Okay, first off one thing I've noticed and wonder if anyone can pipe in to support or whatever. It seems from what I've played so far that the stray monsters showing up on your ranch may be linked to fame, since I've had them show up at some low ranks, as long as my current monster has a decent bit of fame under its belt. Anyone else?

Also, has anyone had an opponent monster withdraw from a match without fighting you? I rather liked when that happened in the regular console games, as it saved some time... but I'm suspecting now that that may have been one of the things lost in the transfer to a portable game.

Third, is anyone else noticing a trend starting up of some of the handheld games being more complex and more in the spirit of the previous games than the latest "console" versions? I've noticed this now with this game and Monster Rancher 3, and also in Harvest Moon 3 for the GBC and Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland. In both of the PS2 games, the games got really drastically changed, perhaps in part to make them more accessible to younger gamers (judging by some of the changes in each), whereas in both handheld games there are a lot of things that are "more true" to the previous games (and IMHO more fun) than in the current "big name" versions. Not that I'm saying that MR3 or HM:STH aren't fun... just less fun than they could have been, with a lot of the complexity and better parts of the games gone. I'd honestly rather have seen the drastic departures in the handheld games, as a sort of "side thing," and the versions that ended up as the handhelds instead being fleshed out and made into the more meaty PS2 games. But maybe that's just me...

Oh, and as one last note... is it just me, or is Bolzoi really cute?

Please, I'm already having bad premonitions about who Aroma wants to be more ladylike (wife-material) for. Not many choices but Bolzoi around.

*grins* yeah, I just ran into that one a couple weeks ago...

Well, there's also.. um... no, that's a girl. Well there's.. no... that's a girl too.

There's always Crow...!

Or Mr.. ah.. whatever his name is. The one that's the "head official" guy, that told her she should be more ladylike in the first place.

Or now that I think about it, I don't think you got to pick if you're a male or female trainer in this one... so maybe they're assuming male, and she's trying to be more ladylike for you/me.