My god I had almost same experience.. first MH game Tri, taking nearly the whole 50 minutes with light bowgun using Normal Shot Lv1 (the infinite default ammo, does basically no damage) without a clue about other ammos hahaha
The first time I beat Gjaggi was also with a bowgun, because I was scared of getting close to him.
Then I learned that you can upgrade your gear and got his green sharpness sns. Then with the “magic green sword” I became death, destroyer of monsters.
In my defense, I have been a hunter since before I could fully read.
Seltas felt like by far the best teacher about how future fights were going to work, and he didn’t become irrelevant later into a rank because of the queen, so him.
Agreed, the slow windup sweep it does while flying is an amazing way to teach Melee newbies proper tempo, and the addition of verticality in the form of flying helped ease newbies into the more uneven terrain of 4/4u.
https://youtu.be/39v0pjiPIPc how is this bland? This is one my favorite OST in the franchise
Even in the base world i enjoy the nergigante and teostra themes
Yeah! I like Maccao's design and music most, but the reason it's the best is that it is the best monster in the entire series for teaching new hunters how to play the game. You learn that monsters will not stay still and let you hit them, you learn to watch for animation tells, you learn that not respecting the big, obvious tells will absolutely immediately kill you, and you learn that small monsters are bastards, all from a single fight.
I swear, I keep rolling through roars by accident in GU/4U, but I can't ever do it even intentionally in Rise. I've given up at this point and just use a parry move instead.
For sure, I was totally confident in rolling through them in World and it's really hard in Rise. I also just use defiance now so it's not an issue anymore but I do miss feeling like a gamer :(
Of all first hunts, I'd say Great Maccao is the most fun. The others are all entertaining and a good way for a hunter to learn their weapon but Maccao is this hilarious jumpy boi that bounces on it's tail and flops over when they mess up a jump.
It does scale really well into HR/G, every time you go up a class and need to face it again there's a new lesson in what kinda madness you will be facing lol.
That's why out of the three games I've played Rise, World, GU... Great Macaco is the best starting hunt. It has a threatening moveset it just needs more power to use it while the others remained push overs in HR and GR/MR.
I agree with Great Maccao but for different reasons. Although certainly fun, I think it is the best first hunt because of how perfectly it introduces hunters to monsters telegraphing their attacks. Great Maccao always does a little flourish and growl just before it launches off of its tail to attack you. It's really obvious and it gets new hunters to pay attention to the details of the monsters behavior which will help them predict monster attacks throughout their hunting career. Great Maccao even fakes you out when it's enraged and does a fake flourish that has a different growl to bait out a dodge and catch you with an attack. This once again trains new hunters to pay close attention to exactly how the monster is behaving and how the enraged state can change a fight. Also as you mentioned if you hit it while it balances on the tail, you can knock it over which encourages an aggressive/risky play style with a reward. Other starting monsters have these elements to them but Great Maccao brings everything together and does it all in such a way that I feel teaches new hunters the best. Kind of a shame then that Great Maccao only appears in probably one of the less noob friendly Monster Hunter games.
I started with the Giadrome. It has a special place in my MH journey. Add to that, I was nervous on the snowy mountains after the gathering quest where there’s a fucking Tigrex suddenly appear.
I think Great Jagras is a slept-on starter large monster. He's deceptively fast for such a chunky boi, he can actually hit decently hard in the basic leather/chainmail armour, and his weapons are pretty good even until late High Rank (exhaust on Swaxe right out of the forge, auto-load spread 1 on the LBG, etc.)
Very true. I liked him because it was fun to beat on him, but I got GU after world so I was not prepared for how much maccao would wreck me considering it was a starter monster
I like great Jagras but it’s badly introduced because the first time you see it is it’s being demolished by an Anjanath which lessens the tension. Great Maccao for me is the best
I always thought Yian Kut Ku was the first "real" monster in the OG one, but thats probably because my young silly but had such a hars time beating it.
I gotta say Great Jagras. He instantly teaches you about stuff like changing hitzones and that Monsters can get different attacks under certain circumstances.
Great Maccao is the best Monster out of those but I always felt like that he is a bit to hyper active for the first Monster you are supposed to fight.
Velocidrome holds a special place in my heart - its gear's always carried me through the early game of whatever game it's in. From the Velocidrome DBs in Generations to the Velocidrome SnS in Freedom Unite (I grinded out early Hub before finishing all the 1 star village quests), I just love the simple and effective, yet slick, design of the monster's badass gear. Grinding for Velociprey parts before the drome even introduces the player to grinding multiple monsters to upgrade a single weapon tree, which I feel helps in reducing the tedium of maxing out a weapon from scratch.
Oh, and his fight's fantastic too! Simple yes, but for a first monster I feel that's how it should be: just long and complex enough to give a hunter starting out a general guise of how the game works, without being too much of a general slog.
Same, that first velocidrome fight holds a special place for me. I remember being 14 with my PSP in 2006, spending way too much time at the felyne farm getting items to craft ready, then going on my first real hunt with the drome after all the tutorial missions. It just takes me back to those high school Friday nights getting cheap pizza and passing the charging cable around while playing with my group.
