Bazelgeuse is one of my favorite monsters in World. It's a so-called "invader" that can appear in the middle of other hunts and will often announce its presence by flying over you and dropping explosive scales (bombs) from the sky as the theme kicks in. People have lovingly nicknamed it "B-52 bomber" and the theme is very much mean to evoke the feeling of an air raid siren. It's an absolute genius track and one of my favorites in the series because the intro screams WARNING WARNING as bombs start dropping around you.
a really cool thing i've seen pointed out about bazelgeuse's theme is that it's got a real heroic bombast, bazelgeuse announcing through his theme that the true main character has finally arrived
Monster Hunter is an intense and deadly serious game and the best example of this is when you "die" you're carried away on a gurney by talking cats who unceremoniously dump you face first into the dirt at your camp, and then the ace cadet/excitable A-lister says something like "wow that was totally GNARLY-cuga!"
Kulve my darling! She is the Golden Elder Dragon, and this was an end-game raid (4 teams of 4 players) where you would work together to track, break parts, and eventually defeat the giantess. In that last phase, you're essentially fighting a frenzied Fire dragon in a cave of Gold Lava! Her theme goes through peaks and troughs as you beat her back/she retreats, where you have a chance to regroup and set traps, and then you go and chase after her again. Arch-Tempered is a "rank" in MH, A more powerful version of the base monster. And yes I 100% listen to MH music outside of the game, it makes great backing music for D&D scenes, and I used to listen to them while I was at the Gym on the cross fit or the bike. It's been a long while but thank you for getting to my request! I hope you enjoyed it :D
Kulve's music is such an amazingly structured piece; you can really hear the progression from indifferent goddess to angry queen and then to dangerous, cornered beast, all while maintaining the regal undercurrent from the start. Fits perfectly with the fight, with the singing kicking in as she's melting the ceiling in a desperate fury. Man, MHW was a hell of a product.
I absolutely loved the Kulve Taroth battles. I got a full set of her gear and it was the last thing before I took a break from MHW. I am excited about the 2025 game though. I hope something like Kulve returns. Or Kulve herself. I loved her gear set.
Monster Hunter music may sound insanely serious, and that's because the monsters ARE serious threats ; but at it's core Monster Hunter is a DEEPLY silly and goofy series. Walking, talking cats cooking you food while dancing, cooking steaks in the wild with funky melodies, the vibe of MH is one of heroic, careless, happy bravado. No human character really ever "dies" in Monster Hunter, and the games are not much about grand stories. It's about you and your group of fellow friends and hunters, hunting a solid hundred badass giant monsters in 30min long fights. And after the beast is slain, you and your comrades go back to camp all jovial and go make a T shirt out of its scales. TLDR the music IS deeply intimidating / reflects the personality of the monster you are hunting (some monsters have slow / fast tracks, some regal, some chaotic) but the intensity comes from the fact that the music is essentially "On the side of the Monster", and you are very right that it is the kind of music that can both intimidate you as you die OR cheer you on as you succeed. Very much music that sticks you in the moment, also since Monster Hunter fights are so long, the music loops so often that you memorize all the melodies and intricacies of the song, and end up "singing along" in your head through the countless hunts
This deserves more appreciation, really. For as much as Monster Hunter tries to ground its monsters in a sense of plausible realism and generally stays away from anything overtly fantastical (magic and the like), Monster Hunter is a series that's never taken itself all too seriously. From the aforementioned cats, to quest descriptions requesting hunts for the most ridiculous things, to (non-voiced) dialogue overflowing with puns, to self-aware humour making fun of running gags about Khezu's phallic appearance or players finding Dodogama too cute to hunt or Plesioth's insane hipcheck hitbox in the old games. ("Hyperspace Tackle"!!!)
You asked how the music is structured in Monster Hunter World. The game is basically a neverending conveyor belt of hunts, i.e. you get dropped at the starting point of a map, need to track a monster, and then use your trusty tooth pick to slay or capture it. In between hunts, you will be at base preparing your gear and items, picking up quests, etc. At base the music is pretty straightforward ambient medieval music. While you're tracking the monster, the music is rather minimal. I think they keep it subtle to really emphasize that you're concentrating on a hunt and don't want to draw too much attention. Then when the fight kicks off the music becomes bombastic and loud. Funnily enough, every monster theme also has a subdued version, which plays when the monster runs away and you're following it to the other end of the map going 'dammit, get back here'. Also yes, there's a character creator and your character does not matter. It's all about the monsters.
@unlimited971 You're right. Old world games had basically no music outside of monster encounters. I think Capcom having this approach to their music is a solid evolution for the series. Keeping the adrenaline going when you're tracking tough retreating monster. Haha
Baselgeuse, can't tell you how much I love the theme for this. For the composers there's a few, for Baselgeuse was Akihiko Narita. Monster Hunter: World also had other composers like the one who did Kulve Taroth, who was Tadayoshi Makino. Who also helped with the soundtrack for the FFVII remake.
"Monster Hunter is so serious" Gogmazios, The Giant Halberd Dragon, covered in tar, blasting lasers, a great drill-stake still embedded in its back: *angles its head upwards so you can see the chin*
@@MitchFromFBS huh, Mitch from fueled by sandwiches, I'm watching one of fueled by sandwiches videos right now...on the ground man segment currently as I notice this...cute how that lined up!
Not really the best example, that monster is one of the most grottesque and terrifying in the franchise, that phase transition still gives me nightmers, fucking randos that don't know hot to superman dive...
Your comment about any frame of MH can be a poster is correct because the game deliberately gives kill screens after you finish a quest and one of them is actually my background on my PS profile and has been since 2019
I still cherish that legit awe/happiness feeling I had the moment when I got to the last phase of Arch-Tempered Kulve Taroth with my friends and the scenario starts melting when the music hits and Kulve is breathing fire everywhere. One of the best feelings I've had playing videogames
When you were describing how you grew to appreciate monster hunter's music. How initially, you didn't get it, but at some point, it clicked for you. It's exactly how most people I know feel about monster hunter as a game. At first, it's a massive struggle for some newcomers to get into the game, but once it clicks, they get so addicted. It's sort of funny, how you also had a similar experience to its music.
The overworld maps usually just have a short jingle when you arrive, but the music is usually just not there or ambient until you're noticed by monsters and then it breaks into either the map's battle theme or the monster's unique theme if they have one.
Bazelgeuse has to have one of the most recognisable openings to a monster's battle track in the series. It's so dramatic, dare I day *over*dramatic, and it is perfect for this monster. Bazelguese is one of a select few monsters known to consistently "invade" hunts, essentially being that guy nobody likes nor invited, but who inevitably shows up anyway. It shows up well before you're intended to hunt it, so chances are it'll throw a few hunts into disarray. And boy, does the music announce its arrival in style! 8:58 Monster Hunter has calm, too, but since the series focuses so much on the fights and their spectacle, the calmer tracks occupy the back of the mind more, I guess is how I'd put it. Hopefully you’ll get to hear some village(/equivalent) tracks down the line, there's a lot of great ones. A few of my favourites include Pokke, Val Habar, and Seliana... or how about "To One with Life" from MHTri/MH3U! Monster Hunter has phenomenal music overall, really.
The sound of an incoming b52 bomber plane. Time to panic and scramble now that we got a problem interrupting our task. PTSD kicks in with the opening seconds. Kulve Taroth is a multi stage raid boss, you dont even get to kill it. You're just scraping gold and horns off it.
8:50 The Astera theme that plays when you're in the main hub before hunts, there's also the "harp" version of it that plays when you're in the private room areas (it's played on a harp by Palicoes), and the monster themes in World only play when you start to fight the monsters (depending on how aggressive the monster is, you could stand next to it and still not have the battle music play)... In Monster Hunter, you're basically a naturalist, you hunt monsters in order to learn more about them; but you don't always need to slay them, you can sometime be tasked with capturing them so they can be released later. In the case of Kulve Taroth, Kulve Taroth is a peaceful monster, but it is an incredibly rare monster and the job is not really to slay the Kulve Taroth; Kulve Taroth is quite literally a walking goldmine that just happens to spit lava when attacked, your mission is to mine the gold off it before it gets away...
Kulve Taroth was a seasonally occurring raid event. The goal was essentially to break its giant golden horns for their spoils, but you needed to form multiple parties in a single lobby and hunt it to escaping multiple times until it was ready for its horns to break (it still escapes in the end, but without its horns). So yeah this was one of the rare times where the goal was not to kill your objective.
@yuomovaeh3028 yes they added the AT theme as MR is the highest rank of her fight but it's regular Kulve you can tell cause she has normal gold and not ATs white gold
14:15 Arch-tempered is a special end-game version of elder dragons, which means the boss has new moves, hits harder, etc. They also get a special rendition of the base theme of that elder dragon.
24:33 I remember hearing safi'jiiva's theme for the first time and thinking I've never fought that monster before, so I played Monster Hunter World again from the beginning with a new character JUST to fight that monster and hear his theme in action. When I finally got to that point, it was the most spectacular and adrenaline-filled experience I had ever had, after that I finished the game and felt sad, but happy that I was able to live that experience and now waiting for the next Monster Hunter
The other prominent "invader" monster besides Bazelgeuse is named Deviljho, a scarred, tooth-faced, lumbering T-Rex, nicknamed "The World Eater". Deviljho's theme is, to me, the song that most evokes dread, and the feeling of rapidly-draining hope. I hope you listen to it soon!
Arch-tempered is an alternate version of an Elder Dragon, the mightiest, hardest, and toughest version of said Dragon. Their damage and health spike, and sometimes they get new moves too. Regarding calmer music. Village themes are probably what you are looking for. For instance in World, the Seliana theme is really sweet and calm and it changes between day and night. Also Bazel theme is my alarm clock, i try to turn it off before it reaches the bombastic horns at the start.
since I didn't see anyone mention it, monsters usually have 3 different version when you get to end game: normal version to get the normal loot. tempered where they deal a lot more damage to you and often 1 hits you but also more end game rewards. arch tempered where they deal a lot more damage again but also has a lot more health and sometimes new attacks, I only played world and rise and from what I know arch tempered is just for those who want a challenge.
I think my favorite thing about Bazelgeuse’ theme in World is how heroic sounding it is for the most part. It’s like Bazelgeuse sees itself as the hero of its story, triumphantly arriving to do battle with other predators. Including of course you, a hunter just minding your own business on IT’S territory. And before you ask, yes. Every inch of ground is its hunting ground and don’t you dare forget it.
Given he seems to be an evolutionary response to Deviljhos rampant unending hunger, he could well feel that way. Think about he, is one of very monsters that can actually make Deviljho back off and run away if he gets he's explosive blasts down Jho's throat, that has to be a response to Jho being an apex predator.
