|
 What is Monster Rancher? Originally released in 1997 for the PlayStation, the first Monster Rancher (known as Monster Farm in Japan) was fairly widely regarded as a "Pokemon clone" due to the main premise of the series being raising and fighting monsters. In spite of this, the game managed to gain a cult following, gradually evolving into a full-on series with multiple installments. These include 4 numbered installments, as well as Monster Rancher Evo, the last Monster Rancher game to release properly on a home console. Although that was far from the last Monster Rancher game released in North America in general – that honor goes to Monster Rancher DS, which was naturally on the Nintendo DS system. There was also a mobile game called My Monster Rancher, as well as an MMORPG called Monster Farm Online, although this never released outside of Japan, and was shuttered in August 2010 under the title Monster Farm Lagoon. So it's just a Pokemon ripoff? Who cares? Well, yes and no. Although Monster Rancher was commonly referred to as a "Pokemon clone," the two game series are actually fairly different. If anything, Monster Rancher could more easily be compared to an extremely complicated Tamagotchi. You raise your monsters, feed them, train them, and then take them to tournaments, or on short expeditions. One particular aspect of Monster Rancher that made the series so appealing was the way of "unlocking" monsters. Rather than hunting down monsters or finding them in some sort of wilderness, they were generated by inserting any DVD, CD, or PlayStation game disc into the system. Tecmo specifically created a CD-reading system that used discs in order to generate random-number seeds that would then generate monsters. However, not every disc was entirely random. Certain discs would give you specifically themed monsters that matched the CD or DVD, including the Monster Rancher discs themselves. This understandably created a pretty exciting sense of wonder when dragging out an entire CD case to see what you would get. This was far from the only appeal, considering the monsters were colorful and diverse. Especially considering there was a monster combination system that allowed you to create monsters that you didn't have the discs for. The battle system was also fairly fun, with two monsters facing off in an arena where their attacks varied by range. Overall, it was a fun Koei Tecmo game that went dormant for quite a while. It sounds pretty cool, but why isn't this in the Retro Games forum if the series is dead? Well, that's the thing – the series isn't actually dead. Recently, Tecmo announced a North American release date for Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. Set to release on December 9th, 2021, the game will be a bundled remaster of the original Monster Rancher and Monster Rancher 2. Aside from quite a few QoL improvements (including a sped up play mode that will make the older titles much more appealing) they have also changed the monster generation system. With the remaster set to come out on Nintendo Switch, Steam, and iOS, they can't exactly have the same disc system in place. Instead, they've implemented a CD database that you can search through on order to generate monsters. Not only will this allow you to still have that sense of randomness, but it'll also make it much easier to get exclusive monsters from the originals. The series definitely deserves more recognition than it has now, even if it does still have its flaws. Hopefully if the remaster does well, there's a chance that they will make an entirely new entry in the series. Maybe even back on PlayStation systems where they might be able to properly implement the CD monster generation system again. Notable links Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX Announcement Trailer
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 18:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 17:34 |
|
|
Hell yeah, I'm a huge Monster Rancher fan. 2 is in my opinion the best game in the series, but all the others are fun and have their own charms. Monster Rancher Advance 2 might actually be the best game mechanically speaking, though. I'm really looking forward to the rereleases, even though I still play 2 on an emulator. I've been playing around with the Hard Mode mod that rebalances all of the monsters and tournament opponents, and it's been fun so far.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 21:15
|
|
|
4 has always been my favorite, but I am admittedly biased as it was the first one I played. I actually had an odd order in that I played 4 -> 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> EVO. I enjoyed them all for their small differences, but I think the fact that you could have so many monsters at once is what made me love 4 so much. I'm excited to see how the remasters feel / play. I definitely love the originals with all my heart, but it was a relief to see that they'll have options to speed the game play up a bit, considering it could definitely come off as slow.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 21:20
|
|
|
4 was also very good, definitely in my top half of MR games. It did the JRPG thing better than Evo did I think. I really would like to play through it again, but I unfortunately no longer have my physical copy and it doesn't emulate very well. If it wasn't so ridiculously expensive online I totally would pick it up and dust my PS2 off for another go at it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 21:56
|
|
|
I've been chasing the Monster Rancher high since my PS2 broke. Princess Maker, Pokemon, Punch Club, none of it works without a Suezo around. MR2 was the best because it had the most and wildest unlock methods.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 22:41
|
|
|
MR4 was my favorite, but my favorite monster breed are Worms so MR2 is still great since it was the final game with them in it I believe. Definitely excited for the remasters.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 22:46
|
|
|
Countblanc posted:MR4 was my favorite, but my favorite monster breed are Worms so MR2 is still great since it was the final game with them in it I believe. Definitely excited for the remasters. Hell yeah, fellow worm lover. Beaclon is cool and all, but worm just has a certain charm.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 01:19
