The 1997 Monster Rancher game is going to receive a 2019 rerelease as a digital-only title that could introduce the classic series to a generation of eager Monster trainers
The original Monster Rancher game that released on the PlayStation 1 back in 1997 is making a come back in Japan with a rerelease. It’s going to go by its traditional Japanese name, Monster Farm, and it should come out later this year. It’s getting published by Koei Tecmo, who created a teaser website using the Monster Farm name.
You can check out the teaser website through this link. Right now, a majority of it is in Japanese, but it does clearly show a 2019 release date near the bottom.
Here’s a tweet of the official announcement from the Monster Farm Twitter account.
【MF公式】：
初代「モンスターファーム」は1997年7月24日に発売?されました。
そして、今年そのまま復活！
初代『モンスターファーム』移植版
2019年配信予定
続報をお楽しみに✨https://t.co/WJlBt0VPXw#モンスターファーム #モンスターファーム2 #MF pic.twitter.com/xdn0oiCg3M
— モンスターファーム【公式】 (@MonsterFarm_KT) July 24, 2019
Not familiar with Monster Rancher? It’s a game where players breed species of monsters, attempting to create better and better versions of the creature. A majority of the game focuses on the concepts of animal husbandry. While some there was a small degree of battles the monsters would get involved in, these were rules-based tournaments. Unlike Pokemon, the game focuses on how players raised their monsters, rather than making battling the more significant gameplay mechanic.
Additionally, given the time the game released, players could place CDs into their PlayStation to generate random monster data from any disc they had around. This concept was ideal given the time. However, with the 2019 rerelease of the game, CDs have become a thing of the past. Plus, the Monster Rancher 2019 game is going to be digital-only. How the developers work in the CD concept remains a mystery.
As of right now, there’s only a planned release for Japan. It’s unknown of if or when the game is going to make its way to the west. It’s going to depend on how well the game sells in Japan likely. Should the game do well, Monster Rancher fans could see the title release sometime during the early part of 2020.
