Monster Rancher/YMMV

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The game series

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Monster Rancher was so cool; I wish they'd export the new games...Wait, Monster Rancher DS is coming out!?
• Crazy Awesome: Doodle.
• 8.8: After the IGN review of the DS game, let's just say the factual errors in the review were the least of its problems.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Many monsters that only appeared once, but Worms seem to have the biggest following.
• Excuse Plot: Except in 4 and EVO.
• Fetish Retardant: Anything else's sub-breed with Pixies.
• Fridge Brilliance : A lot of ways to unlocking monster contains this. However the mind blowingly over the top unlocking requirements of Beaklon that appears as if its an Urban Legend of Zelda actualy has this. Remember that in order to get it, the worm needs to be C Rank or less ? Other than the cup jelly, this is the requirements that seems to be out of place. No more if you realize that Beaklon is rank C in the card.
• Game Breaker: The "Magic Banana" exploit in 2. It requires some Save Scumming, but with it, it is possible to have an immortal monster. You could use it to max out a monster's stats and sweep the tournaments! Or you could just use it to keep your favorite monster around longer.
  • Combining. With the right combination formula, and proper knowledge you can produce a ridiculously powerful newborn monster and combining the training aptitude of 2 different monster can produce a pretty satisfying result, not to mention it also alters lifespan, lifetype, and guts regeneration rate giving a lot of customization possibility. The catch is when we say proper knowledge we do mean PROPER knowledge. First and second game takes it further since the result is randomized, be ready for Save Scumming(especialy if its a monster with worse probability such as Ducken. Get ready to do it, a LOT).
  • In the DS game, Kawrea drills are ludicrously broken. Due to the way the Fall drill map is designed, it is possible to get over 300+ points of Life in a single month, effectively making your monster the tank to end all tanks.
• Good Bad Bugs/Game Breaking Bug: A double whammy of a bug in Monster Rancher Advance 2. If you save, turn off the game, and turn it back on quickly, your monster will recover some Fatigue and Stress--meaning that doing this repeatedly means your monster will never get tired! The only problem? In a cosmic No Fair Cheating moment, this is due to a memory-clearing glitch that, if repeatedly exploited, results in your actual physical game cartridge breaking so that it no longer saves games properly. Ouch!
  • In Monster Rancher DS, combining a monster's main type with the ??? subtype of an -Ish monster will get you a unique sub-breed of whatever the main monster was. This actually isn't meant to happen, as it was intended that -Ish monsters could only be combined using their main types. But as you can guess, it's a pretty awesome exploit.
  • Monster Rancher 2 has the Swim Bug in the NTSC version of the game. The Swim drill calculates the stats gains from Life instead of the actual defense stats. Thanks to this, Fragile Speedsters like Centaurs and Jokers become FAR more durable, while the high Life-point ones such as Gaboo become Lightning Bruisers. Sadly, this ruins the defensive capability of the Stone Wall Arrowheads and the Mighty Glacier Golems.
  • Octachrome is a result of programming error. Get ready, its going to be really long. Essentialy, in game there are occasionaly a Wild monsters that attack your ranch. Occansionaly, you are attacked by special kind of monster if you fullfill the requirements. If they are defeated they drop a special password that allows you to produce said monster. The special password, however is "hard coded", essentialy "hard coded" is a special pattern of password that is locked to produce one specific monster instead of what its supposed to be. Theres also a password manipulation tricks that allows you to "manipulate" the result by putting password with certain pattern. This essentialy allows you to get any monster with desired result, even special breeds. However, as a result of The Dev Team Thinks of Everything, this isnt really the case since there are several special breeds that have special program check that makes password that is supposed to make them to produce the purebreed version instead. These locked special breeds are limited to select few monsters(all of them are special breeds), amongst them are special breed monsters that has the above unlocking method, and a special kind of special breeds. This is where the hard coded code comes in. The hard coded code is programmed that way to make the gamer able to unlock the special monsters after fullfilling the hidden requirements, and to make things simple, every special breeds, and 3 random purebreeds(incidentaly these "random" purebreeds are one of the series mascots and notable monster) even the one that is unlockable from the beggining have one special hard coded code each. Special breeds that comes from these special unlocking method doesnt neccesarily have to be a species that get the special program check, which means after you unlock the species, you can manipulate the code to produce the desired result. However, the one that comes from wild monster are the one with such property(no matter what, you MUST use the special hard coded code to generate them). Now, the requirements for Octa Chrome is to have Octopee on ranch raise it through the ranks, and fight it in wild monster attack. And youll get the password and use it and instead of producing Octachrome, it produces a special Ducken named Brinjalon, a special breed that is supposed to be already unlocked without ANY requirements. Further research proves that this is a result of a notable programming error : There are 5 special breeds that the programmer put a special locked code for it, yet put it in wrong adress or simply forgot to program it in. This results in 5 special breeds not having a special code on it, one of them is Octachrome. Unfortunately, Octachrome is ALSO the ONLY one that comes from Wild Monster, the others are unlockable from the start and dont have the special system check that affects Octachrome making it the only monster that is completely unable to be unlocked.
