Seeing the equal dragon weapon and its meshed designs makes me want a MH game where a lot monsters have creepy designs and a horror atmosphere. Would be fun to fight those monsters

That Condor Wyvern is pretty much just Hypnocatrice heh.

Oh shit, so Monster Hunter had an rpg spin-off called “monster hunter stories” where it’s like how to train your dragon and you got to befriend several monsters and ride them. Recently, it had a sequel on the switch that maybe came out a year ago idk. But, the idea of machinery being melded into the bodies of monsters was a plot point in the first game. Where an evil scientist tried to forcibly control monsters using machinery melded into their bodies. You can even get mysterious scraps after defeating them. In fact one horrendous (in the cartoony style it makes it seem less scary) scene is when the scientist has successfully molded machinery into the body of a Aptonoth and forced it to look like a statue before you fight it. The monster literally blended in so well with the other statues. They didn’t use it in the main game, but the idea of building or controlling a monster using machinery wasn’t forgotten. Look for EX monsters.

The Equal Dragon Weapon is such GREAT material for a horror spinoff. Khezu and Vaal Hazaak are the "darkest" monsters in the game, but something like this for finishing the monster hunter series would be just INSANE. Imagine them doing a monster hunter in which at the end of its story they "leak" the EDW flying towards whichever village or city for the next game and then the last MH is just a dark, empty and terrifying game, a scenario similar to the first Lunagaron with the anomaly in Sunbreak in which all the endemic life is nowhere to be seen and all the monsters in the area are just dead...except more gruesome. I really hope they try to bring this piece of lore back because it's just insane

That proposed mould effect you could argue was implemented in a way. It is possible it was the inspiration for the Stench status effect which Congalala, Volvidon and Seltas Queen can inflict on you.

9:19 the fortress dragon actually reminds me a lot of the seltas queen, what with its general silhouette, design of its front legs, and the way seltas rides on its back shooting projectiles like the goblin castle

on the point of the "monster cut in two" for the panther dragon, in MH1 and 2 (and freedom) you can cut velecoprey in half in specific curcumstances, the body fades away and doesnt stay on the ground tho

What I find interesting is that in Monster Hunter World Gajalakas exist. And in their concept art, they are kinda their own thing and are not felynes they look more like goblins in they even share some of those mask designs, especially forest ones.

seeing the equal dragon weapon looking like a dragon wearing hunter armor kinda reminds me one of the fatalis data entries where it talks about how it's crest/skin has the melted corspe/armor of hunters who tried to slay it but failed, thus making our weapons bounce when we attack it

I think the Equal Dragon Weapon did get used in Generations Ultimate in the form of the Ahtal-Ka's fight. It puppeteers a machine very much like the Equal Dragon Weapon made up of old monster parts and left over materials from some sort of construct.

Holy shit! The Equal Dragon Weapon reminds me a LOT of the Forgotten One from Castlevania Lament Of Innocence. With how visceral compared to everything else it looks. Also, the Fist monster with its Jojo-style written sound effects eas the best!

God damn. That Equal dragon weapon...shocked me how dark and brutal yet interesting it is, I will admit I really would love to see that in a future game and see them re-use that lore about ancient civilation making that haunting dragon killing abomination of dragon and metal

I played since that first one and even met my best friend in an online lobby. You mention that one monster getting all cut up into bits. But, did you know that if you hit a Velociprey just right as it jumped at you, it would cleave in half and disappear without any corpse to carve?

old monster hunter concepts are great because they almost never go completely scrapped and always end up becoming something later on in the series I mean, you can tell from the design of the mold dragon concept that it's probably what khezu spawned out of and could've been recycled all the way forward in WIB with Val Hazaak and Blackveil The basic wyvern obviously became the Raths but it also looks suspiciously like tigrex and probably was the base for a lot of the oldest flying wyvern designs The fortress with its colossal size and desert home may have inspired the mining dragons in the 3rd & 4th generations And the panther dragon could've probably ended up as both Nargacuga and teostra