I actually do listen to the music when out and about, it makes me remember the hours and hours of great moments i experienced while hunting these beasts with friends. It is nostalgic for me since mh is such an emergent kind of game where everyone gets kind of a custom narrative to the fight based on how you approached it and who you did it with.
Monster Hunter isnt always about the hunting, there are times when you can enter a specific map just to go around and look at the view, find new routes to travel, pick up items for crafting, etc. Some missions are literally just that, or stealing eggs, or something of the sorts. So theres plenty of room for enjoying the map, its unique encounters, and in later games - watching the monsters interact like wildlife
15:48 two things, one: There WAS a Monster Hunter movie- I didn't see it but by all accounts, it's bad- it wound up being a couple military people who got transported to the Monster Hunter world (lower-case, not game title) and fought monsters, but it just wasn't what people wanted, nor did the creators seem to actually know what Monster Hunter actually was. Two: There IS a story behind each game but it's mostly just the explanation of context behind why the monsters are acting up this time. Usually it's because an "Elder Dragon" is doing what it's evolved to do, like a gigantic dragon catfish causing earthquakes at the bottom of the sea by just moving (based on a Japanese legend) or a weird dragon who sheds toxic scales that drives other creatures (and the player!) mad with rage, making them more aggressive and dangerous, or another one who is called the Red Comet who zips through the air at incredibly high speeds with literal rockets of draconic energy coming out of its wingtips, that flies so fast it is blind in midair so it can't actually avoid hitting things. A good Monster Hunter movie would have to pick a simple story like that. Some big, scary beastie is doing something, heroes hunt at least a couple dangerous monsters riled up by it and make gear out of them after they're captured or killed, then you hunt the cause of all the issues and save the day. Maybe do a Fatalis movie instead where the main character is more the dragon and the town is the hero as a whole. The blacksmith, shopkeep, chef, village chief, and quest counter people are all, collectively, usually the main characters- along with the Village Hunter (the player character).
As a MH player, I often listen to the music on Spotify and YT when not playing the game. I have two playlists, one with monster battle themes (including Kulve Taroth), and another one with village themes (chill playlist). I listen to it while working, walking outside, or just during free time. Sometimes I find myself humming some parts of the awesome monster themes (Kulve, Safi, Chameleos) at any random time. Same as I could get obsessed over certain riffs in regular music.
Bazelgeuse is affectionately referred to by the community as B-52, because it is a monster that will invade other hunts where the players are hunting a monster other than it by flying in, doing a bombing run (it can produce and drop exploding scales), and then dive-bombing in with its body crashing into the ground on top of one of the hunters. Also, the start of the theme is very reminiscent of old war videos, movies, and news segments, to the point that there are popular edits on youtube using this theme on top of actual World War 2 footage, and it fits very well. Kulve Taroth's theme, especially phase 1, feels super grand to me, which perfectly matches the idea that she is an enormous monster clad in a dress and crown of pure gold, and she entirely ignores the hunters' existence as insignificant while parading around the area, until the hunters manage to break her gold gown and finally attract her attention proper.
You spoke VERY highly of the tracks from Monster Hunter Frontier, so i recommend listening to Shantien's medley but if you want to hear overworld songs, there are the village and hub themes
I absolutely listened to music outside of the game all the time, because it's the perfect amount of melody to be memorable, but not intrusive enough to interrupt my focus. There are some of the more suspenseful themes that play in the player hub when hitting certain story beats that I just can't stop listening to, particularly for the final monster in Iceborne. When I wanted to relax, the theme song for the World/Iceborne player room was just... perfect. It's calming, had day and night versions, and the night theme was great for relaxing/chilling. It's crazy to me that if you had asked me before i listened to this what the Kulve Taroth music sounded like, I couldn't hum it to save my life, but hearing it immediately put me back in the zone where you fight it, each phase I remembered what those rooms were like, the tactics we used, and especially hitting that final victorious bit just how excited we were to finally beat it, and I miss that. Kind of hoping we can get the gang back together for Wilds with the cross play now
I often listen to mh music at the gym its very motivational, eapecially if you've played the games. As childish as it sounds when im listening to it i imagine myself as my hunter, never giving up, giving your all to complete the mission and overcome such unreal walls. I dont often feel inspired by real people even in my field of work, but i find inspiration in games like this. Its not just about big swords and dragons, its about overcoming unimaginable odds.
there usually is not any music for the areas, if there is it usually doesn’t play for very long, more like an intro song that plays when you “drop in,” however the towns that you stay in have some incredible music that are often very calm and quite great, selina is a standout but older fans will remember the town themes from 3u as for bazelgeuse, he’s basically what a b52 bomber plane would be as an animal. he also is what is known as an invader monster, meaning he will actively interfere with whatever the current monster you are fighting is and ruin your day, whether it’s by appearing in the area, or actually dive bombing you from out of nowhere. the intro to his theme is actually meant to sound like air raid sirens which convey his personality and design pretty well. as for kulve taroth, she is an elder dragon fought in El Dorado, her lair, which is made entirely of gold. The entire fight is a spectacle, where the first phase is trying break off her gold shell, before fighting her deeper in her caverns. In phase 3 you mentioned that it could be volcanic, what she actually does is breath fire and melt the gold along the caverns, so part of the hazard is molten gold dropping from the ceiling. This theme in particular is meant to convey kind of the beauty and glory that Kulve Taroth has compared to other monsters in the series. also khezu theme when?
Hiya jesse, love your videos mate i've been watching them from Almost the very beginning and love them to this day. You've shown me so many new ways to enjoy music, educated me on music theory and been a good laugh along the way, so i iust thought id say a huge thanks for being you and say to keep up the amazing content :) Also, ive been wondering, have you heard any of the official arrangements of the nier automata songs? I've seen you react to all the normal OST songs but I can't seem to find you listening to any of those, you can find them on the square enix TH-cam channel. Id love to see a video on them or hear your thoughts.
Bagelgoose! This guy... Capcom announced like all monsters in their trailers, except the final boss, AND this guy. This dude coming outta nowhere and explode all over. There is diversity, the village themes are calm, the farm themes are fun, the battle theme in between beautiful or intensity, and the main themes are memorable & wonderful.
I had some of my favorites moments in MHW when the Kulve Taroth music peaked in the final phase. It was one of the big "siege" fights where multiple groups of players could be fighting it asynchronously, as it had a timer but the more each team damaged it the longer it would stick around, and if you got it to the final phase you could knock off its golden horns to earn special weapons (including my personal crutch, the Glutton Heavy Bowgun). I nearly gave up on MHW after finishing the main story, but some great multiplayer moments with randoms online taking on KT kept me going for another, uh, 800+ hours if you include Iceborne. Epic as hell. And yes, I have listened to that theme outside the game many times.
Ah man if i remember right in Monster Hunter World they actually shadow dropped bazelgeuse (i may be wrong on that since its been awhile) but i remember me and my buddies thought it was just any other hunt we'd do for some common monster. Suddenly, all i see is a massive flying monster crash down from the sky out of nowhere and hearing those first notes... man the adrenaline. It's one of my favourite memories in gaming entirely, the world that capcom creates with each MH game is just so immersive. Also the music in monster hunter is surprisingly expansive and i hope people have requested not just the scary sounding songs as much as they are great!
I always picture Tanya from the anime Tanya the Evil with her army doing a march towards an enemy's territory when I hear the Bazelgeuse theme, and its name always sounds similar to the lord of the flies name, Beelzebub, when I pronounce it.
"I have yet to hear anything that's...kind of calm, or...something that doesn't sound like this in Monster Hunter." Somebody get Jesse to listen to the Pokke Village theme. Cozy as heck.
You were asking about the term Arch-Tempered during the Kulve Tarroth Theme. Basically, in Monster Hunter there are 3 levels of monsters so to speak that you can fight. Regular, Tempered and Arch-Tempered (exclusive to Elder Dragons and often locked under an event quest), so no they do not alternate between these "states" as you theorized in the video. An Arch-Tempered monster is simply put the same monster but on steroid (new moves, more HP, more lethal, etc.). These also come with a variation of their theme while you fight them.
MHW was my first monster hunter and man when the music started for this monster I was so stoked because of how hype and serious the music sounded. Reminded me of the beginning of "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ride of the Valkyries"
Fun fact, during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020, they played the main theme from MH4 when France showed up, that was very cool (they also played sountrack from Final Fantasy and other big japanese games)
14:19 arch tempered is a word used only in World. There are “tempered” monsters which are basically just same monster but hit harder, more health. They are more “experienced” arch tempered are like the same monster but it had extra abilities. So it’s the same enemy that doesn’t act like it did before. These were only for Elder Dragons which the most powerful monsters. The arch tempered themes are a variation on the original
Actually it was the music that got me into Monster Hunter! The first ever music (besides Proof of a Hero) that I heard was Odibatras' theme, and it blew me away. I got curious whether the other tracks in this series is as good as it was, and man was I in for an entire journey! Since I didn't have a PlayStation it took me about 5 years until I finally got to play Monster Hunter XX, and I INSTANTLY fell in love with it. But during those 5 years (and even today of course) I kept on listening to all the different Monster Hunter music, hyping myself up to the day I get to play it.
Boss Fights are the main draw of Monster Hunter, but there's some really cozy resource management and gathering as well. Definitely a franchise that molded my tastes in games on it's own.
Sounds like a war. And the battle with Bazelgeus is THE WAR. Its like you beating an bomber airplane with a giant sword. "Sticks versus Lightning" type of thing.
Bazelgeus is similar to Betelgeuse, the star whose name lies in Arabic linguistic origins. And the titular character of the movie Beetlejuice is actually named after the star Betelgeuse. So you could pronounce it Basil-Juice. :P Fantasy names can have interesting inspirations but they can be hard to say without specific knowledge. Everyone who has played Monster Hunter World has had the experience of minding their own business, locked in a death match with a large monster, and then this kicks in. Honestly, being raided by Bazelgeuse mid-fight is was one of my favorite things in MHW and part of what the game so special. Absolutely loved its theme and the armor went well with my Insect Glaive build. My best description of the feeling is... Imagine being locked in a fight, and then the music changes to this, and it instills a sense of dread as you know you're about to be up against 2 powerful monsters. Bazelgeus is an opportunistic predator who will attack both sides of the fight it invades. And when you hear this, sometimes it's the best move to run, especially to avoid the bombs. Often the creature you're hunting will choose to run shortly after Bazelgeus shows up. Unless your real goal is Bazelgeuse, it's good to run as it can quickly push you onto the back foot. MHW was also very indulgent in Food Porn (I mean in that the food looks ridiculously good, and not anything sexual). Every meal you had cooked got a full cutscene of the Palicos (cat companions) cooking it, and they were lavish comedically large meals that had extraordinarily high budget graphics. FF15 shares this trait of high budget food graphics. Also... There is a Monster Hunter movie... It stars Mila Jovavitch... I haven't seen it. I'm pretty sure that's reviewed as awful. As for story in the games... It's like... No one knows the lore... Even on the wiki no one really knows. The plot is a suggestion. It's there but like... It's generic. You're just there to fight big monsters.
