First encounter with Primordial Malzeno (Strength Hammer) - 原初を刻むメル･ゼナ ハンマー ソロ 【サンブレイク】

Primordial Malzeno is a great fight. It has a surprisingly simple moveset, but it does a lot with it.

The Knight motif of this monster was incredibly well nailed through its animations. Using one of its wings as a shield, and its other wing and tail as a spear.

The way it uses its wing as a spear in general looks so cool. One of its attacks where it stabs once then swipes even looks like Lance's Insta-Block counter.

It's also a surprisingly active monster. While the first thing that immediately struck me in this encounter is the fact that Primordial Malzeno is slightly slower than Malzeno, it still chains its moveset fast with low downtime.

I'm talking about the "pure" Knight Primordial Malzeno here however ; because if we talk about its corrupted Knight phase, then i think it is much worse.

The way Primordial Malzeno's Bloodlust state is designed is that it's going to chain a certain number of attacks in a row, then finish off with a Qurio explosion, and then finally be vulnerable.

My problem with this phase is that only a few weapons can really deal with it instead of waiting it out. As a Hammer main and player, this phase basically becomes a Super Mario-esque Boss where, after damaging the Boss, it enters an invincible state and you have to avoid its attacks for a minute before you can get damage in again.

Hammer cannot do anything in this state except wait it out. You have no counters, except Water Strike, but getting a followup is too slow since Primordial Malzeno is going to chain another 5 moves before it stops.

This is extremely frustrating and I feel like it's bad design. If only counter heavy or guarding weapons can get through a phase without having to wait it out, I think it's bad design. The worst is that really only Hammer and maybe Hunting Horn players will have it like this.

After fighting it a few times, especially the Hazard version, I really do like Primordial Malzeno, but I wish the Knight phase was what we fought for longer.

Now my dear viewers, I'd like your opinion, could I have reacted to the move that carted me?

#monsterhunter #monsterhunterrise #monsterhunterrisesunbreak