This is an opinion article piece. Tavishi Chattopadhyay is a sophomore at Mendham who writes for the Global and School News. All opinions expressed in the following editorial are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Patriot.

Monster Hunter World is one of the many games in the Monster Hunter series. It was released in 2018 and was released for PC, Xbox, and Playstation. During the game, the player is a customizable hunter who hunts different monsters, which are called wyvern. There are low-level wyverns that the player encounters mid- and early game and there are elder dragons that are encountered mid to late game. Kushala Daora is one of the first elder dragons that the player encounters, and it sucks. Kushala has one of the most annoying fights in the game, during its fight the player is faced with a barrage of attacks and features that make attacking Kushala impossible.

One such feature is the wind aura that surrounds Kushala. Kushala is able to control the wind; during its fight, it will shoot out puffs of air that will either hit the player or the ground, these will turn into tornados. These tornadoes don’t pose much of a threat, though they can kill a player if they end up in an unfortunate situation. For instance, one player commented on a video concerning the worst, “It’s also pretty cheap how if you get trapped between a wall and a tornado you’re gonna get carted.” However, this is the least of the issues when fighting Kushala. The wind aura that surrounds Kushala prohibits hunters from landing their attacks on the torso of the Kushala Daora. Which makes hitting Kushala’s hitbox difficult as the fight drags on. The wind aura will also flinch the hunter out of their attack, keeping the hunter from attacking again for a little bit. The wind aura is up almost all of the fight and increases in size when Kushala becomes enraged. This creates a struggle for a lot of melee users and while switching to one of the bowguns or the bow would be ideal some players can’t fight with those weapons as well.

Another feature that irritates many players in the fight is that Kushala flies a lot, no doubt because it has wings. But this flying means that most hunters that play melee weapons, aside from insect glaive users, won’t be able to hit Kushala. There is a way to counter this and that’s by using flash pods as recommended in the Monster Hunter Wiki, however, hunters are allowed only three flash pods during the hunt. Kushala flies multiple times in the fight so for a melee hunter to be able to hit it at some point, their only hope is to, maybe hit its feet and flinch it out of flight or attack from a ledge. 

In conclusion, many hunters, myself alike, despise Kushala’s fight because of its annoying wind element and wind aura feature. Along with its flying abilities, it creates a painful fight for many melee weapons users. Thankfully, Kushala’s fight is relatively quick and an experienced hunter can do it within 20 minutes. Along with that Kushala’s overall look, being a dragon coated in metal, can make up for a little of the tomfoolery which is its fight.