Monster Rancher DS
 Official North American Cover Art | |
| Developer(s) | Cing |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Tecmo Koei Tecmo (Japan only) |
| Series | Monster Rancher |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Genre(s) | Life Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
Monster Rancher DS, known as Monster Farm DS 2: Yomigaeru! Master Breeder Densetsu in Japan, is a Life Simulation video game developed by Cing and published by Koei Tecmo for the Nintendo DS. It was released in Japan on August 7, 2008 and in North America on August 3, 2010.
Gameplay
The game, taking place in the BOMBA region, involves raising, fighting, and breeding monsters. The main character is never seen on screen, but always talks to his apprentice, Cleo, directly. The player chooses his actions and choices through menu options.
Creating Monsters
Monsters are created primarily through two ways drawing pictures in the Magic Field using the touchscreen or reciting an Incantation using the microphone. Other methods include combining two existing monsters to create a new monster as well as an additional unrevealed method.[2]
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 a fixed amount of 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.
Moves can be done in one of three ranges. You can move forward or backward on the battlefield to toggle between the ranges. If you get in very close, you can also push the opponent away from you.[1]
Monsters
Various monsters which have been left out of previous games since Monster Rancher 2 will be making a return including Monolith and Gali.[2]
Development
The game was announced on May 23, 2008 and would be released in Japan as Monster Farm DS 2: Yomigaeru! Master Breeder Densetsu. However at that time no localization for the first game, Monster Farm DS had been announced for North America.[3] This gave rise to speculation that both games would not be localized in North America at all which would be a first for the series since every past game in the series had been localized with all of the past portable titles: Monster Rancher Advance and Monster Rancher Advance 2 being released in North America. However on November 10, 2009 this speculation was proven untrue when it was announced that Monster Farm DS 2 would be released in North America as Monster Rancher DS with the first DS game, Monster Farm DS not being localized in favor of its sequel. This announcement came a year after its original Japanese release and came as a surprise to many fans who had lost hope.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Spencer (November 10, 2009). "Again And Monster Rancher DS, Two Cing Games From Tecmo Coming Next Year". Siliconera. Retrieved November 10, 2009.
- ^ a b "Monster Rancher DS Official Site". Tecmo Koei. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ John Tanaka (May 23, 2008). "Monster Rancher DS 2 Announced". IGN. Retrieved November 10, 2009.