User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Pink Rathian (5th Gen)/@comment-15446856-20180615182834

Almost forgot to comment about this revamp, it would have been a bad thing I forgot about it!

There are two changes Capcom made to Pink Rathian in 5th Gen. They gave its midair tail flip a build up, and changed its fire bite to a follow up forward bite. And that my boys is how you make a monster that was horrendous in the last game it appeared in into something that feels fair.

With its two worst things gone, Pink Rathian gains new stuff in place that makes it really feel like a subspecies. They finally gave it a turned tail flip while it flies, made the wyvernfire fireball exclusive to it (unless Gold Rathian is added in an update), and made it generally far more aggressive than the standard Rathian. Having no more insta bullshit means you don't have to worry about being suddenly wind gusted, robotically homed into, and hit with a powerful poison attack with no escape. Even if it did have this, a severed tail no longer inflicts poison. Instead we get a Pink Rathian in its best appearance yet, sporting a range of attacks and is actually fun now.

But I will not deny for a second that the story tracking for it was terrible. Not only did you have to repeatedly search areas for tracks and in two places it doesn't appear in, when you returned to Astera you'd get reminded by the Handler every single time that you need to search these tracks and how you get them. At least they didn't make a monster that has you wasting time collecting tracks during the hunt so it would become gradually easier to damage... Oh wait.