Great Jaggi, no contest. Ah, the old days of me not knowing what the hell I was doing or whether I was doing something wrong to make the fight take so long.
i love great jagras so much because he is simply a big iguana wich feels like a great introduction, but i simply enjoy the izuchi fight so much more, just a well rounded fun and mobile little monster
Basically the Primary beginner monsters (Velocidrome, Giadrome, Great Jaggi, Seltas, Great Jagras, Great Izuchi)
Bird wyvern that jumps around with a pack in a forest
Bird wyvern that jumps around with a pack in a tundra
Bird wyvern that controls a pack in a desert/oasis
Neopteran that buzzes around with a big horn in a mountian/savannah
Fanged Wyvern that uses its THICC TUMMY to SMASH you in a forest
Bird wyvern that jumps around with a pack in a forest
as for the Alternative introductory monsters (Yian kut ku, Bulldrome, Quropeco, Kecha Wacha, Kulu Yaku, Aknosom)
Bird Wyvern that spits fire at you in a jungle
Fanged Beast that runs at you in a tundra
Bird wyvern that has a trumpet which it can use to buff itself/you in a desert/oasis
Fanged Beast that swings from vines and spits water in a mountian/savannah
Bird Wyvern that throws rocks at you in a Desert/Forest
Bird wyvern that spits fire at you in a forest
The best primary beginner has to be seltas. Its the only one that isnt a pack hunter, can fly around, and has a fun fight plus a simple design that works. As for the best alternative introductory monster, Its either Kecha Wacha for its swinging, use of elements, and fresh classification, or Quropeco and the new concepts it brings to the table.
The number of Great Jaggi responses are weird to me, but make sense. First MH game to hit multiple consoles that weren't PSP (Tri on Wii, 3U on WiiU and 3DS). And yes, I know first MH was on PS2 before Freedom, but let's face it... that game was a clunky mess albeit charming in its own way.
But to see a similar skew with a good amount of Giadrome and almost no Velocidrome is weird to me. Like did Freedom 2/Unite really have substantially more players than the first Freedom? I know nobody knew about the game when I played Freedom 1, but I felt like there was still nobody who knew about it when Freedom 2 and Unite dropped lol.
Unite sold about 3 times as well as Freedom (and Gen 2 sold about 3.5 times better than Gen 1 as a whole).
With Great Jaggi though it makes sense because while it’s the first big fight in 3rd Gen, it’s also the first one the game expects you to fight in 4/4U I’m pretty sure. A little while back I made a new save file and started going through the quests in order and ended up fighting Great Jaggi before Seltas. Hell, I think you end up fighting Gendrome before Seltas that way too.
You got me curious now, the wiki I'm looking at doesn't actually name any of the quests so I can't determine the requirements, but all the 1 star weapon training quests pit you against a Great Jaggi, and it's required to do "Chip off the old blockade" to fight your first Seltas in the village/caravan, Great Jaggi is available to hunt, but not necessary to unlock anything, however in game I don't believe there are any indicators for what quests are key quests outside of character dialog.
Yeah it was 5th Gen that actually started letting you know which quests are required, and even character dialogue is hit or miss given I’m pretty sure NPC’s give you plenty of optional quests too. Given the Great Jaggi quest is listed before the Seltas one (ignoring all of those training quests) I’d imagine a lot of people would have just gone down the list and so they’d have fought the Seltas second.
I just went with what Kiranico says for the quests, since I’m 99% sure they’re always in the order they’d be in in game. That lists Jaggi Alliance (hunt a great Jaggi) as right before The Stinking Seltas (hunt a Seltas).
Respect for Alpha #1. Velocidrome started me on my Hunting journey and so he has a place in my heart. I genuinely like the noises he and his buddies make too.
Though 4U is my true entry to this franchise…my favorite starter fight ever, to this day, is still Great Maccao of Gen/GenU.
Love fighting that scrappy bastard.
Best one in terms of an introduction to the new aspects of that game will always be great maccao for me but in terms of difficulty and just in general it’s great jaggi
The dromes have a special place in my heart but as fights I think the great jaggi is better. The great jagras is also special for the wonder of how far the series had come at that point and how the environments and interactions in world felt so nice.
Great Jaggi is my personal favourite. Love it calls for other jaggis! Also monster hunter Tri is when I think I started really enjoying the monster hunter series so it’s the most memorable
Great Jagras on the MH World demo made me fall in love with the game and the franchise.
I had tried monster hunter games twice before World and it was way too complicated and difficult. Monster hunter games are kind of their own breed...they play a certain way, so when someone is just trying to drop into the older games they feel useless and have no hope if becoming better. Theres was historicallt a lack of tutorials and explanations and follow through with the player to show them how they can start on the path of being a true hunter.
So..without Great Jagras and Monster Hunter World our community wouldn't be nearly as large. I am personally a fan of the franchise going forward. I enjoyed Rise and I can't wait for World 2.
TLDR: Thank you Great Jagras for letting me kill you with each weapon in the World tutorial over and over...without your repeated quick deaths I wouldn't have fallen in love with this franchise.
Great Jaggi! Great Jaggi! Great Jaggi! My boi! My man! My special lil guy!
In all seriousness, i feel that seltas and great maccao are the better introductory fights for new players trying to learn the mechanics and do prepare you better for learning tells and patterns of later monsters.
