'It is an affront to God': Fans react with horror and delight as Monster Hunter Wilds unveils its nastiest freak yet

Monster Hunter is no stranger to outlandish creature designs. Many of the monsters we're sent to slaughter are majestic beauties, but the roster's also got its share of freaks. Standing beside the regal Teostra and imposing Zinogre are monsters like the Khezu: a flabby, drooling, lipped lamprey with wings, whose veined, rubbery flesh gains new dimensions of upsetting vascularity with every advancement of Capcom's graphics tech. But with its latest monster unveiling, Monster Hunter Wilds has set a new watermark for creature detestability. Behold the Rompopolo:

Revealed yesterday alongside the Oilwell Basin region it calls home, the Rompopolo is Monster Hunter's latest bipedal brute wyvern. However, where most other brute wyverns like the Deviljho and Anjanath have fairly traditional tyrannosaurid features, Rompopolo is, well, horrible. It's like a dinosaur-sized midpoint between a kiwi bird, a mosquito, and a thrombosed hemorrhoid.

It's purple. It's engorged. Lobes of distended, fleshy sacs pocked with lip-like apertures flank its head and trail down to the end of its tail, which terminates in a hellish barb. It's got nasty little gecko feet.

Rompopolo's design is masterfully vile, but don't worry: The sacs aren't just for show. As Capcom describes in a tweet from the official Monster Hunter X account, Rompopolo can "inject gas from the tip of its tail into the surrounding oilsilt for explosive results!" Great!

The reactions to Rompopolo's reveal have been, let's say, "enthusiastic." For many hunters, the instinctive revulsion Rompopolo evokes is the perfect call to arms. "I must be the first to slay 1,000 Rompopolo," user Palodromy declared on Reddit, "because it is an affront to God and I am His strongest soldier." Another fan on X echoed the sentiment, saying "I am going to Bully this Monster, mark my words."

For others celebrating the wretched creature and its god-awful shapes, that revulsion is a source of glee. "This guy is disgusting looking. 10/10 no notes," says one reply on X, while another says "This mf ugly asf (great design)."

I'll admit: I'm pretty eager to bring my hammer down on a few of Rompopolo's poison-filled sacs—particularly after seeing the back-breaking outcome of its turf war with fellow Oilwell Basin resident Ajarakan. As upsetting as Rompopolo is to perceive, however, it's still a design I'm glad to see. Monster Hunter: World's designs for its new monsters, while excellent, played it fairly safe—possibly in an attempt to avoid scaring off the wider audience it was trying to attract. With Rompopolo, it seems like Monster Hunter's designers are still more than willing to get weird in Wilds, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Unfortunately, while the Monster Hunter Wilds open beta arrives next week, I'll have to wait until the full release in February to meet Rompopolo face to face. Somehow, I think I'll manage.