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

Welcome to Discussion of the Week: Pseudowyverns!

No, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be two words, but as it's a fan-coined term, it doesn't really matter! (Yeah, Akantor and Ukanlos are 'Flying Wyverns' in-game...)

Apologies for missing it last week, but as I'm sure you've deduced from my lack of activity by now, I have so much stuff on IRL it's not even funny. But lets put that behind us and look, this week, and some very interesting monsters...

Tigrex


Yep, every still remembers Tigrex. The first Pseudowyvern, and very rudely interrupted that Popo Tongue gathering Quest back in Freedom 2. Though he did get a little revamp in the 3rd Generation (for the one game of that era he appeared in) it didn't seem that impressive to me. A lunging spinning attack does not a fresh fight make. Still think Frontier's HC Tigrex is the most interesting version of this guy around, but as most of us will never get to face that one... MH4's 'Diseased Tigrex' is looking rather fascinating.

Tigrex Subspecies


Well, he's apppeared in all of one game so far (who knows, he might make it into MH4) but I think Black Tigrex is a fairly good Sub. Nothing stunning, but I like the colour scheme, new location, new super-roar... there's a bit of good stuff there, but I'm not sure he's anyone's absolute favourite subspecies.

Nargacuga
I like Narga. I like Nargacuga a lot. I think it's rather clever how it acts as a counterpart to Tigrex; you can see that they're closely related, but whilst Tigrex focuses on raw power, Narga is equally as adept at agility and speed. It's a great comparison. Plus Narga has a smashing design, and is (IMO) vastly more fun to fight. It's one of those really great monsters where the fight is as fun regardless of what weapon you're using. Bit disappointed he didn't receive a bigger boost in Gen 3, though.

Nargacuga Subspecies
NO NO NO NO NO NO.

Nargacuga Rare Species


Eh... it's ok, I guess, but the invisibility seems very... gimmicky. It makes sense for Chameleos, because it's based on a chameleon, which are famous for their camouflage, etc etc, but why would Narga go invisible? Especially when it blends in well with the Tower anyway. There's a point, the Tower isn't a natural habitat, I wonder where the Rare Species would normally live... The poison mechanic almost works, though. I suppose.

Pariapuria
Hm... I'm kinda divided on this one. I like the appearance, the colour scheme, I think he fits very well in the Gorge (and Tide Island, to a degree), and there's uniqueness in the whole meat-eating thing and the fact he never goes into Rage Mode. But on the other hand every Frontier video makes him look really easy and hilariously sluggish. Now, Supremacy Pariapuira... I'm looking forward to that.

Akantor


Akantor is interesting, because to me it's an example of how a great monster can be ruined by doing just one little thing wrong. He's too slow. And thanks to that, you can deal loads of damage very quickly (especially with Hammers in FU) and he can't really fight back. Boo. Awesome design, though. And great Ecology vid.

Ukanlos


I don't like Ukanlos any more than I like Akantor, because a) he's still quite slow and b) it feels like they tried to fix the 'you can hit him lots rather quickly' problem by just giving Ukanlos a crap-ton of HP. That's cheating, Capcom! You're supposed to make the fight more organic and give the monster new and interesting moves that mean they punish you for trying to hit their weakspot, or they cleverly move their weakness out the way all the time... not just go to the game editor and move a decimal point in the HP meter. /rant Great BGM, colour scheme/appearance, though.

Odeibatorasu


Fire, Ice and... Sand? Um, OK Frontier, whatever. You know, this fight actually looks a great deal more fun than Akantor and Ukanlos; I love the way his roars make all the sand ripple, and indeed that all his attacks seem to utilize sand in some way. The design of him is... quite weird, in my opinion, I'm not sure the giant cannon on the back is really necessary, and the face/chin is quite goofy, but the fight looks great, so what more can you ask for. Still slow, but at least Odeib makes up for it with lots of AoE attacks and sweeping beams and sand swimming and stuff to keep you at least slightly on your toes.

Questions

 * Comment below to tell me your favourite/least favourite/any you want to see back in future.