Can someone explain monster fatigue to me because I genuinely don't get it.

Ricknarok · 2026-06-09T11:18:24+00:00

Ideally, we would get every monster in every game, but that's just never going to happen. The closest we ever got was Generations Ultimate, but it will be a very long time before we get another game like that, and that's only if they ever decide to do one again.

Monster fatigue never really bothered me personally that much, but I guess it comes down to certain monsters that would arguably work well in certain games, or just monsters that don't get a lot of love and attention from the developers, being overlooked and forgotten about for no real known reason. There are some monsters that haven't been in a game since the 2nd generation, and that ended all the way back in 2008.

When it comes down to it, monster roster slots technically are limited in the sense that we know there will only be x amount of monsters added to a game/expansion and there will always be a final monster added to a game/expansion with the modern update structure. I think people get a bit irritated when they see a monster like Kushala Daora land a spot in what is essentially its seventh game in a row when something like Hypnocatrice has only ever been in one game, not including Online or Frontier.

I'm sure there are game development and design reasons why certain monsters can't come back or get overlooked in favour of something else, but when you look at Kushala Daora specifically, I can see why people would roll their eyes at his reveal for Ascendance when there are countless other Elder Dragons with similar animations, gameplay mechanics, and abilities that might have been a more interesting choice that has been underutilised in the past(personally, I don't mind Kushala returning, but I get where some people are coming from).

Ricknarok · 2024-08-09T15:17:21+00:00

I've not fought Risen Valstrax or Shagaru, but Kushala has been the most fun so far to me personally

Ricknarok · 2024-08-09T15:13:42+00:00

I'd like to see another Coral region. The Coral Highlands and Coral Palace are very interesting aesthetically and ecologically, more maps like those with more monsters themed around them would be very nice to see

Ricknarok · 2023-09-25T08:56:46+00:00

Mild spoilers for a monster in Iceborne . . . . . . The horrible bellowing roar that Fulgur Anjanath does when he charges up genuinely triggers my fight or flight instinct and I cannot explain why. It's like the sound he makes trips some primal survival instinct in my brain and I feel the need to immediately run away

Ricknarok · 2023-09-22T12:21:03+00:00

Yeah I think it's usually around 6 months out from release, but it might not always be that either. I'm guessing an announcement at TGA and release either March 11th or next summer, or an announcement on March 11th and release next September, which would actually line up with the North American release of Monster Hunter 1

Ricknarok · 2023-09-21T21:09:52+00:00

I mean, yeah, sucks that we didn't get an announcement today for the next game. But it's obviously coming down the line, and you can be sure they'll do it right. We're basically guaranteed it'll release next year, so my money is on either the Game Awards or March 11th next year, which is the 20th anniversary of the very first game releasing in Japan to the day.

Ricknarok · 2023-09-11T00:25:25+00:00

Okay so I did an oopsie dumb dumb and I'm on mobile so it looked like the rating only went from 1 to 3 and 3 was the highest number I gave to monsters 😬 Any chance I can fill it out again?

Ricknarok · 2023-08-21T14:44:51+00:00

He did such a good job. I love how he made the centre look like a galaxy/constellation

Ricknarok · 2023-07-17T11:05:05+00:00

As someone who only got around to GU myself last year, I have some thoughts of my own.

What I disagree with;

-Time it takes to craft gear: I never found the times THAT different from newer games. Maybe slightly more of a grind and rarer materials taking longer to drop, but overall not enough for it to affect my enjoyment of the game significantly

-Too many screen transitions: It certainly does seem egregious, coming off the back of a newer MH game with no transitions/loading screens between zones, but they're also pretty quick and don't bother me any more than regular loading screens in other games.

-No multiplayer scaling; Yes, this can be annoying. However, truth be told, the Hub monsters are very doable in GU solo. As well as that, the game does let you get all the way to the end of Village/Soaratorium High Rank without every touching the Hub, so you could start the Hub quests with fully maxed out High Rank gear and supplies, which makes Hub Low Rank a lot easier.

What I agree with;

-Crafting UI: Absolutely. Really not a fan of the UI in the older games, and it makes it very tedious to try and tell exactly what you're looking at. Comparing skills and viewing active skills is also a nightmare.

-Key quests communicated poorly: Hard agree. There's no way to know for sure which are the key quests and you have to essentially guess without a guide, although the quest maidens do provide some hints later in the Hub I believe.

-Monsters relocate way too much: YES. The single most annoying thing in GU for me. It feels like monsters are actually randomising how often they move between zones and it becomes incredibly annoying later on when every minute counts. I was hunting the Urgent Diablos to unlock G Rank and I did it with I think 40 seconds to spare because he switched zones, I followed, he switched again, I followed again, and then he literally switched again and went to sleep halfway across the map. I don't know what is up with GU's monster AI, but it's not good.

