News
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX Launches on Switch, PC, iOS on December 9 in the West
posted on by Alex Mateo
Koei Tecmo announced on Thursday the Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX (Monster Farm 1 & 2 DX) game for December 9 release. The updated version of the first two Monster Rancher games will launch in the West for Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, and iOS devices, and it will launch in Japan for Switch and PC via Steam. The company streamed an announcement trailer:
The updated game will include new features such as additional save slots, Freeze slots, and Monster Hall of Fame slots, memos, rankings, and a high-speed mode. The game will allow players to search a database to find specific CDs and generate a monster from its data, replicating how the original games used real, physical CDs for monster creation. The Japanese version will feature monsters that were previously only in the Western versions.
The Japanese release will get a 25th Anniversary Edition that includes a golden Mocchi figure, soundtrack, books, a secret CD, and a Mocchi backpack.
The first game in the Monster Rancher series debuted for the PlayStation console in 1997. The game tasks players with raising a variety of monsters to fight in tournaments, with the game deciding how to raise the monster, which then determines how the monsters fight. A notable feature of many games in the series is the ability to generate a random monster dependent upon discs that the player provides for the game to read.
Monster Rancher 2 initially debuted for PlayStation in Japan in February 1999. The game then launched in North America in August 1999 and in Europe in October 2000.
Koei Tecmo released a port of the original Monster Rancher game in Japan for iOS and Android devices in November 2019 and for Switch in December 2019. The company released a port of Monster Rancher 2 on iOS and Android devices and for Switch in Japan in September 2020.
Sources: Press release, Monster Farm franchise's Twitter account via Hachima Kikо̄
