User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Legiana/@comment-5020152-20180428133611

Best monster in World. There's nothing I don't love about Legiana (although admittedly, not having the game kind of hinders my ability to love such things as her equipment and gameplay). But even before the game officially released, I was super-hyped about this monster. Mizutsune might have been the previous reigning champion of "prettiest monster", but Legiana has the Water Fox beat by a landslide. Or... avalanche?

Her absolutely flawless design clearly draws inspiration from birds of prey, and since I'm a huge fan of anything bird-like, that already scores her some major appreciation points. But that's not even the best part of Legiana's design - she's also very manta ray-like, especially the way her wings, tail, and fins are designed; plus, her lovely-looking, slippery-smooth textures appear to be very ray-like as well. Her wings, additionally, remind me of a butterfly - I doubt that's actually part of the inspiration behind her design, but it is a fitting comparison for such a beautiful monster. Legiana's color scheme is also amazing. The dark blue topside and pure white underside makes her fit in perfectly with the vast blue skies of the Coral Highlands as she soars unopposed high above her kingdom. Yeah, sure, Odogaron and Deviljho are a thing, but up in the sky, Legiana has absolutely no match.

Legiana also fights very beautifully, with lots of spinning and flipping around in the air. I imagine that that can get pretty annoying after a while, but I'll be damned if it isn't incredible to watch. The best part though, which I find absolutely mind-boggling, is her Ice-element attacks. Most ice monsters produce their elemental attacks by spitting ice or straight up gathering it up from the ground, like you'd expect from an Ice monster. But Legiana... she conjures it! She flaps her wings or flips her tail, and it just APPEARS like magic! It's explained above that she's just releasing ice particles from the pores on her underbelly and mixing it with air currents, which is already insane, but DAMN it looks incredible in execution! She's the closest thing to a waterbender we have in Monster Hunter. Just the idea of a monster fighting this way is super-cool to me. Legiana's whole concept and the way it's executed is simply amazing. Love it, love it to bits.

Also... sound design. Dat roar! She's like a songbird! Come on, like that's not the most incredibly gorgeous sound you've ever heard. Imagine her at the very highest point of the Coral Highlands, producing that song as it carries across the region for miles! You can compare it to Amatsu's cry if you want, but I'm sorry, Legiana just does it better. The Coral Highlands boss theme is also very good, it kind of fits the whole whimsical atmosphere of the surreal-looking area. It might not be the most fitting for Legiana, since I think it fits Paolumu a little bit more, but awesome music all the same.

What is it with flying wyverns recently? For the past three Western games, we've gotten a total of only four new ones - Seregios, Astalos, Legiana, and Paolumu (unless I'm forgetting someone like a dum-dum) - and they're all extremely interesting with amazing and unique concepts that set them apart from the rest. I can definitely say that Capcom has definitely been going for quality over quantity recently, at least with their fliers. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the fanged wyverns. Next week... ugh.