User blog:Lord Loss/Discussion of the Week: Cinematics

Welcome to Discussion of the Week: Cinematics!

OK, I'm not going to put in this blog every single cinematic from every MH game. That would a) be crazy, and b) make the page load really slowly, as I learnt from having too many Youtube videos on my Soundtrack blogs.

So this will just be a fairly limited selection and discussion of my favourites. Feel free to suggest your own in the comments.

Monster Hunter
Let's kick things off in style with the opening of the very first game. In my opinion it's a nice introduction, it makes Rathalos feel powerful and slightly awe-inspiring... and hey, it confirms birds and turtles actually exist in MH-world! Plus the sight of electric-blue Velociprey trying to hide in green grass to sneak up on Aptonoth always makes me chuckle.

Monster Hunter 2
The Monster Hunter 2 opening. Notable for its quick look at Wyverians, and the fact that the Blangonga vs Hunter fight looks pretty epic. Normally I find the monster vs monster struggles more thrilling myself, but this still does a good job of introducing Blangonga as a new threat, and building up the suspense for Kushala.

And I never noticed before, but at 2:25... is that the purple lady from MHP3?!

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
Chose this on account of the fact it's really damn creepy, and shows us a bit about Khezu's nature as a sit-and-wait predator.

You know how I mentioned monster vs monster earlier? This is probably the best for an ecology video. A real clash of the titans, it made Akantor look damn powerful (even if he never really jumps that fast in-game...)

Monster Hunter Tri/Third Generation
Probably my favourite opening from any MH game. Love the music, the incorporation of underwater monsters (hinting that swimming is a big part of the game), Rathalos swooping in, Rath vs Lagia... coolio.

Probably my favourite MH3 ecology - sorry, 'Life' - video, because it actually tells a story. And Jhen is damn cool. Must admit the random switch to live-action just for the sand going 'poof' towards the end is hilariously naff.

It's pacy, varied, has a Carapaceon cameo, some cool monster interaction. My biggest bugbear is that White Lagiacrus spends the whole time in the water when his whole gimmick is being heavily land-based but oh well.

It was around this time that Capcom were trying to convince us that 3rd gen subs were so good they could practically be considered new monsters. It didn't quite pan out, seeings as Lagia Sub is the only one that gets his own cutscene (really Capcom? Not even the new Rare Species?) but it's a good one, and it left me wanting to see a Ludroth Sub intro, or a Quru Sub intro. It's a chance to do something different and exciting with what's a fairly familiar monster.

Sort of sums up Monster Hunter as a whole, really - there's always something bigger and nastier out there that wants to eat you.

Frontier
Honourable mention to all the Frontier Benchmarks - they're all great and we're well overdue for a new one. But the third is my favourite so far, especially since it achieves the nearly impossible and makes Raviente look exciting.

Discuss your favourites and which ones you'd include in the comments.