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FAQ TITLE : Basic Guide To "MONSTER RANCHER 2" [Version : 1.2]
GAME INFO : Monster Rancher 2, US Version.
Copyrighted by Tecmo in 1999.
Genre -- Monster Ranching Simulation
FAQ WRITER : Nathan Prima Suwanto [shinichi@sby.dnet.net.id]
DATE/TIME : 07 November 1999, 11:30 GMT/18:30 WIB
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Note To Readers
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This FAQ is best viewed on 1024 x 768 on Microsoft Word 97+. I'm sure most
people can support this resolution, if you can't then 800 x 600 is okay but you
should change the zoom from 100% to a lower zoom percent. Also, do not forget to
turn on the Automatic Word Wrapping. Many people complained to me because the
text was too lengthy, and then I found out it was because they don't have Wrap
activated. Actually, I wrote every paragraph without using 'Enter' at all. So if
you don't wrap it, a paragraph is just one long long line....
Contacting Me and Sending submissions to me :
E-Mail : shinchi@sby.dnet.net.id
ICQ UIN # : 13520752
==============================================
FAQ Revision Information
==============================================
ver 1.2 - Added in 'Game Reviews'
- Make some changes in the 'Cards' section
(from 300 cards to 408 cards)
- Give more details about 'Battle'
ver 1.1 - Added in some info by Mail Request :
a. Raising Rare Monsters
b. Raising Monsters to Level S
ver 1.0 - Initial release of FAQ
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Version Note
==============================================
1.2 :
Still no contributions for the Disc Stones list !!
But thanks a lot for people e-mailing me to give support and also thanks to
people who reminded me to create various new sections on this walkthrough. Next
time this FAQ will be better if you keep sending your ideas and support.
1.1 :
Thanks for the response, people ! All your mails which came to me has been
replied and thus the answers for the questions you asked will be posted here if
it's not here already. And... one more thing...
Why There Is Nobody Who Contributes Disc Stones List At All ??!!
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Table of Contents
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01. Introduction
02. Starting The Game
03. Raising A Monster In The Ranch
- Stats Section
- Training Your Monster
04. Monster Raising Tips and Tricks (NEW - 1.1)
- Raising Rare Monsters
- Raising Monsters To Level S
05. List of Disc Stones
06. Game Reviews
07. Credits
08. Copyright
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01. Introduction
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Hello. I've been absent from writing FAQs for about a year or so, and now I
finally decided to continue my work as a FAQ Writer. The last FAQ I worked on
was Quest For Glory V - Dragon Fire. I finished up that FAQ until ver 2.1. Even
though there's many people sending things (tips and tricks) to me, I just can't
make another update. A man have to know when to stop. Sorry for you people who
have been bothered by me because of this. Also, because I haven't written any
FAQ for a whole year, maybe I've lost my touch. So if there's any mistake,
forgive me will ya people ??
I'm doing this because I haven't got anything to do in my school holiday. But
I'll try to write more if I have the time. So you guys my fans, wait up. For
now, let's just proceed to the Monster Rancher 2 FAQ, ok guys ??
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02. Starting The Game
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To start the game it's very easy. Find your copy of Monster Rancher 2. Open the
CD Case, take the CD and put in on the CD tray. Turn on your PSX and voila ^_^
(hmmm.... I was just kidding). Anyway, once you have reached the main menu,
press START and select NEW GAME (or LOAD GAME if you guys have played through
the game).
In the IMa (International Monsters association) Hall, you are going to sign up
as a new trainer. Sign up your name and choose your gender. Then you'll be asked
to answer 10 randomly chosen Trainer Type question. Answer these questions based
on your personality because it will determine what type of trainer you are.
You will be asked to wait a minute and then Coltia, a young female trainer
assistant will come up. Coltia will assist you depending on the trainer type
questions you answered. Example : 'Taking risks is necessary' [yes] means that
Coltia will wait until your monster become seriously injured until she will take
it to the hospital, if [no] then she will take it to hospital even if it's just
have a minor (scratch) injury.
