Awesome! :)
Don't forget to consider jumping into the Monster Rancher Discord if you want to hang out with other nerds that love this game. If you're interested in what the Online Tournament scene looks like, we keep a Calendar of Tournaments & Events as well. These are posted in the Discord Events, but if you're not keen on joining discord and would rather take a peek first you can find tourney hosts and times here.

DX being cross platform with Mobile and Switch, the Shrine CD Reading process is completely overhauled and doesn't work remotely in the same way it did for the Playstation. The built in CD Database/Song List totals 664,909 Title/Artists entries. This not only includes albums but individual songs as well as albums and games etc.

One might think this is limiting since the original could use "all the CDs in the world" but the game is only built to give you a limited number of monsters based on meta data read from the Discs. DX provides much more than the original game is capable of doing, even with an finite number of entries.

To compare:

1. MR2 1999 has 391 playable Breeds (Pures/Mixes/Rares) plus a handful of roughly 10 variants of a few those breeds totaling 401 playable monsters. Even with 10 billion different and unique CDs you'll never be able to acquire more than this.
2. MR2DX has has 415 total playable breeds due to the inclusion of Japanese rares + Boss monsters onto the original roster of Pures/Mixes/Rares, and a whopping 803 variants on top of the primary baselines, totaling 1218 playable monsters.

• What is a Variant? It's a monster that has Stat gain patterns not typical of the normal breed, or starts with an extra attack they don't normally start with, faster or slower guts regeneration, or otherwise has different core baseline than the standard of the breed.
• What about different Starting Stats? Random starting stats aren't the same as a variant, these are separate from the core baseline of a regular or variant breed. DX even has many monsters that have true starting stat randomization rather than the "Static" randomization that CDs provide.

A few other bonus mentions for DX: There's a FF (Fast Forward) toggle to speed up the game, it's got upscaled resolution and textures, but it is still the base game underneath (not a 100% remaster, more like a light-remaster). 10 bonus freezer slots. Items now stack in your inventory (though the total number of inventory slots is the same based on your House size), Items can be bought or sold in bulk now, and load times are eliminated when going back and forth from ranch to town or entering a tournament. There's also a handful of mods created by the MR community. It's not a perfect remaster but it's definitely my favorite version of the game now.

If you have any questions about DX, please feel free to ask :)
I don't know if it's worth it to have a whole separate post about it or not but for now I guess i'll keep it here.

Oh, if you have a Switch, there's actually a whole new Monster Rancher game barely a year old. Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher ... It's a franchise crossover where you raise Kaiju monsters from Ultraman. The mechanics are basically the best features of MR1 and MR2 with new stuff because Kaiju. it's familiar enough that you can jump right in, with enough new stuff to keep you on your toes

There is a newer version of the game Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX that's on Steam, Switch, and iOS... this has a built in CD / Song database so you can access all monsters without being limited to what's on hand. LegendCup.com is fully updated to include the DX changes in the game if you need current resources (Many of the old sites are gone, and many old guides have bits of out-dated info that's been debunked or data-mined since then) and includes the Song Lists for EN and JP versions if you want to jump straight into raising a monster you've never seen or raised before.

Also, the DX remaster has both the JP and EN rares available in the same game, in addition to enemy/boss monsters legally obtainable and are unique playable monsters too! Most of the online tournaments use the newer DX version which is cross-platform and cross-region. However, the Combo Breaker tournament will be played on an emulated PSX version of the game due to logistics. DX needs reliable internet connection to access people's uploaded monsters from around the world and heavily crowded conventions aren't known for their internet reliability. Even if you don't have the PSX version, MooseBones will be converting anyone's qualifying submitted monster from DX into a monster on a PSX game save to be used locally at the tournament.

I'm happy to see even 1 response to this haha.. It's such a niche game/genre I was kind of expecting this to just be an empty echo into the Ether.

Monster Rancher is alive and kicking!

• There's a remaster of the first 2 games (Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX) on Steam, Switch, iOS and release a couple years back.
• MR2 has a huge competitive scene, with lots of community run tournaments. it's even going to be at Combo Breaker, a fairly large annual event/competition for fighting games!
• There's a Spinoff/Crossover game "Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher" released just over a year ago, where instead of traditional monsters, you raise giant Kaiju from the Ultraman franchise. (Switch only)
• There's a Japanese only mobile gacha game LINE:Monster Farm that's hugely popular atm

There's been SOME activity in MR in the last couple years...
MR1&2DX is a remaster of the first 2 games with some QoL improvements, on Switch, Steam, iOS, released in 2021
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is a crossover, though only on Switch, released in 2022
LINE:Monster Farm is a JP only mobile gacha game released in 2023, but some folks hope it will come to the west... it has some amazing artwork.

There's also hope for MR3&4 "DX" release but those weren't very financially successful originally, so it's probably unlikely they'll be rereleased, but everyone's huffin' that hopium.

for the remaster, the CD reading system is replaced with a built in searchable Song List. This is how you can play it on Mobile, Switch, Steam etc. The Song List doesn't exactly equate to original CDs (the function is mechanically different) but there are a handful of entries that equate to their originals (this accounts for about 0.01% of entries within the 664,909 that create their original monsters.

The good news is, Everyone now has access to the entire game and can raise any monster they want to (once they're unlocked, of course), and the Song List is 100% solved and published. You can Random Button if you like the surprise, but if you want something specific, you can just view the published Song List, Pick your Monster Main/Sub, then pick the Title/Artist suggestion for the variant you want. :)

I can agree for sure. I do like the game and at it's core, it's still a fun game as it's an interesting mish-mash of MR1 and MR2 mechanics. But I can say that after multiple 100% playthroughs, it's always a reminder that this could have been a legit true mainline sequel rather than a spin-off.

There's a TON of nods to Monster Rancher. The obvious ones are the Kaiju rare subs that are Monster Rancher breeds, but there's also a lot of dialogue or the occasional random mail that has some references for fans of the series. There's even a Pure-breed Plant sitting in grandma Teresa's shop that I only noticed for the first time after someone pointed it out haha.

I did put some effort into learning a bit more about Ultraman than I knew before, which made it slightly more enjoyable, and also fun for naming them, because I'm a sucker for Punny names.

Like this one.... Kaiju is a Melba.
I named him... Idris Melba. (First he fought Kaiju, now he IS a Kaiju! lol)

Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is also on Steam, Switch, and iOS!
It is a remastered per say. Not so much a new graphics engine or anything, but with bug fixes, item changes that function better, and GUI & other QoL improvements :)

Hey now... Monster Rancher is Legit and predates Monsters, Inc. by 4 years :)