MonsterFenrick @kbin.social - http://LegendCup.com Owner/admin
- Helps with the Monster Rancher Discord: http://discord.gg/venPxfG
- Works in IT/Windows Server Admin/scripting/automation
Awesome! :)
Don't forget to consider jumping into the Monster Rancher Discord if you want to hang out with other nerds that love this game. If you're interested in what the Online Tournament scene looks like, we keep a Calendar of Tournaments & Events as well. These are posted in the Discord Events, but if you're not keen on joining discord and would rather take a peek first you can find tourney hosts and times here.
DX being cross platform with Mobile and Switch, the Shrine CD Reading process is completely overhauled and doesn't work remotely in the same way it did for the Playstation. The built in CD Database/Song List totals 664,909 Title/Artists entries. This not only includes albums but individual songs as well as albums and games etc.
One might think this is limiting since the original could use "all the CDs in the world" but the game is only built to give you a limited number of monsters based on meta data read from the Discs. DX provides much more than the original game is capable of doing, even with an finite number of entries.
To compare:
- MR2 1999 has 391 playable Breeds (Pures/Mixes/Rares) plus a handful of roughly 10 variants of a few those breeds totaling 401 playable monsters. Even with 10 billion different and unique CDs you'll never be able to acquire more than this.
- MR2DX has has 415 total playable breeds due to the inclusion of Japanese rares + Boss monsters onto the original roster of Pures/Mixes/Rares, and a whopping 803 variants on top of the primary baselines, totaling 1218 playable monsters.
- What is a Variant? It's a monster that has Stat gain patterns not typical of the normal breed, or starts with an extra attack they don't normally start with, faster or slower guts regeneration, or otherwise has different core baseline than the standard of the breed.
- What about different Starting Stats? Random starting stats aren't the same as a variant, these are separate from the core baseline of a regular or variant breed. DX even has many monsters that have true starting stat randomization rather than the "Static" randomization that CDs provide.
A few other bonus mentions for DX: There's a FF (Fast Forward) toggle to speed up the game, it's got upscaled resolution and textures, but it is still the base game underneath (not a 100% remaster, more like a light-remaster). 10 bonus freezer slots. Items now stack in your inventory (though the total number of inventory slots is the same based on your House size), Items can be bought or sold in bulk now, and load times are eliminated when going back and forth from ranch to town or entering a tournament. There's also a handful of mods created by the MR community. It's not a perfect remaster but it's definitely my favorite version of the game now.
If you have any questions about DX, please feel free to ask :)
I don't know if it's worth it to have a whole separate post about it or not but for now I guess i'll keep it here.
Oh, if you have a Switch, there's actually a whole new Monster Rancher game barely a year old. Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher ... It's a franchise crossover where you raise Kaiju monsters from Ultraman. The mechanics are basically the best features of MR1 and MR2 with new stuff because Kaiju. it's familiar enough that you can jump right in, with enough new stuff to keep you on your toes
There is a newer version of the game Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX that's on Steam, Switch, and iOS... this has a built in CD / Song database so you can access all monsters without being limited to what's on hand. LegendCup.com is fully updated to include the DX changes in the game if you need current resources (Many of the old sites are gone, and many old guides have bits of out-dated info that's been debunked or data-mined since then) and includes the Song Lists for EN and JP versions if you want to jump straight into raising a monster you've never seen or raised before.
Also, the DX remaster has both the JP and EN rares available in the same game, in addition to enemy/boss monsters legally obtainable and are unique playable monsters too! Most of the online tournaments use the newer DX version which is cross-platform and cross-region. However, the Combo Breaker tournament will be played on an emulated PSX version of the game due to logistics. DX needs reliable internet connection to access people's uploaded monsters from around the world and heavily crowded conventions aren't known for their internet reliability. Even if you don't have the PSX version, MooseBones will be converting anyone's qualifying submitted monster from DX into a monster on a PSX game save to be used locally at the tournament.
I'm happy to see even 1 response to this haha.. It's such a niche game/genre I was kind of expecting this to just be an empty echo into the Ether.
