Raise a unique monster by using compact discs. Earn money and increase your rank by scheduling its tournament bat
Battles have two modes; one where you control your monster's attacks, by using the shift buttons to approach or retreat from your enemy to better dodge attacks or go in for a quick move, and one where the monster (computer) controls his moves.
Aside from being able to choose moves or dodge attacks, when controlling your monster you can also push his opponent away.
When beginning Monster Rancher, you are introduced to Holly, your helpful aide who will describe the game's various workings for you.
You can obtain a monster from the store, which holds three of the game's most basic monsters, or from a Shrine where you briefly replace the Monster Rancher CD with any like-sized compact disc.
Upon placing Monster Rancher back in the Playstation you will see a sequence showing the birth of the CD's unique monster (every CD has one monster, and thus there are growing CD lists online detailing the various monsters obtainable from music and game discs)
Some discs contain rare monsters.
For instance, once you have progressed far enough in the game, the disc for Tecmo(Monster Rancher's creators)'s Deception, for instance, yields Ardebaren (remember him?) a unique monster.
Inbetween battle, your monster works, rests, and eats whatever items or supplements you choose to feed him.
Gameplay progresses in weeks, 4 to a month (obviously)
Working raises your monster's level or levels (there are jobs that require him to work longer and harder, thus raising his fatigue though increasing one of his two upgraded levels more)
Aside from raising his levels more, the more difficult jobs give him more money.
Money, aside from being used at the shop, can be used to send your monster in for training.
Training takes about a month and thus Holly will warn you if attending training will cause your monster to be absent from an upcoming battle.
After obtaining enough points from training and work, your monster will raise the respective level chosen (both work and training indicate the raisable level(s) )
Raising levels can often introduce new abilities for your monster.
Each monster has its own obtainable and inherent moves.
Both you and your monster have a rank.
Your monster's rank ranges from E to S, and affects the level battles he can participate in.
Your rank is R-#, and influences your chances of getting approval for raising a rare monster.
After gameplay has progressed for a long enough time, a man will come by offering to take your monster on an expidition.
You will have a limited amount of time to progress through one of several areas that each contain both rare and not-so-rare items.
Should you choose to let the monster investigate an area, he could get lost, lest he have enough Skill.
Skill and Power help in expiditions for there are sometimes blockades preventing the team from proceeding further.
Expiditions contain some otherwise unattainable items, such as the Magic Banana which can be used when combining two lazy monsters at the Lab to create an ape, the laziest monster in the game (Suezo, a floating eye, is also quite lazy)
Lazy monsters will often sleep when they are assigned work to do, and can thus be punished for doing so.
They will also act confused during battle when you give them orders.
If you are lenient on your monsters, your Style will be Soft or Spoil (Spoiling your monster makes him lazy) and if you punish your monsters, and/or choose not to encourage them or praise them for their losses or victories respectively, your Style will be Firm.
To combine monsters, they must first be frozen.
Gamers whose hearts are broken at the death of their monsters might find loading a game and freezing, then combining their monster with another to let him/her kinda live on in a way can do so.
Combining monsters is a relatively inexpensive process that can yield interesting results, though I recommend saving game progress beforehand.
Monsters have both a species, and a sub-species.
Meaning, you could combine a dinosaur-like monster with a Suezo (floating eye) and get a one-eyed dinosaur.
Disc Fragments can be used to raise a specific attribute of your monster's when combining, or the Magic Banana should you have spoiled two monsters and frozen them to create an Ape.
In tournaments, should you lose a battle you can usually only hope to obtain second place, unless the person contending to win the tournament also has a loss, in which you have a second chance.
Tournaments start off with only a few battles, then, upon raising your monster's rank the venues become much larger and more attractive, with several battles.
You have a book, that contains the many different types of monsters you have raised.
It contains a picture and description of the monster.
In addition, you can view your monster through the menu that details its level progression, with zoom in/out and rotate features.
The game also includes weather effects varying upon season, and allows you to expand your barn once you have the balance to do so.
Game items include, but certainly aren't limited to, vitamins (which, unlike homosapien vitamins decrease your monster's life, while increasing the vitamin's respective ability) candy, leaves (heal fatigue) a snake (make your monster tougher) and an herbal weight loss product.
Monster Rancher is an extremely fun and addictive game.
Players of all ages will love trying out as many CDs as possible to see what different types of monsters they can find and discover firsthand the different pros and cons of each monster.
"This raises your mosnter's speed" (translation spelling error joke)
Blessed Be