|
|
|
My favorite monster type is probably the Joker. No matter the game or sub-type, they're always just super hosed up looking and I love them. Worm is definitely also a good one though. Really I'm not sure there's a single type of monster I don't like at least one incarnation of, considering how many different combinations there are.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 01:29
|
|
|
Oh man I played a shitton of MR2 back in the day. Favorite monster was phoenix, if only because I actually had a cd that had one in it. Don't know how common/rare that monster was, but it was so good I kept coming back to it. Kinda spoiled the other monster types for me come to think of it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 03:11
|
|
|
My favorite MH story was back in MH1, I was just trying a bunch of disks that came with the family computer and the one for our scanner produced a Monol. now because our scanner was, coincidentally, a giant black rectangle, i though i had basically cracked the code and entered the matrix or something. especially since "mono" was a phrase I had seen on like, video game sound menus without really understanding what it meant so I thought it was called "Mono1" (mono-one). I think it wasnt until I saw one in the anime that I figured out what happened.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 03:27
|
|
|
I can recall long days of sitting on the floor in front of my old PlayStation with huge binders full of various CDs and DVDs, as well as a few different PlayStation games tucked to the side. I would go through and try all of them, writing down what each disc produced in one of those lined notebooks. There was no more frustrating screen during my younger years than the message telling me the monster was above my current rank.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 03:33
|
|
|
Oh man. I think this OP just made my year. I thought this franchise was done and dusted and MR1 was one of my absolute favorite PS1 games. I barely remember anything about the particulars, but I do recall having a Pixie/Golem combo that lived for some absurd amount of time and got me really far. I bought 2, but never got too far in it. This will be so cool to play as an adult that’s not garbage at games.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2021 19:40
|
|
|
Hell yeah, I've been looking for a place to get hype about this game. I've played Advance 2 the most since it's actually a fairly good game mechanically but I've been keen to dig into 2 at some point just to see all the weird batshit monsters. Durahan's are my favorite since I enjoy having a giant chunk of STR/DEF hitting things and Golem's are a bit too inaccurate for my tastes.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2021 11:10
|
|
|
Oh man, I am so hyped this is series is getting some attention after god-knows how many years. I always liked raising the weirdo monsters like Monols, Zans, Galis, etc. and MR2 has the most weird (and most-weird  ) monsters in the series.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2021 15:01
|
|
|
I've been holding out faith for this to get localized. Looking forward to stomping the game with a Blue Kato over and over again. Also: gently caress you forever, oakleyman. never forgive, never forget.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2021 02:27
|
|
|
Hello thread, this game is out now. Question for the fellow Masters of Breeding out there - what is the 5th stamp you can get on your save file in MR2? I have the four from beating the four S-rank invitationals and saw the credits, but saw a video where someone had a fifth and I have no clue where it's from.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2022 05:48
|
|
|
After you’ve beaten those 4 S rank invitationals you can get an invite to the legend cup (invite is sent out in March, the match itself is in April). Winning that gets you the final icon and enters your monster in the hall of fame.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2022 06:04
|
|
|
How is the game? I didn’t even realize it was out yet.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2022 06:08
|
|
|
MarcusSA posted:How is the game? I didn’t even realize it was out yet. It's MR 1&2 with some small changes, and a couple emulation quirks. So they're the same weird simulation games they ever were, i.e., the best games ever made.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2022 06:19
|
|
|
aegof posted:It's MR 1&2 with some small changes, and a couple emulation quirks. So they're the same weird simulation games they ever were, i.e., the best games ever made. Sold!
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2022 06:29
|
|
|
So just a couple of things that aren't hugely apparent if you're just a casual player, but this is actually a port of the Japanese Monster Farm 1+2, which is almost identical except that monsters all have 100 weeks less lifespan than they did in the old English PS1 Monster Rancher 2. Also if anyone needs a good database of info for the games, check out Legendcup.com, it has everything you could need.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2022 06:53
|
|
|
Plasbad posted:So just a couple of things that aren't hugely apparent if you're just a casual player, but this is actually a port of the Japanese Monster Farm 1+2, which is almost identical except that monsters all have 100 weeks less lifespan than they did in the old English PS1 Monster Rancher 2. Also if anyone needs a good database of info for the games, check out Legendcup.com, it has everything you could need. That explains why my Plant died faster than I thought. I remembered Plants having huge lifespans and mine died at 5 years which got me confused.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2022 12:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 17:34 |
|
|
Well a new Monster Rancher's been announced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srUyxxVOeiM A youtube guy did the predictable analysis & translation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkCMnDFdBnQ It's a phone game that probably won't get localized, but there are some cute blink-and-you-already-missed-it moments in the trailer.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2022 07:57
|
|