User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Astalos/@comment-5178018-20161106185003

Mah boi, the Masta Pasta Blasta, Astalos.

He's cool, has a nice fight, has a nice gimmick. Armor design isn't bad though I feel it could've been better, but either way the skills line up nicely. Above average weapons with nice stats. Kind of overwrites Zinogre in terms of equipment.

Now, what I don't like is the lack of decent ice weapons to use against it. At least White Knight of the Tundra, Barioth, is on his way to bring more of those to the table. In the meantime, however, I dislike going in without a distinct advantage against Astalos. His fight goes one of three ways; you kill it fast, you stalemate and the fight drags out over fifteen minutes, or it kills you fast. The fact that Astalos' equipment is actually noteworthy makes this even worse for a person like myself who aims for efficiency in time:effort management.

Of course, I do enjoy a challenging fight, just, not all the time. The fact that there's a distinct lack of malleability in control over how well a fight goes is what bothers me, for lack of better wording. That isn't to say "MH should have a difficulty setting," no, that'd be stupid- what I'm saying is there's no point at which this fight becomes effortless. Is that a bad thing? Probably not, but it gets real tiresome after twenty.

Final thoughts: 11.8/-12.4, good monster, lazy reviewer, not enough chirping.