Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is a stellar new game in the Monster Rancher franchise. After re-releasing the original Monster Rancher games, the company knew they’d also need something new. Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is similar to the older games with a few new twists and might play like the other games but is still rather enjoyable.
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher starts with the protagonist heading to the city. They’ve just completed school and are finally able to raise their own Kaiju. It’s a momentous moment and they are met by the one and only Holly of Monster Rancher fame, who offers to help them and it’s great seeing her back in action.
Holly tells you she can offer you a Kaiju to raise too. If the player has the deluxe edition they even get a few extra Kaiju like Mochi in a sweater. Mochi is one of the cuter monsters and kind of a mascot for the series so it makes sense he’d be in on the fun. Holly tells you the organization can offer up a monster depending on the season or the player can summon one.
Summoning from disks takes on a few different forms, and each can provide surprising results. The first way is to use keywords and just about any word will work too, which is pretty funny. With a bit of money, a favorite phrase could summon a new favorite monster. The monsters are all pretty interesting even if some of them are pretty ugly.
It’s also possible to summon the Kaiju from NFC communication. It doesn’t work on Amiibo which is a little disappointing but I guess it makes sense. But it does work on Credit card NFC chips which is pretty cool. I hadn’t thought that it would work like that but is cool having another way to summon.
In the original releases of Monster Rancher, it was possible to put a CD in the PlayStation to summon a monster from it. It would be cool if they could do that again. But I guess that is impossible without a disk drive. But it’s still great summoning monsters with keywords and NFC communication.
After selecting your first monster it’s time to head to the ranch. Holly will introduce the player to their new ranch hand Kanezo. Kanezo is a weird-mouthed rancher with eye stalks, who might know more about ranching than he lets on. He’ll help the rancher and Holly to take care of the big new friend, but he’s a coward too.
Raising monsters revolves around raising their stats. Each monster has different base stats and choosing different jobs will result in increases and decreases. Each job has two varieties, one that increases a stat and one that increases two but decreases another. It’s a good idea to try to balance stats if possible, but the higher the stat, the better.
Each area of the map has different stat increases. Passing the job increases the stat and could lower other ( should this say other or others?) depending on what job is taken ( can those two sentences be merged?). Rival monsters will come into battle and if the Kaiju is strong enough they can auto-battle them. Auto battle is great because it speeds up the process and the flow of the game.
The monster can even fail the job and it’s up to the rancher ( don’t know if the word on is needed) how they react. There is a choice to scold the monster and choosing to can decrease its attachment to the rancher but balance again is key. It’s all about raising the monster right and with it being so large, it must be done with care.
The Kaiju’s feelings are important because if it doesn’t like the rancher it may get angry quicker. An angry monster is never a good thing because even the Ultramen won’t help the rancher every time. Raising them right and mixing things up will help them have balance, or the player could just coddle them which I guess is nice sometimes.
Every month the tamer must feed their monster. The beasts each have their dietary wants and it’s easy to figure it out, a little save scumming never hurts if the tamer wants to max things out. Finding what they love makes them happy and that makes them bond more with the tamer.
The city is an important place, that the player will visit numerous times while playing. They can summon monsters here, but there are several services on offer which will help tamers a lot. It’s necessary to continue to visit the city even if it doesn’t always seem like it is.
There is a bakery where players can buy cookies that add special abilities to the monster. These cookies are magical cookies that can change a Kaiju from a weak one to a champ if the rancher is patient. The bakery will offer to make bake the cookies or the player can have more of a hand in it. Either way, the cookies never go bad so feel free to stockpile them.
There are tournaments to enter too. Each month has four weeks where the tamer can either train the monster or if they are ready enter a tournament. It’s important to be ready for them because they can be quite difficult, they are standard battles but they ramp up quite drastically.
The tournaments are endlessly playable as long as it is the right week. Again once the Kaiju wins they can replay the tournament to gain rewards. Feeding one of these monsters is no small feat and money is often required. So if the stats are going up nicely, take time to enter as many tournaments as possible.
Another place in town offers up the ability to transfer stats to a new Kaiju. The Kaiju eventually grow too old to fight and it is up to the player (added the word “to” here) to take those beasts and mate them together to create a new one to continue in their stead. Summoning Kaiju works but sometimes the stats are just too good and it gives their offspring a nice boost.
The Ultraman angle is also a pretty interesting one. Even if people don’t know exactly what Ultraman is about, they may have seen him in the past. His superpower antics have been popular in Japan, and even in this game he can’t help but save the day. It’s the whole group of Ultramen too, so the player doesn’t know which one will come to save the day.
They are intrinsically part of the game world and will save the day if they are able. Watching an Ultraman take down friend stings a little, but it pushes the rancher to work harder. They are raisin titanic beasts, sometimes a little harshness can do wonders. The Ultramen are super strong and can take any Kaiju down with little trouble which is impressive.
The music in this game is also pretty good, and I enjoy the different music. The battle music is pretty good and helps the flow of the battle Most of the music is rather peaceful which is also nice. This game is easy to play for the most part, so it’s nice to have chill music.
Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is a fantastic monster-raising game and a great improvement on older Monster Rancher games. It provides hours of chill content for the most part and takes time to understand but it’s fun all the way through. There are plenty of Kaiju to raise which one will the rancher bring to the top?
Disclaimer: A review key was provided