Monster Rancher 2 will appear at Combo Breaker: Live In-Person monster tournament!
That game where you popped your Music CDs into your PSX, generate a monster, then raise it and battle it? Yes, that game! Combo Breaker is one of the largest Fighting Game tournaments in the world, and MR2 will be there in under All In Together.
At Combo Breaker, this will be an In-Person Live event and you'll have complete control over your own monster
Historically Monster Rancher is a game that relied on the community to run tournaments with community vetted rules and entrants. I pioneered this in 1999 with the use of a DexDrive and emailing save files or even physical memory cards to host and broadcast tournaments (over dialup this was painful compared to today's available resources lol). "Recently", KoeiTecmo ran 1 official world-wide tournament when Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX (Deluxe remaster) was released and held in 2022, but KT hasn't held one since. Japan does have some in-person tournaments as well, but this is the first time a live and in-person event has will be held in the West!
MR Community member and content creator Nash (MooseBones) will be hosting this event at ComboBreaker. If you plan to attend ComboBreaker, and you like Monster Rancher this will be of interest.
Event Date:
- Combo Breaker 2024, May 24th - 26th
Location:
- Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel Marriott
- 1551 Thoreau Dr N, Schaumburg, IL, 60173 USA
Event Links:
- ComboBreaker Home - \_https://combobreaker.org
- [email protected]\_
ComboBreaker MR Tournament Sign Up and Rules/Restrictions/Stat Caps - https://www.start.gg/tournament/all-in-together-2024-combo-breaker-community-tournaments/event/monster-rancher-2
Game Resources, tips, preparation:
- Guide site: https://legendcup.com/faqsite.php#mr2
- Monster Rancher Discord: https://discord.gg/venPxfG (@moosebones for any tournament clarifications)
Please contact @moosebones on Discord for any additional questions you may have regarding this event!
What is Monster Rancher? If you'd never heard of Monster Rancher, you might have heard of the gimmick it was famous for... During game play, you could swap out the game CD and put in your favorite Music CD or Playstation game and a monster could be created from it.
Gimmick aside, however, It is basically a menu-driven virtual pet raising and breed simulator with fantasy monsters in a semi-roguelike environment where you keep your personal achievements and progress but it may take multiple raised monsters over time to fully complete the game. In-game progress is done by taking your raised creature and battling it out in tournaments with real-time strategy and resource management, gauging your situational awareness with your own monsters stats and attributes versus the in-game opponents. In the single-player game you have the option to outright over-raise your monster so that fights are a bit easier, but in PVP there are rules and Stat Caps/Weight divisions to consider for more equal footing.
I can't attend, but I'm interested in Online Tournaments, is that a thing? Good news! the Monster Rancher Community regularly holds online tournaments for MR2DX and other games in the series, even the newer Switch-Only Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher, however due to limitations of the game, Online tournaments are not manually controlled. Instead, the meta is to engineer a monster within a given tourney's ruleset and stat caps to make as few bad choices as possible and let them have at it. Often best of 3, or 5, in Round Robin, Elimination, or Double Elim depending on the number of entrants.
Please share if you'd like. Monster Rancher is really niche and could always use more players :)
Monster Rancher is alive and kicking!
- There's a remaster of the first 2 games (Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX) on Steam, Switch, iOS and release a couple years back.
- MR2 has a huge competitive scene, with lots of community run tournaments. it's even going to be at Combo Breaker, a fairly large annual event/competition for fighting games!
- There's a Spinoff/Crossover game "Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher" released just over a year ago, where instead of traditional monsters, you raise giant Kaiju from the Ultraman franchise. (Switch only)
- There's a Japanese only mobile gacha game LINE:Monster Farm that's hugely popular atm
Monster Rancher
I'll toss in another vote for Monster Rancher ;) A Pet Raising and Breeding simulator that got it's roots from an earlier 1996 game "Gallop Racer" which was a Horse racing and breeding sim. Monster Rancher replaces Horses with Fantasy monsters, and swaps out Races for Real Time battles.
