parkmania
02-08-2010, 07:31 PM
Due in March. Here's what I could find from Gamespot:
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/
http://www.monsterranchergame.com/monsterranchergame/index.html
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/241.JPG
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/242.JPG
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/243.JPG
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/244.JPG
Going by this and the site, there are 29 species, 272 total monsters available: Naga, Monol, Centaur, Gali, Henger, Phoenix, Beaclon, Dragon, Durahan, Joker, Zan, Lesione, Tiger, Mocchi, Plant, Piroro, Pixie, Pancho, Hare, Baku, Mew, Ducken, Suezo, Color Pandora, Golem, Ogyo, and three new species!
Q:How is raising?
A: Based on video, like Monster Rancher 2. There is a training method for each stat, Pow., Int., Sk., Spd., Def., Lif., and four that were ?.
Q: Is the ranch similar?
A: Your standard shack and barn, heh heh. Oh, the commands:
Train, Rest, Item, Battle, Town, Data, Quit.
Q: How are battles?
A: The top screen displays the contenders, attack animations, time, and Life. The bottom screen, Guts, Hit %, distance, position, moves, Life, and a few other things, on an isometric grid. Moves are short, medium, or long-ranged, usable when a monster is within a certain range. If no technique is set to a range, it becomes a "defense panel." These raise your monster's evasion skills at that range.
Tournaments still have prize money, first place rewards, types (such as league), and grade (E-S, and a space above, hypothesized to be F, free.)
Q: What is there in town?
A: Lab, Guide, and Shop, at the very least.
Q: Oh! Do you know the assistant's name?
A: Yes, it's Cleo. :3
Q: No way! There isn't really online, is there?
A: Quite so. Net Battle for local or Wi-Fi battling, possibly AI controlled, and Net Combine, where both players get a monster! I'd infer it's also local or over Wi-Fi.
Q: Are there explorations?
A: Indeed! BOMBA features locales such as Trigonon Forest. You move along colored tiles featuring pictures.
Q: Does that just leave combining and creating? *Drools*
A: Calm down. Combining will show you a prediction; I'll use the site's example, a Lesione/Lesione(#1) and a Mew/Pancho(#2).
The resulting monster's main type will either be Lesione or Mew. However, the sub-type can be Lesione from #1's main type, Lesione from #1's sub-type, Mew from #2's main type, or Pancho from #2's sub-type.
Please note that not all combinations are obtainable, however.
-----
In Single Player, there are several ways to originally create monsters, and by the looks of it, via book.
Magic Spell: 10 8x5 cards(40 squares), divided into four quadrants each. Commands: Confirm, Clear, Go Back.
Magic Field: 1 16x16 card(256 squares), divided into 16 4x4 quadrants, 16 squares each...
Commands: Confirm, Clear, Go Back.
Tools: Pencil, Eraser, Undo?, Invert?
The two so far are for the stylus. I imagine Magic Spell(MS) is more for letters, and, as the site demonstrates, numbers.
Incantation: This is for vocally creating monsters. Commands: Start Incantation("Receiving spell..." whilst in use), Go Back.
The site says, and I quote: "Or, if it's too loud to speak, draw a silly picture and the monster appears. Unlock a secret method of creating monsters as you play through the game!"
Hmm...Via explorations, perhaps?
Q: Is this like Pokémon/Digimon/Spectrobes/etc.?
A: Not really...Monsters have finite lifespans, you see. And messing around with the monster creation methods and combining, you could make a good chunk of monsters from the start. You also only raise one monster at a time.
Monster Rancher is more about fighting through the ranks, raising a great monster, learning, improving...Then starting again, through combining, or with a new monster, and using your newfound skill/money/power/etc.
There are no "Free" battles in this game. The series above S are reserved for the Final Four...
My memory is a little fuzzy on details, since I played the game about a year ago, but I believe you can enter any contest below your rank... although, your assistant doesn't like you doing so, and I think it may spoil the monster or something...
---
Raising monster is just like MR2, except instead of sending your monsters on 'random' training sessions (errantries) to learn new skills, you play a board game and roll a die... you can potentially get 10 points in a skill, or 50 points.... if you're REALLY lucky, your monster could come home from a training session with a new skill, and a couple hundred more HP or STR....
But of course, errantries still cost money, and them obtaining a new skill from errantry is still random.
Although, obviously you still have basic training sessions which cost nothing to you, and you can unlock more 'advanced' training equipment as well. Just like in MR2.
