I finally sat down and seriously raised a Henger for a while. I had it win some unofficial battles, until it had 3 stars in view mode. I then battled some more, and found out that you don't get more stars. I kept getting Fame, but no more stars. I tried an Official battle early on and was defeated by a Hare, so I went back to really focusing on ranching until I could beat the E level Official tourney. (I solved my feeding problem! I had been praising/patting my monsters, not knowing that you can do that or feed it. So earlier I had been eliminating my feeding option every week. So, you can praise, scold or feed every week.)

So far, tourneys are similar to what we have seen in the past. Most unofficial events are a grid with 3 opponents. A few are elimination events, with 3 entrants, and you wind up facing 2 of them. The official event had more opponents, in the same grid we have all seen. Fame is raised if you win against any opponents, you also win money and occasionally items. There do now appear to be post-battle statgains at all. (unless I am completely missing something)

Once I won, I started having more people visit me at the ranch. The Item shop opened up, and I was able to buy some foods which had not been given to me before.
The foods available at the shop right now are:
Mushroom
Potato
Bashi Bashi Banana
Meat
Erusheba Rock (looks like a white brick)
Hashimitsu Candy
Screw (yes a screw from a machine)
Colart Watermelon
Kalaragi Mango
Toguru Squid

There was also a menu for other items. Right now, two are available to me:
Wool Ball
Character Toy (vaguely resembles the 'dummy' from MR2)

I also had a visit from a man who sold me some training gadgets for my ranch. (all that battling wasgood, because I was able to buy a lot!) You then have to place things on your ranch -ala 'Sim City'. I was able to buy more gadgets than space allowed on my ranch at this time. Once they were in place, the options for more drills appeared on the Schedule.

I also had a visit from a Monster Doctor from far away, but haven't seen any real consequences from the visit. In general, a lot of people come and visit the ranch, like in MRA2.

Neat! /drools all over the place in anticipation/

One quick note: the tourney announcer is a guy who bears a strong resemblance to Bill Gates, so much so that this is what we have started to call him around my house.

That's intreging.....

That's intriguing o_O

I assume you meant "do ^not^ appear to be post-battle stat gains," that's too bad.

the stars are needed (3 stars) as qualifier prerequisite for the official rank tournaments (tourneys that raise ranks ).

the "Erusheba Rock (looks like a white brick)" is the "healthy block" it gives high energy boost for your monster but doesn't give any effect on weight. It's more of a dietary food if you want your monster to slim down (that is if your monster is fat :P )

Wow, thanks for the tip!

Can you rearrange the training gadgets once you placed them down?

Let's me be more specific, can you choose another location for the training gadgets after you've placed them down?

I still don't get what you mean?

Yes, you can change your mind and move them.

Does the location of the training gadgets on your ranch vary their effectivness?

And does it affect their effectiveness greatly?

Don't know. The test of this would take several months of boring work, and it's not worth it right now.

Lol. Ok.

I was just wondering, since I believe I read some article that said this...