While the Raising aspect is highly menu driven as you make constant adjustments to your strategies for raising stats, learning new attacks, or doing "side-quests" in the game to unlock even more monsters, the Battle is in real time where you control your monster moving between near and far ranges to use attacks that are unique to those ranges. The attacks themselves also have 2 primary types (Power or Intellect) and 5 sub-types (Heavy, Crit, Wither, Hit, and Special). Using attacks has an associated resource cost (Guts) and your monster's guts regeneration differs based on it's breed (or mixed breed).
Loads of variety of strong looking, silly, or fun monsters to pick and choose from.
- in 2021 the original first two games games were re-released as remasters on Switch, Steam, and iOS as Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. with upscaled graphics, some overhaul in the UI, and a lot of QoL features added in, but for the most part still looks and feels like the PSX game, just a lot smoother and zero load times.
- in 2022 a new game exclusive to Switch released asa crossover with Ultraman where you raise Kaiju from that franchise but with Monster Rancher rules.
There's been SOME activity in MR in the last couple years...
MR1&2DX is a remaster of the first 2 games with some QoL improvements, on Switch, Steam, iOS, released in 2021
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is a crossover, though only on Switch, released in 2022
LINE:Monster Farm is a JP only mobile gacha game released in 2023, but some folks hope it will come to the west... it has some amazing artwork.
There's also hope for MR3&4 "DX" release but those weren't very financially successful originally, so it's probably unlikely they'll be rereleased, but everyone's huffin' that hopium.
Monster Rancher has made a return!, in a sense.
"MR1&2DX" a "Remaster" is on Steam, Switch, and iOS. This came out in 2021. (It's mostly the same game, just with a searchable CD Database/Song List instead of physical media, upscaling, both JP and English monsters in the same game, Enemy monsters raisable, extra freezer slots, fast forward, instant loads etc. a bunch of QoL stuff).
Also there's Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher (This one is on Switch only) that came out in 2022... a Crossover franchise of raising Ultraman Kaiju that plays like a mix of both MR1 and MR2
And LINE: Monster Farm, came out in 2023. A JP only gacha game, though there's some hopium that it will be released in the west eventually.
There's a huge Monster Rancher community and Discord that even holds public tournaments with varying formats and stat-cap limits. It's a lot of fun!
for the remaster, the CD reading system is replaced with a built in searchable Song List. This is how you can play it on Mobile, Switch, Steam etc. The Song List doesn't exactly equate to original CDs (the function is mechanically different) but there are a handful of entries that equate to their originals (this accounts for about 0.01% of entries within the 664,909 that create their original monsters.
The good news is, Everyone now has access to the entire game and can raise any monster they want to (once they're unlocked, of course), and the Song List is 100% solved and published. You can Random Button if you like the surprise, but if you want something specific, you can just view the published Song List, Pick your Monster Main/Sub, then pick the Title/Artist suggestion for the variant you want. :)
I can agree for sure. I do like the game and at it's core, it's still a fun game as it's an interesting mish-mash of MR1 and MR2 mechanics. But I can say that after multiple 100% playthroughs, it's always a reminder that this could have been a legit true mainline sequel rather than a spin-off.
There's a TON of nods to Monster Rancher. The obvious ones are the Kaiju rare subs that are Monster Rancher breeds, but there's also a lot of dialogue or the occasional random mail that has some references for fans of the series. There's even a Pure-breed Plant sitting in grandma Teresa's shop that I only noticed for the first time after someone pointed it out haha.
I did put some effort into learning a bit more about Ultraman than I knew before, which made it slightly more enjoyable, and also fun for naming them, because I'm a sucker for Punny names.
Like this one.... Kaiju is a Melba.
I named him... Idris Melba. (First he fought Kaiju, now he IS a Kaiju! lol)
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher: Keywords and Song Lists are Solved!
The North American "Keywords" system, and Japan & Southeast Asia "Song List" for Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher has been solved.
What is Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher?
