User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Deviljho (5th Gen)/@comment-24734669-20181201012927

Deviljho was the first update monster added to the game, and a rather strange one at that. Arguably, it could've taken the spot of "Best Brute Wyvern in the Game" from Radobaan (which is kinda hard to top, even when all the other Brute Wyverns are seriously mediocre), but it got a few changes which made it pretty disappointing (but admittedly much better off than literally any other returning monster).

Let's first get to the good stuff. First, I will admit that Deviljho has gotten a much better design than it did before. Its eyes now stare into your soul with terrifying slits rather than being derpy and black as they were before; as well as this, it now looks more threatening than it did before, as its muscles now glow when it is enraged. Pretty hellish, indeed!

Second, it has become more of a challenge! Aside from the fact that it kept at least 95% of its old attacks (and at the same speed as before, for the most part), it gained some new devastating attacks! It is able to pick up smaller monsters with its jaws and thrash them about like ragdolls (most satisfying when done on Great Jagras, the biggest loser in World), it's able to thrash and snap when caught in a pitfall trap (and use Dragon Breath if it's enraged), and, finally, it's capable performing a devastating crushing slam attack with its jaws; all of these attacks would normally make for some solid gameplay!

So, what went wrong?

It got depersonalized is what went wrong! Remember when Deviljho had a massive appetite, and would always stop fighting you to eat whatever meat you placed down for it (and get immediately paralyzed or tranquilized if it was yellow or blue meat)? Yeah, it doesn't do that anymore. Doing that just causes old Fagras to amble across the entire map, eat the meat, and then get used as a bludgeon by Deviljho. Now, you have to wait for it to go into Rage Mode, hit it hard enough to cause it to counterattack, smack it once any time during the animation of the attack, and watch as it exits Rage Mode and stumbles across the area like a klutz before going in for the kill. Boring.

Also, Deviljho is way too shy! Remember when it took pride in crashing your hunt to wreck your ass as your teammates and your target monster looked on in horror? It barely does that anymore. It almost never shows up in a quest. Encountering an invading Deviljho in your quest is like encountering a unicorn; it never happens, and if it does happen, then you are automatically God because you just broke the game.

(Meanwhile, every non-Elder Dragon investigation will always have Bagel Goose show his ugly face 5 seconds into the hunt... sigh)

Adding on to that, Chaorren did a pretty good job explaining about how it took many of Anjanath's worst aspects while keeping its own bad attacks. Even though every other Brute Wyvern has a much better tail whip attack (yes, the shitty dinosaurs get SOME good attacks), Deviljho kept its stupid old spin attack; although Deviljho's nowhere near a walking fossil like Rathian is, that old attack still needs to go. This is should not go without saying that even being gently stroked by the tip of its tail will knock you across the area like you were just under it; if you're fighting against the monstrosity that is Tempered Deviljho, having to face that means you immediately get carted. Truly solid gameplay there, fellas.

Oh, yeah, it also has Anjanath's clunky-ass leap and pin attack. That by itself is a big no-no. Anjanath, being an ugly, derpy, uninspired 2016 T.rex that took jankiness lessons from Plesioth, is one of the worst monsters in the game. No monster is allowed to be even nearly as bad as it, and the ones that do end up being really bad (aggressively glares at Zorah Magdaros, Lavasioth, and Kushala Daora). Even worse, Capcom thought it was a great idea to copypaste all its basic moves onto other Brute Wyverns. Why? Why did you have to ruin Barroth and make Uragaan even clunkier with all this stuff? Oh, well; at least Deviljho doesn't have the retarded insta-roar that the other Brute Wyverns have.

As well as this, Deviljho's new theme is surprisingly worse than it was previously. Sure, Kushala Daora's and Teostra's themes were reworked quite a bit, but at least the two themes have all their original melodies and rhythms. Meanwhile, Deviljho's theme starts off just as well as it did before, right before being watered down by the fact that 25% of its older melodies were replaced by confusing and underwhelming new sections, making it less epic than it was before.

Now, this is the part where I become Chaorren and start complaining about this monster's sound design. Yes, it still has many of its older sounds, but (aside from its roar and death sound) they all got switched around; meanwhile, it got some really bad new sounds. Why does it emit that weird growl-bellow 50% of the time? Why does it sound like it's running out of air to breathe when performing its Dragon Breath attack? WHY DOES IT SCREECH LIKE A PTERODACTYL WHEN YOU COUNTERATTACK ITS COUNTERATTACK AND FORCE IT OUT OF RAGE MODE!?

In all, although Deviljho got it much better than all the other returning monsters, it still leaves quite a lot to be desired. Sure, it may put up a much better fight than Diablos, Teostra, or Kushala Daora, but it has lost many of the things that made it unique and gave it its own personality. Now, it's just like any other Brute Wyvern, except with some more steroids pumped into it.

Next week comes the tedious loot simulator.