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- This article is about the Monster Rancher series. For the first installment in the series, see Monster Rancher (video game). For the anime, see Monster Rancher (anime)
Monster Rancher (モンスターファーム Monster Farm) is a video game series by Tecmo. Starting in 1997, there have been several sequels produced. There was also a tie-in anime made.
According to the story, 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 totally annihilated each other, leaving nothing but relics behind, and much of the world's technology was lost. The monsters were sealed into their 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.
Thus started a popular new sport, Monster Breeding. Breeders raised monsters for battle to compete in nation-wide tournaments to see who could raise the strongest beast.
Games
The series is often compared to Pokémon, although the two games play much differently (Pokémon was released in November 1996 (1995, Japan), Monster Farm, the Japanese name, was released in April 1997). 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, predominantly video 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 (usually in about 3 to 4 years of simulated game time depending on raising style and monster) or is retired. These retired monsters can be combined to create more powerful monsters.
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 or DVD (only in Playstation 2 games; PlayStation games have no DVD support) into the game system. The monster that is produced is based on the information on the CD, creating the same monster each time the CD is inserted (except in the case of the rare 'Pandora Disks', which are programmed to create a number of creatures). Or it can be specialized so that specific DVDs and CDs will produce rare monsters. For instance, in Monster Rancher 4 there is an owl monster known as Owlden that can only be generated by a Harry Potter DVD. And in Monster Rancher 2, Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas album will generate a special Christmas-themed wracky known as Satan Claus. Another interesting case is Beck's album "Mellow Gold". When used in the first game, it will generate a special Henger called Magnet, and in the second one, it gives up a special Dragon called Moo, which was the main villain in the anime series.
Monster Rancher Animé
Origanally geared towards a wide age range, Monster Rancher was fairly violent. This was heavily cut for the more sensitive American market, and they also attached a cutesy 'song' onto the end. The three series story has a loyal cult following who often point to the show's hidden depths and a dark undertone the brutal editing hasn't quite managed to remove. As the story unfolds you will begin to realise that Monster Rancher covers its dark soul with the jubliance of its main character, Genki, a boy who is not all he seems. The longer you watch the more you will wonder which world is real one, the sureal, dreamlike, 'real' world from which Genki is sucked, or the vast, geneticly altered post-apocalypse he is transported to, and even, what Genki is... Humans & monsters alike die in Monster Rancher, though monsters have been known to resurrect through various means.
This is a very rare program and only the first half of the first series is available to buy. The plot is quite high quailty and the voice acting variable. This program is recommended to anyone willing to start from the beginning and give it a few epsodes.
Game releases
PlayStation
Game Boy Color
PlayStation 2
- Monster Rancher 3
- Monster Rancher 4
- Monster rancher evo
- Circus Caravan (released December 10 in Japan)
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo DS
Anime
Monster Rancher was an anime series broadcast in the US on Fox and the Sci-fi Channel and in the United Kingdom on Fox Kids. It featured characters and themes from the Monster Rancher games.
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).
External links
- "Monster Rancher Metropolis" A very complete Monster Rancher site on the web.
- "Legend Cup" A useful Monster Rancher site containing images and information. Tournaments are no longer being fought here, unfortunately.
- "Tecmo US" The English link to the Tecmo website.
Computer and video game franchises | Computer and video role-playing games | Tecmo games | Monster Rancher
"Monster Rancher"