When people think of Monster Hunter, the first wyvern that likely comes to mind is the iconic Rathalos. Out of the vast plethora of monsters the franchise has introduced, this gigantic red beast has retained his title as the "King of the Skies" since his inception. Rathalos has been around since the first Monster Hunter title and has continued to stand as the mascot for Capcom's monster hunting series.
Rathalos are gigantic, bipedal wyverns who's bodies are protected by a thick, spiny, armored hide. Their outer plating feature bright and vibrant red colors while the underside of their wing membranes are adorned with intricate, ornate black patterns. Rathalos are notorious for being highly aggressive and territorial, attacking any and all intruders on sight. This wyvern can produce lethal bursts of flame while their talons are known to inflict lethal poison attacks on anyone unlucky to get hit by them. These formidable monsters have dominated the Monster Hunter franchise and continue to pose a challenge to anyone who is foolish enough to challenge them.
The Rathalos made his debut in the first Monster Hunter title which released for the PS2 in 2004. There, it took on the mantle of being Capcom's first Flagship Monster due to his major presence in the game's overall storyline. As a result, the Flying Wyvern was used as the face of Monster Hunter's box art and was notably featured across all major advertising avenues at the time. Rathalos has also made cover appearances on other games in the series such as Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter Stories, and an Azure variant is noted on the Monster Hunter Frontier G and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate box art. This prominence naturally produced a strong association between Rathalos and the franchise as a whole.
Why Monster Hunter's Mascot Is The Flying Wyvern Rathalos
Rathalos is one of the only two monsters that has been featured across all Monster Hunter games, both in the core series and spin-off titles. In fact, he has been seen in several major Capcom crossovers, with a notable presence in the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker title, where players could hunt the monster during a limited time cross-promotional event. However, Rathalos was not originally meant to hold the level of significance that it does today. As previously mentioned, Rathalos is not the only monster to be seen across all the Monster Hunter titles. His female counterpart, Rathian, holds a similar level of importance to the series.
Rathian made her debut alongside Rathalos with the release of the first title in the franchise. She was prominently featured on the logos of the first three Monster Hunter games, though many fans have often confused her for Rathalos given the similarities between their silhouettes. Rathian was the first of the two Flying Wyverns to be created by the design team, a known factoid given her 001 game code (Rathalos is 002). However, the team ultimately opted to create Rathalos as its said they felt the green of Rathian's body was not vibrant enough to capture people's attention on the box art. Thus, Rathalos took the center stage as Monster Hunter's signature monster.
Nowadays, there are many other monsters like Tigrex and Zinogre that have gained enough notoriety over the years to compete with Rathalos as fan favorites. It is likely that Capcom will nevertheless maintain Rathalos as the mascot for the Monster Hunter series given his significance to the franchise as a whole. While there have been many Flagship Monsters after Rathalos, the King of the Sky will be maintaining his title for many years to come.