Monster Hunter Rise has a pretty strong lineup, building from a good selection of yokai-themed newcomers as well as many returning favorites like Rajang and Tigrex. With its focus on mobility and customization though, there’s a lot of monsters not yet in the game who would make great additions to the game’s roster.

So without further ado, here’s the GamerBraves list of Monsters we want to see return to Monster Hunter Rise, all with the clarity of how much fun it is to zip around with the wirebug and other features.

Valstrax

Valstrax is one of the coolest fights in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, sporting a cool design, a great theme and a really great bossfight. The fight aggressively tests your ability to control the space directly in front of Valstrax, avoiding its long-range pokes as well as explosive bombardment.

With Rise’s universal increase in mobility, Valstrax has a very high potential to be reworked, allowing for an even more aggressive fight since you can wirefall out of bad dodges and stay in the air longer. The result is a fight that could be more true to what Valstrax is conceptually- the lovechild of a dragon and a fighter jet.

Still, there’s lots of reasons my Valstrax-based dreams might not come true. For one, Valstrax comes from Generations Ultimate- the game that had the unfortunate timing of having its EN release the same year as the massively popular Monster Hunter World. The result is that many fans probably never knew the elder dragon, leading to a lower chance of them asking for it.

There’s also the fact that the fight has a lot of similarities to the Gore Magala fight, due to both monsters’ use of their wing-arms. Gore Magala is by and away the more popular monster, and I can see Valstrax potentially getting shafted in favor of the emo dragon.

Raging Brachydios

Monster Hunter World’s rework of Raging Brachydios changed what was once a super tedious fight into one of the most fun fights in the game, with Brachy locking you into a 1v1 when it goes into low health. It’s got a hyper-aggressive playstyle, forcing you to dodge into the monster instead of away from it.

The end result is a fight that’s once again all about the positioning, as you navigate explosive puddles of slime and pay attention to which of Brachydios’ parts are safe to hit without getting blown away by an explosion. I can imagine Raging Brachydios would be extremely fun to use on other monsters too, since it’s just so much more explosive compared to its regular counterpart.

If they do bring Raging Brachydios back though, they absolutely have to keep its arena gimmick. the already hectic fight gets turned up to 11 when Raging Brachydios enters low health, where it throws its Flashpoint Slime everywhere before detonating all the puddles at once in a huge setpiece attack. You’d think the fight would be easier with all the wirebug’s mobility, but in fact I feel like it could be way more punishing- poorly planning your dashes could get you landing straight in a puddle, taking big damage.

Seltas Queen

Look. I have no real rational reason for putting Seltas Queen on this list, other than spite. Seltas Queen is technically two monsters- the Seltas Queen itself and a Seltas that she can attach to herself changing her moveset.

Two words, my friend: Wyvern Riding. The joy of mounting the Queen’s own Seltas before slamming it straight into her is just an act of pure spite that I can’t be allowed to live without,

On top of that, Seltas Queen has a fairly unique skeleton, and would do good things to the diversity of Rise’s roster to be added to the game. Her armor set also looks like Gurren Lagann, which only further necessitates her inclusion.

That being said, the Seltas Queen fight could actually use a bit of a rework if she gets added to Monster Hunter Rise. I’d love to see more rewards for breaking her legs, or some kind of big reward for if you can get to the Seltas on top of her without making her fall over first.

So there it is, our three picks for monsters we want to see come back for Monster Hunter Rise. The game’s only just had its first major update, so the sky’s still the limit on what kind of content Capcom could actually add into the game.

If there’s one takeaway you could get from reading this, its that the Wirebug is a really good second chance for monsters. Monsters whose fights were boring due to the limitations of the games they were introduced in have a shot at a really great rework, all on the basis of players can move way more now than they could back in the older games.

There’s also much to be said about monsters with already great fights- think of how much more you could do knowing that the bar for “too mean” was raised up higher.

Either ways, I’m excited to see where Rise goes next.