User blog comment:Aandrew07/Discussion of the Week: Subspecies/@comment-1011548-20121021104349

Rather than answer the questions specifically I'm just going to list some general thoughts.

On the whole subspecies have got better as the games have gone on. Black Diablos/Green Plesioth/Blue Yian Kut Ku, etc, are just really obvious repaints, but by the time of the second generation we get a couple of gems in Terra Shogun, Copper Blango (and even Emerald Conga, I suppose). Then, the 3rd gen subs are great on the whole, but with some real disappointments mixed in (Green Narga, Crystal Jhen). I also thought Rust Duramboros was fairly mediocre for a Sub, but when the third gen does it right, you get monsters like Stygian Zinogre, and Frozen Agnaktor, both of which are amazing.

Frontier is a weird one (as ever). It starts off with fairly boring colour swaps (Bright Hypnoc, Red Lava) but it slowly improves as it goes along (Pearl Espinas/Akura Jebia ain't bad) and in the later updates the Subs have actually gotten very good. White Raviente is a totally different fight to normal Ravi (so I'm told), Doragyurosu is fantastic and possibly the coolest Sub ever, and the Supreme monsters are great.

My biggest problem with subspecies is Capcom have a tendency to go really overboard with them. No-one wanted three Rathalos, FOUR Rathians, three Nargacugas, three Lagiacruses. It's very excessive and only serves to make Capcom look lazy.

The best Subspecies, in my opinion, are always the ones that are the most different to the original. If you look at the most popular ones - Frozen Agna, Copper Blango, etc - they live in totally different environments, have different colour schemes, have different ways of attacking, and most importantly, feel different to fight. Terra Shogun subverts this a bit, because it lives in the same areas and is quite a similar battle, but Shogun is so cool anyway his Sub gets a free pass.