Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX review

Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX are not a remaster or a remake of the old Monster Rancher games from Playstation 1. In fact, they have been re-released, in line with the series turning 25 years old.

Before we go on with my experience with this version, this is the first time I have touched anything related to Monster Rancher, partly because of my age and the series' longevity.

Playing Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX was a mixed bag for me. While I certainly got attached to my first monster, certain features of the game left me tired, and in many cases, furious.

Raising monsters in Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX

Fundamentally, both the games are quite similar in terms of gameplay, the second game being a bit better due to added features. I would highly recommend skipping the first game and playing Monster Rancher 2. But regardless, the games start off pretty similar.

You start your journey as a monster caretaker, who has been given a fresh license to get themselves a monster. You also have an assistant to help you through the journey of raising the best monster.

That is the whole gist of the story. You get to choose from three pre-existing monsters at the beginning, or, you can use Monster Rancher’s unique way of generating monsters (which we’ll go into a bit later).

There is nothing great to say about visuals. All of the assets, character models, and more in Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is what it looked like in the original Monster Rancher release. The game works in a 4:3 aspect ratio, the black bars at the side being covered up by art.

I personally enjoy the retro PlayStation 1 graphics in video games, but if you want something pretty, you will be disappointed.

Monster worked out and well-fed will become a good asset

Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX doesn’t play like the other monster collectors. In fact, it plays very differently. If I have to compare how the game pans out, I would compare it slightly to Tamagotchi, with battles and time limits added to it.

In Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX, before the start of each month, players get the option to feed their monster with a diet. The diet can be something simple like potato, or fancy like meat.

The diet costs money, so depending on how tight a player is in terms of finances, they have to decide on the diet. Then each week, players have to devote time to nurturing their monster. To foster a monster, players need to decide on what work they want them to do.

Depending on what work the monster does, they will get their stats up. Some work also decreases a certain portion of stats while increasing others. This is why players need to decide on what work they want their monster to do as it makes them tired.

Work also gives the players coins to purchase food at the start of the month, and the result of the work is randomized, so they can fail in doing their job.

Alternatively, players can also send their monsters to special training camps, where they increase their stats and also gain new moves.

Training costs a lot of money and takes a month to complete, which makes sending your monsters a tad bit difficult in the early game. It also makes your monster unavailable to do anything that month, so it all winds up as nothing more than deciding on what is important.

Sending your monsters to rest is also necessary, as an overfatigued monster has a high chance of dying. Death means repeating everything once again from the beginning.

All this is done so that the player can prepare the monster up for battle, which happens at the fourth and final week of a month in Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX.

Battle of the beasts becomes battle of annoying controls in Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX

The other section of Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is the fighting section of the game. Depending on how well a player takes care of the monster, decides on how well the monster performs in a monster battle.

The battle takes place on the fourth week of a month, and taking part is necessary if players want to make money for training.

The battle is divided into ranks, and depending on the rank of the monster, the length of the tournament stretches; the higher the rank, the longer the tournament.

Onto the main battle, and I did not enjoy it one bit. The main culprit is how annoying the battle controls were and the game does not do a good job of explaining its system. To its credit, Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX can be played from start to end using a mouse.

The battle controls are basically buttons on the screen that need to be pressed, which clearly looks like it's ported over from the iOS version of the game. The control screen works well if played on a touch screen, the same cannot be said on a mouse as dragging from one point of the screen to another for inputting my commands is tedious, and annoying.

To combat this, I did play the game with a controller, and it helps a little bit in making the experience better, but it is still not desirable. I would’ve loved to get my hands on a better control scheme because the current system surely puts a sour taste in my mouth.

For the battle itself, depending on the training, the monster needs to bring the health down of their opponent nearly to zero. It plays a little bit, but distance is also a factor. Monsters need to be within a distance of their opponent to perform the moves. Based on the distance, they can do basic attacks or their specials.

The battle system is not bad, but considering how tedious and annoying the controls are, it is not fun.

The disc system of Monster Rancher revamped

The original releases of Monster Rancher had a unique feature that set it apart from other games. To generate unique monsters, players could put various CDs into the console.

Depending on what CD they have put in, the game would generate a unique monster with a different ability and stats, based on that CD’s unique ID.

Now, in the current year, hardly anyone uses a disk drive, including me. To combat that, Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX features a database where hundreds of names of CDs have been put in, and each of them can generate a unique monster.

Now I do not know how large the database is, because there were tons of names to skim through. However, Linkin Park did give me a good-looking monster to spend my time training.

I would’ve preferred if Koei Tecmo still would’ve figured out a way to put the disk system in the game. It certainly would’ve been an option for those who wanted to live the old days of putting CDs in to generate a monster. More options are always better in Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX

In Conclusion

Monster Hunter 1 & 2 DX, regardless of everything, are charming in its own way. Even though the gameplay might be lacking in certain cases compared to the other monster games out there, it certainly is a good game to spend time taking care of monsters.

What would’ve made it better is if Koei Tecmo would’ve taken a little bit more time in remastering the assets to be in line with modern standards. But, the graphics still have their own charm to them.

However, while training and taking care of the monster is fine, the battle portion of Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is tedious and horrible and kills mood quicker than me finishing video games. It might’ve been fun back in the days, but for me, it is not.

I will end this review by saying that if you want a nice game where you want to spend your idle time, go ahead and buy it. The game is regionally priced, so it is affordable.

If you want a very deep game with monster battles in it, Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX aren't the one for you. As I said in the beginning, this has been a mixed experience for me.