Remembering Monster Rancher

Monster Rancher was a series of games with a simple premise: raising monsters and battling them. However, the series had a gimmick that was nothing short of BRILLIANT; monsters were obtained by reading REAL LIFE CD's you owned on the Playstation. On paper it sound silly, and in fact this day and age it sounds sillier. But back in the late 90's-early 2000's, this idea was BRILLIANT.

Monster Rancher's origins began in the year 1997, right at the tail end of the SNES/Genesis era and juuust about starting the PS1/N64/Sega Saturn era. Said year saw the release of Monster Rancher for the Playstation 1. The game didn't sell too well, but it sold well enough. It received highly favorable scores from the big name publications, such as Game Informer and GamePro, both of which gave it high scores (though not perfect scores).

Though the game was a PS1 exclusive, it wasn't really a Killer App. The graphics were downright ugly; character models were blocky, animations were limited, etc. Also, 1997 was the year some big, BIG games were released for the system, including one often called one of the greatest ever made (Final Fantasy 7). But the game sold well enough, it impressed, so a sequel was in order.

Every now and then there's a game that completely outshines its predecessor. This is one of them. Monster Rancher 2 is the game the original wanted to be. Better animations, better graphics, more monsters, more content; THIS is how a sequel is done, people! This is also very often the game most MR players get nostalgic for, with good reason.

This game came out literally at the perfect moment. 1999 was a HUGE year for Japanese imported entertainment for many reasons. Anime was just starting to enjoy a popularity boom thanks to Toonami. Kid's WB, of course, was airing the Pokemon anime, which back then was a JUGGERNAUT in the ratings, and in fact may have been one of the deciding factors in creating the Anime Boom. Not one to be left behind, Fox Kids also began airing some anime, specifically anime meant to compete with Pokemon. They were Digimon, and of course, the Monster Rancher anime.

It was this cartoon show that helped  bring the franchise to the forefront of kid's pop culture. Seriously, Monster Rancher went from being an obscure PS1 property to being legitimately called "a reason for why Pokemon should sweat." That last quote was actually something written in a newspaper from my homeland of Puerto Rico back in 1999, when the three series' were airing concurrently.

So of course, you have a hit cartoon on Fox Kids, which back then was one of the Kid's Blocks that dominated the airwaves. In fact, Fox Kids was always my favorite; I wasn't into Kid's WB until they had Pokemon and Batman Beyond. Anyway, the hit show was on TV, and it was the hit show that helped sell the games. For a brief, shining moment, Monster Rancher was a legit franchise that could go toe to toe with Pokemon. So, what happened?

Released in 2001, Monster Rancher 3 brought the franchise to new graphical heights. Using cel shading, the game looks like a cartoon, yet plays like the classic series. Make no mistake, this game is GORGEOUS to look at. From a gameplay perspective, it's just as good as its predecessor. And although some monsters were (sadly) redesigned, many of them looked GORGEOUS. So, why is this game considered as inferior to the last two?

Simply put, the game didn't offer much that was BETTER than the last entry. Sure the game introduced new monster types, but in doing so it got rid of several (SEVERAL) previous types, many of which had become mainstays for the series. The Phoenix monster, which was rather popular thanks to the anime, was cut. Worm, a monster from the original game and that's been EVERY GAME so far, had been cut. Gali was cut. Ape was reduced to a cameo appearance. Further, the game reduced the amount of unlockable monsters to a mere 4. In comparison, Monster Rancher 2 had around 20 secret monsters to unlock!

In terms of content, the game took the franchise BACKWARDS. Had this game followed Monster Rancher 1, it'd be a decent follow up. Problem is, it followed Monster Rancher 2, which REMAINS the BEST game in the series!

There is, however, another big BIG reason for why Monster Rancher began to fall from grace. Pokemon's fame began to dwindle around this time, as Pokemania was all but dead at this point. Digimon's fame was still going strong, thanks to the third season of the anime. But Monster Rancher's anime was OVER by the time this game was released. Without an anime to shamelessly promote the game series, the games had to rely on good word of mouth to sell, which was nigh impossible when your game is such a base breaker!

Further, the early Noughties were a time of shifting gaming tastes. Final Fantasy X was being released, and THAT was a killer app for the PS2. Grand Theft Auto 3 was making waves, redefinind 3D gaming forever. Further, across other platforms, gaming was becoming more and more Mainstream. The Xbox's Halo franchise was redefining co-op gaming, as well as PvP gaming. Even Pokemon was slowly evolving (pun intended) to outgrow it's own Monster Collector roots into becoming a competitive game for all ages (a change which would truly begin to take shape with Generation 4, five years later)

Monster Rancher, in my opinion, was never going to outlast Pokemon. Specifically I believe this because Pokemon's success is due in no small part to its own mobile nature; core Pokemon games are (were) played on handhelds, so you could not just take them anywhere, but you could play with your friends and other anywhere, provided you had a link cable. Once Wirless Internet became a thing, Pokemon's popularity skyrocketed among gamers, creating a true Golden Age for Pokemon Gaming (IN SPITE OF WHAT GEN ONERS SAY!) In contrast, Monster Rancher's attachment to the Playstation lines anchored it to home consoles. An attempt at being handheld (Monster Rancher Advanced for the Game Boy Advanced) resulted  in a stripped down version of the game. 

Monster Rancher will remain, for the foreseeable future, as that quaint yet fun franchise that really shined on the Playstation 1 and in the early days of the Playstation 2. Does the franchise have a future? I'd say: yes. The spirit of the franchise can return in the form of a world wide MMO game that mixes QR scanning, where every QR code contains a monster. The tech for it exists, but can it be made? Time will tell...