- A pet raising simulation
- Breeding simulation
- Monster taming
- Fantasy
- Menu-based raising
- Real-time Combat
- Roguelike
- Single player
- Competitive
In the Playstation version of Monster Rancher, you could acquire new monsters by placing Music CDs or other games into your PSX when the game prompted you to do so.
Switch doesn't have an optical drive, obviously, so One of the primary ways to acquire a Monster/Kaiju in UKMR is to use a search for Music/Titles/Artists (in Japanese and Southeast Asia versions) or using Keywords (in North American version).
Depending on the chosen songs or keywords used, you can create a monster born with certain stats or attacks or other adjustments to their parameters.
Now that all versions of the game are solved, you can look up what you want to raise, and use the suggestions in-game to get the exact Kaiju you want! (You still have to play through much of the story to unlock some of the restricted Kaiju, however)
For those interested, the solved lists are posted here:
- North American Keywords List
- Southeast Asia Song List (English)
- Japanese region Song List (Japanese obviously)
Hundreds of hours and multiple people's efforts have been put forth to solve these lists, so we hope you enjoy! :)
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is also on Steam, Switch, and iOS!
It is a remastered per say. Not so much a new graphics engine or anything, but with bug fixes, item changes that function better, and GUI & other QoL improvements :)
The great thing about the Song List on DX is that now everyone has access to every monster in the game, rather than being limited by a personal collection of CDs. (You still have to make your own unlock progress in-game of course).
The entire Song List for MR1&2DX has been solved too! LegendCup has an app to pick a Main breed and Sub breed and see every unique variant of every possible pure and mixed breed now as well. (Or you can use the "Random" button if you live for the thrill)
Hey now... Monster Rancher is Legit and predates Monsters, Inc. by 4 years :)
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher Soundtrack
A bit of background: Monster Rancher is a fantasy pet raising and breeding simulator that came out in 1997 by Tecmo, based on their Horse Racing/Breeding simulator that came out year prior. A famous gimmick of the game was being able to put in any game or music CD into the PSX and the game would generate a monster from it.
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher came out in 2022, and is a Cross-over game between Ultraman and Monster Rancher, a collaboration between BandaiNamco and KoeiTecmo, where you can raise Kaiju from the Ultraman universe, though many characters and two monsters from the MR games make appearances.
The game has an amazing soundtrack and after many unanswered messages to BandaiNamco/KoeiTecmo to release something official, a manual one was created. I hope you enjoy it :)
If you're referring to the Fandom wiki, that's an interesting topic of much debate, and I have nothing to do with it. It's got 1 or 2 main editors, but the real contention is the wiki attempts to link everything between every game plus the anime as a single cohesive piece of information, which ends up causing a lot of made up fan fiction just to connect the dots. The source material has been argued to be legitimate, but when pressed for the source, the wiki authors admitted that the data was from a Japanese cooking blog... which is never named, and no longer exists and cannot be found on any internet archive to cross reference
Additionally, the fandom wiki contains many completely made up monster lores and flavor texts from the Japanese translations that don't correlate. I did make an attempt to explain to the editors, using 1 particular monster as an example comparing the English text to the Japanese text. I provided the real translation and the likely meaning behind the name and lore description based on the direct translation of the name itself and the flavor text. This singular entry was changed, but none of the other hundreds (maybe thousands) of entries have been touched. Much of the guide information on the Fandom wiki is also out of date, or based on pre-data mining posts from the 90s/00s and not updated to the current findings that engineers and code hackers have discovered and published. If there's one thing the Fandom wiki has going for it, is that it has an impressive number of images across the many genres and platforms Monster Rancher has appeared on. I just wouldn't recommend trusting it for actual game information.
LegendCup isn't trying to connect everything to everything just for the sake of it, and doesn't acknowledge the Anime as a source of cannon for the games. Sort of like if you were to purchase a game guide about something, Each game's FAQs and guides are researched and dissected in isolation mechanically, and doesn't attempt to be a guide to the lore and history of monster rancher outside of providing references of actual in-game flavor texts of monsters within their respective games, along with data mined mechanics and information within each game.
haha, yeah.