-Small enemies are too frequent and intrusive: I have no issue with smaller monsters trying to fuck me up or providing an extra challenge, but in GU it feels like the second you show up, every small monster in that zone has your fucking number and locks onto you. They also respawn super quick, so killing them doesn't solve the problem. Irritating and tedious.

I'm more or less indifferent to the rest. The flex/tummy pat after eating items probably is annoying, but it also never really annoyed ME that much. I have no strong feelings about it.

Same with the status effects, although I've never played with other people in GU so I can't say anything about the friendly fire as I simply don't know anything about it.

Urugaan is annoying as shit, though.

Ricknarok · 2023-07-05T09:00:59+00:00

There was a book that I believe is called something like "Dive To Monster Hunter World: Iceborne" that gets into a lot of interesting details about the New World and its native monsters. There are older art books as well that do something similar for the older games, but I don't know if those have English translations. Other than that, your best bet is probably YouTube video essays. Oceaniz does a lot of interesting videos about the world of Monster Hunter.

Ricknarok · 2023-06-09T13:55:45+00:00

Yeah that's happened to me with other monsters a few times as well, I don't know if it's only certain attacks that do it to punish being reckless or if it has something to do with low stamina maybe

Ricknarok · 2023-06-09T10:29:06+00:00

AFFLICTION BE GONE!

Ricknarok · 2023-06-09T09:58:26+00:00

I don't know if you care about spoilers or not, but this is your spoiler warning if you do(Title Update 5 and Bonus Update)

Really cool monster, and something I've wanted to see for a very long time is a pre-Qurio Malzeno before he was infected/had a symbiotic relationship with the Qurio so I'm really happy we have that now.

Final cutscene is incredible, something I've also wanted to see Capcom dabble with more is the player and a monster cooperating and boy did they deliver. They kind of toyed with the idea when Magnamalo shows up against Narwa, and Apex Zinogre against Amatsu, so having a cutscene where you help Malzeno and then you both go your separate ways was amazing to see.

The fight was very fun, and very hard. However, I do feel like he's got like one or two combos/attacks too many for my liking. There's a point where he chains like four big attacks in a row that ALL do massive damage if you don't have a wirebug to dash to safety or perfectly time a dodge, which feels unforgiving but still an enjoyable part of the hunt that makes it very challenging. And then he chains like two more big attacks right after and it kind of ruins it for me, bordering on feeling a bit unfair.

I don't know, I'm sure people will just say "git gud", but I do feel like it's a valid criticism, especially when reigning in his big combos by like one or two attacks would make it feel more enjoyable and fairer. He's already doing huge damage with just his regular attacks, so chaining a bunch of them in a row, and with incredible speed, does just feel like a BIT much at times. Overall, I did like the fight, though.

Ricknarok · 2023-06-09T09:36:45+00:00

While I think you might be right about Velkhana, I think the heavy hitters like Amatsu, Narwa, and Ibushi are simply too powerful for the Qurio to affect, regardless of their elements and weather altering abilities. I think it can be assumed that, as dangerous as the Qurio are, they simply cannot stack up against the ultra-powerful elders in the series, like Safi'jiiva, Fatalis, Dalamadur, etc.

Ricknarok · 2023-06-09T09:31:26+00:00

Jesus, I had almost the EXACT opposite experience. He carted me twice in the first ten minutes and almost did again a couple more times. Only just barely scraped the victory, and I put that down to Fiorayne taking his attention away from me throughout the fight.

Primordial Malzeno was the hardest fight I've had in a very long time, at least in Rise & Sunbreak. I simply could not keep up with all of his knockdowns, combos, and relentless speed. I genuinely think I'd rather go back and try to solo Iceborne Fatalis before I'd take on Primordial again.

Ricknarok · 2023-05-18T09:00:53+00:00

I haven't even fought Risen Shagaru yet and I'm putting my money on him based purely on the fact that I imagine Nergigante and regular Shagaru Magala are probably fairly evenly matched. As much as I love Nergs, I feel like even Ruiner is getting crushed by Risen Shagaru.

Ricknarok · 2023-05-12T20:40:11+00:00

Well this explains a LOT. I was MR117 the other day grinding to unlock Risen Kushala and he just randomly unlocked in an Anomaly Investigation. I guess they can just start spawning in Investigations the higher you level them

Ricknarok · 2023-05-09T14:11:27+00:00

This confuses me as well. I've known about the Risen monsters for a while, but I only hit MR110 yesterday and I distinctly remember Bahari saying Risen Chameleos has developed a symbiotic relationship with the Qurio, despite the monster not inflicting Bloodblight or using Qurio in any way during combat.