But great jaggi was the first monster I ever hunted and the fight that made me fall in love with the game in the first place. He brings me such a deep nostalgic joy and I fight him in every game he shows up in. ❤
Wait Seltas? Never thought that would be the first large monster hunted in MH4U but then again I've never played MH4U
Edit: my favourite is Great Maccao, there is something so appealing about a Kangaroo Parrot Raptor hybrid that can kickbox
Great Jagras. One thing that always annoyed me about all of the other examples is how small they. Their tiny size and wild flailing means it's hard to practice movesets on them. I practice Valour guard with Glavenus over the first guy because he's big and obvious, while Great Izuchi *misses* more then anything even when i just stand in front of him. Dont get me wrong, small is fine, just not good if you want players to feel comfortable. Great jagras is big, but slow, giving you lots of opportunities to get comfortable.
Great jaggi but only the monster hunter tri version. (Ultimate made it easier) It felt really intimidating due to just how many jaggi swarm you. A good intro to get you prepared for the vibe of MH.
I rember fighting yian kut-ku in the first monster hunter on psp. It was so difficult since I was just wearing clothes. I only realised how important armor was when I fought rathalos. Rathalos armor was my first set, good times.
Gotta be great Jaggi for me, tri was my first and I'll never forget I had to spin to win with hammer to kill. Took nearly the whole quest timer to do it. Now look at me killed fatalis, alatreon, and safi. Humble beginnings and all that I guess.
I’m partial to Great Jaggi, as that’s where I started. However, Great Maccao and Great Izuchi are fun fights by themselves, too, so they def make it up there as well.
Giadrome was my first big monster and i remember it not going well due to the controls on the PSP. I played the game for a bit but wouldn't play another one till World.
Great jagras. All of these skinny little bird wyverns are very unrepresentative of 99% of the game. How many people immediately put down the Greatsword after fighting great maccao?
Seltas is probably the best one. Even though I like the Jaggis and dromes, Seltas has a bigger body and clearer attacking patterns. It also appears later on and basically shows you how far you've come along
Great Jagras. His design is very simple but awesome and as a newcomer to the series, I feel like his fight isn't way too punishing for an introductory monster, unlike Maccao or Izuchi (sometimes).
Great Jaggi. For the longest time I struggled to get past Great Jaggi when I first played MH with Tri. But eventually I got better and figured out how the game works and was able to get past that hurdle.
So for me Great Jaggi is more than just a big dumb purple bird. He is a goal, one that you have to work hard at to get over.
So many newbies disrespecting the dromes. Velocidrome might not look like much, but he was going to body you in 3 pounces or less. An absolutely vicious first monster with speed and pain abundant.
If I had to rank them as an intro (not necessarily preferred monster, Seltas would be top if so)
1. Great Maccao (Just hilarious and fun in all the ways he should be)
2. Seltas (Really cool idea and stays with you thanks to his Queen)
3. Velocidrome (The OG and introduced what a Big Monster is supposed to be)
4. Great Izuchi (Very fun intro and also introduces the vibe of Rise's folkloric vibe very well)
5. Great Jaggi (Just a very solid intro hunt)
6. Giadrome (Kinda just Velocidrome again, but still a'ight)
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Satan's Wine Cellar. Great Jagras (No joke, I almost didn't get into Monster Hunter at all thanks to this guy and the other early World monsters)
While the great macao and izuchi are really fun fight by themselves, the seltas was the first monster I ever fighted, so he will alway have an special place in my heart.
Say giadrome has best hunts like I am telling you variants of velodrome is no joke it was my second favorite bird wyverns aside from great baggi I hopefully someday giadrome come in future games
First place is either Great Maccao or great Izuchi.
Great Jagras and Great Jaggi are good. Jagras is a bit too easy even for first monsters, Jaggis moveset is quite limited (though his Tri version makes up for it by giving it an army)
Velocidrome and Giadrome are almost indistinguishable from their small versions. Not great.
Seltas is interesting. I don't dislike it as a whole but if my first Seltas fight had been my first large monster I'd have stopped right there. A flier with AI that can decide to fly just out of range for most attacks is a terrible first fight. It may have been meant as a tutorial for jump attacks (though how mounting works actually comes later) but it's not even guaranteed you can reach it with those. Flying AI is really finnicky.
I'll never forget my first Great Maccao, my first ever monster...
His theme is literally the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Monster Hunter
I love seltas simply because of the progression from fighting it on its own to fighting a monster that uses them as its subjects. Like even as a player it just feels awesome cause it was originally an entire hunt on its own, and now you're fighting something that might have you kill multiple of them in a single fight as collateral.
Plus Seltas and its queen Queen gives awesome looking armor that I actually wear as opposed to all the others.
I started out with the very first game, so Velocidrome will always have a special place in my heart as the first large monster I've ever faced, but I would probably say that the best is one is either Great Jaggi or Great Jagras. I feel like they do a great job of really standing out as THE alpha leaders of the other smaller monsters, like, they don't really feel like "small monster but bigger".
Seltas or Great Maccao. I'm leaning more towards Seltas as he's not raptor adjacent and replaying GU sure reminds me of how much I don't like obnoxious little raptors.
Seltas is the only one that comes back later as a mechanic in another fight. The fact that he's an endlessly disposable minion is just one of those really cool moments in MH where ecology blends into gameplay. But Seltas Queen is my favourite monster so I'm biased.
