🌿Monster Hunter

My Monster Hunter history

Fourteen years ago, Monster Hunter Tri released for the Wii. I can't remember why I decided to pick the game up… Back then I had just finished university and was pretty tuned in to Japanese entertainment. Anyway, it was my first Monster Hunter game, and somehow I decided on being a lance player. I think I mained the lance until Monster Hunter World, which is when I switched to the hunting horn. Back in the day, the lance happened to be one of the more advanced weapons. It was SLOW, but you could hop around a lot and it had a shield.

The game terrified me and my sisters. 😅 I distinctly remember hunting my first big monster—a Great Jaggi. I was dilly dallying purposefully trying not to make progress when I finally encountered it and saw the ! mark above its head that flashed in conjunction with that iconic startling sound effect that would always take me by surprise.

My favorite Tri monsters

Gobul (Tri debut; has since been sent to the shadow realm)
Me and my friends hated this monster until we needed to get parts and figured out how to deal with him. There's this fun gimmick where you can get some free hits in if you go to a specific area on the map and fish him out. My role was to break his lantern when he was on land since the tip of my lance could reach, but if that didn't happen I'd do it underwater. His music was great and I loved his creepy attack where he'd eat the players.

Lagiacrus (Tri debut; basically sent to the shadow realm after Generations)
The lance had a lot of advantages in the water with the shield, but it was different with Lagi since he had lightening attacks that shields couldn't block? Or maybe I'm remembering wrong, it could be that he just shocks you from behind so the shield wasn't effective at times.
Agnaktar (Tri debut; basically sent to the shadow realm after Generations)
This was one of the scarier monsters since he has this fire laser move that can one shot you. The tell is so iconic. He clacks his beak three times before firing the beam. Later in the fight he would swing his head around while firing it. My sister played a bowgun and was absolutely no help as she'd stay at the edge of the map and leave as soon as she heard him clacking.

Jhen Mohran (Tri debut; has since been sent to the shadow realm)
I really had a lot of fun memories with Jhenny and his gimmick hunt. He's a goliath sand-swimming monster you fight while on a ship. My favorite part was when he'd coming swimming at the ship from afar straight ahead and you'd have to basically time your harpooning of him or get wrecked.

Deviljho (Tri debut; basically in every game since?)
I think Jho is my favorite monster in the entire series. He was terrifying. Peak monster design. When Jho loads into your map or POPPED UP OUT OF THE GROUND, the current boss music stops and then his excellent boss music would play. His roar combined with the height he reaches is just perfection. Whenever he shows up, HE's the boss. Leaving poisoned meat on the ground and seeing him gobble it down was always hilarious. He's a hungry pickle.

I've bought quite a few Monster Hunter Game since Tri, of course, and loved all of them. With the announcement of Wilds, I've gone back to playing World. It's been so long. I've only logged 70 hours in that game and I don't think I touched it in a good 3 or 4 years.

Other favorite monsters

Bazelgeuse (World debut; has since been in Rise)
Bazelgeuse, AKA B-52 Bomber, AKA Bagel reminds me so much of Deviljho. He's another big monster that shows up to the party uninvited to cause chaos. Bagel's boss music and roar is also memorable.

Pukei Pukei (World debut; has since been in Rise)
Although he's a punching bag, I just love everything about his design. Add me to the list of people disappointed that the little bird in the Wilds trailer wasn’t a baby Pukei Pukei. 😔

Rajang (Monster Hunter Freedom 2 debut; I first fought him in MH 4 Ultimate)
Another monster that's up there with Deviljho and Bazelgeuse in terms of menacing auras. He's tiny but packs a punch. His boss music is also, again, excellent.

Zinogre (Monster Hunter 3 debut, but I can't remember when I first saw him)
I love his design and the way he harnesses electricity but hate fighting him =( It's his dog-like qualities... Same goes for Odogaron.

Actually, part of me feels bad while playing this game because you're just destroying these majestic beasts. Seeing them limp away is just...sad. It's just a video game, it's just a video game.

Small beef with Rise

In old MH games, an invading large monster was scary. In Rise, if another large monster popped up during a fight it's basically break time. The two monsters duke it out, then someone hops on the monster and fights the other one while you can't really damage the target monster.

Hunting horn was reworked to be in auto mode. I get that they wanted more players to use it so they made it easier to use, but Rise made me switch from hh to the gunlance, which I guess turned out well.