The Equal Dragon Weapon may have actually been used in 4U. The final monster that is fought in the multiplayer hub has story beats that are very interesting and directly contrast what the guild assumes about the monster. First off, the first "encounter" with the beast is when Miners are digging into a mountain and overnight, when all the diggers were not present, a large chamber was opened and all t heir blasting powder was missing. Then, one of the oldest cities suffered a shock when the very first Dragonator created was stolen. Finally, the monster goes to the capital and stations it's self into the Elder Dragon Killbox to await an opponent. This monster is the Gogmazios, a massive, winged creature that seems to be seeping tar and "rotting", with a roar that is more screeching metal. It's breath weapon is a focused laser beam unlike anything any of the monsters ever use, and the guild "claims" it came from the "unknown swamp"... But that doesn't add up. It clearly came from inside the mountain where Miners were digging. What this seems more like is an equal dragon weapon who was accidentally reactivated and prepared for war against the dragons; stocking up on fuel (blasting powder), equipping it's self with an anti dragon weapon (dragonator), and then station it's self in a place that would greatly disadvantage said dragons. however it's friend/foe programming is long destroyed, so it will attack ANYTHING present in the killbox, leading to the hunters needing to kill it. This is supported with the weapons and gear forged from Gogmazios often talking about souls robbed of a peaceful afterlife, forced to wander the world of the dead, yet unable to really "die"

The Condor Wyvern concept from 15:27 was used in Hypnocatrice from Monster Hunter Frontier, take a look at an image of Hypnocatrice, they look extremely similar!

The equal dragon weapon is such a cool/creepy concept, and I would love the see it implemented in some way. I literally had the thought like yesterday of a game where we have a proper antagonist who's trying to build an elder dragon

I've always overstated that MonHun is basically what every DnD game wants to be but it's is own thing, great to hear it was DnD-ish to begin with. Ditching Magick and more normal hi-fantasy for speculative evolution and pyschokinetic biological beings, it's prolly one of the major reasons MonHun is arguably the best vydiagæm franchise out there.

The Fortress Dragon fight would just be Zorah 2.0 as for the Mold Dragon that is literally Vaal Hazak. Like that is absolutely the prototype for it.

The fortress dragon's front legs look a lot like Seltas Queen's legs, and the prototype dragon has some features of both Rathian and Espinas. The panther dragon has a Narga-esque face but the end of the tail is 100% Diablos. The condor wyvern's head looks like a rough draft of Hypnocatrice. I love seeing the little pieces of these designs that got carried forward.

I think some of these concepts ended up working into Dragons Dogma later on another game made from Capcom staff that worked on Monhun, also headed by the lead of DMC who was both involved in early Monhun and is also an extremely big fan of the franchise, the mold dragon especially as some things in DD make your food items spoil easily which was a big mechanic in of itself

i was in pure agony for months after the servers shut down, i would spend my time drawing pictures in my school books of my hunter in gravios armour, i think this was the first game i played online. i was too young and stupid to fight the stronger monsters without going online. No game made since has given me this same feeling. If you are a kid reading this, and your first game is monster hunter rise or whatever, treasure your memories. My brother sold our copy of monster hunter 1 and a few other games for dragon quest....... 16 years later i still feel so much anger toward him

Wouldn't it be interesting if the mech that ahtal-ka controls turns out to be the remnant of an equal dragon weapon

Imagine if in 6 they made a "living equal dragon weapon" that's just been in a slumber awaken as like the big boss or a hidden boss that could be activated by collecting ancient tablets and scripts about it

Good fucking shit, my G. I will always love EDW for what it represents -- that being the logical extreme of what Monster Hunter as a franchise is all about. The whole series is built upon the concept of taking pieces from monster corpses and making weapons and armour out of them to fight bigger monsters. Naturally, the final conclusion to this would be to simply take that premise and make your own monster to which one would hope no other natural creature could compare. It would have been the perfect foil to the Fatalis being the opposite of the hunters, what with its "armour" being made from "parts" of past combatants. Oh, what could have been. Monster Hunter 1 was tight as fuck. Loved how weird it was as a kid. Monster Hunter Oldschool hosts a fan server for playing online for those five of you who want to try it out on PCSX2.

