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And here I'd heard Magic:the Gathering was Crack for Gamers.... I'm addicted to Monster Rancher. Please tell me I'm not alone?

I've owned MR1 & 2 in the past, but they have vanished in my many address changes. I own MR3, and while it's annoying in some ways, it introduced a few really nice monsters. Now, I've been loaned MR4, and it's got the old-fashioned goodness of 1&2, the addition of the great monsters from 3, and now you can raise up to 5 monsters at ONCE!

Add in the very nice graphics, the option of having up to nine attacks available during battles, scheduling 8weeks worth of training at once, and the traditional addiction of taking every CD, CD-R, and DVD in the house to make a monster (and,yes, I have the Beork Homogenic CD!); MR4 is shaping up to be a really nice game!

Please tell me I'm not the only Monster Rancher out there....

MR2 for me here. I can safely confirm that it is indeed pure crack. The training in itself is boring enough, but the battles and acquiring new techs have always been interesting. I can't get my hands on the later versions so I can't comment about them. But now, I can't get my disk to work for some reason.

By the way. Durahan Forever

I had 3 and disliked it intensely due to the short lifespan of monsters in that one compared to earlier versions. Has 4 extended monsters' lifespans back out to the old 6+ years, rather than 3's 3-5 years?

I used to Monster Ranch...hordes upon hordes of beasties...then real life came into play, and my mistress M:TG forced me to go back into tourney mode.

The Dark wrote:I had 3 and disliked it intensely due to the short lifespan of monsters in that one compared to earlier versions. Has 4 extended monsters' lifespans back out to the old 6+ years, rather than 3's 3-5 years?

Not sure yet... I've just started a Ranch. My oldest ones' not yet 3.

HOWEVER: you are warned by the Professor that Going Adventuring can lower their lifespan!

Never played MR but I've played Digimon 1,2&3. I have 1 and 3 for the PS1. I liked it and when I get a chance to get a PS2(used) I'm going to get Digimon 4.

Wait. You actually have to deal with life spans in this game series? You spend hours of gameplay building up a particular monster, and then it dies? Ick.

Badme wrote:Wait. You actually have to deal with life spans in this game series? You spend hours of gameplay building up a particular monster, and then it dies? Ick.

Yes, but you do get to keep the monster's heart, which will boost the stats of any monster you give it to. In 3 it was actually possible to cultivate bloodlines of monsters, which became interesting once one began cultivating the hidden monsters.

MR1 is the only one for me. That was the game where your monster naturally lived for 6-7 years, and it wasn't terribly difficult to find eggplants or some shit to boost its lifespan. You could practically raise any monster right from the get-go (like Golems and Monols and Worms) without having to deal with any of the bullshit like in MR2 (oh! You're barn isn't big enough yet! FUCKERS). And even without an extended lifespan, it was possible to train it up to S level and win the championship if you had an awesome enough monster.

I got MR2, giddy like a schoolgirl. Then my monster died when it was four. FOUR GODDAMN YEARS OLD. That wasn't enough time to get it to C rank, and I fed and treated that bitch good. Expeditions proved absolutely useless, you could never find anything in that one. The only fun thing was the improved monster-spawning system with the CDs and such.

Truly, I felt gyped. Whenever I'm in the mood for a little nostalgia, I pop in the ol' Monster Rancher CD and stick in my ancient ass PS1 memory card (with all of my best creatures on it, naturally) and play until my hearts content. Ahhh, the good times.

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:. Expeditions proved absolutely useless, you could never find anything in that one. The only fun thing was the improved monster-spawning system with the CDs and such.

Maybe your monster's intelligence was low. If it's a idiot, it'll go to the same spot it went before, failling to find anything.

Case in point, I rased a moochie/pixie hybrid, mainly dependant on it's INT rating. Guy asked to come with him to the volcano.

Found a phoenix feather. Was allowed to raise phoenix. Phoenix rocked. Was happy.

I played 2. Enjoyed it a lot, until the point where it got old and died just as I was making it good.

Incedentially, the anime was one of the better "Monster-training" shows out there at the time.

I've raised myself to Breeder Rank B, and I now have a Great House and Hut, which lets me raise 5 monsters at once!

I have a Garu, a Pixie/Durahan called a Joanne, a Dolphin/Ripper, a Golem/Henger, and a Ripper/??. The Garu and Ripper are new monsters. The Garu is a furry bipedal wannabe-werewolf, colored orange with white and black, with bushy eyebrows. His attacks are power kicks, claws, and bites, some of them starting out with a Fire effect. The Ripper is kinda like a bipedal squirrel, white with black & purple. Nasty critter, mostly magical attacks using his huge tail.