I started the Fan Site back in 1999, and even got Tecmo's blessing in writing, and I've also got IMDB/game credits in two of the games in the franchise from before the KoeiTecmo merger . It's been a hobby/obsession for over 2 decades that all started... mostly because My wife had beat the 1st game before me in '97, just waiting for me to get home from work to show me.
The Monster Rancher community is much smaller and overshadowed by other communities by comparison. MR's genre is pretty niche and hard to spread the word because of it, so I try :)
The remaster of MR1&2DX (Steam/Switch/iOS) does have a random button in addition to a searchable internal database of Albums, Song titles, and games.
For whatever reason, the Random button in Ultra Kaiju is absent from the North American version, so you just either have to enter in some random letters/words in the Keywords field, or use NFC. The Japanese and Southeast Asia versions of Ultra Kaiju have a CDDB and Random button, though the "CDDB" is a bit misleading because it actually uses the keywords lookup to generate the Kaiju from the CDDB entries. In this regard, at least, the North American version is superior since the Keywords aren't locked to a pre-defined list.
Why did JP and SEA get a Song List and NA got Keywords for UKMR? Maybe copyright or licensing, though it's honestly anyone's guess.
But it still would have been nice for them to keep the Random button :)
Most people don't actually use the NFC, It's just not as highly accessible in North America as it is in other places (Also, very specifically, Amiibos will not work, and this is an in-game notification as well. No idea if this was a licensing thing or what). It's an interesting gimmick to replace how Swapping out CDs worked for the original Playstation game, but most people use the Keyword generation in the North American version.
Thankfully, we solved how keywords worked. After scripting out auto-solving more than 2 million keywords, and filtering out duplicates, we have published options for every baseline, and every variant (stuff that has different stat gains, starting stats, starting techs, or faster guts regeneration from the baselines).
- Keyword Solver for manual entry of any keywords you want, to see what it will produce
- Curated list of Keywords: Pick a Kaiju main, then Kaiju sub. Below the choice will be a scrollable table of all the Script-found Kaiju and fan-submitted Kaiju
NTAG scanning and Bus Passes are solved too.
The bus passes are fun/interesting because the remaining balance of Yen on them is what determines what it makes. Many of the numbers are references to Ultraman or Monster Rancher lore. If you're curious about that, check out: https://legendcup.com/faq-ukmrnfc.php
Kaiju-Sized Pet breeding/Sim Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher on sale for 50% off (biggest discount since release) through 12/4
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is a Switch game on sale on the eStore for half-off! It is a Spin-off / collaboration of the mainline franchise Monster Rancher and Ultraman franchised Kaiju instead of traditional "Monster Rancher" breeds.
What is Monster Rancher? MR is a fantasy Pet Raising and breeding simulator that has:
- Creature raising that can vary based on your personal choices of ... everything.. Feeding, drills, battles, what breed, or mixed breed you've done etc.
- Creature breeding via Fusion (Parents are consumed in the process, but babies created from it can inherit stats and attacks from parents)
- Tournament style progression
- Unlockable roster of monsters through story and side-quests
- Real time combat mechanics which your success is based not only by how you've raised your monster, what attacks you've taught it, but how you directly control your monster and execute attacks. (Monster Rancher itself is also technically a spin-off of a Horse racing/breeding simulation "Gallop Racer" by the same developers (Tecmo / KoeiTecmo).
Ultra Kaiju monster rancher plays very similar to an amalgamation of MR1 & MR2 with some new stuff thrown in because... well.. Big Ol' Kaiju!
If you're curious about the roster of Kaiju, you can view all of the Field Guide Kaiju which includes the ones available from the start and all of the locked, DLC, and hidden Kaiju as well.
If big Kaiju aren't your thing, there's always the remasters of the Originals... "Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX" which is on Steam, Switch, and iOS. MR2 specifically is the franchise's most popular game in the series and PVP tournaments are still frequently run. If you have any questions about either, just ask :)
I realize this is a bit late, but... I did end up making a tutorial video, showcasing how to use the app and extra features, and "Disc Swap" mechanic with Emulation of Monster Rancher 2, with no optical drive.
