With the popularity of Monster Hunter showing no signs of slowing in the wake of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, it seems like everyone wants to get in on the action. This includes Cygames, which will soon be crossing the Monster Hunter series over with its popular mobile game Dragalia Lost.
Dragalia Lost is a mobile game that sees players take control of different heroes, co-op for temporary events in true Monster Hunter style, and turn into enormous dragons. Several of the bosses fought are even bigger dragons than the players have access to, not unlike Monster Hunter's toughest fights, so the crossover makes a lot of sense.
The details about the crossover were given as part of the Dragalia Digest, which talked about all the upcoming content for Dragalia Lost in the year's end and the start of the new year. The Monster Hunter crossover was only one part of the Digest, and the announcement was pretty brief, so not a lot of details are known yet. What is known is that the crossover event is scheduled for the end of January 2020 and will feature Monster Hunter's classic Rathalos. However this time it looks like the Rathalos won't be an enemy, but rather one of the dragons that the playable characters can form a pact with and become.
This may come as a surprise to fans of Monster Hunter, as people don't usually associate the massive scope of the series with iOS and mobile games, but this is far from the first time Monster Hunter has crossed over. It's become a trend for the series, being a part of everything from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker to an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Cygames is also known for crossovers in its games, with its popular online CCG Shadowverse seeing multiple crossovers with everything from other Cygames properties to the popular anime One Punch Man.
There's a good chance that this will not get fans of the Monster Hunter series to try Dragalia Lost as the cartoony, anime-inspired art style of the latter combined with its mobile, free-to-play nature is very divorced from the former. It doesn't seem like a series that has a 20-40 hour long DLC for its latest title would fit well with something like Dragalia Lost.
But looks can be deceiving, and if the fact that Dragalia Lost has crossed over with Capcom before in the form of a Mega Man crossover doesn't clue one in, neither of these companies are slouches when it comes to mixing properties. Weird cameos can be a lot of fun, and both Cygames and Capcom have pulled them off to great effect in the past, especially with its card games. If the popularity of the first game where you could play as a Rathalos is any indicator, there may be more to Dragalia Lost than meets the eye.
Dragalia Lost is available for Android and iOS