So, it's been a good while, but I'm back and starting off big! Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was my first ever game in the series, and young me didn't get much further than the single player campaign, and that is frankly a tragedy because if I'd encountered this thing when I was 10 it would have shattered my kid brain. The presentation behind Dalamadur is exactly what an end game monster deserves, right on par with World's cutscenes for the black dragons. I kid you not I had shivers entering this fight for the first time because of how badass the cutscene was. The design for this monster is top tier by far, taking an incredibly simple creature, and giving it a unique scale ridge and arms is such an easy change but also so famn memorable. I actively have to try and keep this intro short because I could (and probably will) rant about Dalamadur and how much I love it for several stand alone posts. When I first beat this fight, with well under 5 minutes left and no clue if I was even close, I sat there for literal minutes, staring at my ceiling and wrote quite literally a full (I think 2-3k word) essay to my friends about how incredible this capstone fight is.
4u (IG): It's gonna be hard to keep this to a purely mechanical review, but I'll damn well try. The first thing to talk about is just how fighting this colossus even works, which is where one of biggest strengths and weakness of this fight both come into play. The ability to climb on Dalamadur, jumping on and off at the bottom and top of a massive rock spire is a surreal experience, and gives great, and in most fights the only, access to body parts for breaking. Being able to leap onto Dalamadur's head from so high up really sells the massive size of the monster, and it's just incredible. There is however a pressing issue with Dalamadur's size, and that would be the tedium in running around the map after it. This fight is incredible, and certainly feels it, but it's also consistently about 40-50 minutes, and over that time, there's a good deal where you'll just be running from end to end trying to get a hit in before Dalamadur moves again. It's a notable gripe, but ultimatley won't hurt Dalamadur's rating because of just how amazing the rest of the fight is. For Dalamadur's actual attacks, the majority being physical is both fitting and terrifying. During the periods where Dalamadur sits on the upper left and right of the arena, not coiled around the spire, it can swing its arms in just a casual sweep, and that attack hits like a truck. It's not impossible to dodge, and is rarely followed up quick enought to set a kill, but it can come damn close. Dalamadur's sliding across the stage is perhaps its weakest attack, only dealing a small amount of damage, if it even connects, but this attack does run interferance for a move I'll discuss later. I was actually unaware of this, as it had never come up in any of my fights, but apparently standing too close to the head risks paralysis from Dalamadur's tongue, which I can't evaluate without personal experience, but that sounds terrifying. The tail also poses a threat, but really only if you are actively attacking it, which can honestly be an infuriating process when farming for drops due to how much it moves. But the tail attacks in much the same way as the arms, with a sweep that deals less damage, but is certainly nothing to scoff at. The last physical attack worth talking about is the scariest by far, Dalamadur's bite rush. Dalamadur sets its head, coils, and springs forward, twisting to the side as it goes, slamming its jaws on anything so unfortunate to get in the way. This attack is massive, incredibly fast after the windup period, and almost certain death. With armor from well into G Rank I would routinely be carted if I was hit by this attack unless I was at peak health. This attack is awe inspiring, grandiose, and among my favorite attacks in the full game. It doesn't feel unfair, it feels balanced in all the right ways while also being the peak threat of the entire fight. Dalamadur is not, however, fully physical, and has a host of incredible energy attacks, foremost being the meteor swarm. The meteors Dalamadur summons will rain in droves during several periods of the fight, and give a kind of white shrinking display to show where they'll fall, with some tracking the hunter, forcing them to stay moving. These meteors are terrifying if you're unprepared, but if you stay moving, you should escape unscathed. This is where Dalamadur's movement becoems a threat, as that's typically when most meteors fall, and being stumbled into the path of a meteor is a considerable threat, so avoid the snake's body. Dalamadur is also capable of producing fireballs (that I don't think are actually elemental) that it aims at hunters from its mouth. These blasts are, in my experience, wildly inaccurate in my experience, and hardly much of a threat, more a spectacle than anything. Dalamadur's chest can also give off a heat barrier, much like Teostra when the snake is enraged, which deals slow, constant damage. This barrier isn't much a threat on its own, but when it prepares a stronger attack, the damage taken from ignoring this flame aura can be just enough to send you packing to base camp.
