User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Discussion of the Week: Frontier's End - Part 3/@comment-28847569-20191202012939

1) Since I only picked the game up recently, I don't really have too much of a perspective of how Frontier was pre-G. However, from what I've heard/saw from old forum threads and a few people who play the game, the G1 update to Frontier "ruined" Frontier by exponentially increasing the grind and forcing a story mode in order to unlock Tonfas. Later updates fixed most of these issues however, so they didn't really affect me.

2) Fight design-wise, eh, G-Rank is when Frontier started to actually become the "OHKO AoE spam" it's known for. Granted, people who haven't played the game exaggerate how extreme Frontier can be, but many monsters; especially Elder Dragons, tended to be pretty unenjoyable fights in G-Rank for me due to their attacks covering most of the map and OHKOing without Guts (with is basically a mandatory skill in G-Rank Frontier alongside Evasion).

Visual design-wise, this is also when Frontier basically gave up on designing monsters that look like they could live in an ecosystem with other monsters and just started to design monsters akin to MMO bosses that kind of just exist without an ecosystem.

3) Eh, the concept of Supremacy Species feels kind of redundant considering that HC exists.

4) Eh.. they're alright, I guess.

5) Burst Species conceptually are kind of "why," but I think the majority of them are alright fights, with my favorite being Meraginath (visually, he's kind of ugly-especially in Frontier-but I felt like the fight had a nice pace and he was the least-gimmicky Burst Species), and my least favorite being saved for later on. I feel the exact opposite about Origin Species, however. Conceptually, I think it's cool to have more primitive monsters, but their fights are mediocre at best, and actual unapologetic AoE spam at the worse. Voljang is probably the one I dislike the least, while Gureadomosu and Toa Tesukatora are my least favorite.

6) I like Zinogre, Deviljho, and Brachydios since they're faster-paced and harder fights while retaining the spirit of the monster (AoE OHKO super attack aside, but at this point, this kind of stuff is standard for Frontier). I also like many of the new move animations Exotic Narga got, but I honestly prefer the MHO version for toning down those moves to resemble standard Nargacuga more. As for the others... I'm not a fan; especially in the case of Gore and Shagaru. Their True Frenzied States not only look ugly, but don't really make sense, and Frontier made many of Gore's hitboxes worse and gave him a near-instant shoulder-check.

7&8) Never got to experience it.

9) I'm not a fan of Mi Ru either. It's still a clone of other Flying Wyverns, but while Unknown stole moves from bipedal ones, Mi Ru primarily stole moves from quadruped ones like Tigrex, Pariapuria, Hyujikiki (specially, the moves Hyujikiki already shared with Nargacuga), and obviously, Dyuragaua. I do like how it's a close relative of the Dyuragaua species and expands on their kitsune design aspects, but its shape-shifting just doesn't really make sense within the context of MH, and its fight isn't really that interesting.

10) Haven't fought them yet, but from what I've seen of Blinking Nargacuga... whew... that does not look fun.

11) My good ol' blind boy Meraginath; it's a pretty enjoyable fight, and more Espinath is always good to me.

12) Whew. Granted, as fights, Kushala probably has... the worse track record in the franchise history bar none (he's was tedious in 2nd Gen, and either that or worse in every other game sans Stories and Online; the former being a Turn-Based RPG and the latter just increasing his cooldown between flights and some attacks), but Garuba Daora is very easily the worse Kushala species I've ever had the displeasure of fighting. AoE wind pressure and Crystallization spam just makes for a terrible fight.

13) Meraginath, Diorex, and Farunokku. Diorex really only needs better animations (he has a tendency of going from zero to 100 instantly in Frontier), and Farunokku (at least, the MHO version. Didn't get a chance to fight the Frontier one so I'm not sure if this is an MHO addition or not) has a pretty fun gimmick where the sparks around its body serves as tells for its attacks.

18) Switch Axe F is a really smooth and fun version of Switch Axe. The block is kind of overkill, the the dash that Extreme Mode grants every weapon really helps SA.

Tonfas on the other hand are hilariously unbalanced and probably single-handily lead to the mass-degradation of fights in Frontier. It's basically a weapon with built-in 3U Blastblight and allows you to ignore most attacks as long as you press the dodge button every once in a while. Even if you do get hit in the air, Tonfas allow you to recover and either retreat with your free Absolute Evade or just continue attacking. Like, before plying Frontier, I've seen people say that Tonfas wouldn't work in the mainseries, but after using them for myself, they barely work in Frontier.