User blog comment:Plexioth- xD/Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate/@comment-5963861-20130118032003/@comment-1758220-20130118040055

The problem is that Brachydios is a really weird, unusual-looking monster.

See, in Japan, there is enough of a dedicated player base that you can put whatever the hell you want on the cover and millions of people will buy it on day one.

In the west however, they need to be a bit more careful. They needed to play it safe and have a less out-there monster on display I don't think a really strange-looking monster like Brachy on the cover would be as appealing as a much more badass-looking, more conventional, more identifiable monster such as Azure Los.

They also needed to sell some of the game's more nuanced attractions, such as crafting equipment from the parts of monsters, which is on display here.

Now personally, I would not have picked Azure Los, seeing as he's already had his turn and he's a first-gen monster. I would have picked Stygian Zinogre, who is ridiculously badass-looking, a subspecies of a 3rd-gen flagship (appropriate for an expansion) and whose render could have easly been repurposed into an action shot the way they did with Azure Los'.