Author: Shea Layton
A product of its time, Monster Rancher was a transient phenomenon in both the US and Japan during the 90s. From the first release in 1997, the series has amassed 14 video games across multiple gaming platforms and an anime that ran for two seasons.
When Koei Tecmo announced a remaster collection of Monster Rancher 1 and 2 earlier this year, my childhood self was immediately giddy while also perplexed how it would work in 2021. While the remaster offers little in terms of a visual upgrade, some quality of life changes makes this release fit in with an ever-growing market for life simulation games if you are in the market for a new one.
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX (Switch [reviewed], Microsoft Windows)
Developer: Koei Tecmo Games Co., LTD.
Publisher: Koei Tecmo Games Co., LTD.
Release Date: December 8, 2021
MSRP: $29.99
At the title screen, you can choose between Monster Rancher 1 or 2. Since they are two separate games, I will talk about each of them briefly to explain what they are and then the package as a whole.
Monster Rancher
The first Monster Rancher game was interesting because it had a unique concept: you can get monsters through an in-game market, combine monsters, or put CDs into your PSone where it would read the CD data generate a monster for you. Before Monster Rancher, no other game had ever utilized this concept. It led to people creating massive lists online of which CDs generate what monsters. Soon, people discovered that certain CDs would give a unique, one-of-a-kind monster. It was a craze that my friends and I often discussed on the playground.
You can take the monsters back to your farm where you can train them to improve their stats and loyalty to you, you can put them to work to have them raise money for the farm, and you can have them battle other monsters in monster cups. In the beginning, your monsters have some level of free will, often being lazy or insubordinate, allowing you to choose how to handle the situation. Certain monsters are more stubborn than others.
When battling other monsters, you can choose from a move pool. You can grow that move pool by sending your monster off to a training camp outside of battle. If your monster wins first place at an official cup, they rank up and gain chances to compete in more exclusive cups with special prizes.
It is a simple-sounding concept, but it is incredibly addictive. As a child, I would spend hours upon hours playing this game. Since this collection has been released, I have done much of the same, not putting it down for a week straight.
Monster Rancher 2
The second game was released two years after the first, looking to capitalize on the craze. I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to play the second game as a child, so my first experience with it was on this collection.
The game’s primary goals are essentially the same but think on a bigger scale. There are more monsters, ways to train your monster, more items to feed it, etc. One of the extensive upgrades from the Monster Rancher 1 to 2 is there was a lot more work put in animations. Instead of a 2D screen showing a more traditionally animated version of your monster doing work or training, there were 3D animations of your monster doing the activities mentioned above.
They also changed how you make money in the game: instead of having your monsters do work for money and stat improvements, you must have your monster compete in cups or do jobs in the town.
Also, instead of finishing the final official cup being the “ending” of the game as in the first game, Monster Rancher 2 has your monster facing off against the “Big Four” (cute Pokemon inspiration) to prove your monster is the strongest and you are the best rancher.
The Collection
Now that you understand a bit of the game’s history and how it’s played, let’s talk about the collection.
As I mentioned in the intro, there is some excellent quality of life changes in this collection. The load times are much faster than before. You would spend upwards of ten seconds waiting for a battle to load or enter the town; it now takes half a second. Less waiting, more playing. There are also additional save slots and more freezer storage, which is how you store your monsters you acquire.
Another significant change is how you get monsters in both games. Since most people don’t have CDs anymore, Koei Tecmo has integrated a workaround that allows you almost to feel as if it’s the same system in the originals while also being modern: you can search for CDs. There is a lengthy database that you can pore through. There is also a search bar to type CD titles or artists in. If both of those sound complicated or laborious, you can have the game randomize a CD for you. While it doesn’t quite fully capture the excitement and mystery of popping in a CD and not knowing what you’re going to get, it’s certainly the closest that Koei Tecmo could get to in 2021. In the first game, it works perfectly. However, in the second game, if you use the randomize feature, you are often given a CD that has a rarer monster. To get that monster, you must go through levels of in-game progression. I often felt like I was wasting my time in the second game by using the CD function.
The graphics have minimal improvement, so I’m unsure of why this collection is being touted as a remaster. Besides the changes I just mentioned, there is not much else improved upon in the game. I have less of an issue with the collection and more with calling it a remaster. While the definition of “game remaster” is a bit nebulous at the moment, I think it is synonymous with a slight graphical improvement. Maybe that’s my own issue since there are undoubtedly welcome technical improvements in the game, but I feel weird calling it a remaster.
The first game holds up pretty well. It was a simple concept, to begin with, and the novelty of raising a monster still feels fun and endearing. Nostalgia aside, it looks like a game created in the 90s. If you are the type of person who needs cutting-edge graphics or a visual remaster, you may have issues with this game. But if gameplay remains king in your gaming sessions and you are a fan of the life simulation genre, I believe that you will have a ton of fun with this game. There are a plethora of monsters and many ways to raise them.
To be honest, I did not enjoy the second game at all. There were too many choices to make that seemed inconsequential as if they were made to say, “Hey, look! This game is better because we put more in it!” The graphical limitations of the hardware hit Monster Rancher 2 harder, as many of the animations feel outdated. On top of that, because there is no way to skip the animations, you are spending more time watching the outdated animations of your monsters. Also, the change in how you make money in this game was infuriating. I often felt like I didn’t have enough money to train my monsters or build their loyalty properly. When I brought them to battle to try to make money, my monsters were outclassed. It felt like they took the simple, elegant formula of the first game and made it unnecessarily convoluted and frustrating. After trying for about 5 hours with three different monsters, I gave up on this game. I may give it another try when I feel like I’m open to the possibility of torture, but that day may not come for a while.
Despite there not being many changes to the remaster and Monster Rancher 2 being a bust for me, I think that having Monster Rancher 1 in the modern age is excellent. We have seen many life simulation games in recent years, as the genre has taken off. Monster Rancher was one of those games that helped pave the way for other games integrating those simulation elements.
I can’t, in good conscience, recommend that you pay full price for this game since one of the two games is a drag. However, if you love cute monsters and simulation games, I can fully recommend that you pick this up on the Switch, as it’s an easy game to pick up and put down. I hope this collection sees a decent level of success because I would love to see a brand new Monster Rancher game soon. I just hope they look to the first game’s simplicity as a blueprint.
Wait for a Sale
[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer]