User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Amatsu (4th Gen)/@comment-26421638-20170224122358

Amatsu (Known as Amatsumagatsuchi for a long time), is so far my favorite online final boss of MH. And that's unusual by me because I'm not a good fan of Water Element Monsters and I'm not a big fan of Monsters with "elegant" movements, but this Monster is really well done in nearly every aspect and I'm really glad that returned in MHGen after a long time! Oh, yeah, Amatsu brings to me a lot of good memories from MHP3rd.

Even if I Like Mizutsune, I only see it as a Wannabe... Amatsu is the true most elegant Monster of MH!

It has a great design: An unusual dragon covered with white membranes all around its body. A Leviathan-like skeleton, yellow horns and a slender body. When enraged and in the second stage of the fight, the horns turns gold, glowing eyes and purple spots all around the white membrane. Also, I think that in terms of design shares something with traditional oriental dragons, and apparently seems a "Sacred" or a "Holy" dragon, however we know how this majestic Dragon turns into pure evil when enraged!

I really enjoyed fighting this Elder Dragon: unfortunately you need to take some time to fully understand its movements due to its unusual movements (Sure, it shares something with Underwater Monsters, but is still a Dragon that swims in the air!). But after 2 or 3 Hunts is no longer a real issue, even if is still not very easy to hit its weakspots. Honestly, due to the theme and its slow movements, I find the first part of the battle really relaxing, but it shouldn't be since is an Elder Dragon and a former Online Final Boss, that's why I always keep my eyes open when I go face to face with this Monster. The Second Phase shows the true potential of the threat of the Sacred Pinnacle: the sacred Dragon that dance the air turn into pure evilness capable to cause Hurricanes at will!. The second part is way more intense, Amatsu had enough of you and now only wants to see you dead!

This Monster have a lot of attacks: some of them are simple, like wing slaps or tail whips, but is also capable to spin forward (Like Underwater Lagiacrus), Shoot waterballs, firing water beams, summon twisters etc. But it's most notable Attacks are two. The first one is the huge hurricane that sucks everyone, man this attack is the new Supernova! There are a couple of ways to avoid the Hurricane (Using a balista, a panic dive at the correct timing, farcaster, dig with prowler), but seems that there are a Lot of people who doesn't know how to deal with it. In fact is easy to see double (or even triple!) carts when Amatsu does this move. The second one is the tripe water beam. Not a big issue since is easy to evade, but is a little waste of time.

Killing an Amatsu still remains something of unique, the storm goes away, the sky turns clear, a rainbow appears in the background... And most importantly a different BGM! Really strange that still Today is the only Monster (in the main series) with a death scene like this. Ok, Dalamadur and Nakarkos are good too, but not as good as Amatsu!

Not a big fan of its equipment: sure I like the Design of the GS and have a good Raw Damage but it lacks on Affinity and the Sharpness sucks too... The Armor offers some interesting Skills but could be better, unfortunately it has a terrible design...

There are still a Lot of things that I could say about this Monster, but my comment is already long enough, I cant wait to see G-rank Amatsu in MHXX and what if we could hunt it in the airship? Or what if is the Offline final boss of MHXX? Just random thoughs... Oh yeah, Shantiyen is one of my Favorite Frontier Monsters, can't wait to fight it someday. And let's what will happen in the next Week with Alatreon...

Overall: My Favorite Online final boss with an Excellent Design and a memorable and unique fight. A bit hard to understand during your first hunts but you just need some practice and everything goes fine, just don't go in panic!