Monster Rancher: The Game and Anime.

[Tendou Souji]

I've been playing through my old games, and i found Monster Rancher 1,2,3, and 4. I found them to be quite amusing. I've watched the anime itself, and it was a good watch. The games were somewhat original and i have yet found another game like this since the release of Monster Rancher 4. Monster Rancher 4 was a great game, as it had some very interesting new features added, which weren't located in previous series. I am a tad bit dissapointed as the series itself has not made a new installment and there are no more genres of this game made. Feel free to talk anything about Monster Rancher here.

[Krawnik]

Well Monster Rancher 4 is relatively new, isn't it? I'm not surprised a fifth installment isn't yet in production.

As for the games, I agree, I find them to be really great. I haven't played 1 or 3, but I own 2 and 4. They're really unique finds, a pretty fun pet-sim, or whatever that genre is called. Best part though is just getting a big-ol' stack of all the cds and dvds in the house and just testing them all, one after the other, recording what monsters you get and what you aren't hardcore enough to get yet :).

It's worth playing the actual scenarios even if it's just to increase your breeder rank and earn cooler monsters. 4 really one-upped the series too by including those training machines, more interactive exploration modes, and the ability to raise multiple monsters. I emptied loads of time into 2 before it became obsolete through my purchase of 4. I raised a really badass Gala/???? mutt that I got from some game (don't recall which), called a "Happy Mask". It was exactly like the normal Gala, except instead of that big-ol' menacing sun, it had a preschooler's scribble of a really simplistic grinning sun. He was so cool, and really powerful as well. Always a shame to see your monsters die though.

The game is also a nearly perpetual investment. The "storyline", if you can call it that, could go on for years and years, until by all means the main character and his plucky female assistant should by all means be long since dead of old age. Getting the highest monster rank also requires very careful and absolute training. You have to enter the battles to increase your rank early enough so as not to waste time, but still not be too weak to not succeed. "Properly" training a monster so as to "beat" the game is really a huge trial-and-error process, really, and takes loads of time. Really fun, though.

The anime is garbage, unfortunately. Even though I've only seen like, two episodes of it, I was always in agony during them.

I think I'll go and play some MR4 today, actually. Thanks for reminding me.
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416- friggin' racists, messing up my generalizations, also stealing my jobs, women.
RIP Ninjalicious

[St. Ajora]

I liked Monster Rancher's opening television theme so much, I burned it on CD =D I use to watch it around 13 years old, until yes, it did get a bit tedious, although it filled the void that was Pokemon back in the day. I got sick of the badge hunting and the silly fights, and with I-will-narrate-every-thing-that-you're-watching-Yugioh, so I turned to Monster Rancher. Muu was a very interesting villain to me, and I had a big thing for Gali (sun faces are so cool =D~~) and well, the characters just seemed very realistic to me at the time. Moreso than Digimon, Pokemon, Yugioh and DBZ, which were all heavily aired on YTV at the time.

I played MR2 i think, and I loved it. I remember picking up a Tips and Tricks mag and seeing all of the cool uber monsters you could unlock with these specific obscure CDs...if I ever find it again, I'll have to buy it. And of course, when I did rent it, I ALWAYS made a Gali, or some variation of it.

[Earthquake923]

I think I ahve all the games, I know I have 1, and 3. I could swear I have 2, but I have not idea where it is. I have watched the anime, but really forgot what it was about. I remember a boy from another wolrd get sucked into the game with a stone disk, but that about it really.
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[Tendou Souji]

Yeah.. Gali was a favorite...too bad they didn't have Gali in the later series.....

[kuwaizair]

I used to watch the cartoon they had on some family chanle. I liked Tigar of the Wind, he was an intersting character and creature. The eye was annoying thouhh and Mochi didn't talk, he needed to be slapped. I feel kind of stupid havng watched that and flint time decteive for many reasons. but I don't get that station (i think) or watch them anymore.

I have some monster rancer figurenes. a phoneix, tigar, bay tigar, the eye and hare, but I gave two of them away (eye and hare)
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Tonberry]

I remember that show. It's been ages since I've seen it. I loved some of the monsters that were made up. I thought that the Rock Dragon was really awesome. My favorite characters were (sorry, don't remember the names) the golem, and the yellow eyeball. The show was amusing and the battles were pretty fun. I liked it a lot.

[St. Ajora]

[Filipe]

Well I cant say much about the series at all considering that, it's not a genre that I found, and still dont find to be at all interesting. I did rent one of the games once and played it for a few days. In passing it was just mildly entertaining for awhile and then when it wasnt I just returned it without a second thought. I believe that it was monster rancher 2 if my memory serves me correctly. I just didnt like it all that much because the system just seemed annoying.

I also cant say all that much about the anime because I have never watched. I do know people that have and they said it was cool. So take that for what it's worth.
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[Tendou Souji]

*DUH!* What i meant to say was that they didn't have Gali in the later serieses! Which by this mean is the game! I loved using Gali in the game!

[Timbo]

I loved Monster Rancher and Monster Rancher 2. I picked up Monster Rancher at EB for $10 and played it endlessly for about a month. I loved the variety in characters and how in depth the development went for the monsters. Monster Racnher 2 is still oe of my favoriate games, although I haven't played it in about a year. I loved the new monsters and the additions they added, I think I would still be playing it if my memory card didn't get erased. I was too the point of having 350 of the total monsters and had created a check list for every CD I had for what monster it gave, I had training methods down to a science (including what items I hsd to give at what month of the monster's life span to maxiize the efficiency), I had memorized when the "prime" of eah monster was; I had done just about everything in that game.
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"There is no normal life, there's just life. Now get on with it"

[Krawnik]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/13/news_6128968.html

There you go buddy.
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416- friggin' racists, messing up my generalizations, also stealing my jobs, women.
RIP Ninjalicious

[Tron Bonne]

I used to watch the tv show, but I got bored with it. did they ever kill that Moo guy or whatever his name was?
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[Tendou Souji]

Muu embodied the heroine's dad actually, and in the end i believe Genki(hero) returns to his world, Muu's dead, but heroine's father returns, monster's fate unknown, some of them went back to saucer stone mode, like tiger for instance, and some stayed but wound up at another place like Suezo and Golem. the main villain in the second series was Dullahan if i'm not wrong.

[Keriaku]

I used to watch the anime when I was little, I always got annoyed because I'd miss a few episodes and didn't know what was going on anymore :? Mochi was my favourite character (He's so cute!). I think the series was pretty good, and if I could find it again I'd watch it. I found the last episode very sad :cry:

Of the games, I have 2 and 3. Played 2 alot, though I have a problem that my monster never lives past being able to beat A level monsters (without cheating) and with alot of CDs it would say something like you're not good enough, and need to be apart of some group. Even after beating the S level monster with a whole bunch of different creatures I could never unlock these monsters. It was really annoying. Anyone know why I couldn't get stuff from a third of the CDs I tried? Did anyone else have the same problem?
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