Monster Rancher 2

1/4/18

Video Games - Monster Rancher 2:
I started playing Monster Rancher 2 for Playstation. Finally a video game is can blog about! Kinda hard to find a game that would be worthwhile to add to my blog. Or one that would even work well blogging about but with MR2 I can at least keep records of the monsters I raise. The Monster Rancher series is kinda in the middle between a virtual pet and a monster collection/battle game like Pokemon. Actually haven't been playing many video games in awhile besides mobile games like Tiny Farm.

This will be my first real playthrough of MR2 even though I've owned a copy of it ever since the Playstation first came out. Never really sat down and actually played it through all these years. I think I struggled with it as a kid then never really came back to it. Even though I own the disc I'll be playing on an andoid PS1 emulator since my copy doesn't wanna work. It works just fine then it gets to a certain point where it glitches out and it just shows my monster walking around indefinitely, not letting me do anything. It will be easy to take screenshots using a emulator at least. Also I will be using some gameshark cheats but only for certain things as I want to play legit but I'm kinda forced into using some because of the way the game is designed. The only gameshark cheat I'll be using is for regenerating monsters. Unlike MR4 that once you obtain a monster you can regenerate another from your book anytime, MR2 isn't like this. You have to insert a disc everytime you want a monster and if you don't own any games/dvds of a certain monster type you're screwed regardless if you've unlocked that monster or not. So I'll be using the gameshark when generating monsters but ONLY breeds that I've unlocked. I'll also be using save states to make things easier.


The game started on the 1st week of April of year 1000. My first goal was to obtain the seeds needed unlock the monster Mock which is the only missable monster. I'll talk more about this below. So I picked a purebreed Zuum as my first monster since I'm familiar with them from other games. Zuums are good with skill (the accuracy stat), having a balance of stats, and have a maximum lifespan of 450 weeks. To get the seeds I needed to first quickly get to and beat the Official B rank tournament which was a challenge. I trained Zuum using all Light Drills. There's 2 types of training your monster can do. Light Drills increase 1 stat slightly and fatigue slightly. Hard Drills increase 2 stats (one by a lot and the other by a little), lower one stat, and cause much more fatigue. Training/battles/resting all take 1 week to do and if your monster gets too much stress or fatigue it will cause it to loose some weeks of its maximum lifespan. Winning a tournament increases fatigue but actually lowers stress but besides that pretty much everything increases both fatigue & stress. To get the most out of your monster you'll want to find a training method keep fatigue and stress from getting too high and reducing lifespan. Two important items to use with training are Mint Leaves (reduces stress) and Nuts Oil (reduces fatigue) they cost 200 gold each and 1 item can be used per week along with whatever you had planned.


My training schedule for Zuum I mostly used was pretty simple and kept from loosing any lifespan. It was LD/LD/LD/Rest+Mint Leaf (LD = Light Drill). I mainly just worked on two stats Power & Skill. Started out working on increasing skill so his attacks would hit easier then focused on power so his physical attacks would do more damage. My usual strategy in battles is to overwhelm the opponent with high power and quickly KO them. The stats you see above are what he's at now. I just barely beat the Official B rank (with lots of help from using save states to cheat). Not sure how much longer he'll live so now I'm using him to make lots of money from battles. B rank battles are one of the best money making methods. I've been freezing Zuum when theres no battles avaliable then using a purebreed Naga to pass the time in between tournaments. That way Zuum won't use up his lifespan and I can get more money from him. Using Naga as a trash monster and taking crappy care of it so it will die. I need a monster to die to unlock the Ghost breed and Nagas already start out with a low lifespan. Even with Zuums 550+ Power & 350+ Skill, I'm still having issues winning B rank tournaments so I've been save stating between each attack.


I'm currently Grade 4 from winning the Official B rank and have unlocked 22 breeds out of 38. Here's a list of the monsters that I unlocked so far:
1. Phoenix - Got his feather from the Kawrea Volcano expedition.
2. Centaur - Found his spear during the Mandy Desert errantry between March-August with a Baby rank monster.
3. Gali/Henger/Mew/Worm - Beat the IMa vs FIMBA tournament.
4. Mock - (*Not technically unlocked yet but I got the seeds*) To get Mock you need to fist get the Mock Seeds. They are available once your at the 4th trainer grade (win official B rank) and gotten from the shop on a day when a new item becomes available. About every 140 weeks a new item becomes available in the shop. There's only 6 items that get added to the shop this way so if you don't get the seeds before the last item gets added you can never unlock Mock. I did the math and you have about 17 years to get the seeds not sure why I was so worried I got them on my 4th year. Anyway planted the seeds on 4th week of June, year 1004. In about 10 years from then the tree will grow, die, then once I have a monster die Mock will finally become available.