Monster Rancher 2
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| Monster Rancher 2 | |
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| Developer(s) | Tecmo |
| Publisher(s) | Tecmo |
| Series | Monster Rancher |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
| Release date | 1998 Japan
1999 (U.S.) |
| Genre(s) | Life simulation game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, or two players versus |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone |
| Media | CD |
| Input methods | Gamepad |
Monster Rancher 2 (North American release 1999) is a video game and the second North American and Japanese (where it is known as Monster Farm 2) installment in the Monster Rancher series. In Europe (and other PAL locations) Monster Rancher 2 is the first release in the series and is thus named Monster Rancher.
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[edit] Gameplay
This game involves raising, fighting, and breeding monsters. The main character is never seen on screen and never talks to anyone directly. Instead, all of the dialog and action is done by the trainer's assistant Colt and her toucan Joy. The player chooses his actions and choices through menu options.
[edit] Raising Monsters
[edit] Getting a Monster
While there are several monster types you start out with the ability to use, often you may have to earn permission to use a specific type of monster through plot events in the game first.
[edit] Shrine
One of the ways to regenerate monsters is going to a "Shrine" and replacing the Monster Rancher 2 disc with another disc (such as a CD or another Playstation game). The data on the disc determines the kind of monster as well as its stats.
[edit] Slate
Players can also use a save game from the original Monster Rancher can get a monster to raise by attempting to clone a monster from that game, with varying results.
[edit] Market
Monsters can also be taken home from the market. The monsters available here are base types - their sub type is the same as their main type. Which monsters are available here depend on the season.
[edit] Combining Monsters
If you have two monsters that you have raised and frozen, you can combine them to make a new monster. The new monster typically gains bonuses to stats which his "parents" excelled in. They also may start with some of the moves which they had. The new monster will usually derive their main and sub type from his parents. The chance that they will become a specific type of monster is displayed before combining.
When combining monsters you may also use an item seasoning. The seasoning may make certain combination outcomes more likely, change the parameters of the new monster, or with special items, make the monster a completely different type.
[edit] Feeding Monsters
At the beginning of each month, you must buy food to feed your monster. The different food types mostly effect their body type (fat-thin) and their stress level depending on how much they like or dislike the food.
[edit] Drilling
There are 6 light drills in Monster Rancher 2 that increase the 6 stats that a monster can have, as well as 4 heavy drills which are more demanding. The stats are as follows:
[edit] Stats
Life - Increases the number of hitpoints you have.
Power - Effects the amount of damage done by power-based techniques and reduces the damage taken from power-type attacks.
Intelligence - Effects the amount of damage done by intelligence-based techniques and reduces the damage taken from intelligence-type attacks.
Skill - Effects the chance of hitting another monster with an attack.
Speed - Effects the chance of dodging an attack.
Defence - Lowers the number of hitpoints lost when damaged.
[edit] Errantry
Errantry is where your monsters can get new attacks to use in battle. They also gain stats for successful weeks spent in errantry. Errantry can also trigger special plot events. There are different places to go on errantry based on which kind of tech you want to learn. The types of tech are:
[edit] Tech Types
Heavy - These techs tend to do more damage than other attacks.
Withering - These techs drain your opponents guts when you hit.
Sharp - These techs have a higher chance of going critical for extra damage.
Hit - These techs have a better chance of hitting.
Special - These techs are special, tend to be better than other techs in general.
[edit] Goodbye Monster
The raising of your monster must eventually end in one of several ways: death, freezing, and sale.
[edit] Die
Unlike most games of its type, in Monster Rancher 2, your monsters will eventually die. Under most circumstances you will receive a warning from Colt when the monster is becoming old, but things can always happen suddenly. The amount of time a monster lives is largely affected by how much stress a monster endures and how tired it is allowed to become. The normal lifespan of a monster is four years, on average, but is mostly determined by its type and subtype.
[edit] Frozen
Before the end of a monster's life, you may choose to freeze it. Frozen monsters can then be combined with other frozen monsters to create new monsters. Freezing a monster is also a good way to get rid of a monster you don't want to raise, but is too young to sell.
[edit] Sold
In order to sell your monster you must raise them through childhood. The amount of money you get for selling a monster is generally minimal, and is based on what class your monster has achieved. This option is usually only used when you've decided to give up on a monster you've been raising.
[edit] Fighting Monsters
The way you make money, and gain ranks, is by having your monster fight in tournaments. In a fight, your monster starts with 50 guts, which is basically energy to spend on the moves they know. You can control the monster yourself, or let them fight on their own as they do when they get into a battle in the wild.
There is one major stat a monster has which is only obvious in battle, it's guts rengeration rate. Everytime you do a move, it costs a certain amount of guts, if you don't have enough guts to do a certain move, you have to wait until you regenerate enough guts to do it.
Moves can be done in one of four ranges. You move forward or backward by pressing right or left. If you get in very close, you can also push the opponent away from you.
[edit] Unlocking Monsters
Besides the monster types you can unlock from the beginning, there are many more which you can raise. There are three different ways in which to unlock new monster types for raising: plot events, expedition, and errantry. The most common way these new monsters are given to you is by the gain of an item, which when used to combine monsters, will produce this new type. After that happens, CDs will now be allowed to produce monsters of that type.
[edit] Plot Events
During the course of the game, certain events may happen which allow you to raise new monster types. Most of these happen when specific requirements are met, although a few seem mostly random.
[edit] Expedition
Sometimes during expedition you may find one of the very rare items which can be used in breeding a new monster.
[edit] Errantry
Under certain rare circumstances, your monster may bring back a special combination item after going on errantry.
[edit] Story
The story of Monster Rancher 2 is largely non-linear with story events happening only after certain requirements are met (winning a battle, reaching a certain rank, etc.) The story begins with the main character going to register to become a trainer, it is there when Colt appears as the trainer's new official assistant. The "end" of the game is when a monster is able to beat the Big Four (the four highest ranked battles in the game) when this happens a video about the history of the monsters is shown. A monster who has beaten all four of the S class tournaments can then go on to compete in a special match for champion monsters like itself.
It is important to note that Monster Rancher 2 happens in close time proximity to Monster Rancher 1, but on a different continent (MR2 being set in the IMA area, and MR1 set in the FIMBA area), because of this there is a battle between the player and the assistant from the first game, Holly.
Understand, though, that defeating the Major 4 tournaments and the Legend Cup, does not unlock all of the monsters in the game. There are different steps to take to unlock each main breed monster in the game.
[edit] Special Features
- Players of both Monster Rancher 1 & 2 are given the special option of bringing monsters from their Monster Rancher 1 save files to the Monster Rancher 2. This is the only way to get certain monsters in Monster Rancher 2.
- Certain disks will unlock special monsters that can only be created using that disk, such as:
- Monster Rancher 1 disk will unlock Sueki Suezo
- Dead Or Alive unlocks Kasumi, who is 'dressed' in her older red and white costume
- Monster Rancher 2's own disc unlocks a purebreed Mocchi.
[edit] 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.
- Monster Rancher 2 at MobyGames
- "Perry Hall Monster Rancher League" Open to one and all for Monster Rancher 2 Tournaments.