Per your comment on variety of sounds, I do believe I put in for one of the villages a good while back. I think it might've been Dos Jumbo Village? Anyways, still looking forwards to you hearing that and the variety the series has to offer
I recommend checking out another Medley, The Complete Rotten Vale battle theme from MH World. Most of the time the AREA theme isn't too memorable and the monster themes are what shine. But this area is something great , the battle music that plays for monsters that don't have their own theme here is just great ^,^ . I know you don't like links so the exact title on TH-cam is " Monster Hunter: World OST - Rotten Vale Battle Theme - Complete Mix " I think you'll love it
Kulve Taroth is a cool monster in general and a pretty great 'siege' fight. But the first time I heard that Arch-tempered kulve phase 3 theme I was so hyped! Dodging fire and jumping off the arena walls to try and get that mount or horn cut xD
calmer songs are the village themes, out on the hunt, theres a jingle when you enter the hunt map, but every monster has its own theme like this while actively fighting it (with the special exception of Khezu)
in terms of calm monster hunter themes, there's the town themes, basically hub areas you prepare in and upgrade your gear before a hunt. most of those tend to be very calm, warm and welcoming. other than that, there's a couple battle themes that are on the calm side. amatsu's phase 1 theme is very calm and fairly peaceful, and so is ceadeus' phase 1 theme, the latter also sounds very majestic. narwa's theme is also on the calmer side, though it's got a heroic intense latter half. but a REALLY calm one would be from frontier, zerureusu's theme. that one's literally just the sound of wind with some eastern instrument and the occasional ding of a bell. the second phase ramps it up a little, but it's still a very chill track.
A little bit of Monster Hunter series context regarding its sales and reception of the series. Monster Hunter released in 2004 on the PS2, and it wasn't really much of a success out of the gate, despite solidifying the core concept of the series that still exists and is popular today. A sequel was released but the original didn't do very well in America so it remained in Japan only. They then released remakes of these two titles on the PSP (these two games did get Western releases), and the Japanese gamers LOVED playing these games on the go. The ability to just meet up and hunt with people on your train rides or hanging out in the city was immensely appealing, and it brought the series immense success in Japan. Since the West didn't really attach itself to the PSP in this particular way (Western gamers in this era were starting to primarily prefer Internet based multiplayer gaming rather than ad hoc multiplayer), and since these games were extremely mechanically complex that required a lot of learning, the series remained super niche. The next entry on the PSP never made it to America. Monster Hunter would next try to make a splash by pivoting consoles to the Nintendo Wii, with Monster Hunter Tri having a decent marketing push that gave it more success than previous titles, but the high learning curve of the series didn't allow it to penetrate the home console market. However, when they made a push to put the series on portable consoles (choosing the online-capable 3DS as the new home over the languid Vita), it started gaining serious momentum. This even lead to the 4th main series entry - Monster Hunter 4 - releasing on handheld consoles only, and being a really good success in its niche, even in the West. Monster Hunter World was designed to not only be a next gen entry for the series, but the best entry to onboard newcomers into the series. It forewent a lot of the series mainstays (invisible damage numbers, needing to track the monsters constantly during the hunt, teaching you how to play each weapon in the game itself) in the name of accessibility and fleshing out their most impressive systems, and it payed off massively. Monster Hunter World is now Capcom's best selling game ever. Yes, even if you collate the sales of EVERY version of Street Fighter II (the previous record holder). It's a great thing to see as a long time fan of the series to see it reach unheard of heights that the series always deserved! PS. You can capture monsters in this series, but its not like you may think. It's more like trapping monsters as an alternative to hunting them outright. There are spin off titles (Monster Hunter Stories) that does turn the gameplay into a monster-raising turn-based RPG however!
I love listening to the music outside of the game, I listen to it when drawing and writing stuff out. I personally like osutogaroa’s theme. Both phases are just so neat to me.
The best way to look at the Player's role in the Monster Hunter Games is that we are essentially Wildlife Game Wardens/Park Rangers. We go out and deal with problem/nuisance/invasive creatures that are disrupting the environment and/or causing harm to people and other creatures. Sometimes that means trapping and capturing some to study what is going on and causing the main issue, a lot of times that means having hunt down and kill the creature in question, as they are that destructive/dangerous. Also, any monster that has its own theme can basically be considered Late-Mid to End Game bosses, with only a handful of those being Very End Game/"Final" bosses. Kulve Taroth is an end game monster that also served as a first of its kind fight in that we never really had "Raid" bosses before her, but with her it was designed so everyone in a play session (so 16 players max) could fight her "at the same time". That said, the game has always been designed so I "party" can only consist of 4 players total, and that still applies with her fight. However, even though if you and your three friends fought her all you would see is the four of you, at the same time, whatever the other parties fighting her in their own instanced fights would do in terms of damage would still affect her. Bazelguese on the other hand would be a Late game boss. He doesn't show up until you reach high rank quests, and his specific quest tends to be towards the end of the High Rank quests. However!! He can show up any time he damn well pleases once you are doing high rank quests. Hence why he is called the "Invading Tyrant", emphasis on "INVADING". And when he shows up on a map, he will actively seek out the hunter when the hunter is fighting something else. At which point, since he is (according to the game lore) stronger than most other monsters in the game, his theme music will take precedence and play over the themes of whatever monster you had been fighting up to that point. And for many players, when this first happened it was terrifying. Then every subsequent encounter became "Oh shit! No, no, no!! Leave me alone!!"
so if you want some very different musics, I recommend : Ceadeus themes and village themes And for monster Hunter, all the games happens few years appart if not at the same time in the first games, we are a new hunter, selected to be the Hunter of a village, and we are here to help the people of that village to continue to do their things, like gathering, fishing, getting meat, minerals etc, but also free the nearby road to allow commerce between villages and much bigger cities. And if an area is too dangerous, you're the one asked to do these tasks, often because a monster is nearby, and normal people can't fight the monsters, since LOREWISE, the hunt id HEAVILY regulated, since we're not here to kill, only help and protect ( but it's different gameplay wise of course, wouldn't be fun ), and if one illegaly hunt a monster, there is a special elit unit sent to capture or kill the outlaws. but there is also a bigger city in every game, where you can play with other people to do much bigger quest and solve mich bigger problems since it's often either THE capital of the MHWorld, a really big outpost, even a massive commercial harbour or even a giant city lost in the Desert etc so the village ( solo ) and the bigger city ( multiplayer ) are completely separated from the other areas where you hunt. You can access them through a quest board, where a sent of the big organisation that is the Guild ( the one that regulates the hunt ) is here to tell you about what you need to do for the villagers, starting with small gathering, then hunt of small troublesome monsters, then bigger monster that a villager could NEVER take on, and then actual threat that could destroy the village in few minutes So gameplay wise, you do these quests, get materials, build new equipment, then harder quest, for better equipment etc until you finish the first part of the story. Then you start the second part, new difficulty lvl, new armour, new weapons etc then you repeat that for the multiplayer part since it's a different place, but multiplayer also add an even higher difficulty lvl, where error won't be allowed, and with even more amazing everything. It id a grindy game, where you'll hunt monster multiple tiles to get materials to build new things and become stronger And once all of this is done, you can either want: to build perfect builds, learn the lore, want to build beautiful builds, or do all the mini in-game achievments for fun, or master all 14 weapons which is a really hard one, there is always a goal making you play the games Also compared to Souls, it can be similar when it comes to the fights, since the gameplay is kinda similar, but it more of an endurance fight rather than a fast paced fight like Souls games Some characters come back in later games, but you NEVER play the same hunter, you create your hunter. Some monsters come back too, and 3 of them ALWAYS come back and they're from the very first game, 20 years ago
I remember having that dreadful "Oh no...." when Monster Hunter Rise snuck Bazelgeuse into the game without having him in trailers. It was such a fun surprise. Rise was my first Monster Hunter but I still heard thru the grapevine about ol Goosey from players that played World. He's just such a brat I love them.
Great timing in this video considering the community is currently is a hype crazy because we are getting drip fed info on the new game lol. To give some background with the world of MH, basically it mirrors some aspects of the real world. In most cases humans and monsters live "together" on the same planet like we do with animals. however if a population of monsters gets TOO large to be dangerous or there's monsters causing troubles that's when the hunters aka us are called in. In the game and in lore there's a rank system that monsters fall into based on their threat level and we always start as a fresh newbie hunter at rank one, working out way up to fighting stuff they wouldn't send grizzled vets after by the end lol. During the hunts the hunter can either slay the monster where you can carve it for materials to make armor (that unicorn look you mentioned is from the Kirin monster) or capture it for the guild to study in a safer environment. Also the guild takes hunts VERY seriously (none of this is in game btw and is all lore from outside materials) and if you poach monsters there's actually a special squad of hunters that exists to hunt down poachers and take them down, that works in the in shadows and people aren't sure if they REALLY exist. In the games you grab hunt targets like a bounty board to rank up so you can reach the next set of monsters and difficulty, however along the way there are NPC's who will sometimes ask you to do tasks or side hunts that will usually unlock beneficial stuff for you. The fights are purely boss fights where you prep at the village, land in a local, track and hunt down the monsters specified, and maybe go after some others on the map for fun, but the game is basically pure boss fights. Also to answer a question in the video, I do listen to some monster songs out of the games like Duremudria, Disufioa, Shantien, Raviente, Valstrax, etc. Some of these songs have even been featured on this channel. The main reason is just I like them and they also oddly make for great focusing music to work to.
Monster hunter is all about the monsters the stories are usually secondary to them, there is some returning charackters but they're more charming side charackters than anything else. The most complex story to date was that of monster hunter 4, wich follows a world spanning adventure on the tracks of the mysterious Gore Magala, a monster wich spreads an extremely infectous rabees like illness that makes other monsters go crazy and aggressive, the entire story is about finding and destroying the source of "the frenzy" and then dealing with the aftershock of this insane epidemic. The more typical monster hunter story is: "[insert monster] is threatening the village get strong enough to deal with it, [insert monster] didnt actually cause all the trouble and was just a symptom of a greater problem go kill [insert bigger monster] wich is actually the problem... repeat until you kill a god". The stroies usually have some rather compelling themes beneath the rather shallow plot on the surface.
