From what we understand (there's a lot of research that's gone into it; you would not fucking believe how much of a hot topic Lagi was in the leaks sub) he and one, maybe two other monsters WERE intended to be base-game, and really did just get cut at the last minute. The roster leaked months before we had the beta to confirm it, and according to that leaker, they saw gameplay footage of Lagi itself in a huntable state.
Jin Dahaad was a developmental clusterfuck (basically, Zorah again) and that, plus the beta feedback, plus the fact they wanted a summer release anyway, meant they had to chop a lot of stuff last minute to send out something reasonably complete. That's also why marketing went fucking dead for a couple of months, and why we had so many anticlimactic reveals towards the end- the devs were in serious crunch mode. The final trailer would have showed Lagi and the other monster which was cut.
As to why Lagi, we're pretty sure it's not a tech issue. We've known for awhile the tech issues with the Leviathan rig are solved; Balahara, which uses the belly-dragging Leviathan rig (including a shared animation with Agnaktor iirc), navigates extreme terrain and slopes remarkably well, even if it "cheats" some of the time by swimming in the sand; and Uth Duna, while possibly not using the belly dragging rig (it shares animations with Somnacanth of all things) still manages to pull off a monster with immense bulk that drags itself along the ground. Most notably, one that interacts with water in a very dynamic fashion in a way that makes movement and combat asymmetrical, skewed in favor of the monster in lieu of the player. Sound familiar?
Anyway, based on THAT, the current theory is that Lagi was cut because it's without a doubt the most compelling returner they could possibly include in a TU among the options they had. The other options were either essential/quasi-essential in some way, or would make for a really, really lame TU. "Blangonga is back!" doesn't carry nearly as much hype.
Thanks for the info, do you know why Jin Dahaad was a developmental clusterfuck? It feels like a straight up fight to me with a lot of mechanics we've seen before (like the aoe ulti), and the fact that it has its own arena makes it more predictable to design.
It's a combination of factors, as far as I can tell. The pseudo-siege mechanics he has, where he can show up as an environmental hazard and be driven towards his arena, plus some ability to interact with other monsters, plus conventional fight mechanics, plus his sheer size, just made him immensely complex to develop.
He's essentially a standard fight, but with a whole bunch of extra mechanics rolled in, that change what he needs to do and when, and those added variables means there's a lot more that can go wrong versus just "regular monster that spawns at x time". It probably doesn't also help that he also uses a spin on the Lagiacrus rig, but considerably larger.
9
u/Ouaouaron 12d ago
I wonder if they just knew that he'd need a lot more time, so they started the whole development and testing process earlier for him.