Monster Rancher DS Review

So I picked up Monster Rancher DS not too long ago in an attempt to relive some of my childhood gaming habits. The basic setup has not changed over the years and only a few things have actually been updated for the newer system. In the original for the Playstation you had to swap out different CDs to obtain monsters and it was a very unique idea and had me scrambling for every CD in the house. This time around they are playing to the strengths of the DS and allow you to either say a word or phrase or you can draw a picture onto a grid to obtain a monster. I really enjoy this and spent a good amount of time trying to figure out what monsters I could get.

You can store up to 30 monsters in a "cryo" chamber and for the first part of playing I did nothing but draw pictures and store the monsters I wanted. After creating your monster you can take it back to your ranch. The ranch is made up of a stable for your creature and a house. You can upgrade 1 of these every year. The larger the stable you have determines the size of monsters you can have. The larger the house you have determines how many items you can have. From there you can train your monster through different tasks that will raise it's stats. You also later on in the game can take your monster to a location and train it's stats up much more than usual. This will cost a good chunk of money but also will save you lots of time. These area's are set up like a board game and can raise stats, lower stats, generate a random wild monster, and raise and lower the amount of rolls you have. There are also areas that you can search with your monster but I never got into these so I don't have much to say on them.

Once you train up your monsters you can take it to battle. You can only battle in the level you are in starting at D and working your way up. I prefer to train my monster up a lot before I enter these so that I can have the monster make it's own moves and I can just watch the battle. I have yet to finish the game and I don't think I have ever finished a Monster Rancher game. I like to just do the everyday training and see what all monsters I can get. I like to look at these games as a less in depth Pokemon. You get your monster, raise it's stats, and battle in tournaments. There are no RPG elements beyond that. You don't have to walk around and there aren't any random battles. In this way I think it is more accessible.

Based on what I have played so far and the amount of enjoyment and nostalgia I can honestly say the games hasn't needed to change much to still be fun. I'm giving this one a...

9 out of 10