The first Monster Rancher game released for the PlayStation way back in 1997 and fans of the first two titles now have something to look forward to. Koei Tecmo recently confirmed that Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX combines the original games for modern platforms.
Koei Tecmo has officially announced a western release of Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. The two games don't simply come bundled together, as Koei Tecmo is working on new changes and visual upgrades for this combo pack. Monster Rancher is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and the release of Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is just one of several things planned.
Monster Rancher is known as Monster Farm in Japan and the first two titles have already been re-released in the region. According to franchise producer Kazumi Fujita, Koei Tecmo received a lot of messages from other parts of the globe and this drove the team's passion to release Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. Although Fujita wanted to respond to these messages, Koei Tecmo was already hard at work putting the combo pack.
Fujita reflected on his time promoting the original Monster Rancher games in America during the announcement. Part of this promotion included the creation of the Monster Rancher anime which received three seasons between 1999 and 2001. Fujita discussed how he wanted to express the same enthusiasm for re-releasing the games in the west, but it apparently took some time to get everything ready.
According to Fujita, the team is working on online support for Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX to allow fans in the west to compete with Japanese players. Koei Tecmo is also re-balancing the monsters in order to create this new version. Several Monster Rancher fans were curious how Koei Tecmo will recreate the complete Monster Rancher experience. The first two games used data from CDs in order to generate new monsters, but Koei Tecmo has a solution to this. According to the team, there will be a database of discs to choose from to generate monsters in a similar manner.
Many fans took to Koei Tecmo America's Twitter announcement to thank the team working on Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. One reflected on Monster Rancher being one of the only games to ever make them cry due to the loss of a beloved monster. Some Twitter users implored Koei Tecmo to continue making Monster Rancher games beyond the 25th anniversary, with a few naming Monster Rancher 4 as their favorite.
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX releases for iOS, PC, and Switch on December 9.