I just got home from work, and have the game! I will play for about an hour and post more in a little while! Also, the game manual has some pictures of monsters we haven't really seen, including the new Ogyo, Ripper and Madillo. I will post a scan of those tomorrow morning.

The intro is a short anime sequence, with a woman singing to music in the background, sort of like a long version of a movie intro. It shows the game characters interacting with monsters, Fan runs around with Golem, Mocchi, and Suezo. It shows a variety of situations, including that "pirate Gaboo". (His hook turns into a mace at one point.) We see the Phoenix at the very end of the intro, and it flys away. It's almost as if Tecmo wanted to take over the old cartoon show, and write it themselves.

The game itself has an intro about the characters, and shows you a bit of town before letting you into the shrine and then onto the ranch. I made a Garu, I wasn't offered the option to try a CD right away. (If I was, I completely missed it!)

Some facts: Your character can run around the ranch in 3D.
You start with 4 items available: Potato, Mango, Squid and Meat.
There is an Encyclopedia.
Skill is back.
Techs are pretty much the same, the chart that displays them looks different. They can have attributes like in MR3; designation icons show you if it's a fire/water/beat type tech.
The music is sort of bland, and notably missing are many of the old themes.
Menus are a little different, but easy enough to navigate.

Well, that's about it for now. I haven't had time to do much yet (no battling or exploring) but I will be posting more in days to come!

cool :) lisa do you need screenshots of the monsters i found ? i could send them to you if you want :)

during the first part ur not offered to pop in a CD in the tray (its part of the story line) that your supposed to have an enbanseki (disc slate) which contains the Garu/Gafu(?) as ur first monster. (Just the same as the animation / video sequence :) ). As you play the game don't forget to get the data from the monster rancher 4 disc (the CD acts as a pandora disc too ) you'll be able to get the 3 rare antlans from there. Once you get the slating option try the Monster Rancher 4 disc so u'll get a blue antlan. Once you win a tournament or reach monster rank D and breeder rank E, you'll be able to get the Yellow Antlan. That is if i remember it correctly :)

Finaly my 2nd favorete game is being released (Xenosaga is #1 part 2 coming soon) Anyone know when it hits US shelvs? (Gas prises in arizona $5.23 a gallon at convenynt stores...)

If you want, you could send screenshots, I am simply going to use a free netfirms account to post pictures. There is limited bandwidth, so I will have to rotate the pics.

So far, I have only rested my monster for 3 weeks. And, oddly enough, it's 'energy' went down! I need to figure out how to add drills, hopefully tonight, and I will post more. (I didn't have a lot of time to play last night. I'll have a little more tonight.)

And, yes, gas is over $3 a gallon here now....

the energy would go down even just by resting but the stress / fatigue level would remain the same to maintain ur monster's energy level you need to feed it from time to time. I'm having a problem with the feeding system with the antlans co'z when I'm training them once they get to "yase" or thin they easily get irritated or stressed out and if they get "debu" or fat they easily get tired when i'm drilling them.

As for adding more drills after you win a few battles you the carpenter would drop by and offer you his services where u could purchase training gadgets. There's another carpenter, female, who would upgrade your house and facility to which you could train more monsters :) (1st upgrade allows u to train 3 monsters, 2nd upgrade enables u to train 5 monsters :)

About training gadgets: The special training gadgets can be acquired via adventures also special facilities for ur farm. These training gadgets are acquired as slates during adventures to which you would give them to the carpenter for study and the carpenter would add them into his/her inventory for you to buy :)

sorry if i keep forgetting to add information, sometimes it just passes my mind and i keep forgetting to type it in :(

just give us what you remember. soon lisa will join in, and then we will have an additional set of eyes and ears.

well it would help if people would ask questions too :) at least i know what to answer at once :)

anyway here's link to some of the screenshots i made of the monsters in monster farm 4. I'll be updating it as often as i can :)

Link: MF4 Gallery

i think when lisa starts posting that will start up some cross conversation.

myself, i am just interested in whether the statgain system we've come to know and love in mr1-3 [do a drill, gain some points, depending on how old you r monster is and how well he does the drill] is still in place, or if theyve changed it.

basic stuff like that.

with the stat base system i'm still doing research on it co'z a lot of factors are affecting it already like, stress, fatigue, age, energy, and motivation. its still a bit hard to totally grasp it all at once. :)

Is there a 2P Comp vs. Comp mode?

Never mind, that was already answered, sorry.

Have you noticed if the monsters appear to age like they did in Monster Rancher 1, or do they just grow larger like in MR2?

I hope they grow like in MR1, I loved it when suezos had fins when they were babies!! :-D

A slightly off-beat question, but what are the first monster(s) that you two (lisa and raistlin) are using?

I think Garu is the only one you can

Garu, you don't have a choice.

yes, garu until you get the option of getting monster from a CD your stuck with garu for a few weeks :P

For PT: there are 8 spaces to use in making a monster's name.

to smokey:
when ur monster gets older a message appears during that week saying that your monster has grown etc..

Ah, still only 8-space names? Crap. It may not seem like much, but having 8 instead of 10 REALLY cuts down on many of the names I would have liked to have given to my MR3 monsters. But, SKILL IS BACK, and that satisfies me. Also, you said that the techs "are pretty much the same"-- considering that they're handled differently in the MR 1/2, MRA 1/2, and MR3, how do you mean? Can you have all like in MR1/2, do you only get 4 at a time like in MR3, or did they do the compromise "equipping" system of the Advance games? Since I'm a big fan of having a wide move list, this is very important to me.

you can actually have 12 moves in your total list but you can only equip 9 for battling purposes. To access them you just press R1 or R2 for scrolling.