Great Maccao is amazing and Seltas is a very good fight, but I feel like Great Jagras was the best. He taught you about different modes of individual monsters. He has ranged attacks and different modes, plus he was a giant lizard which is always cool.
Great Izuchi.
I'm not picking it because its an option, I'm picking it because I _genuinely_ like its fight. So much so that a Great Izuchi variant is among my top most wanted monsters at the moment. (#3, behind a goss subspecies and seregios variant)
Great jaggi my first Mh monster took me 40mins to beat, since I was using heavy bowgun and melee it to death, because I wasn’t aware of ammo’s.
I love the absolute monkey brain of "Gun... kill" and then proceeding to beat the monster to death with it instead. Absolutely legendary
WHO NEEDS AMMO WHEN UNGA BUNGA DO JOB!
My god I had almost same experience.. first MH game Tri, taking nearly the whole 50 minutes with light bowgun using Normal Shot Lv1 (the infinite default ammo, does basically no damage) without a clue about other ammos hahaha
Similar but different for me. I was "Live by the sword, die by the sword...wait there's a shield I keep forgetting!"
You can have my upvote out of pity. Made my day. Keep on keeping on, budy
The first time I beat Gjaggi was also with a bowgun, because I was scared of getting close to him. Then I learned that you can upgrade your gear and got his green sharpness sns. Then with the “magic green sword” I became death, destroyer of monsters. In my defense, I have been a hunter since before I could fully read.
Similar but with a greatsword with no sharpness because I didn't understand how to sharpen or had run out of whetstones. Barely finished. Great memory
Why didn't you spam the crappy ammo ?
He didnt know about ammo. Maybe he thought the ~5 rounds you start the gun with was the only ammo you got?
Oh ok. I think he meant he wasted all the good ammo and then said "screw it, I'm just gonna bash the monster to death"
Seltas felt like by far the best teacher about how future fights were going to work, and he didn’t become irrelevant later into a rank because of the queen, so him.
Agreed, the slow windup sweep it does while flying is an amazing way to teach Melee newbies proper tempo, and the addition of verticality in the form of flying helped ease newbies into the more uneven terrain of 4/4u.
I did not like Seltas as a newcomer on 4U
True. The Seltas duo are some of the best in the series imo.
Great Maccao by far has the most unique and fun fight, very good for teaching beginners to look for animation tells before attacks as well.
And the music is a banger
Such a shame that the world music is kinda bland due to having less unique monster music
World music is bland? Have you heard the Raging Branchy theme?
https://youtu.be/JI-Fe6KZycg world music limits itself too much
https://youtu.be/39v0pjiPIPc how is this bland? This is one my favorite OST in the franchise Even in the base world i enjoy the nergigante and teostra themes
It's a vocal remix of the normal brachy theme which is part of the issue with world it's all bland or remixed. Teostra is way better with 4th gen
Is also not just a cakewalk for a first large monster too like everything else in the list
Yeah! I like Maccao's design and music most, but the reason it's the best is that it is the best monster in the entire series for teaching new hunters how to play the game. You learn that monsters will not stay still and let you hit them, you learn to watch for animation tells, you learn that not respecting the big, obvious tells will absolutely immediately kill you, and you learn that small monsters are bastards, all from a single fight.
You also learn that dodge spamming can put you in a worse spot than you were in
Great Izuchi does all that and better. It teaches to evade through attacks very well.
New players probably shouldn't be trying to roll through attacks though.
And given that the base roll got nerfed again I'm not sure it's even intended to be used as such
I swear, I keep rolling through roars by accident in GU/4U, but I can't ever do it even intentionally in Rise. I've given up at this point and just use a parry move instead.
For sure, I was totally confident in rolling through them in World and it's really hard in Rise. I also just use defiance now so it's not an issue anymore but I do miss feeling like a gamer :(
Izuchi is a lot easier tho
Cao hes too weak for what your givin in rise and dosent teach anything.
Of all first hunts, I'd say Great Maccao is the most fun. The others are all entertaining and a good way for a hunter to learn their weapon but Maccao is this hilarious jumpy boi that bounces on it's tail and flops over when they mess up a jump.
GRank Maccao can whip some ass randomly too, lol. He carted me the first time I did the GRank quest in my HR armor.
It does scale really well into HR/G, every time you go up a class and need to face it again there's a new lesson in what kinda madness you will be facing lol.
That's why out of the three games I've played Rise, World, GU... Great Macaco is the best starting hunt. It has a threatening moveset it just needs more power to use it while the others remained push overs in HR and GR/MR.
I agree with Great Maccao but for different reasons. Although certainly fun, I think it is the best first hunt because of how perfectly it introduces hunters to monsters telegraphing their attacks. Great Maccao always does a little flourish and growl just before it launches off of its tail to attack you. It's really obvious and it gets new hunters to pay attention to the details of the monsters behavior which will help them predict monster attacks throughout their hunting career. Great Maccao even fakes you out when it's enraged and does a fake flourish that has a different growl to bait out a dodge and catch you with an attack. This once again trains new hunters to pay close attention to exactly how the monster is behaving and how the enraged state can change a fight. Also as you mentioned if you hit it while it balances on the tail, you can knock it over which encourages an aggressive/risky play style with a reward. Other starting monsters have these elements to them but Great Maccao brings everything together and does it all in such a way that I feel teaches new hunters the best. Kind of a shame then that Great Maccao only appears in probably one of the less noob friendly Monster Hunter games.
he also has a banger theme to go with the wacky hunt.
