User blog:Lord Loss/Discussion of the Week: Raptorial Bird Wyverns

Hello, and welcome... to Discussion of the Week!

After Giant monsters last week, I thought I'd go in the opposite direction and look at some of the smallest monsters in the series - Bird Wyverns! Specifically the kind that look absolutely nothing like Birds!

Velocidrome


The first, original Raptor... and one of the most difficult to find anything to say about. Yeah, great colour scheme, great design - but it's a bit limited in how it can attack (at least at Low Ranks). MH4 introduced a Pin move, but HC G Velocidrome in Frontier is what it's all about.

Giadrome
Capcom's "throw darts a list of names" approach to returning monsters means we have seen Giadrome since Freedom Unite - and he's not in Frontier either, oddly, though Giaprey are. Anyway, it's basically a 2nd gen Velocidrome with some ice attacks, and he always looks way to skinny to be warm in the Snowy Mountians. At least Blango have fur.

Gendrome
The most annoying of the 'dromes? I have lots of memories of this guy turning up on G Rank Plesioth Quests in Unite and just being a massive pain in the backside. Also back in Monster Hunter 4, but again it's the G Frontier version that's scariest.

Iodrome
I don't know why, but I really really like his crest. Apart from that it's annoying menace and I totally approve of Baruragaru eating them all the time.

Great Jaggi
300px|center The first raptor Bird Wyvern boss we meet in the 3rd gen... and I like him. A much better fight than Velocidrome, certainly (rage mode, breakable parts, limping). I'm not quite sure how to explain this, but whilst I think Velocidrome has the more striking design, Great Jaggi's is... better? It certainly fits the tone and themes of Tri and the Deserted Island in particular (which is amazing for a purple dinosaur).

Great Baggi
I love Great Baggi, because it has a really cool design and because the devs avoided the obvious trap of 'oh, it lives in an icy area, lets give it ice element attacks!' No sir, Great Baggi will put you to sleep then whack you with its strongest attacks. Some good AI programming there.

Great Wroggi
Wait a second - an orange, poisonous Bird Wyvern that lives in Volcanoes and swamp-like areas? Get out of here, Iodrome!

Questions

 * Which is your favourite individual?
 * Generally, do you prefer the 1st/2nd Gen Raptors or the 3rd Gen ones?
 * Which would you have brought back for MH4? Or would you have gone for all new ones?