You will end up in the Town and you'll have to find a monster. Basically, there
are 2 ways you can get a monster. One, by getting it (for free) at the market.
Two, by going to the shrine and reproduce it from Disc Stones (CDs) or Slates
(Monster Rancher 1 Save Data).
At this time in the market, you can get 3 types of monsters. Zuum, Mocchi and a
seasonal monster which changes every season, in this time the monster is Suezo.
Remember that you can only grow one monster at a time so choose carefully. After
you got a monster, you got to name it carefully 'cause you can't change it later
on.
In the shrine, you can get monsters from CDs [I'll come into details later] and
from MR1 Save Datas. There are some rare monsters which you can only get from
CDs so if you have many CDs try them all (not only PSX CDs but also music, VCD,
Sega CD, Dreamcast, Saturn, etc).
After you're finished, you might want to go to the Lab. Here you can analyze
your monster (but it's actually useless) to find out more about it. Or if you
done raising a monster and want to grow another, you can FREEZE (brr...) the
monster here. You must also freeze a monster if you want to use it for battle
against your friends/CPU in 1P vs 2P mode.
If you're finished hanging around the Town, go to the Ranch.
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03. Raising A Monster In The Ranch
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In the game system, a whole year is divided into 12 months and a month is
divided into 4 weeks. One game turn is exactly the same as one week. You must
plan carefully what will you do to your monster because you only got 48 turns
per year, and in my case monsters died around 3 years, so you've got 144 turns
to raise the monster into a big strong monster.
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[ Main Controller Setting ]
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L1/L2 - Move one page left on the 'Stats Section'
R1/R2 - Move one page right on the 'Stats Section'
Directional Pad - Move around choices in the menu
Triangle Button - Cancel a selection/Return to previous menu
Square Button - Enter 'Stats Section' mode
X Button - Accept/Make a selection
Circle Button - Ask help from Coltia about a menu item
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[ Status Checking / SQUARE button ]
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To check on your monster stats, trainer stats, or card collection (names of
monsters you've raised) press SQUARE button.
Monster Stats :
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Give detailed information about your monster's abilities.
Page 1 consists of Life, Power, Skill, Intelligence, Speed and Defense level.
There's also a Fame Indicator and the Monster Type and Level icons. You can also
see your monster's name and age here.
Page 2 consists of number of Wins, Losses and KOs. There's also purse showing
how many money your monster has earned, and a table indicating how many times
your monster has been sick, injured, run away from the ranch or resist from you
(the last 2 may happen only if you treat it badly).
Page 3 consists of Form (fat/skinny), Nature (good/bad), Style (not fighting
style but manners on you), Likes and Dislikes (the monster can dislike YOU if
you're too hard on it...)
Page 4 consists of the monster's fighting techniques. For starting, usually
every monster only got 2 techniques (at least that's what I got from my starting
Suezo and Zuum). To gather new techniques, you must join the Errantry Training
[I'll explain about Errantry later on].
Trainer Stats :
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Give detailed information about your achievements and abilities in raising
monsters (how succesful you are in monster ranching).
Page 1 shows the sum number of Wins, Losses and KOs of all your monsters so
far. There's also purse showing cumulative amount of money you got from all
monsters and also your rank (1st to 10th, lowest to highest), your name and your
money (I'll call it 'fund'). It also lists the number of monsters you have at
certain ranks (hmmm... 5 at S, 2 at A, 1 at B, 2 at C).
Page 2 shows how many monsters you have trained (hmm.. 5+2+1+2=10), and how
many monsters you have sorted by monsters type (hmm... 3 Suezo, 2 Zuum and...)
Cards Collection :
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This card collection actually shows what monsters you have raised while
playing Monster Rancher 2. Actually, you don't have to raise the monster to
acquire their card. To gain cards, here's what to do :
1. Gain a monster at the Market or Shrine [Town].
2. After you're asked to try it or not, choose try it.
3. Give a name when you're asked to --> monster added to card collection.
4. Raise it on the Ranch [Ranch],
Sell the monster for no money (coz no ability) [Market], or
Freeze the monster [Lab] --> Choose this if you want to grow it later.