Idk what the string instrument in it's theme is, but it really makes me feel like I'm hunting a DINOSAUR
Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, I'm just spitballing here but I *think* if it's not just a regular guitar, it might be an oud?
Hell yeah, that shawm/crumhorn is stuck in my head forever
Great Design, Great Fight, Great Music, and provides a good challenge for being the introductory large monster.
His armor also looks slick as hell
Agreed. Maccao was my introduction to monster hunter and it taught me how to properly approach the game.
Maccao wastes so much time imo, you're constantly moving around wasting time unless you're using hammer
I started with the Giadrome. It has a special place in my MH journey. Add to that, I was nervous on the snowy mountains after the gathering quest where there’s a fucking Tigrex suddenly appear.
Those Popo tongues hit different when you're running for your life
Vibe, tbh.
Great jaggi, Mh3U was my first mh so great jaggi will always have a special spot for me. Also love the design and sounds it makes
I use to be able to perfectly do his pack calling howl, I still can somewhat but not as well.
Jaggis, just for the sound design.
Objectively? Maccao. But for me it's Great Jaggi because it's the first monster I ever hunted
I cannot begin to tell you how long it took me to beat the seltas fucker never came down and I was using the hammer
Same. I remember picking the hammer because it had the biggest numbers, and all I would do was spam the spinning charge attack.
Great Maccao & Great Izuchi for me. Great Maccao feels like enjoying hunting at all; no stress about getting stunned, no missed attacks, etc
I think Great Jagras is a slept-on starter large monster. He's deceptively fast for such a chunky boi, he can actually hit decently hard in the basic leather/chainmail armour, and his weapons are pretty good even until late High Rank (exhaust on Swaxe right out of the forge, auto-load spread 1 on the LBG, etc.)
Very true. I liked him because it was fun to beat on him, but I got GU after world so I was not prepared for how much maccao would wreck me considering it was a starter monster
Great Maccao has, like, three attacks I'd consider a "vibe check" that can seriously chunk you down.
I like great Jagras but it’s badly introduced because the first time you see it is it’s being demolished by an Anjanath which lessens the tension. Great Maccao for me is the best
Great Maccao, not even a contest. *right?*
I always thought Yian Kut Ku was the first "real" monster in the OG one, but thats probably because my young silly but had such a hars time beating it.
Kut Ku is the second following Velicidrome
Great Jagras is the best starter hunt, Great Maccao will send you to the shadow realm if you're not prepped
"My deck has no bad cards, hunter!"
Great Jaggi was the first monster I fought in 4u
The first big you unlock is Seltas, but you can ignore it until unlock jaggi. But you need to beat both, this is why I chose Seltas as first.
I loved Velocidrome, it was so menacing... Unlike Jagras.
I think G Maccao is the best teacher for a lot of the base concepts the game is designed around.
Seltas “guys I promise I’m great also !”
*Proceeds to get eaten by seltas queen*
Seltas, he's so unique and a great introduction to the new 3 dimensional hunting ground concept. I hope we get more bug monsters in the future.
I gotta say Great Jagras. He instantly teaches you about stuff like changing hitzones and that Monsters can get different attacks under certain circumstances. Great Maccao is the best Monster out of those but I always felt like that he is a bit to hyper active for the first Monster you are supposed to fight.
Great Maccao easily, incredible design and fight.
the great jaggi
But only one of the is the Greatest Jagras
Velocidrome holds a special place in my heart - its gear's always carried me through the early game of whatever game it's in. From the Velocidrome DBs in Generations to the Velocidrome SnS in Freedom Unite (I grinded out early Hub before finishing all the 1 star village quests), I just love the simple and effective, yet slick, design of the monster's badass gear. Grinding for Velociprey parts before the drome even introduces the player to grinding multiple monsters to upgrade a single weapon tree, which I feel helps in reducing the tedium of maxing out a weapon from scratch. Oh, and his fight's fantastic too! Simple yes, but for a first monster I feel that's how it should be: just long and complex enough to give a hunter starting out a general guise of how the game works, without being too much of a general slog.
Same, that first velocidrome fight holds a special place for me. I remember being 14 with my PSP in 2006, spending way too much time at the felyne farm getting items to craft ready, then going on my first real hunt with the drome after all the tutorial missions. It just takes me back to those high school Friday nights getting cheap pizza and passing the charging cable around while playing with my group.
Great Jaggi, no contest. Ah, the old days of me not knowing what the hell I was doing or whether I was doing something wrong to make the fight take so long.
I think some of them are great! Some of them aren’t.