    • Which leads to some interesting Wild Mass Guessing too : there are 5 special breeds that have double locked code on it which is weird since the case of having multiple locked codes otherwise happen only to 3 of those random purebreeds mentioned above, 2 of which is a common monster and arguably a mascot. The code and the species seems to imply that it is purposefully made that way, however while the last one is a notable monster with a fitting code, its other code dont make sense whatsoever. To drive the point home, had one of the code from the special breeds with double locked codes is put on one of the special breeds that lacks the special code, it fits perfectly and makes sense if said code is the actual code of the monster. This can mean that its the programmers fault all along for mixing up the coding. The fact that the misplaced password seems to carry a pattern doesnt help the case.
• Growing the Beard/Even Better Sequel: 2 and 4 are considered this by the fans.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The description for the Radial Niton, a special Niton that looks like a red racecar, states, "It is said there was a play called "Cars" in the ancient era." That was from Monster Rancher 2, released in 1999.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Foolery.
  • MR DS changed the save system; no longer can you save and immediately continue, or load your previous save while playing. Now saving means you automatically quit the game. And quitting without saving has dire consequences...
• That One Attack : Every attack from a Mighty Glacier or a monster that hit hard(even if its inaccurate) and bulky enough to take punishments or able to consistently evade it. The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard seems to run rampant in the series.
  • Surprisingly the most notable example in the series belong to one monster, a Gaboo. Many players cried over Oakleyman's Straight and Ordorf Acid Spit and its deadly Kick, it got worse when you notice that its stats are geared perfectly to become the kind of enemy you hate to fight against.
• That One Boss: More like "that one monster". Especially in the earlier games, certain computer-controlled opponent monsters were noticeably harder than others.
  • In 2, essentially every Rank had one of these. In S Rank, every single monster is "That One Boss." And the Major 4, the Final Boss of the game, are worse.
  • In E rank, where you usually start out, the most dangerous opponent is Oakleyman, a Gaboo. Most Gaboos you fight throughout the game have high Life, but sucky accuracy with their attacks. Oakleyman, however, has Straight, which is a very hard-hitting move at this point (It's actualy a mediocre C/D-level move), high Dodge rate, and high HP. And worst of all, his Straight always seems to hit right when it would screw you over the most, making this a really good example of The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard. This makes its a perfect example of a "Wake-Up Call" Boss.
  • Mighty Glacier enemy in general, especialy if your not abusing the defense calculation of the game. Read That One Attack entry for the details.
  • Bonus Boss White Mocchi, Most, has all around high stats and a good move pool. Tough, but par for the end-game course. However, Mocchi has the innate luck ability (which is never hinted at whatsoever in the game) where the higher the Guts of the move targeting it, the better its chances of dodging it, making spamming your strongest low-cost moves the best strategy for dealing with Most. Of course those get neutralized by its high speed stats.
  • The higher tiers of the IMA vs FIMBA battle in Monster Rancher 2. Given to how rare they are and how hard to find the battle itself is, they're not as well known as Oakleyman or Most, but they are possibly one of the most frustating monsters to fight. All of them have 700-750+ stats, effectively making them Lightning Bruisers. However one of the more absurdly powerful ones is a Hare/Plant hybrid named Hammed, fought in the S-Rank. Unlike other Hares, it's custom designed to be a defensive beast, with 800 Defense (second highest stats) and 991 Intelligence-- 8 less from the Cap-- effectively making Int-based moves, usualy effective against Hares, ineffective thanks to how damage calculation works in this game. Against Hammed, Power-based moves the way to go, forcing you to fight the exact opposite of the way you would fight a Hare.
  • The other S-Rank FIMBA monster that is That One Boss is Akirel, statistically the most powerful monster in the game (800+ in all stats save Skill). Unlike Hammed or Most, Akirel has no special tricks: it will simply smash your monster into the ground using its most powerful moves while dodging your counterattacks. Surprisingly amongst the three IMA vs FIMBA high tier monster, its the ONLY one who has a Weaksauce Weakness. It only has its base attack as its range 4 move.
  • Saza A., the Rank D boss monster in Monster Rancher DS is notoriously difficult. Statistically compared to how your monster is at that time, he's even harder than the rank A boss monsters.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: MR4's Talt, and Yu to a lesser degree.

