User blog comment:Lord Loss/Monster Appreciation Day: Yama Tsukami/@comment-1758220-20120325160941

YAMA TSUKAMI

Concept: A benevolent, floating wonder, worshipped by ancient man. I like this idea, as the religion aspect of the MH world is still quite hazy. It's nice to see Capcom attempting god-like monsters. 8/10

Design: Very nice effort on this one. What I like about it most is that it combines both earth, sea, and air into one. It has an earthy forest on its back, and generally earthy colors overall, the body of a cutlefish, and yet it resides in the air. Perhaps it's this combination of the three domains that prompted early man to worship him, but that's one for the theory blog. Anyway, I love his tiny red eyes, his segmented whiskers, and the gill pattern on the underbelly. Not a fan of the tail, though. The teeth and gums, though a little odd-looking, help to illustrate that this is indeed a naturally occuring creature, and not a divine supernatural being. 8.5/10

Sound: His BGM is really cool. The deep choir emphasises his god status nicely. I adore his roar. It sounds very similar to a Brumak from the Gears of War series (Which is a good thing). 9/10

Gameplay: Well, assuming we're talking about MHFU here, I'd have to say I like it. It feels like a classic video game boss, with it in the center and the player on a ring around it. We've all fought bosses like that before, and it feels good to have a good old fashioned conventional video game boss here. He adds additional challenges in the form of exploding thunderbug swarms and 2 one hit KO moves. Good difficuly, not super hard, but challenging to be sure. 8.5/10

Equipment: His weapons are some of the best, if not THE best paralysis attributed weapons in the game. The bow line is equally as impresive with its thunder damage. The armor sports some impressive initial defense and useful skills such as ESP. 9/10

Overall: A great final-tier monster. Mixes unique gameplay with balanced difficulty, and looks great doing it. 9/10