Late to say this but there is definitely variety in Monster Hunter! Not just between different monster themes, but between games too. A lot of the themes from Monster Hunter Rise have a very distinctly Japanese feeling because of different instrumentation and vocals. Someof my favorites from the Rise OST are definitely Mizutsune and Magnamalo! And yes there is music for zones and such too, which is very good, my favorite is the Seliana (night) theme. It's the hub town of Iceborne and it has an incredibly ...home-y feel to me.
Bazel's music: *starts* I, who got conditioned way too much: "I need to immediately disengage and start rolling around until no more bombs are going off."
For Bazelgeuse, imagine you're locked in a clash to the death with a boss... then suddenly the music stops and Bazel's theme just starts... right as it picks up this flying nightmare dive bombs both you and the boss and then everything explodes around you. That is the bagelbomber experience.
Monster Hunter does have very calm songs. In every game there is the hub in form of a village, and their themes are so beautiful! For world it would be Astera, for the expansion it's Seliana. My favorite of all is the theme of moga village from monster hunter tri.
About diversity in MH: Generally MH themes are either the big daunting boss themes that are mostly orchestral and what not... or the cozy village hub themes. For the monster boss themes MH World especially went with a very recognizable but samey style so to speak. Everything was very similar when it came to the choice of instruments for example. Sometimes they added stuff on top like the organs or choirs you heard in the Kulve Taroth Medley tho. Generally there isn't much drastic variety in MH. Like you probably won't hear Dubstep, Jazz, Swing or Metal within the games. There are official Remixes Capcom sells in ingame shops that you can put on in the hub or your house etc. But there are some songs that do have very distinct sounds. "Breath of Ire - Wind Serpent Ibushi" from MH Rise for example is verry different. Or "Moonquake - Caedeus" from MH tri. There is also the fact that the monsters with their own themes tend to get rearranged versions when they appear in another game. For example "The Invading Tyrant - Bazelgeuse" in MH World sounds a bit different from the the version in MH Rise (which adds kind of a military drum early on and has some backup choirs since vocal elements were the defining musical feature in Rise). So it's fun to see the differences between different versions of the same song.
If I had to describe Kulve Taroth's themes, it'd be: Regal, Power, and The Quest for El Dorado. That pretty much sums up her lore too, she's a queen that wears a "gown" of molten gold.
Arch Tempered is a special powered up state the only certain monsters of the "Elder Dragon" classification can reach they are more powerfull than regular ones and have a metallic sheen on their scales. Kulve Taroth is an Elder Dragon that covers its black hide with metal ores it finds in the earth and melts onto itself using its superheated firebreath, in the "caverns of el dorado" where this fight takes place the most common metal is gold so Kulve is golden, Arch Tempered Kulve Taroth looks like it is covered in Platinum. Context: an Elder Dragon is any kind of monster that has propertys that the in universe science of monster hunter can not explain, or monsters that dont fit into the established catagorys and are to dangerous to further study. "This thing flys without wings and can conjure storms on a whim? Elder Dragon!" "This thing fires lazers, makes tar and eats gunpowder? Elder Dragon!" "Flying Squid that vacums up everything? Idk Elder Dragon i guess?!"
With Kulve Taroth the 1st phase is mostly trying to get the monster to even pay attention to you. Phase 2 is the first real fight of the hunt. Phase 3 is the final showdown where you chase her back into her nest with she heats up the chamber so much that molten gold falls from the ceiling and be a hazard if your carful enough or just unlucky.
btw if you want calm music the village themes are INCREDIBLE, some are better than others but in general theyre all really good atmospheric songs that make you feel like you're home Highly recommended Moga Village, Cathar Village, Pokke Village and Seliana
There in fact IS a Monster Hunter movie! Reception was quite poor though, sadly. Have yet to watch it myself [Spoilers for Kulve] The Kulve OST is a really interesting piece of work. The hunt starts with you (forcefully) removing her literal gold plating. This is where the music still is quite nuanced and Kulve is literally moving like a queen - very slow and almost doesn't care about the hunters attacking her. But when you removed enough of the armor, you get to phase 2 and so on. In a way, the overall "royalness" stays the exact same in this fight through its music. When you're in phase 3, and she just goes absolutely ballistic with everything, while the room is lit by lava, the music is at its absolute peak and conveys so much pure rage and violence besides the royalty aspect.
As much as bazelgeuse is the understandable favorite of these two, there was always something kind of thematically neat to me about kulve taroth. It's a dragon with huge gold horns and a massive golden mantle dragging behind it (all highly valued), so large that it's called a siege instead of a hunt (technically involving 16 players, though split into instances of 4). In a game with so many weird and unconventional "dragons", where the term elder dragon is broad enough to mean both the typical big lizards as well as stuff like a scaly lightning horse, kulve taroth's aesthetic, parts of the music, and the glittering gold-streaked cave you fight it in all call to mind the classic idea of a "dragon's treasure hoard" to me. Only in this case, the dragon is the hoard.
Imagine yourself, minding your own business, running around a beautiful landscape, picking up resources and catching bugs, tracking the footprints of the monster you're trying to hunt. Then, as you zero in on the monster you're hunting, just as you're ready to jump in and start your hunt, you hear a distant roar that sounds markedly like if a goose was 30 feet tall and also a lizard. You turn around, wondering what the hell that was. Oh well, it's probably just ambience, right? So you start your fight, diving in to slay the beast you tracked. Then, in the heat of battle, you see orange pellets drop from the sky. Confused, you look up, and you hear the blaring trumpet from the first few seconds of this theme play as an explosive dragon the size of a B-52 body slam into you and the monster you were hunting from the sky, sending you flying from a chorus of explosions. You thought you were safe today? No. This is Bazelgeuse's hunt! He is the main character, diving into battle like a Canadian goose strapped with 15 tons of explosives! And his theme makes sure you are well aware that HE HAS ARRIVED!
Addendum to Razor921's comment: Its cry, too. As the music kicks in, the bomb scales drop from the skies and chaos ensues, they made darn sure that Bazelgeuse's cry, too, reminds of an air raid siren.
As an MH fan, there are certainly songs I listen to outside of the game for personal enjoyment. That said, they all make me want to play their corresponding game again. 😆
You describing it as being "ambient" actually represents it pretty well. It's almost "larger than life" and really encapsulates the air surrounding that monster. Even though at the end of the day, it's still fighting a boss, but unlike, say, Bloodborne where the boss would have a chant with lyrics or a general "intent" behind the enemy. Monster Hunter really drives the point that you're just fighting a living, breathing creature since ecology is a huge part of the series EXCEPT for the things that aren't "natural" like Fatalis which has lots of chanting and is so alarming And yes, I listen to this stuff all day long lmao
I love Bazelgeuse's music because it exemplifies his nature as a bomber plane and a guy who invades your hunts because he thinks he's the main character and loves to fight I love Kulve Taroth's music because it sounds like you poked a bear that turned out to be an ancient god that will now obliterate everything you've ever known. Her fight starts off super slow in phase one, with you literally having to chase her around and whale on her to get her to even notice you or else she'll just leave, and if you piss her off, she goes to phase 2. She moves to a new zone and actually starts to fight you, going from "big lizard" to burning gold furnace lizard who shoots lasers of burning air that melt the floor, where if she gets enraged her golden shell will get red hot and become super soft from just being angry. If you drive her back further to phase 3 to the end of her den (which is ALL GOLD), she gets more ferocious and ditches her entire golden coat, going from still slow fire breathing lizard to incredibly fast and angry goat dragon that tries to melt the entire cave ceiling down onto you and has a super-enraged "fury" mode where her eyes glow red, the light of her internal heat literally shines through the gaps between her golden scales and she'll straight up just jump across the zone to punch you in particular. It's incredible to watch in real time as this normally placid monster that wanders through caves slowly reveals her true nature as a goddess of hellfire upon being backed into a corner
Bazelgeuse is one of my favorite monsters in World. It's a so-called "invader" that can appear in the middle of other hunts and will often announce its presence by flying over you and dropping explosive scales (bombs) from the sky as the theme kicks in. People have lovingly nicknamed it "B-52 bomber" and the theme is very much mean to evoke the feeling of an air raid siren. It's an absolute genius track and one of my favorites in the series because the intro screams WARNING WARNING as bombs start dropping around you.
Yep! At first its hilarious when they show up, but then it becomes terrifying when they interrupt your hunt.
bro always jumpscare me when he kamikaze on me when fighting other monster
a really cool thing i've seen pointed out about bazelgeuse's theme is that it's got a real heroic bombast, bazelgeuse announcing through his theme that the true main character has finally arrived
@@TehParismio But it's awesome if Bazel decides he wants to fight the other monster more then you, then it becomes and epic team-up lol
They also have some more affectionate nicknames, like pinecone or beetlejuice
Monster Hunter is an intense and deadly serious game and the best example of this is when you "die" you're carried away on a gurney by talking cats who unceremoniously dump you face first into the dirt at your camp, and then the ace cadet/excitable A-lister says something like "wow that was totally GNARLY-cuga!"
God-tier comment lmao
What a pain in the Astalos
And there is THAT quest from Sunbreak, if you know, you know.
Khezu's theme is one of the calmest song you'll get to listen to in the series.
Khezu-s theme always gives me the shivers
Khezu's theme is truly deafening.
They definitely made a banger with that one. You can almost hear your heart pumping during it.
Ah yes, a true connoisseur
Dude, I listened to it so much that at this point I can't hear it anymore lol
Kulve my darling!
She is the Golden Elder Dragon, and this was an end-game raid (4 teams of 4 players) where you would work together to track, break parts, and eventually defeat the giantess.
In that last phase, you're essentially fighting a frenzied Fire dragon in a cave of Gold Lava! Her theme goes through peaks and troughs as you beat her back/she retreats, where you have a chance to regroup and set traps, and then you go and chase after her again.
Arch-Tempered is a "rank" in MH, A more powerful version of the base monster.
And yes I 100% listen to MH music outside of the game, it makes great backing music for D&D scenes, and I used to listen to them while I was at the Gym on the cross fit or the bike.
It's been a long while but thank you for getting to my request! I hope you enjoyed it :D
Kulve's music is such an amazingly structured piece; you can really hear the progression from indifferent goddess to angry queen and then to dangerous, cornered beast, all while maintaining the regal undercurrent from the start. Fits perfectly with the fight, with the singing kicking in as she's melting the ceiling in a desperate fury.
Man, MHW was a hell of a product.