Make-A-Monster helps play 1997/1999 PSX or Emulation of Monster Rancher (1&2, NTSC & PAL)
Learn how to use the Make-A-Monster app for MR2 on LegendCup to create every possible CD created monster (over 609,000 with Stat offsets factored in) in Monster Rancher 2 NTSC & PAL versions. A few clicks allows you to generate files for use with Emulation, or to burn CDs for use with the PSX Co...
Attempting to Cross-Post from Monster Rancher
Monster Rancher debuted in 1997, it's a fantasy Pet (monster) raising and breeding game which had a unique mechanic that, during gameplay, when prompted you could insert a Music CD, or another Playstation game, and it would generate a monster based on some meta data from the disc that was read.
In 2001 we learned how to extract that meta data from CDs and some games (a text file containing track information, referred to as ToC or Subcode data) and share them without having to share copied CDs or Games. You could create a CD and inject the ToC data during the burn process to make any CD have the same meta data as what the ToC files contained. There were limits to this, as it would be an identical Monster produced ("randomized" stat offsets are determined by this data and so would be identical to the original).
As original hardware becomes hard to acquire, many have turned to emulation, though, even most PCs today no longer even come with optical drives to be able to use this mechanic.
5 years ago, We (superfans/nerds of Monster Rancher) completely reverse engineered the CD Read Process and were able to create a web app that could generate the meta data on demand, including all possible randomized offsets that would normally be produced by CDs and games in the wild.
We named this app "Make-A-Monster", and the data/files can be used with original hardware, or in emulation. We included the ability to create any Monster, On-Demand, but also allow the use of randomized creation, and also blind creation so you just don't know what you'll get at all and be completely surprised.
There is a remaster of Monster Rancher 1&2DX on Steam, Switch, and iOS that came out late 2021 and has quality of Life improvements and such. It also has several old bugs re-introduced, since the game is based on the original Japanese Monster Farm which were fixed in their NTSC and PAL localization, but overall is a very positive experience as well, and introduces new monster variants that never existed in the original.
I hope there's some Ranchers out there that will enjoy this, if you're still playing the original games, and also hope there's folks out there supporting the Remasters as well :)
Links to MR2 tutorial (mostly the same with a couple extra things) and links to the app
https://kbin.social/m/MonsterRancher/t/496208
Monster Rancher 1 - Make any monster without CDs/Optical drive
Playing MR1 on Console or Emulation?...
I apologize if this isn't cross-posted correctly. New to KBIN and difficult to find how to do this.
This is for use in Emulation of Monster Rancher (1), a Playstation (1) game which is a fantasy pet raising and breeding simulator (often accused of being a Pokemon Clone, though it's not really a Pokemon style game). Additionally, this app can actually be used to burn CDs for use on the console as well, but the files themselves can be used directly in several emulators, even if you have no optical drive at all.
The original game used a mechanic that involved (when prompted during game-play) to take out the game disc and insert a music CD or other PSX game to generate a monster. The game would read some meta data on a disc to determine the Breed, if it had a mixed sub-breed, and what seemed like randomized stat offsets. This is difficult with emulation, especially in the days of no optical drives.
The Monster Rancher 2 "Make-A-Monster" app is more robust, and i'm working on a tutorial for this too, which supports Offset variations of the 33 Breeds (many of which can be crossbred) and 19 uniques, totalling over 609k total possible outcomes (and equating to every possible entry within the game that a CD could make.
The files generated consist of a table of contents file with track data (what the game reads to make a determination) and a data file with empty data that equates to the size of the disc expected. (There's no copyright data generated by this, no copies of CDs or Games, just the necessary track information and blank data file of the expected size to trick the game into THINKING it's a given disc).
If there's any ranchers out there, I hope you enjoy :) (ALSO, there's a remaster, MR1&2DX, on Switch, Steam, iOS with a revamped Shrine mechanic that we've also cracked)
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher: Fusion made easy with Fusion Calculator!
