User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Nergigante/@comment-15446856-20180728153707

Nergigante truly makes itself stand out from the Elder Dragon's and monsters we've seen before.

Just the appearance of Nergigante is enough to make it one of my favourites, a dragon with the looks of both a demon and strangely enough a bull. It's a design that is perfect in both the features and colours. How do you make it better? Have it grow spikes to cover its vulnerable parts and boost its intimidation factor even more! Also, its roar, best new monster roar in World.

It may use the Magala skeleton, but all except its basic roar and death animation are completely new. It has no elements or ailments to speak of, so its just classic brute force. No body-part goes to zero use here. Nergigante makes use of all. Wherever its just its basic claw strikes, bull resemblant headbutts or tail slams or its more elaborate attacks, Nergigante lets you know it is all about aggression. The one attack that has always stuck out to me is its ground pound. I mean, it literally stands up in bipedal stance while giving you its look of doom, then raises its claw up high and smashes it with so much force it injures itself if it doesn't have spikes. This one attack alone sets apart Nergigante from any other common Elder Dragon, excluding the mostly bipedal Fatalis and Dire Miralis. Have you seen any other monster bipedal or all fours that can do something like this? I was in honest amazement when I first saw the attack back in the beta.

Lets talk about its unique ability, regeneration. Regeneration is something that has NEVER been done before, in any Monster Hunter game. Nergigante's main gimmick is that it is so violent, it injures itself with its own attacks. So it turns its main weakness into its biggest strength. It grows massive spikes from its wounds. Of course, this isn't all. These spikes also make the fight that looked easy at first, into a challenge. Whenever Nerg does a strong attack with these spikes, they are either fired at long radius or they simply burst into a cluster. This grants Nergigante range with its attacks, and makes them much more dangerous. Everywhere except its torso and legs can gain these spikes so there is no part that isn't boosted by them. But, these spikes are also its undoing, as when new, they are weak. And they can be broken, which is enough to to cause Nerg to reel in pain. Similarly to that, once enough time has passed Nerg's spikes turn black, making them near invincible and unable to be damaged properly. You must be as aggressive as Nergigante to take advantage of its weaknesses before they become its strengths. And finally, once all of Nergigante's main parts have gained black spikes, it will do its ultimate attack; the spiked divebomb. You get only one chance for an evade, and if you fail, you're getting hit hard and fast. And with that attack, Nergigante is fully regenerated and the cycle re-begins. This may be my most favourite fight in the game, it is a battle against time, and you must take the monsters strength and turn it into its weakness.

Its BGM theme is, alright, it fits but at times it feels like a generic orchestra. Also I'm probably the only one who notices a one second piece in its chase music that sounds very much like the choir in the Battle Of The Heroes song from Star Wars.

What about its lore? Nergigante is explicitly stated to go after and hunt down other Elder Dragons. Its Turf Wars are against other Elder Dragons where it shows that it is fully capable of defeating them, even if they manage to damage Nerg a bit in the process. Kirin is lucky that Nerg is as of this comments posting, unable to go anywhere else but the Elder's Recess, that unicorn would be decimated. And Nerg just one-hand tosses them all aside as a finisher. Elder Dragons able of controlling the weather and fire are reduced to almost nothing to it. It even takes advantage of a near death Zorah Magdaros to get a massive feast. The only ones that could defeat Nergigante are the healthy giant and first class Elder's, even with those abilities, I doubt Nergigante would be able to defeat a Dalamadur or Alatreon.

Its weapons are a must for Dragon Element and Elder Seal and are currently the only weapons who have High Elder Seal to disable Elder Dragon auras.

Its the only Elder Dragon I'm waiting for its Arch-Tempered quest as Teostra would be a massive challenge but has too much fast attacks, and Kushala and Lunastra would be insane because of cheap bullshit.

Oh and speaking of Kushala... next week will be the first universal rage of a monster in World!