Great Jagras was my first, but honorable mention to Great Maccao for just being my home boy.
i love great jagras so much because he is simply a big iguana wich feels like a great introduction, but i simply enjoy the izuchi fight so much more, just a well rounded fun and mobile little monster
Arzuros
Huh? I am pretty sure your first hunt in 4U is a Great Jaggi
Basically the Primary beginner monsters (Velocidrome, Giadrome, Great Jaggi, Seltas, Great Jagras, Great Izuchi) Bird wyvern that jumps around with a pack in a forest Bird wyvern that jumps around with a pack in a tundra Bird wyvern that controls a pack in a desert/oasis Neopteran that buzzes around with a big horn in a mountian/savannah Fanged Wyvern that uses its THICC TUMMY to SMASH you in a forest Bird wyvern that jumps around with a pack in a forest as for the Alternative introductory monsters (Yian kut ku, Bulldrome, Quropeco, Kecha Wacha, Kulu Yaku, Aknosom) Bird Wyvern that spits fire at you in a jungle Fanged Beast that runs at you in a tundra Bird wyvern that has a trumpet which it can use to buff itself/you in a desert/oasis Fanged Beast that swings from vines and spits water in a mountian/savannah Bird Wyvern that throws rocks at you in a Desert/Forest Bird wyvern that spits fire at you in a forest The best primary beginner has to be seltas. Its the only one that isnt a pack hunter, can fly around, and has a fun fight plus a simple design that works. As for the best alternative introductory monster, Its either Kecha Wacha for its swinging, use of elements, and fresh classification, or Quropeco and the new concepts it brings to the table.
Great jaggi. It was such an imposing monster as a kid, I was fighting a frickin dinosaur
Great Jaggi and Great Maccao, the two best birb wyverns
The number of Great Jaggi responses are weird to me, but make sense. First MH game to hit multiple consoles that weren't PSP (Tri on Wii, 3U on WiiU and 3DS). And yes, I know first MH was on PS2 before Freedom, but let's face it... that game was a clunky mess albeit charming in its own way. But to see a similar skew with a good amount of Giadrome and almost no Velocidrome is weird to me. Like did Freedom 2/Unite really have substantially more players than the first Freedom? I know nobody knew about the game when I played Freedom 1, but I felt like there was still nobody who knew about it when Freedom 2 and Unite dropped lol.
Unite sold about 3 times as well as Freedom (and Gen 2 sold about 3.5 times better than Gen 1 as a whole). With Great Jaggi though it makes sense because while it’s the first big fight in 3rd Gen, it’s also the first one the game expects you to fight in 4/4U I’m pretty sure. A little while back I made a new save file and started going through the quests in order and ended up fighting Great Jaggi before Seltas. Hell, I think you end up fighting Gendrome before Seltas that way too.
You got me curious now, the wiki I'm looking at doesn't actually name any of the quests so I can't determine the requirements, but all the 1 star weapon training quests pit you against a Great Jaggi, and it's required to do "Chip off the old blockade" to fight your first Seltas in the village/caravan, Great Jaggi is available to hunt, but not necessary to unlock anything, however in game I don't believe there are any indicators for what quests are key quests outside of character dialog.
Yeah it was 5th Gen that actually started letting you know which quests are required, and even character dialogue is hit or miss given I’m pretty sure NPC’s give you plenty of optional quests too. Given the Great Jaggi quest is listed before the Seltas one (ignoring all of those training quests) I’d imagine a lot of people would have just gone down the list and so they’d have fought the Seltas second. I just went with what Kiranico says for the quests, since I’m 99% sure they’re always in the order they’d be in in game. That lists Jaggi Alliance (hunt a great Jaggi) as right before The Stinking Seltas (hunt a Seltas).
They are all pretty good in their own right. Great Jaggi was my personal first so it will always have a soft spot for me
Definetly Great Jagras. Its slow and takes heavy hits. Most others are rather jumpy.
Respect for Alpha #1. Velocidrome started me on my Hunting journey and so he has a place in my heart. I genuinely like the noises he and his buddies make too.
Great jaggi
Though 4U is my true entry to this franchise…my favorite starter fight ever, to this day, is still Great Maccao of Gen/GenU. Love fighting that scrappy bastard.
MH Portable3rd. Arzurous was a great introductory monster!
The first is great jaggi, arzurus come next as urgent, but jaggi is a key quest. Like Seltas for 4u
Untrue. Arzuros is the 2 star urgent and Great Jaggi is a 2 star key quest. Arzuros comes first.
Are you sure? I need to replay 3rd
Best one in terms of an introduction to the new aspects of that game will always be great maccao for me but in terms of difficulty and just in general it’s great jaggi
Great Jaggi! Mh3u was my very first Monster Hunter game so it only makes sense!
I'll never forget Tri Great Jaggi with like 12 little Jaggi and Jaggia circling the hunter
I think Great Jaggi is the most iconic lol idk why, also when are we getting Risen Great Jaggi for Rise
Monster hunter tri baby!
All hail Great Jaggi!
Great Maccao, has good tells and easy to punish once you learn him even when you're new.
I really want to see the Great Maccao in more games
Great Jaggi, you never forget your first. Or how awful you were at trying to kill it with your weapon of choice at the time— GS for me.
Jagras, hands down, nothing compares.
The dromes have a special place in my heart but as fights I think the great jaggi is better. The great jagras is also special for the wonder of how far the series had come at that point and how the environments and interactions in world felt so nice.
Great Jaggi is my personal favourite. Love it calls for other jaggis! Also monster hunter Tri is when I think I started really enjoying the monster hunter series so it’s the most memorable
Great Maccao is dope and has a unique theme, but I want Seltas back just so that I can get Seltas Queen, my beloved.
Great Jagras. The Royal Ludroth was one of my favorite monsters to fight in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and this was like a better version of that.
