Monster Rancher similarities to Tamagotchi?

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KuchipatchiPod

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Anyone playing Monster Rancher 1&2 DX? I've been trying to describe it to my friends and they say it sounds like Tamagotchi lol. This is less a "what am I playing" post and a more "you guys should try this" post I guess XD So I think I'll give it its own topic, because I'd also like to discuss this game and how you guys think it is similar to Tamagotchi or Digimon vpets, as it's a vpet game itself.

I wouldn't say it's exactly like Tama, but there are many similarities. You run a farm where you raise one monster at a time. You take care of it by feeding it and doing training with it and scolding/praising and sometimes playing with it or entering tournaments. If you care for it badly, it can get sick, run away, etc. And it starts out as a baby and eventually dies (though it looks the same its whole life just gets slightly bigger), and you start again with a new monster. You can cryofreeze up to 20 monsters if you want to keep your favorites, and even combine them to "breed" new ones. There are a ton of monster breeds in the game; I think 30-40 "base" breeds and then every breed has a variant based on the other breeds (so like there is Monster A-B which is Monster A shape but colors and patterns based on Monster B.) and then there are unique hidden variations of the breeds too. I found a ColorPandora that looks like dice or dominoes XD

So there are many similarities to Tamagotchi, but it's also quite different in that it's a turn-based game (you decide what you want to do each week, then it advances to the next week, rather than it being real-time based like Tamagotchi is) and of course there is battling. But if you like caring for little creatures you may very well enjoy the game. Another main difference from Tamagotchi is that they don't evolve into different forms, rather keep the same form their whole life span.

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Here's a screenshot of my first monster when he was first brought to the ranch. His name is Derp and he is a Suezo purebred :)

I'm playing on Steam but you can play on Switch as well. I think it has online features so you can battle with friends??? I don't know yet, I've only been playing on my own so far. I have a friend who is getting it next week, and one who said she'd get it today but I haven't heard from her all day (maybe she is busy playing XD) It's $30USD and you get both Monster Rancher 1 and Monster Rancher 2 included. It's a very dated game and not for everyone but I think fans of Tamagotchi would be apt to like this one.

Oh I should also mention it has a neat mechanic of how you get new monsters. There's a shop in town to buy a few purebreds, but the main way to get monsters on the original PS1 version was to insert different discs into the CD drive during game play. So you put in your Britney Spears CD and it would generate a monster based on that data as the seed, so everyone with the same Britney CD would get the same monster. Since this new version is on Switch and PC, now they have replaced that with a search feature where you search a digital music library and choose an album and it generates a monster from that. Not as fun as CDs, but still interesting to see what your favorite music has in store :)

But yeah my main point -- do you think this game is similar enough to Tamagotchi to call it a game that is "like Tamagotchi?" My friends who haven't played keep asking for a game that it's like, and I struggle to come up with something similar. Then when I describe the game to them, they say it sounds like Tama. I hesitate to say "It's like Tamagotchi" but the more I think about it, that might not actually be a bad comparison. What do you think?
 
I'll preface this by saying that I've never played any of the Monster Rancher titles myself (though I do fondly remember the games-magazines back in the day writing amusing one-liners about what monsters certain CDs would generate - I specifically remember Barry Manilow being lampooned in this fashion), but from what I know of them I don't think that I would call it similar to a Tamagotchi personally. Back in the day it seemed to be aimed in the general direction of Pokemon fans, due to the monster "collection" aspect.

Incidentally, there was an anime series back in the late 1990s/early 2000s and it was good. And for the era, the English dub was also good (I'm sure that it comes across as a little bit cheesy in retrospect, but such were the times :tongue:). I seem to recall it even including a nod to the CD mechanic, with monsters initially being found in the form of stones shaped curiously like CDs.
 
Anyone playing Monster Rancher 1&2 DX? I've been trying to describe it to my friends and they say it sounds like Tamagotchi lol. This is less a "what am I playing" post and a more "you guys should try this" post I guess XD So I think I'll give it its own topic, because I'd also like to discuss this game and how you guys think it is similar to Tamagotchi or Digimon vpets, as it's a vpet game itself.