---
The game also has a story where you have Rivals, which can be very hard to beat sometimes.... but I won't say anymore because I might spoil something.
---
There is also a feature that allows your monster to free-walk around your Ranch, and you can even touch the screen to tell it where to go.
If your monster behaves well, it will listen to you and you can find items on your Ranch this way.
Your monster will also sometimes randomly find items for you.
"Do Unknown types still have secret properties for people to discover?"
I don't remember anything like that in any of the MR games, could you be a little more specific?
Are you talking about personality traits, moves, or something else?
The game does have personality traits (from what I remember) and each sub-type often have different personalities.... I believe (although I can't remember for sure) some monsters may get different moves depending on their sub type, but this isn't common and isn't 'Unknown' specific.
It's very much like MR2... but I'm not sure if growth is in, I can't really remember ever noticing it... So I'd guess not.
There are subtle little things
Monsters die with stress and old age, like MR2.
But there are no Ghosts, so I don't know what the point of death is...
In a way, it's very much like a Monster Rancher 2.5............. or 1.8... or 2.1...
I guess it depends on your opinion really...
In any case, it's the closest thing we've had to a real MR game since MR 2...
Being someone who played MR 1 when it was released, and every game thereafter, and being someone who thinks MR 2 was the best game ever made in history of games.....
I would personally consider this somewhere along the lines of Monster Rancher 1.8: Not quite as good as 2.... but it is close.
Hengers have always been the same, they haven't changed, as far as I know.
They are transforming Robots..... They have a humanoid and a robotic form.
My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think they are in Humanoid form during battles.
However, they do need to be unlocked... much like MR 2.
Techniques are very animated. I believe the more powerful they are, the more "animated" they are.
Powerful attacks look powerful.
Getting a few techniques isn't hard to do for most monsters, they'll unlock one on their first errantry, most likely.... but more powerful moves may need to be bred into them, I don't know... I could never get my monsters to learn their last 2-3 moves.....
It is the same as MR 2, and I believe it uses the same mechanics.
I'm pretty sure there are some story elements to it, but not like MR4 or EVO where you just adventured around the same dungeon ten billion times. It's going back to breeding simulation, so excited!
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/
http://www.monsterranchergame.com/monsterranchergame/index.html
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/241.JPG
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/242.JPG
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/243.JPG
http://www.thorrsoldhammers.com/MFDS2/244.JPG
Going by this and the site, there are 29 species, 272 total monsters available: Naga, Monol, Centaur, Gali, Henger, Phoenix, Beaclon, Dragon, Durahan, Joker, Zan, Lesione, Tiger, Mocchi, Plant, Piroro, Pixie, Pancho, Hare, Baku, Mew, Ducken, Suezo, Color Pandora, Golem, Ogyo, and three new species!
Q:How is raising?
A: Based on video, like Monster Rancher 2. There is a training method for each stat, Pow., Int., Sk., Spd., Def., Lif., and four that were ?.
Q: Is the ranch similar?
A: Your standard shack and barn, heh heh. Oh, the commands:
Train, Rest, Item, Battle, Town, Data, Quit.
Q: How are battles?
A: The top screen displays the contenders, attack animations, time, and Life. The bottom screen, Guts, Hit %, distance, position, moves, Life, and a few other things, on an isometric grid. Moves are short, medium, or long-ranged, usable when a monster is within a certain range. If no technique is set to a range, it becomes a "defense panel." These raise your monster's evasion skills at that range.
Tournaments still have prize money, first place rewards, types (such as league), and grade (E-S, and a space above, hypothesized to be F, free.)
Q: What is there in town?
A: Lab, Guide, and Shop, at the very least.
Q: Oh! Do you know the assistant's name?
A: Yes, it's Cleo. :3
Q: No way! There isn't really online, is there?
A: Quite so. Net Battle for local or Wi-Fi battling, possibly AI controlled, and Net Combine, where both players get a monster! I'd infer it's also local or over Wi-Fi.
Q: Are there explorations?
A: Indeed! BOMBA features locales such as Trigonon Forest. You move along colored tiles featuring pictures.
Q: Does that just leave combining and creating? *Drools*
A: Calm down. Combining will show you a prediction; I'll use the site's example, a Lesione/Lesione(#1) and a Mew/Pancho(#2).