That Equal Dragon Weapon might be coming up. with Fatalis becoming key to story and with the monster's of Sunbreak being more monster the next game might very well have this horrific Elder dragon in it. Wich would probably be one of my fave

Fun little thing: There is an "Insect Dragon" concept which has butterfly like wing and a 2 pronged claw as the tail. Say for the head, its spot on to what we have as Astalos

To be honest i think that val hazak and obviously more so black veil val hazak are definately the the truest implementation that we'll get

It's entertaining how you can make a setting more unique by making it less fantastical. Monster Hunter really stands out largely because it was surprisingly grounded. I mean sure there is using a giant anime sword to beat the shit out an oversized chicken. But the fact that the monsters are like these oversized chickens and dinosaurs, and not dragons and chimera, is so different. Despite being called monsters they're much more like animals.

They said it was generic fantasy but these concepts are unique

Your idea for the fortress monster sounds almost exactly like how Zorah Magdalos is fought in Monster Hunter world. And it felt very "meh" to me.

If Monster Hunter ever gets a specific story I want it to be dark

The Fortress Dragon looks like a really cool raid boss like Safi-Jiiva or Zora Magdaros. I wish they'd drive with it.

Hearing that old Ape Escape music really hits a soft spot for me.

It's always cool to see old monster designs. I would love to get the chance to see these come to life some day. I particularly like those aquatic serpents. I want underwater combat to return one day to allow for such great designs to be hunt-able.

Ape Escape in the background?! A+ my dude

I wanna talk about EDW. If one day Monster Hunter finally got its closure, what would be better way to end it with its very last quest is that you encounter it inside of a remote bizarre looking facility district eaten by time. A place so out of place in Monster Hunter universe you wonder why it's there? Who built it? Why such thing exists? Upon closer inspection, you've noticed this "creature" feels familiar. Using another monster parts for its own protection and weapon, resembling both a hunter and a monster, nothing like any natural living beings, left to rot, abandoned and perhaps best forgotten. And then realizing the horror that this monstrosity is the other side of the coin of Hunters. If The Hunters is the bright noble job of valor, courage and pride of the current society using those fallen monster parts to protect their beloved ones. That thing was the dark proof of the atrocities, sins and shameful mistakes of the ancient civilization only being made with one purpose, to kill. I genuinely think, that EDW is the true equal to The Hunters. A bitter truth that was once lost in times, now comes back knocking the door of reality, and demanding you a match of supremacy.

I'll stand by mix of Monster Hunter 1-2-3 being the best the MH's world ever was. I think that toning down fantasy elements was a good call, but not sure on reducing role of ecology and lightening tone in the later titles. Monster Hunter in my opinion should be mythical, but not fantastical - everything is in the realms of believable, but the threats still evoke fear of unknown, grandious and sublime, and Monster Hunter is really good at it most of the time.

Started with the PSP and MH Freedom, crazy to see how far the series came, and that it's been with me for half my life now haha. *12:35 if I remember correctly, in Freedom and Freedom 2, you could slash Veloci-, Gia-, Gen- and Ioprey in half when you dealt the killing blow while they were in midair. But they disappeared right away. Also, sidenote: Shakalakas were in Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite as well, there was also a Shakalaka King in Unity. So if you played Unite you shouldn't be suprised to learn that they weren't "new" in Tri haha.

I only have one memory of monster hunter 1.. *HITBOXES*

14:00 Vaal Hazak! They had that idea way back at the start, nice to know!

well they may not have actually put the equal dragon weapon in, however the lore about an ancient civilization doing something so horrendus it caused inbalance in the world and also ensured the civilization would be destroyed is in the game. fatalis's lore. the white fatalis wiped out castle schrade and the civilization that it was apart of over night after they committed horrible acts on monsters.