There are an exact number of 408 monsters available in Monster Rancher 2, thus
there are 408 cards to collect here. If you don't like hard work (opening CD
case, changing CDs, giving names, freezing), you can take a shortcut here. If
you own a GameShark or a Pro Action Replay, I've got the code to gain all 408
cards (complete !).
All Monster Cards : 5000CC02 0000
8009908C 0101
[ Credits due to : ]
[ - Rt2bwtuwnt@AOL.com for telling me that actually there are 408 monsters ]
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[ Main Menu on the Ranch ]
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There are 6 selections on the Ranch's Main Menu, here they are:
Training - Trains your monster to raise its abilities
Rest - Rest your monster for 1 week to let it recover from tiredness
Battle - Join a tournament for honor and pride ^_^
Item - Manage items (use items or shop in Auntie Verde's shop)
File - The usual Save/Load menu
Town - Go to Town to get its services [Market,Shrine,Lab]
Training Your Monster :
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Training is divided into 2 main sections :
***********
a. Drill
***********
Drill is a kind of training done in the ranch. The monster is instructed to
do something by Joy (Coltia's parrot). One drill takes one week time to complete
and there is no chance to get a new technique. As there's no random enemy or
dangerous tasks, there is no chance of getting injured for your monster. Drill
itself is divided into 10 kinds of activities :
EASY
1. Domino - Power + Fatigue +
2. Run - Life + Fatigue +
3. Study - Int + Fatigue +
4. Shoot - Skill + Fatigue +
5. Dodge - Speed + Fatigue +
6. Endure - Def + Fatigue +
HARD
7. Pull - Power ++ Life + Speed - Fatigue ++
8. Meditate - Int ++ Skill + Def - Fatigue ++
9. Leap - Speed ++ Int + Power - Fatigue ++
10. Swim - Def ++ Life + Int - Fatigue ++
Sometimes, before the drill, the monster will ask you to do something for him
(buy him food/play with him next week). If you agree, the monster's loyalty will
go up and it's more likely that he will succeed in the drill. If you refuse, its
loyalty will go down and it will be more likely to fail the drill.
A monster can also cheat during the drill. If he cheat, he will still get the
ability up but it's smaller and the ability down is bigger. After the drill, be
sure to scold him up and if he keeps doing that, give him 'Smoked Snake'.
Although it will decrease his loyalty and there's a chance that he will run
away, if its loyalty has gone up again it will be more disciplined.
**************
b. Errantry
**************
Errantry is a kind of training where you send your monster to some place to
finish some tasks. Normal Errantry Fee is 2000, but sometimes they can offer a
discount making the fee go down to 1000. During errantry, the monster has a
chance to gain 'New Techniques' (it is indicated as blinking lamp in the result
board). It also can meet Random Enemies, if you can defeat it, you'll get prize
money, but if you get KO-ed your monster might get a serious injury, even death.
Injury can also happen if he failed during a dangerous task (usually 3 and 4).
One Errantry session take a whole month to finish (4 turns). In those 4
weeks the monster will be given 4 tasks. If he fail doing a task, he will have
to retry it next week. So if your monster fails even one task, he won't be able
to succeed in the errantry. By doing errantry, you get more points up than you
would in drill training.
There are 4 errantry locations for Power, Speed, Skill, Intelligence which
are accessible during class E to C. All of these have effect ++ for the chosen
ability, + for life and ++ for fatigue. The errantry location for Defense can
only be accessed during class B to S, so for defense up you can only use drill.
Battling in a Tournament :
----------------------------------------------
Whenever there will be an official IMa Cup Tournament at the end of a month,
Coltia will tell you about it at the beginning of a month so you can prepare
your monster for it. All IMa Cup Tournaments and another official tournaments
take place at the end of a month. Don't worry, you won't miss an official
tournament because Coltia will tell you about it every time there will be one.