The best part? I can take all 5 monsters on adventures with me! The higher their 'adventuring level', the most skills they learn, including special tricks to search places you normally can't reach, like on top of pillars/trees and under water! You gain 'adventuring levels' by fighting Wild Monsters in the area you're adventuring inside. Also, the more you adventure, the more attacks you learn. My Garu has nearly all of his possibles, and he's only a Class C!

What really makes it sweet is how you can use those attacks. Instead of having only 3 or 4 possible for a battle, there is now a 9-slot wheel that you can fill with attacks. R1 moves the wheel forward to chose the attack you want, and X, O, or [] button executes it. The X is a normal attack; the O is weaker, but hits more often; and the [] button is a power attack with a lesser hit chance. All attacks either have an Elemental Effect, or one can be added to it when your monster learns the skill granting that ability
There is also the Counter. When you are given the chance, you can press L1 and either [], O, or X. If you've hit the same button the opponent hit, you counter the move and hit them instead. If you guess wrong, you don't even get a dodge but are hit with Critical Success. I dont' use it, since I raise monsters with high Dodges whenever possible. I also don't like the odds of missing the Counter. My opponents have always missed their Counters so far and get K.O'd, which does little to recommend the feature to me.
There is also the HitCombo feature. If you use the same button twice (or more) and the attack hits, your damage is multipled. Note: this doesn't mean you have to use the same attack, just the same button to execute the attack. You can rack up several multipliers, just like in Mortal Kombat or other fight games

Finally, there are the TagTeam Battles. When you have two monsters of equal Class, you can enter them both into a TagTeam match. L2 switches the monsters in and out, and you can also combine your hits into a 1-2 punch for more damage. I'm working on getting two monsters up to that level right now.

Now, there is one drawback. Every computer game CD I've tried to get a monster from has given me a 'Mushroomy' (plant/??). I don't know if it's because of the copy protection or what, but it's the same for Command & Conquer series and NeverWinter Nights Gold. I gave up trying, didn't even bother with KotOR or SidMeyer's Pirates.
However, the Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus gave me nothing but new, powerful monsters, including a Sealed one that I have to gain a few levels to get.

hmmm

desire to loan tevar my Akira Kurosawa collection, and my folk music cds...

just to see what long black veil would create, or if sanjaro would be bad, how about a better tomarrow.....

The Yosemite Bear wrote:hmmm

desire to loan tevar my Akira Kurosawa collection, and my folk music cds...

just to see what long black veil would create, or if sanjaro would be bad, how about a better tomarrow.....

GIMME!!!!!

Of course, since I can only have 5 monsters.. I have to wait until one dies or I freeze it before I get another baby monster to raise

Monster Rancher is quite possibly the greatest series ever. I've drowned my sorrows in countless hours of all four of them. They are as addictive as they are charming, and I believe I cried when my first monster died in MR2.

The Dark wrote:I had 3 and disliked it intensely due to the short lifespan of monsters in that one compared to earlier versions. Has 4 extended monsters' lifespans back out to the old 6+ years, rather than 3's 3-5 years?

Sadly, no. My Phoenices in 4 only lasted about 3 1/2 years (that's right, phoenix is back, and awesome), and my Pixie and Tiger didn't last much longer. Actually, the monsters don't even die...at a certain point, she makes you retire them. Even worse, you can only keep 5 frozen, so you either have to combine some or let them go off to the old folk's home (which you can't even visit or anything). Of course, I was always bad at keeping monsters alive, and in MR2, I don't think I had many live too long past 5. Destructionator had this mean old Suezo who was at least 8, I think.

Dark Lord of the Bith wrote:Monster Rancher is quite possibly the greatest series ever. I've drowned my sorrows in countless hours of all four of them. They are as addictive as they are charming, and I believe I cried when my first monster died in MR2.

The Dark wrote:I had 3 and disliked it intensely due to the short lifespan of monsters in that one compared to earlier versions. Has 4 extended monsters' lifespans back out to the old 6+ years, rather than 3's 3-5 years?

Sadly, no. My Phoenices in 4 only lasted about 3 1/2 years (that's right, phoenix is back, and awesome), and my Pixie and Tiger didn't last much longer. Actually, the monsters don't even die...at a certain point, she makes you retire them. Even worse, you can only keep 5 frozen, so you either have to combine some or let them go off to the old folk's home (which you can't even visit or anything). Of course, I was always bad at keeping monsters alive, and in MR2, I don't think I had many live too long past 5. Destructionator had this mean old Suezo who was at least 8, I think.

In MR2, I had an Angel (Pixie/Gali) who was 12, thanks to the Gold Fruit, whatever it was. But she finally died because I couldn't get her to survive the adventure to get another fruit.

This is also why I like the Digimon series of games. After the first game, the digimon no longer "die" but stay with you for as long as you like.