I love this so much. Especially the last dragon weapon thing. So dark and interesting.

Read the Fatalis descriptions across the games, including the armor and weapons for all types. Then return to that last tidbit about the dragon weapon. It's actually still in the lore to an extent and explains why Fatalis has such an absolute hatred for humanity.

15:27 bro thats an hypnocatrice

EDW did get used I think. On one hand the idea of a giant construct on par with elder dragons is on display with Ahtal-Ka. On the other half… I think it’s implied that Fatalis was once human or wyverian, and might implicitly be the very act of hubris that triggered their destruction (through its own hand) but that’s getting pretty far down a rabbit hole. I hope to cover it in a video essay soon.

The fist wyvern would loki be one of my favorites if it existed. Also the equal dragon weapon has so much fucking potential for a great story in the future games

Holy moly, clean scans of MH Illustrations 1? Did you scan those yourself or did someone finally upload them?

The Fortress dragon is why Lao Shan Lung should come back.

Oh god the claw that brings me back

Thank you for making this video, sooo cool!

Holy shit the EDW would make for an AMAZING flagship monster for an expansion

My first mh was on ps2 but I went +1500 hours on MHFU2 on psp (Crab handed) and had trouble on the crab (at the first encounter lol). So went back and upgraded to gunlance with gear and after a while finally defeated it with practice! Was so happy about that!

Mh1 got that post war creappy world and it was AMAZING really miss that idea

i want the frog with the dragon tail and the punch dragon so badly now

12:15 reading this I remember that in MH Freedom 2 you could actually split SOME monsters in 2 such as Velociprey, Giaprey and etc. Surprises me how the further they've gone up with the popularity, the less "gory" the game has gotten

that moss dragons face looks very val hazak

I still want a town on an elder dragon

what i wouldn't give to see an equal dragon weapon ripping through an elder dragon like it was nothing

Really enjoyed this video please do more about mh concept art

The equal dragon weapon still gives me chills to this day.

I have a headcanon theory about what actually happens in the monster Hunter reality versus the games. The ridiculous number of hunts that we do in the games for the most part don't happen. Hunter's actually only do the primary and optional quests, and the urgent quests, plus a few random other quests. The events actually take place over several months or years instead of what seems like a few weeks or days, because actual prep time in investigation takes a lot longer in real life. The hunters only ever hunt one or two of each elder Dragon, at most. That is why, when the ancient Kingdom created it's horrifying weapons, it was destroyed by not simply one but many elder dragons attacking, capped off by Fatalis coming out of nowhere and decimating the City of Schrade. My suspicion is that the equal Dragon weapon is actually vulnerable to fire as well, or perhaps was never completed because Fatalis rose before it was done.

as someone who started with MHFU, I'm glad to know THE CLAW goes beyond just the PSP era

I like that they removed the whole magic thing and made a nature/fantasy setting instead. The Equal Dragon Weapon looked weird and edgy, but I think it might have been used as the giant broken robot that Ahtal-Ka puppeteers using silk. I think they removed the edgy zombie dragon stuff and made it into a full on Metal Gear instead.

I personally never want to see the "equal dragon weapon". Mainly because it just doesn't fit with the actual canon lore and universe they went with in MH. It's seems pretty clear that the concept and this lore was from the more "traditional fantasy" stage of monster hunter with a larger emphasis on generic fantasy dragons in caves and dungeons. A similar lore concept to the equal dragon weapon would fit a WHOLE lot more for the Dragons Dogma sequel

I wish they could made something like a tomb raider quests for hunter to explore remote regions that made for exploration. Like secret routes we had in Iceborne ice map.

Im pretty sure dual blades were just an sns subset in MH1. I was lvl 20 online and used the fatalis longsword which was just a GS at the time no LS class.