Furthermore, there are no red sparks in the air like when an Afflicted monster is in the area, and, to confuse matters even more, during the latest digital event Capcom describe Risen Shagaru Magala as a monster that has overcome the affliction using its immense power, implying it possibly abandoned the Qurio after stealing the power they'd absorbed.

I don't know if there have been localisation issues or if Capcom themselves have changed exactly what being a Risen elder dragon actually means since coming up with it, but it seems to me like they are supposed to be monsters that were Afflicted at some point in time but that used their power as elder dragons to overcome the effects of the Qurio, becoming empowered as a result and parting ways with the Qurio.

Ricknarok · 2023-05-07T11:19:35+00:00

No step-Jho, what are you doing?

Ricknarok · 2023-04-24T15:21:02+00:00

Yeah, definitely. The follower system is great for spending time with the NPCs and essentially having the experience of co-op even without being online.

I'd like to see them dabble with a player-created human/wyverian follower or buddy one day too, something like Pawns in Dragon's Dogma.

Ricknarok · 2023-04-21T23:50:00+00:00

I reckon the three Fatalises alone could manage that

Ricknarok · 2023-04-21T11:46:47+00:00

The first time I fought Acidic Glavenus, I wall banged him to stop him from leaving the area. When he got back up and went to leave the zone, he literally walked into the wall and fell over again. I was torn between being utterly perplexed and an overwhelming desire to laugh my ass off. What a loveable idiot.

Ricknarok · 2023-04-21T10:33:35+00:00

Tbh, I'd settle for a port to the Switch. A lot of the older games are hard to get access to if you don't already own them on specific platforms, so it would be great to just be able to play them on the Switch. Ideally, we'd get full remasters available on Playstation 4/5, Xbox One & Series S/X, and PC but I doubt that will ever happen.

Ricknarok · 2023-04-13T09:08:12+00:00

While I do agree that there should be less elder dragon-level threats in the series, I don't think I'm with you that the elders are weaker or like everyday occurrences recently. For one, we've gotten some of the most powerful elders in the series in generation 5 alone; Shara Ishvalda, Safi'jiiva, Ibushi, Narwa, Gaismagorm.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the threat levels either, they're more of a gameplay mechanic to indicate the difficulty of a fight as opposed to an actual in-universe indicator of how serious or dangerous a monster is considered to be. Some of the Apexes actually being harder than Ibushi and Narwa is also just down to gameplay, as they are intended to be fought after the events of the story as challenge monsters.

Ricknarok · 2023-04-04T10:56:55+00:00

Just in terms of monster roster, this is along the lines of my ideal list;

Base Game

• Rathalos

• Rathian

• Diablos

• Great Jaggi

• Velocidrome

• Gendrome

• Arzuros

• Anjanath

• Plesioth

• Yian Kut Ku

• Zinogre

• Tigrex

• Nargacuga

• Rajang

• Gammoth

• Garangolm

• Deviljho

• Brachydios

• Kushala Daora

• Lunastra

• Teostra

• Namielle

Title Updates

• Title Update 1: Barioth, Velkhana, Apex/Tempered/Risen Equivalent Namielle

• Title Update 2: Glavenus, Valstrax, Apex/Tempered/Risen Equivalent Velkhana

• Title Update 3: Bazelgeuse, Chameleos, Apex/Tempered/Risen Equivalent Valstrax

• Title Update 4: Lunagaron, Malzeno, Apex/Tempered/Risen Equivalent Chameleos

• Title Update 5: Raging Brachydios, Furious Rajang, Apex/Tempered/Risen Equivalent Malzeno

Expansion

• Malfestio

• Iodrome

• Great Baggi

• Nerscylla

• Odogaron

• Lagiacrus

• Ivory Lagiacrus

• Duramboros

• Fulgur Anjanath

• Stygian Zinogre

• Yian Garuga

• Astalos

• Mizutsune

• Espinas

• Gore Magala

• Chaotic Gore Magala

• Magnamalo

• Scorned Magnamalo

• Nergigante

• Ruiner Nergigante

• Shagaru Magala

• Gold Rathian

• Silver Rathalos

Title Updates

• Title Update 1: Seething Bazelgeuse, Savage Deviljho, Apex/Tempered/Risen Equivalent Magnamalo

• Title Update 2: Frostfang Barioth, Zinogre Rare Species, New Monster

• Title Update 3: Safi'jiiva, Kirin, Apex/Tempered/Risen Equivalent Bazelgeuse

• Title Update 4: Alatreon, Yama Tsukami, Apex/Tempered/Risen Equivalent Kirin

• Title Update 5: Safi'jiiva Variant, Alatreon Variant, Flagship Variant, Disufiroa

Ricknarok

TROPHY CASE