I absolutely loved the Kulve Taroth battles. I got a full set of her gear and it was the last thing before I took a break from MHW. I am excited about the 2025 game though. I hope something like Kulve returns. Or Kulve herself. I loved her gear set.
Monster Hunter music may sound insanely serious, and that's because the monsters ARE serious threats ; but at it's core Monster Hunter is a DEEPLY silly and goofy series. Walking, talking cats cooking you food while dancing, cooking steaks in the wild with funky melodies, the vibe of MH is one of heroic, careless, happy bravado. No human character really ever "dies" in Monster Hunter, and the games are not much about grand stories. It's about you and your group of fellow friends and hunters, hunting a solid hundred badass giant monsters in 30min long fights. And after the beast is slain, you and your comrades go back to camp all jovial and go make a T shirt out of its scales.
TLDR the music IS deeply intimidating / reflects the personality of the monster you are hunting (some monsters have slow / fast tracks, some regal, some chaotic) but the intensity comes from the fact that the music is essentially "On the side of the Monster", and you are very right that it is the kind of music that can both intimidate you as you die OR cheer you on as you succeed.
Very much music that sticks you in the moment, also since Monster Hunter fights are so long, the music loops so often that you memorize all the melodies and intricacies of the song, and end up "singing along" in your head through the countless hunts
This deserves more appreciation, really. For as much as Monster Hunter tries to ground its monsters in a sense of plausible realism and generally stays away from anything overtly fantastical (magic and the like), Monster Hunter is a series that's never taken itself all too seriously. From the aforementioned cats, to quest descriptions requesting hunts for the most ridiculous things, to (non-voiced) dialogue overflowing with puns, to self-aware humour making fun of running gags about Khezu's phallic appearance or players finding Dodogama too cute to hunt or Plesioth's insane hipcheck hitbox in the old games. ("Hyperspace Tackle"!!!)
Yeah, the vibe is very much wholesome 90s action movie.
In theory humans die in the games but not on screen. For example Fatalis nuked the hell out of some human settlements.
@@yuomovaeh3028 Indeed, Monster Hunter does know to take itself seriously when it wants to even if most often its about having fun
"No human characters die" Unless it's Legends of the Guild.
You asked how the music is structured in Monster Hunter World. The game is basically a neverending conveyor belt of hunts, i.e. you get dropped at the starting point of a map, need to track a monster, and then use your trusty tooth pick to slay or capture it. In between hunts, you will be at base preparing your gear and items, picking up quests, etc. At base the music is pretty straightforward ambient medieval music. While you're tracking the monster, the music is rather minimal. I think they keep it subtle to really emphasize that you're concentrating on a hunt and don't want to draw too much attention. Then when the fight kicks off the music becomes bombastic and loud.
Funnily enough, every monster theme also has a subdued version, which plays when the monster runs away and you're following it to the other end of the map going 'dammit, get back here'.
Also yes, there's a character creator and your character does not matter. It's all about the monsters.
That s world structure mostly.
There re still differences with other games
@@unlimited971 Yep.
Velkhana's chase theme is so good.
@unlimited971
You're right. Old world games had basically no music outside of monster encounters. I think Capcom having this approach to their music is a solid evolution for the series. Keeping the adrenaline going when you're tracking tough retreating monster. Haha
It's a very stressful boss that decides it's time to fight it. You rarely seek Bazelgeuse out. He just decides to ruin your day.
Baselgeuse, can't tell you how much I love the theme for this. For the composers there's a few, for Baselgeuse was Akihiko Narita. Monster Hunter: World also had other composers like the one who did Kulve Taroth, who was Tadayoshi Makino. Who also helped with the soundtrack for the FFVII remake.
I still have PTSD from randomly hearing Bazelguese's theme while in the middle of hunting another monster lol
"Monster Hunter is so serious"
Gogmazios, The Giant Halberd Dragon, covered in tar, blasting lasers, a great drill-stake still embedded in its back: *angles its head upwards so you can see the chin*
chuckled when i heard him say that and was reminded of the ending songs of MHGen and GenU
and most important! damn that gunpowder is tasty 😋
and you can knock the drill out of it's back and use it to stab the dang thing AGAIN
@@MitchFromFBS huh, Mitch from fueled by sandwiches, I'm watching one of fueled by sandwiches videos right now...on the ground man segment currently as I notice this...cute how that lined up!
Not really the best example, that monster is one of the most grottesque and terrifying in the franchise, that phase transition still gives me nightmers, fucking randos that don't know hot to superman dive...
"OH HEY, I SEE YOU STARTED THE PARTY WITHOUT ME!?!?" *explosions*
Bazelgeuse, probably
Your comment about any frame of MH can be a poster is correct because the game deliberately gives kill screens after you finish a quest and one of them is actually my background on my PS profile and has been since 2019
I still cherish that legit awe/happiness feeling I had the moment when I got to the last phase of Arch-Tempered Kulve Taroth with my friends and the scenario starts melting when the music hits and Kulve is breathing fire everywhere. One of the best feelings I've had playing videogames
When you were describing how you grew to appreciate monster hunter's music. How initially, you didn't get it, but at some point, it clicked for you. It's exactly how most people I know feel about monster hunter as a game. At first, it's a massive struggle for some newcomers to get into the game, but once it clicks, they get so addicted. It's sort of funny, how you also had a similar experience to its music.
The overworld maps usually just have a short jingle when you arrive, but the music is usually just not there or ambient until you're noticed by monsters and then it breaks into either the map's battle theme or the monster's unique theme if they have one.
Bazelgeuse has to have one of the most recognisable openings to a monster's battle track in the series. It's so dramatic, dare I day *over*dramatic, and it is perfect for this monster. Bazelguese is one of a select few monsters known to consistently "invade" hunts, essentially being that guy nobody likes nor invited, but who inevitably shows up anyway. It shows up well before you're intended to hunt it, so chances are it'll throw a few hunts into disarray. And boy, does the music announce its arrival in style!
8:58 Monster Hunter has calm, too, but since the series focuses so much on the fights and their spectacle, the calmer tracks occupy the back of the mind more, I guess is how I'd put it. Hopefully you’ll get to hear some village(/equivalent) tracks down the line, there's a lot of great ones. A few of my favourites include Pokke, Val Habar, and Seliana... or how about "To One with Life" from MHTri/MH3U! Monster Hunter has phenomenal music overall, really.
The sound of an incoming b52 bomber plane. Time to panic and scramble now that we got a problem interrupting our task. PTSD kicks in with the opening seconds.
Kulve Taroth is a multi stage raid boss, you dont even get to kill it. You're just scraping gold and horns off it.
You don't kill it because pimps send out their workers to get more gold. Can't do that if they're dead.
You do get to actually kill Kulve in the iceborne version of the siege
8:50 The Astera theme that plays when you're in the main hub before hunts, there's also the "harp" version of it that plays when you're in the private room areas (it's played on a harp by Palicoes), and the monster themes in World only play when you start to fight the monsters (depending on how aggressive the monster is, you could stand next to it and still not have the battle music play)...
In Monster Hunter, you're basically a naturalist, you hunt monsters in order to learn more about them; but you don't always need to slay them, you can sometime be tasked with capturing them so they can be released later. In the case of Kulve Taroth, Kulve Taroth is a peaceful monster, but it is an incredibly rare monster and the job is not really to slay the Kulve Taroth; Kulve Taroth is quite literally a walking goldmine that just happens to spit lava when attacked, your mission is to mine the gold off it before it gets away...
I listen to Monster Hunter music every day, it’s actually just a part of my daily jams, and Kulves theme is one of my all time favorites!!
Kulve Taroth was a seasonally occurring raid event. The goal was essentially to break its giant golden horns for their spoils, but you needed to form multiple parties in a single lobby and hunt it to escaping multiple times until it was ready for its horns to break (it still escapes in the end, but without its horns). So yeah this was one of the rare times where the goal was not to kill your objective.
You kill the Arch Tempered one which is an event quest.
@@yuomovaeh3028nope AT lives MR Kulve is killed tho
@@Lator_the_Gator MR event is AT. If you listen to the ost during the event you hear also the AT music.
@yuomovaeh3028 yes they added the AT theme as MR is the highest rank of her fight but it's regular Kulve you can tell cause she has normal gold and not ATs white gold
There actually is a monster hunter movie! it sucks.
It had a nice crossover event mission set and the best armor in the game though in its defence... i miss that armor in my sunbreak playthrough DX
So much calm music too! You gotta chill when you return from the hunt! I love the harp playing palicos in my personal quarters!
14:15 Arch-tempered is a special end-game version of elder dragons, which means the boss has new moves, hits harder, etc. They also get a special rendition of the base theme of that elder dragon.
There is amaizing calm musick like: Pokke Village Theme , Guild Hall , Seliana (And yeah I lisen to these themes outside the game nearly every day).
24:33 I remember hearing safi'jiiva's theme for the first time and thinking I've never fought that monster before, so I played Monster Hunter World again from the beginning with a new character JUST to fight that monster and hear his theme in action. When I finally got to that point, it was the most spectacular and adrenaline-filled experience I had ever had, after that I finished the game and felt sad, but happy that I was able to live that experience and now waiting for the next Monster Hunter
The other prominent "invader" monster besides Bazelgeuse is named Deviljho, a scarred, tooth-faced, lumbering T-Rex, nicknamed "The World Eater".
Deviljho's theme is, to me, the song that most evokes dread, and the feeling of rapidly-draining hope. I hope you listen to it soon!
Arch-tempered is an alternate version of an Elder Dragon, the mightiest, hardest, and toughest version of said Dragon. Their damage and health spike, and sometimes they get new moves too.
Regarding calmer music. Village themes are probably what you are looking for. For instance in World, the Seliana theme is really sweet and calm and it changes between day and night.
Also Bazel theme is my alarm clock, i try to turn it off before it reaches the bombastic horns at the start.
since I didn't see anyone mention it, monsters usually have 3 different version when you get to end game:
normal version to get the normal loot.
tempered where they deal a lot more damage to you and often 1 hits you but also more end game rewards.
arch tempered where they deal a lot more damage again but also has a lot more health and sometimes new attacks, I only played world and rise and from what I know arch tempered is just for those who want a challenge.
Playing the game is definitely the best way to experience Monster Hunter music. I'd watch you play it live tbh so I could join your session lmao
I think my favorite thing about Bazelgeuse’ theme in World is how heroic sounding it is for the most part. It’s like Bazelgeuse sees itself as the hero of its story, triumphantly arriving to do battle with other predators. Including of course you, a hunter just minding your own business on IT’S territory. And before you ask, yes. Every inch of ground is its hunting ground and don’t you dare forget it.
Given he seems to be an evolutionary response to Deviljhos rampant unending hunger, he could well feel that way.