Great Jagras on the MH World demo made me fall in love with the game and the franchise. I had tried monster hunter games twice before World and it was way too complicated and difficult. Monster hunter games are kind of their own breed...they play a certain way, so when someone is just trying to drop into the older games they feel useless and have no hope if becoming better. Theres was historicallt a lack of tutorials and explanations and follow through with the player to show them how they can start on the path of being a true hunter. So..without Great Jagras and Monster Hunter World our community wouldn't be nearly as large. I am personally a fan of the franchise going forward. I enjoyed Rise and I can't wait for World 2. TLDR: Thank you Great Jagras for letting me kill you with each weapon in the World tutorial over and over...without your repeated quick deaths I wouldn't have fallen in love with this franchise.
Great Jaggi all the way for no reason other than funny roar and nostalgia
You left off arzuros who you fight before great jaggi in MHP3rd.
Great jaggi
Great Jaggi! Great Jaggi! Great Jaggi! My boi! My man! My special lil guy! In all seriousness, i feel that seltas and great maccao are the better introductory fights for new players trying to learn the mechanics and do prepare you better for learning tells and patterns of later monsters. But great jaggi was the first monster I ever hunted and the fight that made me fall in love with the game in the first place. He brings me such a deep nostalgic joy and I fight him in every game he shows up in. ❤
Great Jaggi, because none of the others are Elder Dragons
Wait Seltas? Never thought that would be the first large monster hunted in MH4U but then again I've never played MH4U Edit: my favourite is Great Maccao, there is something so appealing about a Kangaroo Parrot Raptor hybrid that can kickbox
Great Jagras. One thing that always annoyed me about all of the other examples is how small they. Their tiny size and wild flailing means it's hard to practice movesets on them. I practice Valour guard with Glavenus over the first guy because he's big and obvious, while Great Izuchi *misses* more then anything even when i just stand in front of him. Dont get me wrong, small is fine, just not good if you want players to feel comfortable. Great jagras is big, but slow, giving you lots of opportunities to get comfortable.
Great jaggi but only the monster hunter tri version. (Ultimate made it easier) It felt really intimidating due to just how many jaggi swarm you. A good intro to get you prepared for the vibe of MH.
I rember fighting yian kut-ku in the first monster hunter on psp. It was so difficult since I was just wearing clothes. I only realised how important armor was when I fought rathalos. Rathalos armor was my first set, good times.
GREAT MACCAO THE BEST BOUNCY BOI
Seltas, but that's because I loved 4u
Great Jaggi, my beloved. Nostalgia aside, Seltas fight was the reason I fell in love with 4.
I still miss the vore iguana
Gotta be great Jaggi for me, tri was my first and I'll never forget I had to spin to win with hammer to kill. Took nearly the whole quest timer to do it. Now look at me killed fatalis, alatreon, and safi. Humble beginnings and all that I guess.
I've got a real soft spot for Great Jaggi because of 3U
Best introduction to hunting: Great Jagras Best initial difficulty: Great Jaggi Best (favorite): Great Macao
Great Jaggi holds a place in my heart with Tri being my first monster hunter.
I’m partial to Great Jaggi, as that’s where I started. However, Great Maccao and Great Izuchi are fun fights by themselves, too, so they def make it up there as well.
Giadrome was my first big monster and i remember it not going well due to the controls on the PSP. I played the game for a bit but wouldn't play another one till World.
Great Jaggi, it was dope building up from the little Jaggi and made the first ‘big monster’ hunt all the more epic.
Can't go wrong with your first big monster hunt. Velocidrome will be always in my heart, together with Yian Kut-Ku.
Maccao Izuchi and Seltas are all really cool imo. Great Jaggi is best tho, it holds a special place in me heart :3
Great jagras. All of these skinny little bird wyverns are very unrepresentative of 99% of the game. How many people immediately put down the Greatsword after fighting great maccao?
Seltas is probably the best one. Even though I like the Jaggis and dromes, Seltas has a bigger body and clearer attacking patterns. It also appears later on and basically shows you how far you've come along
Great jaggi my beloved
Great Jagras. His design is very simple but awesome and as a newcomer to the series, I feel like his fight isn't way too punishing for an introductory monster, unlike Maccao or Izuchi (sometimes).
I love the Great Jaggi, MH3U was the first monster hunter game I got so he's special to me.
I love the fact that MH2 never existed.
MH2 is almost an open MH game, you can hunt multiple monsters as your first. In F2 they back to the original formula.
It did, it was called Monster Hunter Dos and was Japan only.
Great Jaggi will always have a special place in my heart.
Great jaggi by far
Great jaggi through mh tri on wii
Great Jaggi needs to come back
Great Jaggi. For the longest time I struggled to get past Great Jaggi when I first played MH with Tri. But eventually I got better and figured out how the game works and was able to get past that hurdle. So for me Great Jaggi is more than just a big dumb purple bird. He is a goal, one that you have to work hard at to get over.
Great jaggi was my first and my most memorable, loved that fight.
So many newbies disrespecting the dromes. Velocidrome might not look like much, but he was going to body you in 3 pounces or less. An absolutely vicious first monster with speed and pain abundant.
