Monster Rancher, known in Japan as Monster Farm (モンスターファーム Monsutā Fāmu), is a console game released in North America on November 30, 1997, for the PlayStation system. It is the first game in Tecmo's Monster Rancher series, featuring the raising, fighting, and breeding of monsters.
Although it is possible to acquire a monster in-game, the series is known for the ability to acquire new monsters using Compact Discs (CDs), including PlayStation game discs. Players can use any readable CD, and the game creates a monster using the CD's metadata. Certain CDs would result in unique monsters: for example, Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness gives the player Ardebaran, a villain from that game, and some Christmas music albums will give the player a monster of type "Santa". The Windows, Switch, and Android/iOS versions retain the basic gameplay and content of the original, but do not support CD playback; the monsters-from-CD feature is emulated by allowing players to look up CDs from a custom database.
Once the player has two or more monsters in reserve, they can be combined, creating a new monster with traits of both 'parents'. There are twelve basic types of monsters that can be combined, as well as eight special types players can receive as rewards by completing tasks or inserting a CD into the PlayStation. The common types are Dinos, Golems, Suezos, Hares, Tigers, Galis, Monols, Worms, Nagas, Jells, Pixies, and Plants. The rare types are Dragons, Magics, Apes, Ghosts, Hengers, Doodles, Nyas, and Disks. Monsters can be combined to create a new monster with a main type and a sub-type which are determined randomly.
The monsters can then be raised to fight other monsters. There are six stats that determine how the monster does in battle: Power fuels physical attacks, Intelligence fuels and defends against energy attacks, Life determines monster's hit points, Skill affects accuracy, Speed helps evade opponents' attacks, and Defense reduces damage received from physical attacks. Monsters train either by doing chores nearby, or can be sent to be trained by experts, where they have the chance to gain new attack techniques. It is possible to increase some of the monster's stats with food or vitamins, but vitamins comes at a price of decreasing one stat as well as shorting the life span dramatically.
Monster Rancher is abandonware and no longer sold or supported by its publishers. Files are archived here for these platforms:
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