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MONSTER RANCHER 2
Copyright © 1999 Tecmo, Ltd.
Sony Playstation, 1 or 2 Players
Virtual Pet
Available now in U.S.
$39.95
Where to buy
FAQ
—by Maria M. Rider
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Capitalizing on the booming success of POKÉMON, Techmo
follows up with a sequel to MONSTER RANCHER. Based upon the
sleeper hit in both Japan and the United States, MONSTER RANCHER 2 is
an updated version of its progenitor. And yet the goal of the game
is simple: find, raise, and battle your monsters over a period of time.
The unique aspect of MONSTER RANCHER 2 is the fact the
player can create their own monsters using their own CDs. Video
game, music, data CDs create unique hybrids of monsters which
the player can raise as their very own. MONSTER RANCHER 2 starts
off simply enough, as the player completes his/her sign-up to be a Monster Trainer,
he/she has to choose a monster at the marketplace. Then, the player takes the monster
to the ranch and starts to raise it.
A number of aspects will effect the growth of the monster such as loyalty,
raising conditions, drill training, and errantry. Loyalty is how the
monster will heed the player's suggestions during battles. Raising
conditions depend on the player's raising style, whether it will be spoiling
or strict. It is possible to achieve a happy medium as the player raises
their monsters, but it takes an even amount of scolding and praising the
monster. Drill Training requires the monster to go through a series of
exercising drills to improve its statistics. The statistics include: Lif,
the monster's life/hit points; Pow, the monster's power of attack; Def, the
monster's defensive capabilities; Ski, the skillful techniques the monster
uses to defeat its opponents, Spd, the monster's speed in battles; Int, the
monster's intelligence to learn from techniques and battles; and Fame, the
fame the monster has after winning battles. Errantry is a weeklong training
session where the monster goes through honing particular skills with a
number of grueling drills at which they could learn a new fighting
technique.
Each Monster Trainer must pay attention to the above statistics as well as
making sure they take into account other parameters such as runaways,
sickness, injuries, health resistances, likes, and dislikes. The player
starts out with a certain amount of money with which to buy food for his
monster as well as other items to improve his monster's health. The monster
can get stressed and the player must know when to stop training
them and rest up. Coltia, or Colt as she prefers to be called,
helps the player along with raising their new monster correctly. Colt
will let the player know how the monster is feeling, asking what type of
food to feed it for the month, and even sing "Happy Birthday" to it after a
year of raising it. Joy, a toucan bird, helps Colt out with feeding the
monster and making sure the monster does its drills correctly.
The other half of Monster Rancher's appeal is battling other
monsters. The player can either challenge the CPU or another player to a
battle. The player can choose a number of options when in a tournament, such
as suggesting moves during battles or letting the monster do its own thing.
The player can access information about the opposing monster's strengths,
can withdraw if they feel their monster cannot beat the opponent, or drop
out altogether from the tournament. The tournaments are where the player
can earn more money to keep on raising his monsters properly. If the player
runs out of money, the game is over. The player must make sure their
monster aren't knocked out by paying attention to their "guts" level. If the
guts level is too low, the monster may not be able to pull off attack moves
and be beaten.
There are a number of techniques the monster can use to beat its opponent as
well as knowing when to keep its distance and regain guts during battle.
Depending on the ranking during tournaments, the monster can gain fame for
itself and money for their trainer. As the monster succeeds in beating all
of its opponents in battle and is declared victor, it can raise its Level
with each tournament. There are six different base types of monsters in
MONSTER RANCHER 2 such as the cute Mocchi, the bouncy Hoppers, the clammy
Nitons, the dinosauric Zuums, the blobuous Gaboos, and the mysterious Bakus.
Each monster race can be combined with other monsters to create new races.
There are 300 different races in all with even more if players combine them
and make new races. The combining, freezing, and deleting of monsters can be
done at the Monster Lab in town and the Monster Shrine can awaken new
monsters within the player's CDs.
MONSTER RANCHER 2 incorporates a lot from its
predecessor such as the use of 3D graphics during battles
and at the ranch. The game itself is rather amusing at first, but gets rather
repetitive after a while. A lot of patience is needed to really get this game
played to its full potential. After two years of raising a monster, the reviewer
still had not been able to obtain the new monsters from her CDs,
which was half the appeal of this game. Until that happens, it's a slow uphill climb
to raise monsters and battle them. But unlike POKÉMON,
MONSTER RANCHER 2 doesn't have much of a story and that may
effect its playability.
To be truthful, this reviewer was thinking she was getting the original
MONSTER RANCHER game, but to her surprise, it was the sequel.
MR2 doesn't really make reference to the first game, but perhaps
the first game is better. This game is probably a keeper for those MONSTER
RANCHER fans, but this reviewer will just watch the anime
series. 
Rating: 7/10 |
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