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is only on the Nintendo Switch.
Learn how to use the Fusion Calculator app on LegendCup, for creating powerfully strong baby Kaiju . With just a few button clicks You can make perfect fusions, and get fusion suggestions, all without needing to know how the fusion mechanics actually work.
If you play Monster Rancher 1&2DX Also on the Nintendo Switch, there's other apps for these games as well to help master raising your virual pet monsters :)
If you're unfamiliar with the series, it is less of a monster taming/catching game -- and more of a fantasy pet breeding and raising sim. Your monsters have a finite lifespan and you must raise them as best you can with your available budget which you can increase by fighting and winning tournaments. There are also often many locked/hidden monsters that must use story progression to access.
Small, but huge correction. I forgot to include (omit) replacements in my napkin math above. There are 60 indices and two index fields that are summed to the offset result. so index 0 & 5 produce the same result as index 5 & 0 etc.
- Offsets can be a combination of 60 indices. Each breed with offsets is a choice of 2 indices from a set of 60 with replacement (1 & 5, and 5 & 1 are the same result), so (60-1+2)!/((60-1)!x2!) = 61x60/2 = 1,830
- 1,830 x 333 (breeds that offsets can be applied to) = 609,390 spawns total
- There are 60 ??? spawns in NTSC and 19 special spawns that aren't ???
- There are 70 ??? spawns on PAL and 19 special spawns that aren't ???
- There are 6 different monsters in the market and those spawn with base stats
- 609,390 + 60 + 19 + 6 = 609,475 total monster spawns on NTSC
- 609,390 + 70 + 19 + 6 = 609,485 total monster spawns on PAL
In MR2DX, the Indices work almost the same, except each index value has a range that it is randomly rolled, so if 2 same indices are together they can still be different. I'm not even sure how to math the possible value range for those but since the original game are static indices, it's much easier.
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 - Playstation CD Swap Mechanic on Emulation
I thought I would share an app for use with a fairly niche game in the Monster Taming/Sim/Raising genre, Monster Rancher on the Playstation (1). I don't expect many to know what this game is, but there might be a few that remember it. It frequently is called Pokemon ripoff or clone, but it's really a pet (monster) raising sim where you raise a monster up from a baby through it's life all the way through it's death. You can also cross-breed monsters (fuse them; parents are consumed in the process) to create new breeds or new babies with significant advantages over 1st gen monsters.
Monster Rancher had an interesting gimmick in that, while playing the game you could visit the Shrine, where part of the lore allows found "Disc Stones" (CDs) to be used at the shrine to create monsters. The game would prompt you to pop open the lid and put in any Music CD or other PSX game, it would read the meta data of the disc, then prompt you to re-insert Monster Rancher back into the PSX, at which point your new baby monster would be born.
In 2001 we discovered what data was being read and how to extract it from a disc so that the meta data could be shared without passing around copies of games and CDs themselves, then you could burn a blank disc with the meta data and use this to get special monsters that might be hard to get (or without having to buy hundreds of CDs/Games just to get a monster.).
In 2019 we fully reverse engineered the CD Read Process and how the game interprets the track data to create the monsters which allowed us to create an app to generate any monster on-demand and on the fly via the Make-a-Monster app. This process not only allows you to pick any monster on demand, but also any of the "random" stat offsets monsters can be born with.
With the Make-A-Monster files you can still burn physical media to play on console, or generate just the files for download to use directly in emulation where no optical drive is present and the app supports Duckstation, ePSXe (2.0.5), PSX, PCSX-R, CloneCD, ImgBurn
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX was released which is a remaster released in 2021 and includes a baked in CD Database to search and look for albums and songs, but for anyone still playing the original version of the game on Emulation, there's options for the CD Swapping gimmick for MR1 and MR2. One of the Monster Rancher community members has a ticket open with PCSX2 to try and get more emulator support for the Playstation2 versions of the later games but at the moment that's a bust.