Man isnt it crazy how of all of these concepts, plesioth and gypceros got in first game

The Jaw Wyvern also reminds me of Gore Magala, at least the way its wings look like. And isn't the mechanic kinda like what happens to you when you got farted on?

love that you're going over old concept art! though this vid really did not need a 7.5 minute intro before actually talking about the topic

i could really see the Fortress Dragon as a big boss fight in Dragon's Dogma 2 might be awesome idk but i hope Dragon's Dogma 2 will great . Also if a monster looking like Fist for a head was a real monster in newer mh games that would be a funny fight to go against with 4 players lol .

I will be using this for my next dnd ga need

The mold sounds like it became the stench status later.

The Equal Dragon Weapon gives me the view of an Human Antagonist making this weapon and wanting to reincarnate as an Elder Dragon or using it to destroy all Living Monsters but the Hunters or the Player struggles to stop this, The Elder Dragons and even powerful ones see this or felt it's presence knowing that it's powerfully dangerous decides to Aid the player as a Turf War animation where the Equal Dragon Weapon to be stopped and the song would be similar like Crimson Demon Fatalis's Theme 4U Version to capture it's disturbing appearance of how it's made.

I still wonder what the series would be like if they went more high fantasy then where we are now. I also still wish we got more of this stuff. IE: the world building aspect. Just getting to see life for most people in this world would be fun to watch. Along with this, wish they made a new game series based on these old ideas of a more high fantasy world. Maybe a turn based game for the more DnD feel of dealing with monsters but also getting more into the culture stuff and having more races you could play as. Humans, goblins, wyverians, dragons and such. Also with how much better Google lens translation has get for Google Image Search you can use you could probably read those art books somewhat at least.

13:52 Vaal Hazak has entered the chat

Zeppelin gas dragon kinda looks like Amatsu

The fortress dragon might live on in Zorah magderos, or volcano elder dragon.

Yes, spanish does indeed sound cool

Just imagine how I see the older mh games if started with world without seen any before...

Im not even a monster hunter fan but i found this video very fascinating! great video man!

We basically did get the mold mechanic. The soiled condition does exactly that with any item that your character eats. It's just permanent.

14:42 we did get the "mold" mechanic with Congalala in 2nd Gen!

Lol 15:28 its head is straight up the Hypnocatrice head

In all fairness, the Ancient Civilization still exists in MH lore.

The claw holy fuck that was insane to use on the psp lmfao

The condor wyvern at 15:28 is just straight up hypnocatrice but with leas feathers,change my mind

I think the monster at 9:28 ended up being split as a concept already between different monsters. The head is shaped almost exactly like Gogmazios, and the large creature looking and acting like a land mass that works with smaller creatures in a symbiotic relationship is like Yama Tsukami. Its size to hunter ratio could also be what inspired Dire Miralis and Zora Magdaros. The pointed, thorn-like horn used for poisoning on the red dragon is like Rathian. The length is about the same as well.

They should put these concepts in the future games honestly!

cut content is forbidden lore

I think the fortress dragon could make a great inclusion in a future game... as a location. Going to war against a independent city state doesn't really feel right in a monster hunter game, and there is plenty you could do with the concept as a town, having quests involving protecting it from animals that would bother or even attempt to prey on it.

So... If Capcom's Dev team used all these concept instead of what we got, they would be the first one to create Wild Hearts' fantastical nature themed monster eh? Neat!

Fortunately, we get to see the majority of the inital traditional rpg and fantasy elements they wanted in Dragon's Dogma.

Part of the concept for Equal Dragon Weapon was used for Xeno and Safi Jiiva in World. I don't hear people mention that very often and find it odd.

The mold dragon is basically vall hazak and I like that

15:10 Jellyjho?! 😱😱

As a concept I honestly think they should bring back the alligator fly trap perhaps make it resemble swamp plants like lilly pads and when you jump on it the monster snaps it's jaws to attack

These concepts art for the first game makes me want a high-fantasy monster hunter with the monsters from newer games, old game, spin-offs cough(more frontier monsters)cough, and thr concept monsters

14:59 Vaal Hazak

Good stuff