Monster Rancher / Monster Farm

[bluerobotgirl]

(title edited because Monster Farm is its Japanese name)

What with all the topics of all sorts of fandoms here, I decided to make one for one of my favorite creature-raising sort of games ever. 'Cause, in my opinion, Monster Rancher > Pokemon.

I haven't played any of the older PSX games, but I've played Monster Rancher Battle Card (GBC), Monster Rancher Advance 2, Monster Rancher 3, and Monster Rancher 4.



Monster Rancher 4 is definately my favorite of the games that I have played, because it's much easier to learn new abilities, and I can combine monsters (my biggest disappointment with MR3).

And it has Zan. I have yet to get a Zan of my own, but I still love that monster on a level that is kinda... scary.

But Tiger will always be my favorite... I think it was seeing a picture of Tiger that got me into Monster Rancher back in the 7th grade...

...Oh, and Monster Rancher was a pretty good anime, from what I saw of it. (I mean, there were monsters dying, ZOMG, UNTHINKABLE!)

[Fire Griffin]

Overlooked, underappreciated.

Yes, I liked the Monster Rancher games more than Pokemon, thank you.

Yet again, I've only played MR2 because I couldn't get a hold of the others and/or I don't feel like playing video games anymore (too bad they went into the spinoff craze like Battle Cards and Hopabout). I find it a lot more "mature" than Pokemon and I am a lot more careful with raising my critters given that unlike pokemon, they can die. Heck, my first monster ever, a Zuum named Vegeta (Haaar), died in about a year or two, from crappy, crappy care. I got better though: My last marketplace Zuum lasted until the silver peach cup and thus was able to tack on a little longer to his already long life.

Dude, I wish I were on my other computer. I have screenshots of him.

Anyway, I never saw the conclusion to the teevee series. I kind of liked it, if just for Hare and Tiger. Mostly Tiger because he happened to be voiced by one of my flaaaaavorite dubbing VAs at the time, Brian Drummond. A lot of people knew him as Vegeta. No idea who he is prancing around big time as nowadays, or if he's still doing voicework, for that matter.

[PharaohManXe54]

Hmm... I liked the show. Like Pokemon. Like the virtual pet idea. Would I like the game? I'm on the hunt for old games for the PS1 that I missed when I didn't have it. From the acclaim you guys give it, it sounds like a worthy buy. As for the ending of the TV series, what's his face gets transported back to the city where he got transported from and thinks that nothing has happened, but then, if I recall correctly, he sees all his friends. GOOD SHOW.

[TronBonne]

I still love Monster Rancher. But not as much as Pokemon...anyway, I've only played MR2 and MR3, and I have to say I liked the style of MR2 a bit better. But MR3 was still cool(I still put in EVERY game I can to see what monster I will get...I still can't get a joker!! ). My favourites is Moochi. Yes, I like that pink blob, and I'm proud of it. I found that in MR3 it was way to easy to get your monster to beat that big dragon at the end. My second/third monsters did it first =)
And for the anime, I watched that too. I didn't like the ending...so sad. Appearantly there's another season but it didn't come to america/north america.

[bluerobotgirl]

There's a quest you've gotta do to unlock Joker. If you already have (I'm guessing you did), then good luck finding a dvd or cd or game that will give you one. I actually went to the video store and rented whatever it was that gave me Joker, after looking it up online. But I can't remember what it was.

Spyro 2 gives you joker on MR4... It was weird how easy it was to get...

[TronBonne]

Yeah, I've done that quest already. So I guess one day I'll do what you did and rent a game that gives me joker.

Was anyone else happy when MoTB gave you a Zan in MR3? That was such a good moment for me.

[bluerobotgirl]

It gave you a Zan? Mine gave me a Dragon. Which was cool, because it was the desert dragon that looks a little like a Reaverbot.

[PharaohManXe54]

Well, I just got Monster Rancher 2, and my starter is a Scaled Plant named Plant Man (I'm going with a Robot Master theme). He's pretty weak, but has tons of life. I like the game pretty nice.

[Fire Griffin]

If you want a bugger of a trick, my favorite method of raising monsters is to wait until I get a lot of money (I sometimes raise two monsters at "once," one to be my main critter I am raising and another to rig up money to support it) and then have the main monster live strictly off mint leaves and nuts oils... He seldom rests, really. I send him on expeditions (whatever they were called, month long training things that are occassionally discounted) when his stats are high enough to gain an ability (because expeditions shave off life). The main monster only tourneys when he needs to advance up in class rank (because that also shaves off life). Getting K.O.ed kills life. Getting sick or injured kills life. Breathing air kills life. Spraining your ankle kills life.

Play around with it. It's how I got a Zuum to live 5+ years, if I remember right.

[Aim]

[EDIT]: Reposted here. Why did I not notice we already had one of these?

I've always been a fan of the series myself, and in my past experience, the PS2 games are usually very good and longlasting titles. In these games, you breed a variety of literally hundreds of unique monsters, from the small, yellow one-eyed Suezo to the beatiful fur-clad Pixie; from the tiny cat doll Mew or the adorable spongy Mocci to the giant rocky Golems and huge, winged dragons. Furthermore, each game comes with an element to further advance the uniqueness of your monster; Monster Rancher 3 comes equipped with habitual adaptions where your monsters adapt to their climate and change appearance. Monster Rancher 4 has an enormous reserve of monster fusions, created by combining two monsters to produce another monster with similar traits of the two (Suezo+Golem=Yellow Golem with eyes all over his body). Graphics tend to be amazing, and these things have unlimited lasting power, unless they become defective or something of the like. You can take on a friend in two player matches, and you work through a decent storyline in the campaign. Perhaps the most unique function of the games is how you go about collecting monsters. To make new monsters:
a) Collect a stone on an adventure.
b)Fuse two monsters or allow yours to adapt to an environment.
c) The PS2 can actually read any other PSX, PS2, or music CD and generate a unique monster from it. There's no telling what you'll get (unless you're a crummy cheater who likes to use strategy guides for that sort of thing <_<). From what I hear, you can even get cameos from other games, such as a Matrix themed monster, a monster resembling Kasumi of Dead or Alive, or even the actual monkeys from Ape Escape.

Character designs and graphics are amazing, and the artwork featured in the games is beautiful. By the looks of it, Monster Rancher 5 will be no exception. Monster Rancher 5, to be released for the PS2 sometime next year, is an amazing cel-shaded game which strays from the normal Monster Rancher style in that it is a heads on RPG, unlike the strange linear battle system used in previous games. Also, you manage a carnival using your monsters. I have a page here from Gamespot containing 3 great trailers and a nice developer interview. www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/monsterrancher5/media.html?sid=6140950&autoplay=6140950 The trailers feature a sexy dancer, great mugshots, a new monster, Suezos, beautiful graphics, and another sexy dancer. Good graphics galor. The only real problem here probably lies in the slightly hard to distinguish narrorator of the interview. "Umm...uh...ummm...I think...moonstah...ummm...."

Anyways, it's completely awesome. If you haven't tried one yet, try this one when it's released early next year. The Suezos are to die for.