User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Valstrax/@comment-5020152-20180928153000

Ah yes, Jetpack Birb. Rathalos might be the King of the Skies, but this elder dragon is King of the Stratosphere!

Valfalk (which rolls much more smoothly off the tongue than Valstrax) is a fantastic new monster and possibly my favorite flagship so far. Its concept alone - a rocket-powered raptor dragon - is badass in and of itself, but it's been brilliantly executed on top of that. His ecology has been given a lot of thought, which I really appreciate as a biology major. Valfalk's silver coloration is necessary to reflect the deadly UV radiation that he's exposed to up in the stratosphere. He can fly incredible distances and appear in almost any locale because he flies via rocket power, which gives him the appearance of a shooting star when viewed from afar. His jet-propulsion mechanism is given an explanation, and they even mention such small details as the positioning of his nostrils and his avian respiratory system. And because the birb burns so much energy by spewing it out of his wings, his metabolism is very high and bits of his shell constantly fall off, producing a deadly meteor shower that cements his role as a "living natural disaster" like most other elder dragons.

Lore-wise, the idea that ancient civilizations lived in fear of Valfalk and saw it as a bad omen is a really cool one. Even though I haven't fought this birb in the game proper yet, I can easily see him being a danger to the Soaratorium, especially given the game's intro where he almost smashes the whole thing to pieces.

Valfalk is one of my favorite fights in GU so far (even though I've only fought the demo version at this point). He's insanely fast and has a very wide variety of attacks. We can thank the interchangeable nature of his wings for that - Valfalk can slap his wings on the ground, swipe at you, perform a downwards "rocket punch", and even extend them like giant blades for a slicing attack. That's not even getting into his projectile attacks, which include a series of little Dragon-element missiles, a downward blast to hit anything underneath him, and a jump-backwards-while-blasting similar to what Rathalos does. And of course, you can't talk about Valfalk's gameplay without mentioning his Meteoric Dive, which looks visually incredible and even shorts out the background noise for a few seconds, as if your hunter just went temporarily deaf from the sheer force of the blast. It's one of the most terrifying attacks to witness, and one of the most stressful to almost get hit by.

Also, Valfalk's nest at the Ruined Pinnacle is easily one of my favorite zones in any area in the game. I love the deep midnight-blue color of the sky and the flat, bleak platform. It's right up there with Area 6 of Jurassic Frontier and Area 2 of Frozen Seaway.

Sound design? Best roar I've ever heard, I absolutely love that shrill screech of his. It has such an intensity to it. And the music is easily, EASILY, my favorite theme in all of Monster Hunter so far. It fits the rocket-powered silver falcon meteor dragon from the upper atmosphere to a T, filled with grandiose instruments and a glorious choir. It's emotionally powerful and almost seems to tell a story. It's about a hunter that slowly battled his way to the very top of the food chain, from mushroom gathering to god-slaying, and now he reaches the end of his journey by challenging a monster who claims the sky as its own and nests above the clouds.

That moment when I first slayed the Jetpack Birb, at the very highest point of the Ruined Pinnacle, with the music playing at full tilt, and literally only ten seconds left on the timer... hoo boy. It's been such a long time since Monster Hunter gave me such an adrenalin rush, and that's saying a lot. Pun absolutely intended, I felt on top of the world.

To sum up, Valfalk's definitely one of my top three favorite monsters, together with two other fantastic birbs, Seregios and Malfestio. And speaking of which, next week is the aesthetically best Deviant, so yay!