Monster Rancher (series)

nihongo|"Monster Rancher"|モンスターファーム|Monsutā Fāmu|"Monster Farm" is a video game series by Tecmo. Starting in 1997, several sequels have been produced. There is also an anime series based on the video games by the same name.

tory

The world of "Monster Rancher" was once a highly advanced technology-oriented civilization. The people of this society were especially skilled at genetic engineering. Using gene manipulation, they were able to develop special designer pets and store their genetic information on stone tablets known as "disks", similar to CDs. Using these disks, the artificial animals could be regenerated at special shrines.

However, war broke out between the countries of the civilization. The pets were modified into biological weapons, and the war of the monsters began. The great civilizations completely annihilated each other, leaving nothing but relics behind, and much of the world's technology was lost. The monsters were sealed into their mystery disks and hidden away.

Centuries later, as humanity was just beginning to rediscover basic technology, people found the artifacts owned by the so-called "Ancients" and attributed divine properties to them. They also discovered the lost disks and shrines. Using these, monsters were again born. Only through the power of the phoenix could the lost discs be revived back into living monsters.

Thus started a popular new sport, Monster Breeding. Breeders or trainers raised monsters for battle to compete in nation-wide tournaments to see who could raise the strongest beast, featuring legendary trainers like Norman Swoon.

Games

The series is often compared to "Pokémon", although the two games play very differently. While the "Pokémon" games are traditionally collection-based RPGs, "Monster Rancher" games tend to be simulated animal breeding games. The genre "Monster Rancher" occupies is shared by other simulation virtual pet games such as Digimon and games based on raising horses for racing.

In the games, one takes the role of a monster breeder whose goal is to raise monsters to fight in tournaments. The breeder must take it in hand to raise the monster throughout its life, training it, keeping it healthy, making an exercise schedule, and trying to maximize its abilities before it dies of old age or is retired. Monsters have good or bad morale depending on how they are raised; loyal monsters are more likely to perform critical hits, while disloyal monsters might refuse to obey commands or not fight at all. Retired monsters can be combined to create more powerful monsters.

Monster Generation

Although not widely popular, the games do have a loyal cult following, particularly for the most innovative aspect of the series. Monsters from the game can be generated by inserting any CD (and in the PlayStation 2 games, DVDs) into the game system.

The characteristics of the monster, such as stats, breed, and traits, are determined by various integers stored in the game. To generate a monster, a random number generator is needed to define what characteristics the monster will have. However, because random number generators are only pseudo-random, players could generate the exact same monster quite often. To resolve this, Tecmo created a CD-reading system that would generate truly unique and random monsters. Discs contain digital information with a different sequence of values. When the game reads ths information, the values found within the discs data are mapped to the range of integers in the game.

Some CDs and DVDs can be specialized to produce rare monsters. For instance, in "Monster Rancher 4" the "Harry Potter" DVD generates a unique owl monster, and in "Monster Rancher 2" and 4 Tecmo's "Dead or Alive" creates Kasumi from the same game. Special CDs called "Pandora Discs" can produce multiple monsters.

In "Monster Rancher Advance" and "Monster Rancher Advance 2", the system used for generating random monsters uses character sequences rather than CDs, due to the limitations of Game Boy Advance cartridges. Certain combinations of characters will determine the monster's breed, sub-breed, stats, and traits. Passwords found in-game can be used to generate special red and blue monsters.

In "Monster Rancher DS" the system is revised to take advantage of the DS's input devices: Monsters can be generated by speaking into the microphone, chipping away at a tablet, or using a Game Boy Advance game inserted into the second slot.

For "Monster Farm Online", The unlock system is changed, players select a monster species you have some form of knowledge of, with the basic pure variants automatically available, and insert a CD or DVD to create their traits. This is so players do not need to find a disc that is unique to one particular territory to get the rarest monsters.

Game releases

PlayStation

* "Monster Rancher"
* "Monster Rancher 2"
* "Monster Rancher Hop-A-Bout"
* "Monster Rancher Battle Card: Episode II"

Game Boy Color

* "Monster Rancher Battle Card Game"
* "Monster Rancher Explorer"

PlayStation 2

* "Monster Rancher 3"
* "Monster Rancher 4"
* "Monster Rancher EVO"

Game Boy Advance

* "Monster Rancher Advance"
* "Monster Rancher Advance 2"

Nintendo DS

* "Monster Rancher DS" (International Release Date Unknown)
* "Monster Rancher DS 2 "(same as above)

Microsoft Windows

* "Monster Farm Online" (Open Beta (Commercial Release in Spring 2008))

Anime

"Monster Rancher" was an anime series based on the "Monster Rancher" video games. It originally aired in Japan on TBS, while it aired in the US on BKN normally known as UPN, Fox, Fox Family Channel, and the Sci-fi Channel, and on Fox Kids in the United Kingdom. It has a total of 73 episodes and 3 seasons.

Monsters

Trivia

* "Monster Rancher" was the title of an episode (season 4, episode 19) of the TV series "NewsRadio".
* The "Monster Rancher" games are well-known for containing secret monsters if specific CDs (and later DVDs) are inserted into the console when generating a creature. Several of Tecmo's own products, such as "Tecmo's Deception", "Dead or Alive", "UNiSON" and "Fatal Frame", are known to unlock some of these monsters, almost always modeled after a character in those games (in these cases, Ardebaran, Kasumi, Doctor Dance and Miku Hinasaki, respectively). The only exceptions are "Monster Rancher Advance", "Monster Rancher DS" and "Monster Farm Online", which both do not use key CD unlocking, but do have alternatives to this.
*Part of the "Monster Farm Online" site's bonus material is a celebration of the legacy of the series, with music from the first games in the series.

External links

*" [http://www.tecmoinc.com/ "Tecmo US"] "
*" [http://monsterrancher.com/ "Monster Rancher Metropolis"] " conducts and archives game research.
*" [http://www.legendcup.com/ "Legend Cup"] " contains images and information.
*moby game|id=-group/monster-rancher-series|name=The "Monster Rancher" series