Let's Ranch Monsters!

I don't have a problem with the screenshot size...

Lame that every disc we wanted to use was too good... You'd think they'd just tone down the monster you got from the disc as opposed to making it unavailable.

But what do I know about monster ranching? Nothing!

In regards to the MR2 disc in the first game only giving you a golem, that's lame... so very very lame.

The screenshot size is just fine. I also vote we call him Herbie, and I think his subtype is Naga. As for raising style, I think he might need to be kept on a short leash, so a stricter style would be best.

I'm terrible with naming things, so go with whatever the masses demand.

Also, I'm in agreement with everyone that says grind him into the dirt until he's dead. He will respect us for doing so.

Why, though, are we feeding the wolves to him? Wolves are far higher up the food chain that he is. I demand he be fed to a wolf in order to make the wolf stronger... or combined with something that creates a strong wolf. I really really really like wolves, which in this game means Tiger will devour everything. Including previous Tigers and his variants.

Tell you what: I will freeze Herbie before he dies, and if one of the other discs you pick gives us something vaguely lupine, then we will freeze that guy too, and combine him with Herbie.

I thank you, sir.

Man, why you guys all hatin' on the Eyeball monster.

You should name him Fluffy and love him forever.

Guys, you have given me a complete fuckup of a monster. You'll learn the full details on Monday, but.... Well, stats aren't everything.

Well, I don't think anyone actually voted for the disc you had to end up using, so we didn't really screw you over there.

But yeah, there's a reason why I don't like Suezo's.

Wonderful. I guess the only question is:

Who wants Pig Latin? Or a new set of discs?

I voted for it. Mwahahahahaha!

You cad!

Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Update to go up later this evening. Possibly much later. Possibly technically tomorrow. But it will come.

We should have known when the monster came out purple... Whenever has anything purple been awesome? Never!

Well for awhile it was cool when Roman emperors were wearing it, but then they got all wussy and ever since than it's been down hill for purple.

I vote we get a new monster, preferably red, red is always awesome

Dude, come on, most Decepticons are purple.

The cool ones, in any case.

You're not helping your case.

My friend would like to have a word with you.

*cough*

I was going to try to go for six months, but this monster is just not working out. In this installment, we learn exactly why! In the end, the decision will be yours: keep going with Herbie in spite of his inadequacy, or cut our losses and try a new one? I've got plenty of CDs.



Let's start by getting a good look at his stats.







See where it says "Worst" there? That's a bad sign. The rest of it are his competencies, his battle records, his demeanor, and so forth. I'll be giving an explanation for each as it becomes pertinent.



Here are his techniques. Right now, he has Tail and Spit. Just two. But, then again, he's just a baby, and many babies start off with only two crappy techniques.

A nice picture, he is indeed half-Naga:





Every monster has a card with a little bit of flavor text. Seems this guy thinks he's too good for effort. Well, we'll certainly disabuse him of that notion.

Gameplay in Monster Rancher 2 is a week-by-week management simulator. There are four weeks in each month, and every week you determine what you want to do that week.



Additionally, at the first of each month, you decide what kind of food the monster gets. We have several options: potatoes, milk, fish, cup jelly, meat, and tablets. Since Herbie is a baby, we're feeding him milk.

Not shown: your other assistant, a toucan (there are animals in addition to monsters in this world) dropping the feed in front of the monster. But since this happens every single month, except when the monster isn't around, we'll have plenty of opportunities.

Some weeks, before you can conduct any business, a visitor will arrive. We have one this week!



However, the only reason he came here is to introduce himself and say hi to Colt.



There's no way that information will be important.



At the start of the week, Colt fills us in on the monster's status. When she says "well" or "very well" that means it doesn't need rest; it doesn't mean it's happy.

From the Ranch, you can check on the schedule of tournaments coming up. There aren't any for rookies this month, as you can see, so we'll spend the month training.

However, until we decide what we want to do on any given week, you can watch the monster walk in circles around the map. The scenery changes with the seasons and the weather, and the monster's animations vary according to its mood. Herbie makes some very weird noises this first week, proving he is, in at least one way, worthy of his name.

There are two kinds of training: drills and errantries. A drill costs nothing, as you basically just have the monster perform some menial but strengthening task. There are ten drills: Domino, Shoot, Study, Dodge, Run, Endure, Pull, Leap, Meditate, and Swim. The first six increase one of the six stats each and build up fatigue. The last four greatly increase one stat, slightly increase another, slightly decrease a third, and build up much more fatigue. This week's drill, "Domino," trains strength by having the monster knock over a series of huge stone blocks.

It doesn't go so well.



His Strength did go up, though! ... By a paltry two points.

Periodically, such as when a monster cheats, Colt asks whether we should scold it. (We also have opportunities to praise them.) You asked for it, and now you got it: the result of scolding Herbie for cheating.



I feel good about this.

Next week, we'll try to train Skill instead, with the Shoot drill. That also doesn't go very well:



We also have an opportunity to scold a monster whenever it fails a drill. We do so, naturally.



Not as disappointed as I do.

For the third week of April, we drill Skill again to see if he can nail it this time. The results, well...



We scold him again, and once more he "seems disappointed."