During the tournament you can choose from the following menu items :
Battle - Fight your next opponent
Information - Ask for information [Opponent, Move control and Ability control]
Withdraw - Withdraw (forfeit) from the next battle (lose next battle)
Drop Out - Forfeit all the upcoming battles (lose all battles)
Before the battle, Coltia will ask you whether you want to give advices to your
monster during the battle or not. Basically, this asks you whether you want to
control your monster or not. [Yes] means that you can control the monster while
[No] means that the monster will be automatically controlled.
During the battle, you can control the monster this way :
Left - Move monster away from enemy
Right - Move monster towards enemy
Triangle - Push enemy away when you're close with him (there's a red sign)
Circle - Nothing
X - Launch attack when Guts is enough
Square - Scroll down between monster's abilities (selected one)
L1 - Move ability cursor left
R1 - Move ability cursor right
The monster will launch an attack depending on its range towards the enemy. So,
the monster WON'T launch the ability on the cursor (your cursor) but it will
launch the ability that is highlighted by the range indicator. Guts will
increase faster if you got more INT.
The Screen :
[ 1 ] [3] [ 2 ]
------------ 4 ---------------- 7
[][][][] -- 5 [][][][] -- 8
------------ 6 ---------------- 9
1. Your monster's HP
2. Opponent monster's HP
3. Time Left
4. Your range indicator
5. Your ability boxes
6. Your Guts Level
7. Enemy's range indicator
8. Enemy's ability boxes
9. Enemy's guts level
You will win the battle if you can KO the enemy or if you got more HP percent
(not more HP points) than the enemy when the time is up. To get your monster
into a higher class, you must win (1st place) an IMa Tournament Cup for your
current grade.
Most people e-mailed me that they can't get their monsters to launch more than 4
types of attacks, well here's how to do it. For example, if your monster has 16
(full set) attacks, the icons in the 'Monster Status' Section will look like :
[1] [2] [3] [4]
[5] [6] [7] [8]
[9] [10] [11] [12]
[13] [14] [15] [16]
But in battle, there will be only 4 icons displayed at the bottom of the screen.
And for the first time, the 4 attacks will be the number 1,2,3,4 attacks. But
after you changed them, the next time you start a battle the 4 icons will be set
depending on the set last time you use it.
To move between attacks in the battle control, you can use L1 to move the cursor
to the left and L2 to move the cursor to the right (between 1,2,3,4). If you
want to scroll upon the attacks, place the cursor on the attack and press Square
button. For example, if you place the cursor on 1 and then press Square it will
change in the order of 1 - 5 - 9 - 13 - 1 and so on...
[ Credits due to : ]
[ - Rott103@aol.com reminding me to add this scrolling attacks part ]
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04. Monster Raising Tips And Tricks
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Raising Rare Monsters :
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Sometimes, when you try to reproduce a monster from disc stones (CDs), you'll
get a message saying that the monster is rare and your level is not high enough
to raise the monster. Well, if this happens, it means that you haven't known how
to raise such monsters because you don't have the ability. As a rookie IMa
monster trainer all you've got is knowledge to raise simple, low-ranked monsters
that cna be easily obtained.
Then, how to get the ability ?? You can get the ability through certain events.
You should join up every (well, not every... if you're not strong enough for it)
tournaments and adventures available for you. At certain events, some people
will come over your ranch and teach you how to raise some new kinds of monsters.
This means that the game will unlock your ability to raise some kind of monsters
that you can't raise at the beginning.
This far, I've only known 1 event, so if anyone got more, tell me ok ?
If you got enough Fame, sometimes around the mid-year, Master Pabs will come
over your place and tell you about the IMa vs FIMBA meet. You must join the
elimination tournament and win to participate in the IMa-FIMBA Meet. In the
Meet, you don't need to win your battle as long IMa won the overall Meet. But if
you can, do win. After IMa win the Meet Battle, a man from IMa will come over
and teach you how to raise 4 new kinds of monsters.
