Monster Hunter World has one of the most visually stunning environments I’ve seen in games, and the monsters are amazing designs, but how accurate to biology are they?

When I think of a dragon, what I see is a winged reptile with dinosaur aspects, there are many things you can do to make a design unique, but there is a line between what is a dragon and what isn’t for me. In this daily series spanning 5 days I will be looking at dragons in games and judging them on multiple factors, I mean no offence to the developers, I am only stating my opinion on the designs’ anatomical accuracy.

As Monster Hunter World has so many monsters in it I will only be judging three that look most like classic Wyverns, the Rathalos, Diablos and Legiana.

Rathalos

The Rathalos turned out to be the most difficult to get good photos of, but hopefully, the collection I got should work for anatomical study.

Wings

The Rathalos wings are bat-like, with an extremely thick main finger and strong clawed finger. No “Elbow Finger Syndrome” is present on this one, which is great! And the wing surface area looks good enough to efficiently carry it. Now to find a picture with a clear keel…

Keel

Though not the most clear picture the keel looks pretty good! The Rathalos are most capable of flight by the looks of things.

Body

The legs look suitably strong, no weak ankles here, a good neck for holding that head and a thick tail. Looks pretty good to me, certainly displays its strength well.

Overview

Strong looking, and a powerful flyer. Looks as dangerous as it is, the fact that the one I was taking photos of had burnt eyes made it scarier.

Favourite Feature

The beak-like protrusions on the end of its mouth are rad.

Despised Feature

I don’t despise any part of the monster, so I’m just gonna say I had emotional damage trying to get these pictures, so I pretty much psychologically despise this one.

Rating

I would rate this one a 10/10 anatomy-wise (if you ask me by how much I actually like being around this monster, its a 0/10).

Rathalos Photography Fails…

Damned feisty!

Diablos

Wings

The wings on this guy look pretty good. It looks to me like a bat wing again but with only three fingers supporting the wing instead of four. From the pictures I have collected of this one the wings don’t look like they have a good surface area, but that is fine because I don’t think this guy is flying much.

And from what I can see it doesn’t suffer from “Elbow Finger Syndrome”!

Keel

The keel looks alright for this guy, considering how little it actually spends in the air.

Body

A muscled neck, always good for these heavy heads. The tail is slightly short and strong, and the legs are strong-looking too.