The next week, Colt announces that Herbie still seems well, but he's been training for three solid weeks, and he doesn't seem to be making happy noises the way he did the first week. I let him rest.

Next week begins May, and we feed it Milk again.



"We have to take care of it...."

Young monsters often react poorly to being scolded a lot. I believe that stress diminishes a monster's lifespan if it is allowed to persist.

The monster's raising style is still listed as "Even" rather than "Strict" or "Soft", but its loyalty, by this point, is nearing twenty. The loyalty score determines a monster's propensity to obey you in combat. However, since we won't be controlling the combat manually (the output lag on my capture card is way too high for anything real-time), then there might not be an effect in battle. Loyalty has other effects, of course.

There is an E-level tournament in the third week of May, but we won't be going. Newborn monsters aren't ready for competition without some successful training, and Herbie just hasn't had any.

And he won't have any, either. He fails a third time at the Shoot drill, and when scolded he still "seems disappointed". To shake things up a bit, I have him try the Domino drill again, but...



Once again, he "seems disappointed" when he is scolded. His stress increasing, I think it best for his health if he is allowed to rest more, although he is not especially fatigued (failure isn't as tiring as success).

June rolls around, and this is what we see:



"You have to prepare your Herbie right away."

No way that's going to happen, though.



Oh boy! Open it, open it!



Ah, a discount this month at the errantry office.

Here is what errantry is: the monster spends one month going on an exotic expedition to train a single stat. There are four escalating challenges that rely on the stat being trained, and if the monster succeeds four times in a row, then he may fight a rare monster at the end (but you can't control the fight). Additionally, during the course of the errantry, the monster might have a chance (which you can estimate before you leave) to learn a new technique. Errantry is the only way for most monsters to acquire new moves, so it's very important.

Errantry is also very expensive: normally $3000 for a single expedition. It makes up the bulk of a monster trainer's expenses, in fact, since food is so cheap by comparison. The price drops considerably on some months, most commonly when an official tournament is taking place, so you have to choose whether you want to train or compete.

This week, we'll just go with a regular drill while we think about it, since the offer is good all month. We're going to perform the Run drill, which will increase Herbie's Life.



We scold it for cheating, and...



Don't you give me that look!


All right. Here's where we stand, folks. Herbie is a delinquent: when he tries, he fails, and increasingly he doesn't try. Our attempts to force competence upon him with discipline are making him very unhappy, but he is learning rote, mechanical obedience at least.

If we stick with him, there is no guarantee that changing to a more lenient tactic will succeed, but there is also no guarantee that it will fail. Monsters change psychologically as they age, so there's a possibility he might respond more positively to strictness... even if it requires breaking him first. His demeanor might improve if he learns that it isn't all punishment and cruelty, that success and obedience will be rewarded... except he might not ever find success and obedience.

We could put him in deep freeze or release him into the wild, and start over - either with an exact clone from the same disc, or a new monster from a new disc. If we keep him, we could continue to be strict with him, or we could become soft. Regardless of how kind we are, we will have to choose: do we continue with drills, send him on an expensive (but discounted!) errantry, or just send him into the official tournament totally unprepared?

I confess I have not checked on the possibility that he will learn a new move. We will have an opportunity to praise him if he learns a new move and scold him if he does not. If he exceeds the minimum requirements of a drill, we can praise him, and we can continue scolding him if he fails or cheats. If he wins a tournament, we can praise him, and if he does not, we can console him in defeat.

If you do not wish to keep him, I can have a set of CDs ready for voting so that next week we can be making progress again.

Let's cut our losses for now and start training a new monster after putting Herbie in deep freeze. We can always go back to training him later.

exceptions only prove the rule... and the only exception I saw was Samus in the gravity suit.

I don't know, did your two (3?) months of training take a lot real time? If not then it wouldn't hurt to keep trying a little longer, if what we've seen consumed a lot of real time though I think its best to try a new CD and hope for better results.

Not a lot of real play time, no, but keep in mind that I only ever intended to update once a week (barring non-gameplay updates like choosing new monsters). I was actually shooting for six months to a year for each update.

I feel bad for pushing Herbie so hard. Maybe we can try a more lenient approach for him?

I am all for feeding him to the theoretical wolves. This guy is terrible.

On a side note, how does the game take CD-Rs? Could I load LaMulana's soundtrack onto one and have it give me a different monster than, say, Cave Story's? Inquiring minds wish to know!

It's an important lesson for every (non-wolf) monster to learn that failure and minimal success are met with harsh retribution and/or death.

Cut your losses for now. He's not even worthy to be eaten by anything. Yet.

Bring on the new stack of CDs!

However, if the other votes sway you in a direction involving his continued use, then I am in favor of praising the poor creature should he manage to learn a technique, win a tournament, or exceed the minimum success in errencies/training. For anything less though, scold the little ingrate.

I seem to recall that CD-Rs work, and suspect that there are some folk out there that may have managed to reverse-engineer the scanning function to make a thing to burn a CD that gives you exactly the mon you want.

If you wish to send a disc image that I don't need to use my bittorrent client to acquire, then I will accept it for consideration.

I didn't want that stupid eyeball in the first place; Get him gone!