3 moves for long range
3 moves for medium range
3 moves for short range or melee

how do the monsters learn the techs...?
is it like MR3 where you need a stone/orb....
or do they learn them from training like the other games....?

Thanks again Raistlin, thats specifically what I wanted to know. From how you describe it, sounds like both Nate and I will be satisfied, as he can get his wide move list, while I have the option of limiting my monster's techs to only the ones I really want.

GOOD. I really liked that system in MRA2, and now that it's 3 per range, even better! I just hope there's more balance, because many times in MRA2 Int-based monsters can't do crap at short range.

Not enough characters to name the monsters (and maybe ourselves) is really something they should fix in the american version...

Sounds good. Problem is that MR2 was the only MR that ever made it over here so I don't know an awful lot about the other games. Still, sounds good. Can't see any things in the game that I dislike, and a LOT that I do.

If you see any MR4 Doodles, can you post screenshots of
them? Can you do the same for hengars and zans?

I'm glad that they're using the old Jell, and not the MR3 Jell. That thing was odd.

They're using the old jell!? That's great! I like the old one from MR2 SO much better than MR3. Especially the card from MR2 for the pure jell. That card was really cool looking.

Those pics look awesome! Hey, Fenrick was right about that zuum, it was a /dragon!

MR3 Jell is by far the best... one of my favourites in fact... Kinda creepy innit?

I love the little animation with the umbrella and the cannon :)

Is Pipo Saru really an Ape?
So all Ape monsters in MR4 will be like that?

i don't know where to place the pipo saru :P since i know its a monkey, i just placed it as an ape :) it's the rare i got from Ape Escape 2 "japanese version". As for learning techs you learn them by gaining levels during adventures :)

Combine pipo with it self and you should get the original breed. Unless i missed something which i probably did :P but anyways the kabucho (pancho/beaclon) pic isn't workin on your site. All others work and look great! Thanks for the visuals!

hmmm thanks for the info on the kabucho... so far i tried combining two pipo saru and i still get a pipo saru in the end :P

Note about combining:
Once you combine a monster you can choose what final monster you want to get from it :)

whaaaaaaaaaa?!?!?!? bogus about the pipo saru. But the combining feature sounds great. I really appreciate the pics so keep up the good work :D

That sounds great that you choose what you get. Now I really hope they don't change it for the American version.

Raistlin_Majere, when you speak of Monster Rancher 4 being a pandora disc, do you mean the Monster Farm 4 disc? If so, I wonder if the Monster Rancher 4 disc will be a pandora disc as well....

So i believe Pipo Saru is a purebreed, maybe there is no sub for this species and it's the only of its kind.
The point about choosing the breed when combining is just like MRA2. Looks like that game was a great rehearsal for MR4. ;-)

I, for one, am happy that Pipo Saru is a purebreed. Those Apes are so rediculously badass... Besides that, it means they get their own techlist, and variations... which will be wicked.

Am I the only one that likes 'em?

And have you tried combining 'em with anything else? Do they? *Here's for hoping!*

haven't tried combining them that much :) am trying to finish the storyline first :) I still have 2 CDs which i couldn't access yet :)

Raistlin, how are the music scores for MF4?

music scores ? the bgms ?i like the opening song :) but i find the bgms a bit flat :(

Yeah, same here. The in-game music is a tad generic. It's not annoying, just very much background music. The only music I recognise is the clip you hear when winning a tourney. There are also some sound effects re-used when clicking on things in menus.

I looked at all the pictures, and was quite pleased at the Jells especially. It is about time we see the jell's from number 1 back. The Pixie's and Tigers sadden me, they look horrible. The Naga/Mochhi looks like it has the armor from the doom games. The Chaos monsters are awesome, and finnaly they avoid names like "Yellow Suezo" for every monster, and they are back at number one's Greek and Roman names. Vesuvis is the biggest example...

To Raistlin,
In the Monster Data page 1, #8 shows Adventure Level. What happens when a monster levels up? Are there any bonuses when it levels up?

Welcome Tazar,

MR never went away from having names derived from
mythology. It's just that with hundreds of monsters its hard
to come up with one for every monster. Vesuvius isn't a
good example of "getting back to" those names, since it
first showed up in MR2, iirc.


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Hi GoldenBoy,

I never was a fan of MR2, it realy left a bad taste in my mouth. MRA had alot of monsters with names with their colors, and monster rancher 2 had quite a few itself. I don't realy remember many monsters with the Roman and Greek names in 2,3,A... But in MR1, I remember tons. Poseidon, Naga, Gaia just to name a few. And only now am I remembering Vesuvius. All in all I am happy they aren't going back to shell shading. This one looks more like good ole' number 1.

Well all the names that you mentioned were present in Monster Rancher 2....
Monster Rancher 2 had PLENTY of old Roman and Greek names for the monsters. Being that you said the game left a bad taste in your mouth, you probably weren't far enough into the game to unlock them all.

Yeah, without help, the gem can definitely crush your hope. lol

*game

Tell me when you see Doodle. lol

Ah! I am going to LOVE mr4, despite the 8 letter factor (well, it never really bugged me, seeing as how I never thought of names exceeding 5 letters, on a good day sometimes 6...) and the fact that pixie's look more... goody now instead of the old look. Actually, I think the tiger looks much better than in mr3... Did you see that thing from the front? I don't much like what the pancho/pancho looks like now, being the avid pancho raiser I am, but man, that pancho/beaklon is the sweetest thing I have ever seen! ^.^

sorry guys if i'm not able to answer any questions lately am too busy and haven't even have time to play for more than 10mins on my PS2 :(

to kimochi:
when you level up during an adventure (adventure level) you could get new techniques and attributes for your monster... you could customize the attributes u want for ur monster :)

How difficult is the game compared to MR2 and MR3? Or have you been focusing on finding out as much as is possible about it for the people here?