Every Monster Hunter game has its flagship monster, the beast featured on the game's box art and in promotion material. Past flagships include Nergigante, Zinogre, and Tigrex. In the newest installment, Monster Hunter Rise, it's Magnamalo.
Magnamalo is pretty unique among flagship monsters. It's not an Elder Dragon or Flying Wyvern. It's also entwined with the setting's history, as a calamity that nearly wiped Kamura Village off the map many years ago. The game gives a lot of information on Magnamalo throughout the story. If one is willing to do a little digging, there's even more to learn about the Wyvern of Malice.
10 Its Name Means "Great Evil"
The monster's English name derives from two other languages. "Magna" is Latin for "great" or "large", and "malo" is Spanish for "evil". So, it can be translated as "Great Evil". Fitting for the game's primary antagonist and one of the most feared and ruthless monsters out there.
Its Japanese name is Magaimagado (マガイマガド). This is probably from the kanji 禍 (maga), an archaic word meaning evil, calamity, or an ill omen. In either language, it's definitely not a name you want to mess with.
9 It May Have Been Based On A Famous Samurai
According to the developers, Magnamalo is inspired by the ghosts of fallen samurai, a common image in myths. Two horns resembling a stag's antlers are on top of its "helmet". This may be a reference to one of the most famous samurai of the Sengoku era, Honda Tadakatsu. Honda also ornamented his helmet with antlers.
Magnamalo uses its spear-like tail as a weapon. Honda was known for being extremely skilled with his spear, so much that the weapon itself gained a title, Otegine, meaning "dragonfly cutter". Honda is popular in Japanese media and also appears in Pokemon Conquest and Team Ninja's Nioh.
8 ...But It's Really Just A Big Kitty
Magnamalo's tigrine influences are pretty obvious. However, sometimes the Wyvern of Malice prefers to act like a common housecat. Among Magnamalo's concept art, there's a set of sketches of cats, probably to assist animators in making its movements. Perhaps these sketches were modeled after the artists' own pets?
It's also possible to spot Magnamalo acting like a cat in the game itself. If the player is lucky enough, they can spot an idling Magnamalo grooming itself with its paws. Be careful, though, as the monster can spot hunters from quite a ways away.
7 Its Turf Wars Are Crazy
Magnamalo is a mostly ground-bound monster. It can cleverly use its Hellfire to get some airtime, though. One of its most dangerous attacks launches it into the air with an explosion to crash down on a hunter. One of the most spectacular uses of its jet boost is during its Turf Wars.
Rathalos, Barioth, and Aknosom all have Turf Wars with Magnamalo. Each of its opponents tries to use its flight to gain an advantage, but it quickly backfires. Magnamalo leaps across the air so quickly it starts to look like a Dragon Ball Z battle. Spectators should watch out – when the two crash into the ground, it creates an explosion that can do damage to hunters.
6 It Eats Other Large Monsters
One of Monster Hunter's old standby cutscenes to show a monster's strength is to have it defeat another creature. Nergigante did it in the last game, and now it's Magnamalo's turn. After the first Rampage Quest, Magnamalo appears holding an Arzuros in its jaws like a dead rat. It also preys on a Tobi-Kadachi in its Ecology cutscene.
The souls of the monsters Magnamalo consumes make up its purple Hellfire. It can shoot the gas in the form of fireballs or use it to power up its tail and paw strikes. Sometimes it will release Hellfire as a cloud of smoke that explodes after a few moments.
5 Magnamalo Armor Has Unique Skills
Magnamalo's armor is called the Sinister Set. It's quite visually appealing, looking like a classic samurai's gear. It also has a unique skill, Hellfire Cloak. Unfortunately, at the first two levels, the skill is not very useful. All it does is reduce the damage of Hellfire, a status that very few monsters inflict and isn't too much of a problem anyway.
It's only possible to get Lv 4 Hellfire Cloak from wearing the whole Sinister S set. This is where the skill gets way more powerful. Not only is the player protected against hellfire, but they can inflict it on enraged monsters. It's not the best build in the game by most measures, but a Hellfireblight loadout is an interesting way to play.
4 It's The Strongest Fanged Wyvern
Fanged Wyverns are a relatively rare class of monsters. Zinogre was the first Fanged Wyvern, introduced in 2010's Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. It was the only member of the class for some time, up until Monster Hunter World introduced several more.
Most Fanged Wyverns are weak, and Magnamalo even preys on one of them, Tobi-Kadachi. Zinogre is the only one that might stand a chance. The two of them don't have a Turf War, so it's hard to tell which would win in a fight. But since Magnamalo has one point of Threat Level over Zinogre, it looks like the former comes ahead.
3 It Was Even Harder In The Demo
Magnamalo is a challenging fight in Monster Hunter Rise, but not an unfair one. It's not even the final boss of the game. In the pre-release eShop demo, it was a completely different story. Magnamalo, along with Great Izuchi and Mizutsune, was one of three monsters available to fight, and it was incredibly difficult. Some have said it was as hard as World's Fatalis fight.
Demo Magnamalo is not too different from the one in the game proper, but there are some serious handicaps on the player. First, the hunt had a 15 minute time limit (in the full game it's 50 minutes). Also, the players could only use weak early-game gear in the demo. Last, and maybe worst of all, the demo limits the player to hunting 30 times, meaning they have a limited number of attempts.
2 Its Hellfire Makes It Weak
Throughout the fight with Magnamalo, the wyvern will power up certain parts of its body with Hellfire. You can tell which parts are enhanced because they glow pink. Attacks with these parts do more damage while they're glowing. However, Magnamalo also leaves itself wide open by doing this.
Attack whatever body part is glowing to extinguish Magnamalo. Not only does this take away its power-up, but it'll get knocked down. That's a huge opportunity to heal, sharpen, or deal more damage. Staying close to Magnamalo is a decent strategy, but it's hard when the monster is constantly leaping around the area.
1 It's Not The Only Monster To Use Hellfire
Hellfire might be Magnamalo's trademark, but some other monsters use it too. Apex Mizutsune can also inflict Hellfireblight on hunters. Since updates are constantly adding new Apex monsters, more Hellfire users might be coming as well.
Hellfireblight is very similar to a preexisting status called Blastblight. The third generation of Monster Hunter introduced Blastblight with Brachydios. They don't work the exact same, but both conditions cause an explosion if they're not rid of in time.