User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Lunastra (5th Gen)/@comment-15446856-20181214131804

Oh boy, Lunastra, another Elder Dragon I have a lot of things to say about.

After being absent from the main series for over a decade, last being seen in the last classic Monster Hunter game, Freedom Unite, Lunastra finally returns... But unfortunately... she failed to land in the great zone like Teostra...

First of all, I love that Lunastra has blue flames to distinguish her from Teostra and his orange blast powder, it really sets them both apart from their last appearance together. Some slight adjustments have been given to the wings and tail, just minor growths but they further help it stand out. To my surprise, they actually went out of their way and made a remixed theme for Lunastra; they really wanted us to tell them apart now!

The appearance, theme and bond with Teostra is what stops Lunastra from falling into the lowest category, containing Kushala Daora, Paolumu and the Mud and Lavasioth.

I really want to like the fight of Lunastra, but.. just... ugh.... I'll explain.

Lunastra takes all of the few bad things from World Teostra, meaning the continuous chip damage, an instant roar and fast attacks and amplifies it up to a frustrating level that really trashes the fun that could be had with this monster. Being chipped into a Stun that results in your cart is a aggravating experience. The worst things that really harms Lunastra are the blue flames (aka the napalm blazes) and unnecessary high damage done from its fire attacks in general. I get the feeling that Lunastra does so much damage even in a non tempered state is because elitist assholes wouldn't shut up about the game being "too easy", despite base game World being the incredibly balanced with damage numbers. It is evident in how Lunastra casts off its blue flames in literally half a second and all fire attacks do a large chunk of health even with 25+ resistance to fire and fully augmented gear. Worse yet, the blue fires will quickly spread across the battlefield and blast the poor hunter with embers that in my opinion, do WAY too much damage. And it gets even worse. All of its blue flame spreading always comes with Dragon Wind Pressure, meaning you'll be left vulnerable even if you somehow avoid it. Even if you manage all of that via mantles, you still drain health like the crappers thanks to the aura and burning blue fire that is everywhere. So there is no escaping damage hell. Also, for no reason at all, it cannot be affected by Flash Pods normal and Tempered, not even the Dread Rath method of wounding its wings makes it affectable. Artificial difficulty.

What the fight consists of is you running around the Lunastra, and getting in the very few chances you have to hit it without getting a heatwave of blue to the everything. Fuck up, and there's a good chance you'll be hit locked in a variety of ways and be left completely unable to do anything about it. But most of the time, you'll have to deal with Luna's running attack that has the homing of an old gen Rathaloses talon strike, which of course it does every time you get anywhere beyond a few feet of it. Yeah, and it always comboes the hit of the run instantly into another extremely fast attack that is likely to leave you Stunned and get you sent back to camp enraged because Stun takes too long to recover from against this shear shitfest. Fucking marvellous.

And god's forbid when you are in the range of Lunastra's own nova attack, it is one of the worst attacks I've seen a monster use. Teostra's Supernova is nothing compared to this. Lunastra will slam onto the ground, and suddenly a gigantic, no an AREA wide heatwave is instantly emitted from Lunastra. You MUST, and I mean MUST dive from the beginning blast, if you don't you're done for, no exceptions. Even if you manage to evade the burst, the whole area is caked in blue flames that at random, burst into embers that wreck you, and can combo you to knockout. All the while you will very likely still get hit by Dragon Wind even if you evade the burst because the attack is that fucking cheap. And the finish it all off, you MUST evade when Lunastra lifts its wings, as it emits an equally large burst that instantly blasts all fires and will wipe you out if you fail to avoid it due to the damage you've already taken! By White Fatalis, this bullshit is even worse than Kushala and Kirin!

I almost feel like Lunastra has been made into a Mary Sue in some sences, as it can combat pretty much everything you have, has attacks that leave to next or no time to recover or flat out drain your health to zero in seconds just being near it, and has next to no real weaknesses.

And let's not forget about its quests. The introduction has you fight it in the arena, not the normal arena no no, the special arena, the arena with the smaller space, it has wide reaching blue flames that occupy the whole area, you have to fight it until it flees, you have 15 minutes to complete it in or you fail. Is this what you want elitists? You want cancer like this to be the future of update added quests? If that is what you want, just know that you are killing the enjoyment of the majority of the community who want fair challenges, not "I want multiple Arch Tempered monster quests with no carts and a small time limit!" and "Bring back the challenge (aka the outdated shitty broken mechanics and monsters) that the old games had!". The main quest it is in, Blue Prominence, has another Elder Dragon in it. This Elder Dragon is in the quest from the start. This Elder Dragon will never flee, and can only be removed by killing it. This Elder Dragon can be Kushala Daora. Kushala Daora can use its tornado attack in the blue flames and create a blue flaming tornado. Fighting both of them together is something even Frontier isn't insane enough to create, and should be avoided at all costs. And the grand pinnacle, fighting both it, AND the Teostra at the same time. And since they're partners like the Rathalos and Rathian, they don't fight each other, they both fight YOU. The first in the game to have a bond attack, they both, of course use their supernova attacks to annihilate any hunter in its range. Funnily enough, it is much easier to avoid than the standard Lunastra Napalm-nova. Then comes Tempered Lunastra, I've only fought it in the triple event quest, as I refuse to fight an individual in an investigation. And from what I see, regular Luna does as much if not more damage as a Tempered Teostra, and its Tempered state is... actually weaker! In fact, investigations of Lunastra are weaker than the optional quests! RIP the once well-held balance.

Is the armor worth it? To be honest, no. It is mainly focused on team helping skills, not effective for killing monsters and won't help much in solo hunting.

Once again the weapon designs have been given the World-lazy treatment, just iron weapons given a blue recolour and in the two branching pathways; Nergigante and Xeno'Jiiva parts attached onto it. What is the reason Capcom cannot make original weapon designs in this game?

It is shameful that the only real good things about Lunastra is its appearance and theme, and the rest is a mess of a fight, overdone to hell in an obvious attempt to appeal to players who sub-three Teostras on a regular basis. Look Capcom, I am smart enough to know that female Lions are the main hunters IRL while males mostly sleep, but you didn't have to make it 'THAT' powerful. How can I have fun if the monster has attacks that give you a split second to react and with large AOE's covering the floor most of the time? I can't. Many others can't. I hope the feedback from this helps them better balance the next new monster they bring back or create. Maybe they could, perhaps add a monster or two for Low Rank for the new wave of players coming in from the PC?

What I can say is, Lunastra is the perfect example of a bad tasting fruit, it may look great, but when you take your first bite at it, the foul taste instantly hits you. Just because it has a fantastic colour scheme, and a remixed theme doesn't excuse it having a shitty fight. I imagine the developers/players thought this would be a cool idea on paper, but didn't think about how it would actually function in game. And in my opinion, it was a mess.

Lunastra to be honest after what I've seen of it, can be put back on the bus and returned to the "forgotten monsters" island where it got sent after Freedom Unite. And it shouldn't be brought back until they make it a balanced and good monster!

But regardless of everything I mentioned, Lunastra's difficulty is nothing in comparison for what came next...