Anyway, hopefully there's some ranchers here that will appreciate the research over the years that have lead to creating this :)
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX on sale through 7/31 :)
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is a Remaster of a Playstation monster raising simulator with the ability to Fuse parents to make new babies with inherited attacks, traits, or stats of the parents. (cross breeding but the parents are consumed in the process). Like a fantasy version of Tecmo's horse racing simulator (Gallop Racer), Monster Rancher will have you budgeting your Money and your creature's lifespan to provide a balanced feeding and drill schedule to raise it's stats, learn new attacks, and fight your way to Master rank. Along the way you'll have story opportunities to discover hidden/locked monsters and raise them as well.
The original gimmick in 1999 was being able to visit the "Shrine" in game, and be prompted to replace the game disc with Music CDs or another game. When prompted again you would reinsert your game and a monster would be generated. The downside of this was it ended up leaving a lot of people excluding from a large portion of the game's available monsters to raise.
DX replaces this gimmick with a built in Song List to generate every monster, giving all players complete access to the game's entire library of monsters, along with many new variants (same given breed but with different attributes) not present or possible in the original game.
There's a Discord community for this niche game, along with the last remaining English fan-run resource/guide site LegendCup.com entirely dedicated to Monster Rancher since the 90s.
Members of the Monster Rancher community use the game's save upload system to run AI v AI tournaments across many different formats and stat caps to include players of all skill levels. The game is cross-region, and cross-platform compatible for these types of tournaments so DX allows you to play on your platform of choice.
Hope to see you on the Ranch!
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher on sale through 7/10
Do you like pet raising sims like Monster Rancher? Do you like Ultraman Kaiju from the 1960s? Do you like competitive battles with a fun community?
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher released October of 2022 and has a place in the Monster Rancher community Discord and monthly tournaments run by volunteer hosts, and loads of UKMR Guides and tools to help get you caught up!
Ultra Kaiju MR is normally $50 with the sale price bringing it down to $34.
For those unfamiliar with the franchise, "Monster Rancher is a pet (monster) raising sim that began in 1997. It differs from other Pet taming games in that it plays very much like a sim with the nuances or a creature having multiple life stages from Baby to Prime to elderly. Your budget is your Monster's lifespan + your money to try and accomplish the most you can during your short time with the monster. Monster's can also be bred (fused) so that babies can inherit attacks and attributes of it's parent(s). Battles are also in Real Time instead of turn based. Your resource continuously builds up over time in the match (how fast varies based on breed or mixed breed), your attacks consume an amount of this resource to execute, and attacks have designated distances in which they can be used as you maneuver close/far from your opponent to position for a given attack.
Competitive battles are held AI v AI since the only way to hold manual battles is to be in the same room on the same console. The meta is to engineer your monster's attributes, attacks, personality and traits so that it performs the best it can while hopefully eliminating as much bad choice that the AI can make as possible.
Monster Rancher is a fairly niche game with a rather small community when compared to other franchises. Monster Rancher 2 DX (On Switch, Steam, iOS) is easily the most popular game in the franchise and the most played. However, we just want more people to play with, and UKMR is a niche within a niche. The competitive scene is very welcoming, no one is holding back information to gain an advantage, we want other players to perform well for exciting matches, so you can expect lots of help from the community even as a new player or new competitor.
Hope to see you on the Ranch!
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher needs more competitive players (Nintendo Switch)
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is a cross over between Monster/Pet raising sim "Monster Rancher" and Kaiju from the Ultraman series, mostly from the 60s version of the show.
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher was released November 2022 on Nintendo Switch in Japan (JP), Southeast Asia (EN), and North/South America (EN). The two English versions can play competitive with one another but the EN and JP versions are not compatible.
In the Monster Rancher Discord there is a dedicated channel for each Monster Rancher game and tournaments are held frequently, discussed in the Tournament channel, and tournament Hosts will schedule dates on the Discord calendar.
See LegendCup's Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher guides for raising tips, maps, unlock help, and other tools, but the Discord is very friendly for new and inexperienced players and will help you get up to speed and answer your questions if you stop in.