Every time I return to Monster Hunter World, I'm immediately reminded what a singular experience hunting monsters is. There's simply nothing else like it in any other game. Like a great play, a hit song, or a classic novel, every hunt is a finely tuned, expertly structured experience. They’re perfectly paced from the moment you enter the wilderness until the second you land the final killing blow, with all of the tension, excitement, and complexity you would expect from a well-crafted story. The most intense battles become the most memorable tales of triumph, but every once in a while Monster Hunter delivers a single moment that tells an entire story all by itself. If you’ve ever seen what happens when the dam breaks in the Rathalos nest, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
As the de facto mascot of Monster Hunter, it’s no surprise that the Rathalos fight is one of the game’s best. The dense and diverse Ancient 𒉰Forest provides the perfect battleground for hunting the flying, fire-breathing beast, and as the fight progresses from one arena to the next, it tests your focus and stamina more than any other hunt up until that point. If you manage to dodge enough fireballs and ward off its aerial attacks long enough, it will eventually retreat to its nest at the very top of the forest. The long climb up the twisted vines and across the canopy is the perfect way to set up the final showdown at the summit, but if๊ the conditions are right, there’s one more big surprise in store before the battle ends.
It's Harder To Get Back Into Monster Hunter World Than Expected In 2023
2018's Monster Hunte♎r World is still a masterpiece, but it's aged more than y🔯ou'd think.
The first time I saw the dam break was a total surprise. This is likely by design, since Capcom surely wants you to know t🎃he dam is breakable, but you probably wouldn’t discover it for yourself without some help. You may not even notice the trickle of water coming out of the wall at the top of the arena, or notice that the clearing where the nest has been made seems to slope down towards a giant drop-off into the jungle below. But if you’re lucky and manage to antagonize the Rathalos in just the right way, the monster will smash into the wall and shatter it, causing a massive flood that will wash the beast away and cause it to plummet hundreds of feet down to the forest floor.
Note: Once you learn about the dam, it becomes another tool in your monster hunting toolbox. You can break the wall yourself with two mega barrel bombs and a shot from the slinger, and when you get really good at judging the monster’s health, using the small amount of damage from the flood itself to⛦ kill the monster is one of the most satisfying ways you can end a hunt.
Monster Hunter World is full of big cinematic moments like this. Turf wars between territorial monsters are one of its signature features, and Bazelgeuse’s entire thing is showing up in the middle of hunts to cause drama. But the dam breakingꦯ is a one-of-a-kind moment. The build-up to it, the interaction between the flood and the monster, and the way it transforms the environment all work together to not just turn the end of the hunt into a thrilling climax, but also to ground the physical environment of the map, making it feel like a real place that can be affected by your actions. The more the terrain and environment factor into a battle, the more interesting and varied hunts become. The dam in the Rathalos nest is the perfect representation of that.
The follow-up to World, Mons𝕴ter Hunter Rise, leaned away from these kinds of environmental interactions, instead choosing to focus on 🐷its traversal and mobility tools in combat. Its biggest flaw is that it doesn’t have its own dam breaking moment - a big, show-stopping event that brings the force of nature into the player vs. monster dynamic - and it’s a weaker game for it.
No one knows wha🤪t Monster Hunter Wilds will bring to 𒈔the series next year, but the dam should be the guiding light for level designers working on the next entry. Just as with every new entry in the series we can expect it will have new ideas, new mechanics, and plenty of elements that make it stand out from other games in the series. I just hope that dynamic environmental interactions are not a signature of Monster Hunter World, but instead an element of level design that will be fundamental to the series going forward. It’s just too good to treat as a one-and-done mechanic. I wouldn’t want to see the dam done the exact same way again, but here’s hoping Capcom has plans to top it in the next Monster Hunter.