Think about he, is one of very monsters that can actually make Deviljho back off and run away if he gets he's explosive blasts down Jho's throat, that has to be a response to Jho being an apex predator.
I actually do listen to the music when out and about, it makes me remember the hours and hours of great moments i experienced while hunting these beasts with friends. It is nostalgic for me since mh is such an emergent kind of game where everyone gets kind of a custom narrative to the fight based on how you approached it and who you did it with.
Monster Hunter isnt always about the hunting, there are times when you can enter a specific map just to go around and look at the view, find new routes to travel, pick up items for crafting, etc. Some missions are literally just that, or stealing eggs, or something of the sorts.
So theres plenty of room for enjoying the map, its unique encounters, and in later games - watching the monsters interact like wildlife
15:48 two things, one: There WAS a Monster Hunter movie- I didn't see it but by all accounts, it's bad- it wound up being a couple military people who got transported to the Monster Hunter world (lower-case, not game title) and fought monsters, but it just wasn't what people wanted, nor did the creators seem to actually know what Monster Hunter actually was.
Two: There IS a story behind each game but it's mostly just the explanation of context behind why the monsters are acting up this time. Usually it's because an "Elder Dragon" is doing what it's evolved to do, like a gigantic dragon catfish causing earthquakes at the bottom of the sea by just moving (based on a Japanese legend) or a weird dragon who sheds toxic scales that drives other creatures (and the player!) mad with rage, making them more aggressive and dangerous, or another one who is called the Red Comet who zips through the air at incredibly high speeds with literal rockets of draconic energy coming out of its wingtips, that flies so fast it is blind in midair so it can't actually avoid hitting things. A good Monster Hunter movie would have to pick a simple story like that. Some big, scary beastie is doing something, heroes hunt at least a couple dangerous monsters riled up by it and make gear out of them after they're captured or killed, then you hunt the cause of all the issues and save the day. Maybe do a Fatalis movie instead where the main character is more the dragon and the town is the hero as a whole. The blacksmith, shopkeep, chef, village chief, and quest counter people are all, collectively, usually the main characters- along with the Village Hunter (the player character).
As a MH player, I often listen to the music on Spotify and YT when not playing the game. I have two playlists, one with monster battle themes (including Kulve Taroth), and another one with village themes (chill playlist).
I listen to it while working, walking outside, or just during free time.
Sometimes I find myself humming some parts of the awesome monster themes (Kulve, Safi, Chameleos) at any random time. Same as I could get obsessed over certain riffs in regular music.
18:54, absolutely
Bazelgeuse is affectionately referred to by the community as B-52, because it is a monster that will invade other hunts where the players are hunting a monster other than it by flying in, doing a bombing run (it can produce and drop exploding scales), and then dive-bombing in with its body crashing into the ground on top of one of the hunters.
Also, the start of the theme is very reminiscent of old war videos, movies, and news segments, to the point that there are popular edits on youtube using this theme on top of actual World War 2 footage, and it fits very well.
Kulve Taroth's theme, especially phase 1, feels super grand to me, which perfectly matches the idea that she is an enormous monster clad in a dress and crown of pure gold, and she entirely ignores the hunters' existence as insignificant while parading around the area, until the hunters manage to break her gold gown and finally attract her attention proper.
You should listen to Shantien's theme from Monster Hunter Frontier. Its last phase theme is so epic.
You spoke VERY highly of the tracks from Monster Hunter Frontier, so i recommend listening to Shantien's medley
but if you want to hear overworld songs, there are the village and hub themes
I absolutely listened to music outside of the game all the time, because it's the perfect amount of melody to be memorable, but not intrusive enough to interrupt my focus. There are some of the more suspenseful themes that play in the player hub when hitting certain story beats that I just can't stop listening to, particularly for the final monster in Iceborne. When I wanted to relax, the theme song for the World/Iceborne player room was just... perfect. It's calming, had day and night versions, and the night theme was great for relaxing/chilling. It's crazy to me that if you had asked me before i listened to this what the Kulve Taroth music sounded like, I couldn't hum it to save my life, but hearing it immediately put me back in the zone where you fight it, each phase I remembered what those rooms were like, the tactics we used, and especially hitting that final victorious bit just how excited we were to finally beat it, and I miss that. Kind of hoping we can get the gang back together for Wilds with the cross play now
I often listen to mh music at the gym its very motivational, eapecially if you've played the games. As childish as it sounds when im listening to it i imagine myself as my hunter, never giving up, giving your all to complete the mission and overcome such unreal walls. I dont often feel inspired by real people even in my field of work, but i find inspiration in games like this. Its not just about big swords and dragons, its about overcoming unimaginable odds.
there usually is not any music for the areas, if there is it usually doesn’t play for very long, more like an intro song that plays when you “drop in,” however the towns that you stay in have some incredible music that are often very calm and quite great, selina is a standout but older fans will remember the town themes from 3u
as for bazelgeuse, he’s basically what a b52 bomber plane would be as an animal. he also is what is known as an invader monster, meaning he will actively interfere with whatever the current monster you are fighting is and ruin your day, whether it’s by appearing in the area, or actually dive bombing you from out of nowhere. the intro to his theme is actually meant to sound like air raid sirens which convey his personality and design pretty well.
as for kulve taroth, she is an elder dragon fought in El Dorado, her lair, which is made entirely of gold. The entire fight is a spectacle, where the first phase is trying break off her gold shell, before fighting her deeper in her caverns. In phase 3 you mentioned that it could be volcanic, what she actually does is breath fire and melt the gold along the caverns, so part of the hazard is molten gold dropping from the ceiling. This theme in particular is meant to convey kind of the beauty and glory that Kulve Taroth has compared to other monsters in the series.
also khezu theme when?
Hiya jesse, love your videos mate i've been watching them from Almost the very beginning and love them to this day. You've shown me so many new ways to enjoy music, educated me on music theory and been a good laugh along the way, so i iust thought id say a huge thanks for being you and say to keep up the amazing content :)
Also, ive been wondering, have you heard any of the official arrangements of the nier automata songs? I've seen you react to all the normal OST songs but I can't seem to find you listening to any of those, you can find them on the square enix TH-cam channel. Id love to see a video on them or hear your thoughts.
Bagelgoose! This guy... Capcom announced like all monsters in their trailers, except the final boss, AND this guy. This dude coming outta nowhere and explode all over.
There is diversity, the village themes are calm, the farm themes are fun, the battle theme in between beautiful or intensity, and the main themes are memorable & wonderful.
I had some of my favorites moments in MHW when the Kulve Taroth music peaked in the final phase. It was one of the big "siege" fights where multiple groups of players could be fighting it asynchronously, as it had a timer but the more each team damaged it the longer it would stick around, and if you got it to the final phase you could knock off its golden horns to earn special weapons (including my personal crutch, the Glutton Heavy Bowgun). I nearly gave up on MHW after finishing the main story, but some great multiplayer moments with randoms online taking on KT kept me going for another, uh, 800+ hours if you include Iceborne. Epic as hell. And yes, I have listened to that theme outside the game many times.
Ah man if i remember right in Monster Hunter World they actually shadow dropped bazelgeuse (i may be wrong on that since its been awhile) but i remember me and my buddies thought it was just any other hunt we'd do for some common monster. Suddenly, all i see is a massive flying monster crash down from the sky out of nowhere and hearing those first notes... man the adrenaline. It's one of my favourite memories in gaming entirely, the world that capcom creates with each MH game is just so immersive.
Also the music in monster hunter is surprisingly expansive and i hope people have requested not just the scary sounding songs as much as they are great!
Monster Hunter can basically be summed up as kill monster, use parts to upgrade gear. Kill stronger monster. Repeat.
As a massive fan of the series I absolutely listen to the music outside of the game. Kulve Tarroth and Raging Beachidios are staples of my playlists.
When you're minding your own business and you hear those opening notes right before you get smacked in the face by a B-52 Bomber.
I always picture Tanya from the anime Tanya the Evil with her army doing a march towards an enemy's territory when I hear the Bazelgeuse theme, and its name always sounds similar to the lord of the flies name, Beelzebub, when I pronounce it.
"I have yet to hear anything that's...kind of calm, or...something that doesn't sound like this in Monster Hunter."
Somebody get Jesse to listen to the Pokke Village theme. Cozy as heck.
I was going to request it but it's on the list already. I just requested Cathar instead lol
You were asking about the term Arch-Tempered during the Kulve Tarroth Theme. Basically, in Monster Hunter there are 3 levels of monsters so to speak that you can fight. Regular, Tempered and Arch-Tempered (exclusive to Elder Dragons and often locked under an event quest), so no they do not alternate between these "states" as you theorized in the video. An Arch-Tempered monster is simply put the same monster but on steroid (new moves, more HP, more lethal, etc.). These also come with a variation of their theme while you fight them.
Monster Hunter World specifically.
Nothing has ever felt so good as stunning Kulve Taroth with my hammer as the chorus kicks in for the Arch-Tempered hunt in high rank. Exhilarating.
Lotta monster hunter music I've found is nice to do some chores to. Cleaning, hitting the gym, mowing the lawn. Gives that energy to do it
Yes Finally I’ve been waiting for so long!!!
MHW was my first monster hunter and man when the music started for this monster I was so stoked because of how hype and serious the music sounded. Reminded me of the beginning of "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ride of the Valkyries"
Fun fact, during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020, they played the main theme from MH4 when France showed up, that was very cool (they also played sountrack from Final Fantasy and other big japanese games)
14:19 arch tempered is a word used only in World. There are “tempered” monsters which are basically just same monster but hit harder, more health. They are more “experienced” arch tempered are like the same monster but it had extra abilities. So it’s the same enemy that doesn’t act like it did before.
These were only for Elder Dragons which the most powerful monsters.
The arch tempered themes are a variation on the original
Actually it was the music that got me into Monster Hunter!
The first ever music (besides Proof of a Hero) that I heard was Odibatras' theme, and it blew me away. I got curious whether the other tracks in this series is as good as it was, and man was I in for an entire journey! Since I didn't have a PlayStation it took me about 5 years until I finally got to play Monster Hunter XX, and I INSTANTLY fell in love with it. But during those 5 years (and even today of course) I kept on listening to all the different Monster Hunter music, hyping myself up to the day I get to play it.
Boss Fights are the main draw of Monster Hunter, but there's some really cozy resource management and gathering as well. Definitely a franchise that molded my tastes in games on it's own.
Sounds like a war. And the battle with Bazelgeus is THE WAR. Its like you beating an bomber airplane with a giant sword. "Sticks versus Lightning" type of thing.
