User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Astalos/@comment-3298463-20161104135201

Astalos is very fun but I don't really get what they were going for with this monster. From the ways he's portrayed in videos, some of his animations and his armor skills, I guess he's supposed to be super aggresive and fast. But he really isn't. Seregios, for example, is much more relentless. Astalos taunts A LOT after many of its moves, has massive windups for attacks that don't really deal that much damage (like the wing sweep, seriously what is up with that attack? It does like half the damage from its wing slams but he takes forever to perform it and even taunts afterwards), has super weak moves with oddly narrow hitboxes like the horn slash, and he doesn't have that much reach. I suppose he can combo you more easily than other monsters when fully charged. Nonetheless I find him the easiest of the Fated Four by a pretty wide margin, and he's only really threatening when Hyper because he deals so little damage otherwise.

Overall I like fighting him and his design, while not my favorite, has kind of grown on me (and he seems positively austere and down-to-earth when compared to Rocketdragon). But he's pretty baffling.