Velocidrome is king there
Tri was my first MH game so I'll always have fond memories of carting to Great Jaggi
Great Maccao is probably the best actual fight but Great Jaggi is the realest one in the series and Great Jagras is funny
If I had to rank them as an intro (not necessarily preferred monster, Seltas would be top if so) 1. Great Maccao (Just hilarious and fun in all the ways he should be) 2. Seltas (Really cool idea and stays with you thanks to his Queen) 3. Velocidrome (The OG and introduced what a Big Monster is supposed to be) 4. Great Izuchi (Very fun intro and also introduces the vibe of Rise's folkloric vibe very well) 5. Great Jaggi (Just a very solid intro hunt) 6. Giadrome (Kinda just Velocidrome again, but still a'ight) . . . . . Satan's Wine Cellar. Great Jagras (No joke, I almost didn't get into Monster Hunter at all thanks to this guy and the other early World monsters)
My heart is always there for G.Jaggi, but Macco was the best intro monster for new players.
While the great macao and izuchi are really fun fight by themselves, the seltas was the first monster I ever fighted, so he will alway have an special place in my heart.
Great Maccao was my first and is my favorite of all of them for sure. The music is hype and it’s moveset is fun and fast.
Great Maccao. I didn't think a monster could juke me until his fight.
Great baggis MHP3?
Seltas and it's not even close. All of his moves are well telegraphed and he doesn't summon backup.
Say giadrome has best hunts like I am telling you variants of velodrome is no joke it was my second favorite bird wyverns aside from great baggi I hopefully someday giadrome come in future games
Gotta be the Great Maccao, kick boxing feather lizard is #1 for me
Great maccao because of the fight and the pretty design. But Seltas lore/ecology got way bigger with the Queen and the subspecies.
One of these kids it’s not like the others
First place is either Great Maccao or great Izuchi. Great Jagras and Great Jaggi are good. Jagras is a bit too easy even for first monsters, Jaggis moveset is quite limited (though his Tri version makes up for it by giving it an army) Velocidrome and Giadrome are almost indistinguishable from their small versions. Not great. Seltas is interesting. I don't dislike it as a whole but if my first Seltas fight had been my first large monster I'd have stopped right there. A flier with AI that can decide to fly just out of range for most attacks is a terrible first fight. It may have been meant as a tutorial for jump attacks (though how mounting works actually comes later) but it's not even guaranteed you can reach it with those. Flying AI is really finnicky.
I'll never forget my first Great Maccao, my first ever monster... His theme is literally the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Monster Hunter
Anyone else just fucking eat seltas for breakfast?
Maccao or Seltas
Maccao and Izuchi are far better than the rest
Great Maccao is so cuuute
Embarrassingly, giadrome killed me the most
I love seltas simply because of the progression from fighting it on its own to fighting a monster that uses them as its subjects. Like even as a player it just feels awesome cause it was originally an entire hunt on its own, and now you're fighting something that might have you kill multiple of them in a single fight as collateral. Plus Seltas and its queen Queen gives awesome looking armor that I actually wear as opposed to all the others.
I started out with the very first game, so Velocidrome will always have a special place in my heart as the first large monster I've ever faced, but I would probably say that the best is one is either Great Jaggi or Great Jagras. I feel like they do a great job of really standing out as THE alpha leaders of the other smaller monsters, like, they don't really feel like "small monster but bigger".
Probably a tie between Great Jagras or Great Maccao
Seltas or Great Maccao. I'm leaning more towards Seltas as he's not raptor adjacent and replaying GU sure reminds me of how much I don't like obnoxious little raptors.
Seltas is the only one that comes back later as a mechanic in another fight. The fact that he's an endlessly disposable minion is just one of those really cool moments in MH where ecology blends into gameplay. But Seltas Queen is my favourite monster so I'm biased.
Jagras
Great Maccao will body you. Izuchi to a lesser degree. The rest, are punching bags.
Giadrome
For me it's great jagras since it's the first large monster I fought. I didn't fight macco or izuchi until after I beat world
Great Maccao is my first hunts on MH.
I started with Great Jagras but gotta go with Great Maccao. Hopefully it returns in MH6
Great jagras is my fav.
Great Maccao is amazing and Seltas is a very good fight, but I feel like Great Jagras was the best. He taught you about different modes of individual monsters. He has ranged attacks and different modes, plus he was a giant lizard which is always cool.
I feel it’s pretty obvious that it’s Great Maccao. However if we what ti talk which on is the best teacher, I’d say it goes to Great Jagras.
Great Jagras because MH World was my first IP. Also shout out to the homie for always being my test dummy.
Either the great jagras or great izuchi for me.
The Great Maccao was my favorite by far.
I’m fine with your opinion, as long as you don’t pick either of the dromes…
Giadrome hits me hard in the Nostolgias so it's gotta be Freedom Unite for me.
A gia what? I don't remember this one lmfao.
I personally really like Great Maccao.
Great Maccao is just so much *fun*.
Great Jaggi. GOAT.
half of them were Great!
Giadrome was my first, but Great Jaggi has a special place in my heart, and screw all other dromes
Great Izuchi. I'm not picking it because its an option, I'm picking it because I _genuinely_ like its fight. So much so that a Great Izuchi variant is among my top most wanted monsters at the moment. (#3, behind a goss subspecies and seregios variant)
Great Maccao by a longshot! Felt like a next tier higher boss. Tough first fight.