Bazelgeus is similar to Betelgeuse, the star whose name lies in Arabic linguistic origins. And the titular character of the movie Beetlejuice is actually named after the star Betelgeuse. So you could pronounce it Basil-Juice. :P Fantasy names can have interesting inspirations but they can be hard to say without specific knowledge.
Everyone who has played Monster Hunter World has had the experience of minding their own business, locked in a death match with a large monster, and then this kicks in. Honestly, being raided by Bazelgeuse mid-fight is was one of my favorite things in MHW and part of what the game so special. Absolutely loved its theme and the armor went well with my Insect Glaive build.
My best description of the feeling is... Imagine being locked in a fight, and then the music changes to this, and it instills a sense of dread as you know you're about to be up against 2 powerful monsters. Bazelgeus is an opportunistic predator who will attack both sides of the fight it invades. And when you hear this, sometimes it's the best move to run, especially to avoid the bombs. Often the creature you're hunting will choose to run shortly after Bazelgeus shows up. Unless your real goal is Bazelgeuse, it's good to run as it can quickly push you onto the back foot.
MHW was also very indulgent in Food Porn (I mean in that the food looks ridiculously good, and not anything sexual). Every meal you had cooked got a full cutscene of the Palicos (cat companions) cooking it, and they were lavish comedically large meals that had extraordinarily high budget graphics. FF15 shares this trait of high budget food graphics.
Also... There is a Monster Hunter movie... It stars Mila Jovavitch... I haven't seen it. I'm pretty sure that's reviewed as awful. As for story in the games... It's like... No one knows the lore... Even on the wiki no one really knows. The plot is a suggestion. It's there but like... It's generic. You're just there to fight big monsters.
You seen Legends of the Guild? Not perfect but pretty decent nonetheless.
Per your comment on variety of sounds, I do believe I put in for one of the villages a good while back. I think it might've been Dos Jumbo Village? Anyways, still looking forwards to you hearing that and the variety the series has to offer
I still have Bazelgeuse's theme set as my phone's alarm tone. Never fails to get me up and out of bed in the morning.
Yes, I listen this kind of music while walking outside, working and at the gym 🤣🤣
My 2 favorite MHW songs in a single video, goddamn!
I recommend checking out another Medley, The Complete Rotten Vale battle theme from MH World. Most of the time the AREA theme isn't too memorable and the monster themes are what shine.
But this area is something great , the battle music that plays for monsters that don't have their own theme here is just great ^,^ .
I know you don't like links so the exact title on TH-cam is " Monster Hunter: World OST - Rotten Vale Battle Theme - Complete Mix "
I think you'll love it
I'd personally suggest the shantien Medley before that.
Kulve Taroth is a cool monster in general and a pretty great 'siege' fight. But the first time I heard that Arch-tempered kulve phase 3 theme I was so hyped! Dodging fire and jumping off the arena walls to try and get that mount or horn cut xD
calmer songs are the village themes, out on the hunt, theres a jingle when you enter the hunt map, but every monster has its own theme like this while actively fighting it (with the special exception of Khezu)
A lot of the calmness in Monster Hunter is also the lack of music when on a hunt, while not fighting. Just the ambient sounds of the wildlife.
in terms of calm monster hunter themes, there's the town themes, basically hub areas you prepare in and upgrade your gear before a hunt. most of those tend to be very calm, warm and welcoming.
other than that, there's a couple battle themes that are on the calm side. amatsu's phase 1 theme is very calm and fairly peaceful, and so is ceadeus' phase 1 theme, the latter also sounds very majestic. narwa's theme is also on the calmer side, though it's got a heroic intense latter half.
but a REALLY calm one would be from frontier, zerureusu's theme. that one's literally just the sound of wind with some eastern instrument and the occasional ding of a bell. the second phase ramps it up a little, but it's still a very chill track.
A little bit of Monster Hunter series context regarding its sales and reception of the series.
Monster Hunter released in 2004 on the PS2, and it wasn't really much of a success out of the gate, despite solidifying the core concept of the series that still exists and is popular today. A sequel was released but the original didn't do very well in America so it remained in Japan only. They then released remakes of these two titles on the PSP (these two games did get Western releases), and the Japanese gamers LOVED playing these games on the go. The ability to just meet up and hunt with people on your train rides or hanging out in the city was immensely appealing, and it brought the series immense success in Japan. Since the West didn't really attach itself to the PSP in this particular way (Western gamers in this era were starting to primarily prefer Internet based multiplayer gaming rather than ad hoc multiplayer), and since these games were extremely mechanically complex that required a lot of learning, the series remained super niche. The next entry on the PSP never made it to America.
Monster Hunter would next try to make a splash by pivoting consoles to the Nintendo Wii, with Monster Hunter Tri having a decent marketing push that gave it more success than previous titles, but the high learning curve of the series didn't allow it to penetrate the home console market. However, when they made a push to put the series on portable consoles (choosing the online-capable 3DS as the new home over the languid Vita), it started gaining serious momentum. This even lead to the 4th main series entry - Monster Hunter 4 - releasing on handheld consoles only, and being a really good success in its niche, even in the West.
Monster Hunter World was designed to not only be a next gen entry for the series, but the best entry to onboard newcomers into the series. It forewent a lot of the series mainstays (invisible damage numbers, needing to track the monsters constantly during the hunt, teaching you how to play each weapon in the game itself) in the name of accessibility and fleshing out their most impressive systems, and it payed off massively. Monster Hunter World is now Capcom's best selling game ever. Yes, even if you collate the sales of EVERY version of Street Fighter II (the previous record holder). It's a great thing to see as a long time fan of the series to see it reach unheard of heights that the series always deserved!
PS. You can capture monsters in this series, but its not like you may think. It's more like trapping monsters as an alternative to hunting them outright. There are spin off titles (Monster Hunter Stories) that does turn the gameplay into a monster-raising turn-based RPG however!
I absolutely listen to this outside of the game, i do enjoy following the different compositions. It does make me want to play the game xD
I love listening to the music outside of the game, I listen to it when drawing and writing stuff out. I personally like osutogaroa’s theme. Both phases are just so neat to me.
The best way to look at the Player's role in the Monster Hunter Games is that we are essentially Wildlife Game Wardens/Park Rangers. We go out and deal with problem/nuisance/invasive creatures that are disrupting the environment and/or causing harm to people and other creatures. Sometimes that means trapping and capturing some to study what is going on and causing the main issue, a lot of times that means having hunt down and kill the creature in question, as they are that destructive/dangerous.
Also, any monster that has its own theme can basically be considered Late-Mid to End Game bosses, with only a handful of those being Very End Game/"Final" bosses. Kulve Taroth is an end game monster that also served as a first of its kind fight in that we never really had "Raid" bosses before her, but with her it was designed so everyone in a play session (so 16 players max) could fight her "at the same time". That said, the game has always been designed so I "party" can only consist of 4 players total, and that still applies with her fight. However, even though if you and your three friends fought her all you would see is the four of you, at the same time, whatever the other parties fighting her in their own instanced fights would do in terms of damage would still affect her.
Bazelguese on the other hand would be a Late game boss. He doesn't show up until you reach high rank quests, and his specific quest tends to be towards the end of the High Rank quests. However!! He can show up any time he damn well pleases once you are doing high rank quests. Hence why he is called the "Invading Tyrant", emphasis on "INVADING". And when he shows up on a map, he will actively seek out the hunter when the hunter is fighting something else. At which point, since he is (according to the game lore) stronger than most other monsters in the game, his theme music will take precedence and play over the themes of whatever monster you had been fighting up to that point. And for many players, when this first happened it was terrifying. Then every subsequent encounter became "Oh shit! No, no, no!! Leave me alone!!"
so if you want some very different musics, I recommend : Ceadeus themes and village themes
And for monster Hunter, all the games happens few years appart if not at the same time
in the first games, we are a new hunter, selected to be the Hunter of a village, and we are here to help the people of that village to continue to do their things, like gathering, fishing, getting meat, minerals etc, but also free the nearby road to allow commerce between villages and much bigger cities.
And if an area is too dangerous, you're the one asked to do these tasks, often because a monster is nearby, and normal people can't fight the monsters, since LOREWISE, the hunt id HEAVILY regulated, since we're not here to kill, only help and protect ( but it's different gameplay wise of course, wouldn't be fun ), and if one illegaly hunt a monster, there is a special elit unit sent to capture or kill the outlaws.
but there is also a bigger city in every game, where you can play with other people to do much bigger quest and solve mich bigger problems since it's often either THE capital of the MHWorld, a really big outpost, even a massive commercial harbour or even a giant city lost in the Desert etc
so the village ( solo ) and the bigger city ( multiplayer ) are completely separated from the other areas where you hunt.
You can access them through a quest board, where a sent of the big organisation that is the Guild ( the one that regulates the hunt ) is here to tell you about what you need to do for the villagers, starting with small gathering, then hunt of small troublesome monsters, then bigger monster that a villager could NEVER take on, and then actual threat that could destroy the village in few minutes
So gameplay wise, you do these quests, get materials, build new equipment, then harder quest, for better equipment etc until you finish the first part of the story.
Then you start the second part, new difficulty lvl, new armour, new weapons etc
then you repeat that for the multiplayer part since it's a different place, but multiplayer also add an even higher difficulty lvl, where error won't be allowed, and with even more amazing everything.
It id a grindy game, where you'll hunt monster multiple tiles to get materials to build new things and become stronger
And once all of this is done, you can either want: to build perfect builds, learn the lore, want to build beautiful builds, or do all the mini in-game achievments for fun, or master all 14 weapons which is a really hard one, there is always a goal making you play the games
Also compared to Souls, it can be similar when it comes to the fights, since the gameplay is kinda similar, but it more of an endurance fight rather than a fast paced fight like Souls games
Some characters come back in later games, but you NEVER play the same hunter, you create your hunter.
Some monsters come back too, and 3 of them ALWAYS come back and they're from the very first game, 20 years ago
I know Rathalos and Rathian always come back, but who is the third monster?
@@matheusbecker2351 diablos
I remember having that dreadful "Oh no...." when Monster Hunter Rise snuck Bazelgeuse into the game without having him in trailers. It was such a fun surprise. Rise was my first Monster Hunter but I still heard thru the grapevine about ol Goosey from players that played World. He's just such a brat I love them.
