when grappling prey
The spikes would also come in useful in hunting since Nergigante eat other elders and just being able to overpower them all wouldn’t be enough since that’s not a defense, just an offense and when fighting other god like being you need something that would hurt them when they attack you
I don't agree with a lot of your opinions myself as a Valstrax fan, but you've done something very rare especially when it comes to RUclips content: you made me see things from your perspective and understand a new viewpoint by calm straightforward and thorough analysis.
I would say that my main point of disagreement is that Monster Hunter is more fantastical than you give credit for. Things like Blights and elemental attacks as well as the extreme physiology are staples of fantasy. I do agree that what makes Monster Hunter shine is it's groundedness but to me this is less about its cues from the real world or exhaustive realism but more to do with well defined internal rules.
Sure Valstrax is out there and it's tempting to think it's edgy for the sake of it but it's designed with an environment and niche in mind, something that isn't found in any other monster. A better way to put this is to think- if Monster Hunter allows for survival in extreme environments then what could live above the clouds? How would it interact? Though I do agree it's strange that Vals has such robust limbs.
Like I say though excellent video and an excellent lens from which to view the series. I'll definitely be thinking about this when the next games come out.
Edit: I should also mention after Sunbreak it looks like Rise is on track to match and probably exceed World's sales
Thanks for your kind and measured words! I think a lot of fantasy vs sci fi too also boils down to setting and your own personal definitions. For me, extreme physiology when still explained fits more for sci fi even if the setting is typically fantastical.
To me I feel that the Elder Dragons are designed to give a fantasy-ish feel to the series, with their in-game explanations being so that they don't feel conpletely alien.
Considering that Elder Dragons are classified as "Living forces of nature" it (kinda) makes sense for them to have unique abilities like constantly regenerating spikes, being able to fly at mach speeds, or being able to affect the local weather.
It always bothered me when Valstrax's jet expulsion was suddenly unbelievable. I find it crazier that other elder dragons can create tornadoes by breathing, or can turn completely invisible.
I always say elder dragons are supposed to have a mysterious feature, they're all supposed to be legendary to the guild as well as the player.
technically the distinction of wyvern 4 limbs dragon 6 limbs is a modern definition thanks to games like DnD, before that in the medieval and other historical depictions it could have any number of limbs and either, the main difference being if it spits fire or venom.
I think the part you said about gameplay might be more of a core factor regarding designs then people realize. Due to monster hunter being a video game 1st it also has to keep in mind of a way to speak to the person playing the game especially going to fight a monster for the first time. Example is Magnamalo, with the glowing parts ment to drive attention to the player and how they should plan for it and additionally all the extra parts on the body can also give way to showing what you can potentially break and/or sever. Although I'm curious if you think this is a bad thing overall and if Monster hunter could work better as a sort of documentary or such.
Mh is a videogame and ecology balance or we get frontier for game aspect, and jyuratodus for ecology aspect.
A series about how you'd fix bad monster designs would be pretty nice. Controversial, maybe, but a discussion nontheless.
This is a good video but you keep saying some monsters don't make sense cause of this or that and while some i can agree with there are somethings I don't.
Yes in the real world Nergigante having spikes would imply it was at one point it was the under dog. But by playing the game, fighting the monster, and watching the ecology/cinematic of the monster implies it uses it's spikes as both defense and offense against other Elder Dragons and Hunters to shrug off their attacks with ones of it's own.
The same thing can be applied to monsters like Zinogre, Magnamalo, and Brachydios.
I mean if we're to take what you said about them to account then monsters like Rajang wouldn't make much sense as well since we have to question why does it have those giant horns on it's head? A lot of it's attacks consist of it using it's arms and over all body rather then those horns. And why does it need to be able to shoot electricity from it's mouth as that's a bit over the top and we don't see really ever see Rajang use it against other monsters just the Hunters.
The point I guess I'm going for is, yes Monster Hunter's designs can be a bit over the top but they try to make their monster memorable and thrilling so you can remember them better. Does Deviljho or Bazelgeuse need need their battle themes to over power other monsters? No but that's something that makes them memorable. And I think that's what the people who make the games are really striving towards.
same
I don't know if this idea was used in any monster hunter game, but after you said that those explosions and stuff porpouse are just to fight the hunter, i was thinking, what kind of design they could make for a monster that is adapted to fight the hunters? i mean, humans are part of the ecosystem too, a lot of animals have adapted to live in human environment, so of course the monsters could too, the hunters are always out there fighting and doing stuff, and its obvious that they are a huge threat for basically all monsters, its plausible that maybe one species could adapt to fight them, i think its a cool idea