Monster Rancher DS, known as Monster Farm DS 2: Yomigaeru! Master Breeder Densetsu in Japan, is a Life Simulation

Life simulation game

Life simulation games is a sub-genre of simulation video games in which the player lives or controls one or more virtual lifeforms...

 video game developed by Cing

Cing

was an independent video game developer based out of Fukuoka, Japan. The company, a small development house employing only 29 people, was founded in April 1999, and was run by Takuya Miyagawa, who served as President and CEO. Miyagawa also acted as the producer on all of Cing's titles. The company...

 and published by UFO Interactive Games

UFO Interactive Games

Based in Pomona, California, is a publisher of interactive video game content, developing on multiple platforms with a focus on original and mass-market gaming software...

 for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

. It was released in Japan on August 7, 2008 and in North America on August 3, 2010.

Gameplay

The game, taking place in the BOMBA region, involves raising, fighting, and breeding monsters. The main character is never seen on screen, but always talks to his apprentice, Cleo, directly. The player chooses his actions and choices through menu options.

Creating Monsters

Monsters are created primarily through two ways drawing pictures in the Magic Field using the touchscreen or reciting an Incantation using the microphone. Other methods include combining two existing monsters to create a new monster as well as an additional unrevealed method.

New to the combination process is the "-ish" or "modoki" monster, a glitch

Glitch

A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system. It is often used to describe a transient fault that corrects itself, and is therefore difficult to troubleshoot...

 monster whose purpose is to give you a monster when you attempt combinations that are not in the game, and appear as a light blue untextured version of the normal model, and appear as the last monster in each monster's entries in the monster encyclopedia, using the ???-subtype normally used by special monsters.

Fighting Monsters

The way you make money, and gain ranks, is by having your monster fight in tournaments. In a fight, your monster starts with a fixed amount of guts, which is basically energy to spend on the moves they know. You can control the monster yourself, or let them fight on their own as they do when they get into a battle in the wild.

Moves can be done in one of three ranges. You can move forward or backward on the battlefield to toggle between the ranges. If you get in very close, you can also push the opponent away from you.
A major change from the previous games is that you are able to use the touchscreen to move your monster forward or backwards, as well as to order it to attack.

Monsters

Various monsters which have been left out of previous games since Monster Rancher 2

Monster Rancher 2

Monster Rancher 2 is a video game and the second North American and Japanese installment in the Monster Rancher series. In Europe Monster Rancher 2 is the first release in the series and is thus named Monster Rancher.-Gameplay:This game involves raising, fighting, and breeding monsters...

 will be making a return including Monolith and Gali.
There are currently 272 monsters known in the game, including the glitch type monsters.

The main breeds are Abyss, Beaklon, Baku, Centaur, Color Pandora, Dragon, Ducken, Durahan, Falco, Gali, Golem, Hare, Henger, Joker, Lesione, Mew, Mocchi, Monol, Naga, Ogyo, Pancho, Phoenix, Piroro, Pixie, Plant, Suezo, Tiger, Xenon, and Zan.

Development

The game was announced on May 23, 2008 and would be released in Japan as Monster Farm DS 2: Yomigaeru! Master Breeder Densetsu. However at that time no localization for the first game, Monster Farm DS had been announced for North America. This gave rise to speculation that both games would not be localized in North America at all which would be a first for the series since every past game in the series had been localized with all of the past portable titles: Monster Rancher Advance

Monster Rancher Advance

Monster Rancher Advance is the first of the Monster Rancher games to be released on Game Boy Advance.-Gameplay:Similar to the other Monster Rancher games, gameplay revolves around creating, raising, and fighting monsters. Due to the Game Boy Advance's limitations, players do not generate monsters...

 and Monster Rancher Advance 2

Monster Rancher Advance 2

Monster Rancher Advance 2 is the second of the Monster Rancher games to be released on Game Boy Advance. It is the sequel to Monster Rancher Advance.-Gameplay:...

being released in North America. However on November 10, 2009 this speculation was proven untrue when it was announced that Monster Farm DS 2 would be released in North America as Monster Rancher DS with the first DS game, Monster Farm DS not being localized in favor of its sequel. This announcement came a year after its original Japanese release and came as a surprise to many fans who had lost hope.

External links

• Official North American Site

http://www.monster-rancher.com/discus/index.html