User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Brachydios(4th Gen)/@comment-5020152-20150906023458

BRACHYDIOS (aka THE BRACH)

Concept: A leviathan was the flagship of Tri. A fanged wyvern was the flagship of Portable 3rd. Before the creation of 3 Ultimate, there was only one new monster class that didn’t get its time in the spotlight – and then came Brachydios the brute wyvern as the flagship beast of 3 Ultimate. He was designed to represent the newest game, and I’d say he did a pretty good job of it. 8/10

Design: Flagship monsters need to be particularly unique, and the Brach happens to be one of the most unique monsters in the main series. While he’s much too weird-looking to have made it to the cover of America’s 3 Ultimate box (being replaced by Azure Rathalos), there’s no denying that he’s got a pretty cool design. Like all brute wyverns, he looks like a theropod dinosaur, albeit a dinosaur with slimy fists and a glowing pompadour. His enormous head is covered in sharp-looking spikes and ridges, and his rather short tail resembles a mace. Brachydios’ color scheme and textures are gorgeous – he has a deep blue hide that shines with a purplish gloss when you view it from the correct angle, and his neon-green slime compliments the blue very nicely. Finally, when Brachydios moves, you can see that he doesn’t lurch around clumsily like Uragaan or Deviljho, but instead takes graceful strides like Barroth. Excellent work on this monster, Capcom. 9/10

Sounds: There’s no sound in the game quite like the Brach’s roar – actually, it’s better described as a drawn-out, animalistic scream. His smaller grunts and hisses are even weirder noises, but then again, the Brach is a weird monster. The music that plays when fighting Brachydios is absolutely awesome, an upbeat, primal theme full of percussion instruments. 8/10

Gameplay: Most brute wyverns focus primarily on smashing you to bits with their heads and tails, but the Brach prefers literal hand-to-hand combat. His slimy arms are brutally strong and pack quite a punch, and his attacks can come with shocking speed. Those fists also discharge explosive slime that can give you the dangerous Blastblight ailment, as well as turn the battlefield into more of a minefield. The Brach’s deadliest attack involves him licking his fists before leaping across the area at you. He can cover some AMAZING ground with this attack, and when he’s enraged, he sometimes skips the fist-licking and goes right for the jump. Also when enraged, he ignores Blastblight altogether and goes straight to the explosions, giving most of his attacks a very much unwelcome extra dose of damage. He also has a few nasty attacks involving that horn of his – namely, an AoE explosion wave as well as an advancing wall of fire. All in all, no matter if you love fighting Brachydios or hate fighting him, the battle is sure to be… a blast. 7/10

New Stuff: In 4 Ultimate, the G-Rank Brach takes a leaf from Abiorugu’s book and becomes able to run extremely fast in order to close distance between him and you. I call it the “Abio Rush” for obvious reasons. Additionally, the Brach can discharge a massive slime puddle with his horn when he’s not enraged, and when he’s about to do his standard fist attack, he can suddenly lunge forward before hitting the ground. Most of this new stuff is extremely annoying. Frenzied Brach just makes it worse. 5/10

Equipment: Because I’m no fan of hunting Brachydios over and over again, I’ve never made his equipment, but there’s no denying that Brachydios gear is incredibly useful. His weapons deal Blast damage and have solid raw power backing them up, meaning that they’re effective against pretty much any monster. The armor grants you the Bombardier skill, increasing the strength of any Blast-element weapon. If you want the weapons, chances are you’ll want to make the armor too. 8/10

Cutscene: The Brach ambushes the hunter from out of the lava, narrowly missing his target. Unperturbed, the Brach turns around and madly smashes the ground with his fists, laying down puddles of slime. The hunter is knocked to the edge of the lava pool by one explosion, and the Brach steps forward, leaving nowhere to run. This cutscene is one that I really like – it shows off the slime gimmick as well as Brach’s ferocity, and the music that plays is pretty good too. 9/10

Summary: The Brach’s job was to represent the last installment in a trilogy of the most awesome Monster Hunter games yet. He did it magnificently, and still remains a really good monster to date. Yes, he’s a little odd, but hunting the Brach is such an excellently unique and challenging experience that it doesn’t matter. I’d say that Brachydios is one of the best flagship monsters that Capcom has created so far – but seriously, there are a couple of things that the Brach takes way too far, and that kind of ruins the fun for me. Overall 7.5/10