I wouldn't say it's exactly like Tama, but there are many similarities. You run a farm where you raise one monster at a time. You take care of it by feeding it and doing training with it and scolding/praising and sometimes playing with it or entering tournaments. If you care for it badly, it can get sick, run away, etc. And it starts out as a baby and eventually dies (though it looks the same its whole life just gets slightly bigger), and you start again with a new monster. You can cryofreeze up to 20 monsters if you want to keep your favorites, and even combine them to "breed" new ones. There are a ton of monster breeds in the game; I think 30-40 "base" breeds and then every breed has a variant based on the other breeds (so like there is Monster A-B which is Monster A shape but colors and patterns based on Monster B.) and then there are unique hidden variations of the breeds too. I found a ColorPandora that looks like dice or dominoes XD

So there are many similarities to Tamagotchi, but it's also quite different in that it's a turn-based game (you decide what you want to do each week, then it advances to the next week, rather than it being real-time based like Tamagotchi is) and of course there is battling. But if you like caring for little creatures you may very well enjoy the game. Another main difference from Tamagotchi is that they don't evolve into different forms, rather keep the same form their whole life span.

unknown.png



Here's a screenshot of my first monster when he was first brought to the ranch. His name is Derp and he is a Suezo purebred :)

I'm playing on Steam but you can play on Switch as well. I think it has online features so you can battle with friends??? I don't know yet, I've only been playing on my own so far. I have a friend who is getting it next week, and one who said she'd get it today but I haven't heard from her all day (maybe she is busy playing XD) It's $30USD and you get both Monster Rancher 1 and Monster Rancher 2 included. It's a very dated game and not for everyone but I think fans of Tamagotchi would be apt to like this one.

Oh I should also mention it has a neat mechanic of how you get new monsters. There's a shop in town to buy a few purebreds, but the main way to get monsters on the original PS1 version was to insert different discs into the CD drive during game play. So you put in your Britney Spears CD and it would generate a monster based on that data as the seed, so everyone with the same Britney CD would get the same monster. Since this new version is on Switch and PC, now they have replaced that with a search feature where you search a digital music library and choose an album and it generates a monster from that. Not as fun as CDs, but still interesting to see what your favorite music has in store :)

But yeah my main point -- do you think this game is similar enough to Tamagotchi to call it a game that is "like Tamagotchi?" My friends who haven't played keep asking for a game that it's like, and I struggle to come up with something similar. Then when I describe the game to them, they say it sounds like Tama. I hesitate to say "It's like Tamagotchi" but the more I think about it, that might not actually be a bad comparison. What do you think?
derpy monster? HE IS SO DERPY LMAOOOOO
 
Yeah maybe "Like Digimon" is better comparison than "Like Tamagotchi" though I consider Tamagotchi and Digimon to be basically the same thing just one has battles :p

I do consider Digimon World games and Monster Rancher to be quite different, though.
 
Yeah maybe "Like Digimon" is better comparison than "Like Tamagotchi" though I consider Tamagotchi and Digimon to be basically the same thing just one has battles :p

I do consider Digimon World games and Monster Rancher to be quite different, though.
You have a monster that looks like a floating non-body cyclops. lmao
 
Oh, I remember Monster Rancher! I played the sequel all the time on the PSX and tried out every CD I could get my hands on. Most of them said I was too inexperienced to raise that kind of monster or a similar message. The disc eventually got so badly scratched it wouldn't play properly anymore. :(

I had no idea it got ported to the Switch! It's going on my wishlist right now!
 
Oh, I remember Monster Rancher! I played the sequel all the time on the PSX and tried out every CD I could get my hands on. Most of them said I was too inexperienced to raise that kind of monster or a similar message. The disc eventually got so badly scratched it wouldn't play properly anymore. :(

I had no idea it got ported to the Switch! It's going on my wishlist right now!
To replay, maybe follow the steps in wikihow to clean a scratched disc:
https://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Scratched-Video-Game
 
Oh nice, I was searching for an opportunity to play Monster Rancher. This is perfect.
Thanks for the rec!
 

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