The resulting monster's main type will either be Lesione or Mew. However, the sub-type can be Lesione from #1's main type, Lesione from #1's sub-type, Mew from #2's main type, or Pancho from #2's sub-type.
Please note that not all combinations are obtainable, however.
-----
In Single Player, there are several ways to originally create monsters, and by the looks of it, via book.
Magic Spell: 10 8x5 cards(40 squares), divided into four quadrants each. Commands: Confirm, Clear, Go Back.
Magic Field: 1 16x16 card(256 squares), divided into 16 4x4 quadrants, 16 squares each...
Commands: Confirm, Clear, Go Back.
Tools: Pencil, Eraser, Undo?, Invert?
The two so far are for the stylus. I imagine Magic Spell(MS) is more for letters, and, as the site demonstrates, numbers.
Incantation: This is for vocally creating monsters. Commands: Start Incantation("Receiving spell..." whilst in use), Go Back.
The site says, and I quote: "Or, if it's too loud to speak, draw a silly picture and the monster appears. Unlock a secret method of creating monsters as you play through the game!"
Hmm...Via explorations, perhaps?
Q: Is this like Pokémon/Digimon/Spectrobes/etc.?
A: Not really...Monsters have finite lifespans, you see. And messing around with the monster creation methods and combining, you could make a good chunk of monsters from the start. You also only raise one monster at a time.
Monster Rancher is more about fighting through the ranks, raising a great monster, learning, improving...Then starting again, through combining, or with a new monster, and using your newfound skill/money/power/etc.
There are no "Free" battles in this game. The series above S are reserved for the Final Four...
My memory is a little fuzzy on details, since I played the game about a year ago, but I believe you can enter any contest below your rank... although, your assistant doesn't like you doing so, and I think it may spoil the monster or something...
---
Raising monster is just like MR2, except instead of sending your monsters on 'random' training sessions (errantries) to learn new skills, you play a board game and roll a die... you can potentially get 10 points in a skill, or 50 points.... if you're REALLY lucky, your monster could come home from a training session with a new skill, and a couple hundred more HP or STR....
But of course, errantries still cost money, and them obtaining a new skill from errantry is still random.
Although, obviously you still have basic training sessions which cost nothing to you, and you can unlock more 'advanced' training equipment as well. Just like in MR2.
---
The game also has a story where you have Rivals, which can be very hard to beat sometimes.... but I won't say anymore because I might spoil something.
---
There is also a feature that allows your monster to free-walk around your Ranch, and you can even touch the screen to tell it where to go.
If your monster behaves well, it will listen to you and you can find items on your Ranch this way.
Your monster will also sometimes randomly find items for you.
"Do Unknown types still have secret properties for people to discover?"
I don't remember anything like that in any of the MR games, could you be a little more specific?
Are you talking about personality traits, moves, or something else?
The game does have personality traits (from what I remember) and each sub-type often have different personalities.... I believe (although I can't remember for sure) some monsters may get different moves depending on their sub type, but this isn't common and isn't 'Unknown' specific.
It's very much like MR2... but I'm not sure if growth is in, I can't really remember ever noticing it... So I'd guess not.
There are subtle little things
Monsters die with stress and old age, like MR2.
But there are no Ghosts, so I don't know what the point of death is...
In a way, it's very much like a Monster Rancher 2.5............. or 1.8... or 2.1...
I guess it depends on your opinion really...
In any case, it's the closest thing we've had to a real MR game since MR 2...
Being someone who played MR 1 when it was released, and every game thereafter, and being someone who thinks MR 2 was the best game ever made in history of games.....
I would personally consider this somewhere along the lines of Monster Rancher 1.8: Not quite as good as 2.... but it is close.
Hengers have always been the same, they haven't changed, as far as I know.
They are transforming Robots..... They have a humanoid and a robotic form.
My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think they are in Humanoid form during battles.
However, they do need to be unlocked... much like MR 2.
Techniques are very animated. I believe the more powerful they are, the more "animated" they are.
Powerful attacks look powerful.
Getting a few techniques isn't hard to do for most monsters, they'll unlock one on their first errantry, most likely.... but more powerful moves may need to be bred into them, I don't know... I could never get my monsters to learn their last 2-3 moves.....
It is the same as MR 2, and I believe it uses the same mechanics.
I'm pretty sure there are some story elements to it, but not like MR4 or EVO where you just adventured around the same dungeon ten billion times. It's going back to breeding simulation, so excited!