[ Credits due to : ]
[ - August Edward (monang@idola.net.id) for asking me to make this part ]
Raising Monsters To Level S :
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To get your monster into level S, it's not easy and I myself had difficulties
in doing so. But finally, I was able to do it. Here's how I did it. First, I
sent my monster to errantry at the beginning of every month (don't send them in
the middle/end of the month because you won't be able to feed them) to raise its
abilities and gain new techniques.
Note that the more 'Hurt' your monster got in the Status, the more quickly it
will die. Errantry can give many 'Hurt'-s to your monster, but its life should
be enough to reach S. So the errantry itself don't make lifes go shorter but
injuries and sicknesses do...
To get into level S, you should join an official IMa Tournament Cup that is one
grade higher than your current grade (that's why Tecmo put in this feature).
Doing this may be difficult for you, as the monsters will be more powerful than
yours if you haven't train your monster very well. If you find it hard, just
join the normal ones and join one higher whenever you see your monster fits. If
you keep losing, well... just use a GameShark code for Infinite HP. This way it
will enable you to gain the S level quickly.
[ Credits due to : ]
[ - Stern (stern@westriv.com) for asking me to make this part ]
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05. List of Disc Stones
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This list is nowhere near complete as I haven't got many CDs. You can use many
kind of CDs like PSX Game, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Sega CD, Music CD, VCD, every
CDs you can found in the world. I'm waiting for you guys to contribute for me.
Send them to shinichi@sby.dnet.net.id
1. Mocchi
- Monster Rancher 2 [PSX]
2. Bossy
- Street Fighter Alpha 3 [PSX]
3. Melon Suezo
- Saga Frontier US [PSX]
4. Pink Kato
- Jade Cocoon US [PSX]
Well.. eh, that's all guys. Haven't got time to try many CDs.
And hey, until version 1.1 there's no one who contributed any Disc Stones they
found. You guys ask me to make a complete listing but you got no contributions
for me ? Hey, I'm just a normal gamer, not God so I don't know where it is to
find those many kinds of monsters locked in the different kinds of CDs ????
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06. Game Reviews
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Graphics : 95 %
The graphic's good, the character's face contains many hand-drawn pixels and
they can show expressions like anger, sad, scared, scold, etc. The monster
graphics is very good and not blocky. The movement's fluid and not skipping.
Sound : 90 %
The music's good but the variation is too small. The number of musics is still
countable (Town, Ranch, Battle, Reproduction, Errantry, Drill, what else). Sound
effects is good though especially on the battle scenes and attack sounds.
Gameplay : 90 %
The monster's not too hard to control on battles and the ranch system is easy to
understand even for beginners. The plot is also very interesting to play.
Addictive : 90 %
It is addictive. You can't wait to see what monsters you'll gain next and how
your monster will progress in the next months. This also enhances the replay
score, people would want to play it over and over until they got all 408s.
Overall : 90 %
It's not a bad game. You can play this game to relax a bit and have fun after
playing tough RPG games like Final Fantasy VIII and Genso Suikoden II.
What else to review ?? Any suggestions available please send them all to me as
soon as possible to my e-mail address...
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07. Credits
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No Credits for the Disc Stone Submissions.
Credits for support :
- Rt2bwtuwnt@AOL.com
- Rott103@aol.com
- August Edward (monang@idola.net.id)
- Stern (stern@westriv.com)
(check out what the credits are for on the sections above)
Thanks a lot for your support guys. I appreciate them.
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08. Copyright
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This FAQ is made by Nathan Prima Suwanto in 1999 and available at GameFAQs. If
you are a webmaster and want to put this FAQ up on your site, ask me first. This
FAQ is for personal use only. Never ever take this FAQ and sell it at any
magazines. If I find out someone ripping this FAQ off, I'll crush him. By the
way, I'm an Indonesian, so you guys on the Indonesian Gamezines don't try to rip
this off like what you did to my friend's FAQ.
