User blog:Lord Loss/Discussion of the Week: Monster Hunter Frontier Forward

Hello, and welcome to Discussion of the Week: MHF Forward!

It may be the new year, but it's always nice to have a little retrospective now and again... plus I haven't done a Frontier DotW for absolutely ages.

Forward .1
Introducing Rukodiora, an Elder Dragon I really like. The magnetism thing is novel, it has a very interesting design (those wings!) and the fight looks fun to me. It's fought in a new area, Interceptor's Base, which is a bit like the Town except not as terrible.



In addition to Rukodiora, we also get Violent Raviente - a bit like Raviente, but not as terrible - and Unknown (Black Flying Wyvern). Not sure where I stand on Unknown; it's absurdly over-the-top, but it looks incredibly fun and it's nice to see a challenge in Frontier now and again (very high stagger limits and status resists can work wonders, Capcom).



Forward .2
A new environment! Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of Tide Island - yet another damn forested area, and a bland one at that. Caves are OK though. Gogomoa on the other hand is quite impressive; a swinging spider-esque primate, and the carrying a baby thing is a new idea in Monster Hunter.

Forward .3
Two new monsters! Abiorugu - some may call it a Deviljho rip-off, and it's certainly heavily... 'inspired' from that 3rd Generation legend, but it does do some kinda interesting things of its own. It's much more firebased, its spikes change colour, and it has a very cool move where it sweeps hunters into the air with its tail and launches a fireball. Love that.

Taikun Zamuza is a real oddball and I really love it. Fought only in the Tide Island caves, it's a giant crab covered in hard protective mud that has to be chipped away, followed by a hard orange shell before you can fight it in its final electric, super-fast form. The way the fight completely changes in style two thirds of the way through is very unique and quite impressive.

Forward .4
Another new monster, Kuarusepusu (which I can never ever spell). Well, at least it's good to see more ideas based off the 3rd generation types (Brute Wyvern and Leviathan) but I can see why some might find Kuarusepusu's design a little underwhelming - the crystal thing is done quite well already by the Akura scorpions. I do like the sharp teeth though, and the fight looks like a barrell of fun; hard hitting, fast, and changes element depending on the weather! Simple but successful.

Forward .5
And the last new monster of this DotW... Odibatorasu. Hm. Yeah. OK. Well, I like it more than Akantor, some of the sand attacks are quite cool, the colour scheme is fine... but I've always thought the head looks really goofy, especially with the human-like teeth. The fight looks good though, better than Akantor and Ukanlos. A bit.



Oh, before I forget - Supreme Monsters! Supreme Pariapuria is amazing and probably the scariest monster design in the whole series, Supreme Beru is not something I would argue with, and the Gold and Silver Lavasioths... are weird and don't make any kind of sense at all. Look pretty, though.



Questions
Oh you know the drill... favourite update, favourite monsters, area, overall thoughts, all that jazz.