Monster Rancher Series

[MaliceValentine]

Has anyone had nay experience with this series??

Whats the best one?

Thanks!

[GSZX1337]

The show sucked. It was like Pokemon, but more pretentious.

[Yukima]

I watched the show at one point, but never really played the games. The only one I played was Monster Rancher Battle Card for the GBC, but that was a spin-off. I've been wanting to play the PS1 games, but as I don't actually have a US PS1 to play them on, I haven't gotten to them yet.

[randombullseye]

I own the second on PS1. I enjoy it.

My favorite part is trying CDs to see what comes out. It's quite cool. I recommend it.

[benderx]

I remember seeing ps1 in monster rancher cartoon. The main character was sucked into ps1 console.

[AppleQueso]

Game series is interesting to say the least. I've played a little bit of it.

The best feature by far is the fact that the game can generate monsters based on cds you put into the playstation. It's always fun to see what comes out.

I never really got very into it though, so I don't know what the best one is.

[KillemallCFH]

Monster Rancher 2 was great (one of my favorite PSX games). Monster Rancher 3 sucked. I haven't played any of the other ones.

[IcKy99]

I know ive borrowed either Monster Rancher 1 or 2 from a friend back in Jr High, but i cant remember the actuall gameplay other than trying out all my cds to get different monsters.

[KillemallCFH]

If you've never played a Monster Rancher game, the gameplay is basically this (well, this is how it was for MR2, and I can only assume the others are basically the same): You get a monster (usually from a CD, though you can buy a limited selection from a store as well; also, you can combine monsters in the lab). You take it back to your ranch and train it/feed it. You can choose a variety of trainings to get up certain stats. You can also send it on "errantry," where it has a chance of learning a new skill, as well as gaining stats. All the while you're training it, you can enter it in tournaments, with the ultimate goal of moving up in rank (Goes from Rank E to D to C to B to A to S, then if you beat rank S there's more afterwards). There are also a lot of side tournaments for various prizes, as well as expeditions you can go on, which usually give you a chance of finding a rare item. Then your monster eventually dies and you start all over again (or, if you're smart, you don't let it die and save it to combine with other monsters). You can't really "beat" the game.

However, the game is incredibly complex. It's easy to pick up, but finding out the best training/feeding methods, and learning all the intricacies of combining monsters and such makes it way deeper than it seems. Monsters have a lot of variables, like hunger, stress level, fatigue, loyalty etc. that must be paid attention to. If his stress/fatigue gets too high, his lifespan will suffer (this game has a shitload of behind-the-scenes number cruching going on that determines stuff like this).

[eSPy]

um...pretty sure the game came out way before the stupid cartoon. as far as the game goes, it was really cool when i played the first one on PSX. there have been a few in the same style that came out on DS in japan, and the first is coming to north america soon. instead of putting in different cds to make new monsters, you scribble randomly on the screen or say something into the mic.