The anime series

• Angst? What Angst?: Genki. Sometimes he combines this with Sand in My Eyes.
• Awesome Music: The Japanese opening themes, as well as the English dub's theme.
• Complete Monster: Moo. Created to be a Super Soldier to end the last war, he feeds off of hatred and lives to bring it forth in others. To that end he corrupted countless monsters, destroyed many villages, and killed countless people--and possessed Holly's father, using his connection to her to further his own goals. As Tiger put it, Moo is pure evil.
• Ear Worm: The English opening theme.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Durahan apparently was famous enough to warrant taking over the Big Bad position in the third season.
  • Tiger Of The Wind also has a bit of a following, particularly the furries like him.
• Evil Is Sexy: Pixie, Lilim, and Poison, as well as the brainwashed Granity.
• Fanon Discontinuity: For some, the Post Script Season third season.
• Ho Yay / Foe Yay: Tiger and Hare.
• Narm: Must we refer to villainous Mooks as "baddies" in every single context, guys?
  • Well, Genki and Holly are young...
  • In an odd case of Bowlderization helping, the uncut version of Genki hitting Pixie in the face. The animation for it is unintentionally hilarious.
• Nightmare Fuel: The truth of the Pendant civilization, with the revelation that Monsters were created in test tubes to be warriors. Colt's toucan, Joy, underscores this:

Joy: Born in test tube! Squawk!

• • Tiger's defeat of Captain Dino implies that he slit the latter's throat or chest open. Including choking noises as he dies.
  • Pixie uses Never Say "Die" to creepy effect:

Pixie: Disappear. *turns Captain Clay into a Lost Disc*

• • Ditto with Captain Scale Jell:

You're going to have to destroy that boy with your bare hands!

• • Undine accidentally burning herself to death.
  • The gang finding remains of the Astros' space ship turned prison camp, including shattered lost discs, scrap metal that looks suspiciously like Astros, and broken prison chains.
  • Moo himself.
  • Joker ensnares the heroes in illusions so he call kill them easily. Tiger sees Moo, Golem is led to believe he's drowning, Suezo is distracted by female monsters, and Genki and Mocchi are chained up...and Holly has daggers falling from the sky at her.
  • Gali proves to be Not So Stoic when he whips up a hurricane of sand to kill the Searchers, all because Genki cracked his mask.
  • Genki's nightmare in episode 8, involving him believing the entire series was All Just a Dream and being trapped under the sidewalk.
  • In another case of Bowlderization making things more intense, Moo's beam attacks against the Dragon army. They're clearly hit, and in the uncut version they spiral to the ground like airplanes. By removing that, the dub implies they were vaporized on contact.
  • This face Moo pulls in the uncut Episode 48. The animation for it is even worse, with his eye bulging and dilating.
• Villain Decay: Durahan was introduced in the second season as Moo's powerful and terrifying Starscream, with an army of monsters at his command which were creepily kept in cold storage until he had use for them. Third season rolls around, and he becomes the Big Bad... and also more of a joke, thanks to being saddled with a Goldfish Poop Gang and being reduced to a head.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: It is very well-animated. If it's raining, for instance, the characters get a soft, fuzzy outline. Ditto with effects for fire and energy beams.
• Woolseyism: Sometimes the dub's edits worked in its favor. In Tiger's battle with Grey Wolf, for example, the English dub added effectiveness by cutting out some of the battle with the Cabalos, devoting time to a flashback of the brothers' time as pups.
  • Pixie's torturing of Mickey in the uncut episode 10 clashed with the Searchers forgiving her so quickly and with her later characterization. While the uncut version gave Genki a more justified reason to punch her, punching her just for breaking a promise was believable given his childish nature, as well as his later statement that it was wrong to hit her over it.
  • "Eternal Worm", in the Japanese version, had Allan watch the heroes attack the Seed Sisters for about a minute after they killed his Worm before joining the fray. The English version had him jump in more quickly, which makes more logical sense.
  • Moo's tormenting of the heroes in "Tears". The uncut version has him shocking Pixie many, many times, with the final time being enough to get them all to hate him. While the dub cuts out him hacking off her wings beforehand, him taunting the heroes to get a rise out of them explains why Tiger was able to snap Big Blue out of it at first--and shocking Pixie afterwards was enough to push them over the edge.
  • In another case of Bowlderization making things more intense, Moo's beam attacks against the Dragon army. They're clearly hit, and in the uncut version they spiral to the ground like airplanes. By removing that, the dub implies they were vaporized on contact. Given Moo's an Expy of Godzilla, including the nuclear weapons metaphor, it works quite well.