User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Rathian (5th Gen)/@comment-4969421-20180325174000/@comment-4969421-20180325190005

Maybe not Gen 1 Rathian, but most definitely the worst Rathian design released during the recent time frame (3rd/4th Gen, MHW and Online). The design changes are indeed mostly minor, but they stack up in a way that make Rathian's design simply not appealing for me anymore. There's a few bits I actually like, like how she now has poison hairs on her tail, but, overall, she is a straight downgrade. There's also the problem of every other monster looking fine like I detailed in my comment. Those are my main gripes. I feel like Rathian was forgotten. The way I see it, if I were new to the series and saw MHW Ian's design, I wouldn't really like her design, much less become a personal favorite of mine.

Unfortunately, I cannot elaborate on the fight as I haven't played the game yet, but from what I saw, the moveset is largely the same. The fact they removed her wyvernfire attack annoys me greatly, but other than that she is fine. The animations look smooth and natural like every monster in World. She is a starter monster, which is fine, she is supposed to introduce you to the Flying Wyvern archetype. But the Rath's movesets are simply not up to standards anymore. She is fun to fight, yes, but I'm not going to pretend her moveset is good by its own rights.