Great timing in this video considering the community is currently is a hype crazy because we are getting drip fed info on the new game lol. To give some background with the world of MH, basically it mirrors some aspects of the real world. In most cases humans and monsters live "together" on the same planet like we do with animals. however if a population of monsters gets TOO large to be dangerous or there's monsters causing troubles that's when the hunters aka us are called in. In the game and in lore there's a rank system that monsters fall into based on their threat level and we always start as a fresh newbie hunter at rank one, working out way up to fighting stuff they wouldn't send grizzled vets after by the end lol. During the hunts the hunter can either slay the monster where you can carve it for materials to make armor (that unicorn look you mentioned is from the Kirin monster) or capture it for the guild to study in a safer environment. Also the guild takes hunts VERY seriously (none of this is in game btw and is all lore from outside materials) and if you poach monsters there's actually a special squad of hunters that exists to hunt down poachers and take them down, that works in the in shadows and people aren't sure if they REALLY exist. In the games you grab hunt targets like a bounty board to rank up so you can reach the next set of monsters and difficulty, however along the way there are NPC's who will sometimes ask you to do tasks or side hunts that will usually unlock beneficial stuff for you. The fights are purely boss fights where you prep at the village, land in a local, track and hunt down the monsters specified, and maybe go after some others on the map for fun, but the game is basically pure boss fights.
Also to answer a question in the video, I do listen to some monster songs out of the games like Duremudria, Disufioa, Shantien, Raviente, Valstrax, etc. Some of these songs have even been featured on this channel. The main reason is just I like them and they also oddly make for great focusing music to work to.
Monster hunter is all about the monsters the stories are usually secondary to them, there is some returning charackters but they're more charming side charackters than anything else.
The most complex story to date was that of monster hunter 4, wich follows a world spanning adventure on the tracks of the mysterious Gore Magala, a monster wich spreads an extremely infectous rabees like illness that makes other monsters go crazy and aggressive, the entire story is about finding and destroying the source of "the frenzy" and then dealing with the aftershock of this insane epidemic.
The more typical monster hunter story is: "[insert monster] is threatening the village get strong enough to deal with it, [insert monster] didnt actually cause all the trouble and was just a symptom of a greater problem go kill [insert bigger monster] wich is actually the problem... repeat until you kill a god".
The stroies usually have some rather compelling themes beneath the rather shallow plot on the surface.
Late to say this but there is definitely variety in Monster Hunter! Not just between different monster themes, but between games too. A lot of the themes from Monster Hunter Rise have a very distinctly Japanese feeling because of different instrumentation and vocals. Someof my favorites from the Rise OST are definitely Mizutsune and Magnamalo! And yes there is music for zones and such too, which is very good, my favorite is the Seliana (night) theme. It's the hub town of Iceborne and it has an incredibly ...home-y feel to me.
Bazel's music: *starts*
I, who got conditioned way too much: "I need to immediately disengage and start rolling around until no more bombs are going off."
For Bazelgeuse, imagine you're locked in a clash to the death with a boss... then suddenly the music stops and Bazel's theme just starts... right as it picks up this flying nightmare dive bombs both you and the boss and then everything explodes around you. That is the bagelbomber experience.
B52 BOMBER INCOMING DIVE DIVE DIVE
Also, those opening violins gave me immediate flashbacks, even though I knew they were coming.
Monster Hunter does have very calm songs. In every game there is the hub in form of a village, and their themes are so beautiful! For world it would be Astera, for the expansion it's Seliana.
My favorite of all is the theme of moga village from monster hunter tri.
Kulve Taroth is my favorite fight in the game, and I also occasionally listen to the MH music outside the game
About diversity in MH:
Generally MH themes are either the big daunting boss themes that are mostly orchestral and what not... or the cozy village hub themes. For the monster boss themes MH World especially went with a very recognizable but samey style so to speak. Everything was very similar when it came to the choice of instruments for example. Sometimes they added stuff on top like the organs or choirs you heard in the Kulve Taroth Medley tho. Generally there isn't much drastic variety in MH. Like you probably won't hear Dubstep, Jazz, Swing or Metal within the games. There are official Remixes Capcom sells in ingame shops that you can put on in the hub or your house etc.
But there are some songs that do have very distinct sounds.
"Breath of Ire - Wind Serpent Ibushi" from MH Rise for example is verry different. Or "Moonquake - Caedeus" from MH tri.
There is also the fact that the monsters with their own themes tend to get rearranged versions when they appear in another game. For example "The Invading Tyrant - Bazelgeuse" in MH World sounds a bit different from the the version in MH Rise (which adds kind of a military drum early on and has some backup choirs since vocal elements were the defining musical feature in Rise). So it's fun to see the differences between different versions of the same song.
If I had to describe Kulve Taroth's themes, it'd be: Regal, Power, and The Quest for El Dorado. That pretty much sums up her lore too, she's a queen that wears a "gown" of molten gold.
Has Jesse ever heard Shantien's theme? I haven't seen it on the channel, but it's genuinely a must-listen
Arch Tempered is a special powered up state the only certain monsters of the "Elder Dragon" classification can reach they are more powerfull than regular ones and have a metallic sheen on their scales.
Kulve Taroth is an Elder Dragon that covers its black hide with metal ores it finds in the earth and melts onto itself using its superheated firebreath, in the "caverns of el dorado" where this fight takes place the most common metal is gold so Kulve is golden, Arch Tempered Kulve Taroth looks like it is covered in Platinum.
Context: an Elder Dragon is any kind of monster that has propertys that the in universe science of monster hunter can not explain, or monsters that dont fit into the established catagorys and are to dangerous to further study.
"This thing flys without wings and can conjure storms on a whim? Elder Dragon!"
"This thing fires lazers, makes tar and eats gunpowder? Elder Dragon!"
"Flying Squid that vacums up everything? Idk Elder Dragon i guess?!"
Village themes are very calm Monster Hunter songs. Pokke Village is my personal favorite, it's very chill and ambient.
With Kulve Taroth the 1st phase is mostly trying to get the monster to even pay attention to you.
Phase 2 is the first real fight of the hunt.
Phase 3 is the final showdown where you chase her back into her nest with she heats up the chamber so much that molten gold falls from the ceiling and be a hazard if your carful enough or just unlucky.
the opening notes from Bazelgeuse and the Guardians theme song from Breath of the Wild are the two most panic PTSD inducing songs
Sir, you asked LOADED questions on this one lol.
Hearing the Bazelgeuse intro again gave me PTSD of being dive bombed from nowhere while minding my own business. 10/10
btw if you want calm music the village themes are INCREDIBLE, some are better than others but in general theyre all really good atmospheric songs that make you feel like you're home
Highly recommended Moga Village, Cathar Village, Pokke Village and Seliana
There in fact IS a Monster Hunter movie!
Reception was quite poor though, sadly. Have yet to watch it myself
[Spoilers for Kulve]
The Kulve OST is a really interesting piece of work. The hunt starts with you (forcefully) removing her literal gold plating. This is where the music still is quite nuanced and Kulve is literally moving like a queen - very slow and almost doesn't care about the hunters attacking her. But when you removed enough of the armor, you get to phase 2 and so on. In a way, the overall "royalness" stays the exact same in this fight through its music. When you're in phase 3, and she just goes absolutely ballistic with everything, while the room is lit by lava, the music is at its absolute peak and conveys so much pure rage and violence besides the royalty aspect.
Do you a favor, don't watch it.
The movie is kind of bad
Just watch nch productions animated video of the movie
As much as bazelgeuse is the understandable favorite of these two, there was always something kind of thematically neat to me about kulve taroth. It's a dragon with huge gold horns and a massive golden mantle dragging behind it (all highly valued), so large that it's called a siege instead of a hunt (technically involving 16 players, though split into instances of 4).
In a game with so many weird and unconventional "dragons", where the term elder dragon is broad enough to mean both the typical big lizards as well as stuff like a scaly lightning horse, kulve taroth's aesthetic, parts of the music, and the glittering gold-streaked cave you fight it in all call to mind the classic idea of a "dragon's treasure hoard" to me. Only in this case, the dragon is the hoard.
Imagine yourself, minding your own business, running around a beautiful landscape, picking up resources and catching bugs, tracking the footprints of the monster you're trying to hunt.
Then, as you zero in on the monster you're hunting, just as you're ready to jump in and start your hunt, you hear a distant roar that sounds markedly like if a goose was 30 feet tall and also a lizard. You turn around, wondering what the hell that was. Oh well, it's probably just ambience, right? So you start your fight, diving in to slay the beast you tracked. Then, in the heat of battle, you see orange pellets drop from the sky. Confused, you look up, and you hear the blaring trumpet from the first few seconds of this theme play as an explosive dragon the size of a B-52 body slam into you and the monster you were hunting from the sky, sending you flying from a chorus of explosions.
You thought you were safe today? No. This is Bazelgeuse's hunt! He is the main character, diving into battle like a Canadian goose strapped with 15 tons of explosives! And his theme makes sure you are well aware that HE HAS ARRIVED!
Addendum to Razor921's comment: Its cry, too. As the music kicks in, the bomb scales drop from the skies and chaos ensues, they made darn sure that Bazelgeuse's cry, too, reminds of an air raid siren.
As an MH fan, there are certainly songs I listen to outside of the game for personal enjoyment. That said, they all make me want to play their corresponding game again. 😆
You describing it as being "ambient" actually represents it pretty well. It's almost "larger than life" and really encapsulates the air surrounding that monster. Even though at the end of the day, it's still fighting a boss, but unlike, say, Bloodborne where the boss would have a chant with lyrics or a general "intent" behind the enemy. Monster Hunter really drives the point that you're just fighting a living, breathing creature since ecology is a huge part of the series EXCEPT for the things that aren't "natural" like Fatalis which has lots of chanting and is so alarming
And yes, I listen to this stuff all day long lmao
I love Bazelgeuse's music because it exemplifies his nature as a bomber plane and a guy who invades your hunts because he thinks he's the main character and loves to fight
I love Kulve Taroth's music because it sounds like you poked a bear that turned out to be an ancient god that will now obliterate everything you've ever known. Her fight starts off super slow in phase one, with you literally having to chase her around and whale on her to get her to even notice you or else she'll just leave, and if you piss her off, she goes to phase 2. She moves to a new zone and actually starts to fight you, going from "big lizard" to burning gold furnace lizard who shoots lasers of burning air that melt the floor, where if she gets enraged her golden shell will get red hot and become super soft from just being angry. If you drive her back further to phase 3 to the end of her den (which is ALL GOLD), she gets more ferocious and ditches her entire golden coat, going from still slow fire breathing lizard to incredibly fast and angry goat dragon that tries to melt the entire cave ceiling down onto you and has a super-enraged "fury" mode where her eyes glow red, the light of her internal heat literally shines through the gaps between her golden scales and she'll straight up just jump across the zone to punch you in particular. It's incredible to watch in real time as this normally placid monster that wanders through caves slowly reveals her true nature as a goddess of hellfire upon being backed into a corner