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Monster Race; Koei's monster racing RPG!
Topic Started: Jul 1 2011, 09:01 AM (1,946 Views)
KenjutheDenjuu
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A neat little monster RPG by Koei where you race monsters and they join your team if you beat them in races. The aim of the game is to compete in and win the Very Best Cup and become the best Monster Racer. Each of the monsters have different elements and are good and bad at running on certain terrains such as grass or water etc. A nice feature is that you can switch out your monsters in the middle of races to change to ones better suited to the terrain you're on (or you can just stick to a monster you like). The monster has to slow down briefly to do this, however. The most recent game was Monster Racers for the DS, which is the most well known one outside of Japan since it got an english translation. I'm not sure if many people know, but there were actually 3 gameboy games in the series before the DS version, the first being Monster Race for the gameboy, and then Monster Race: Okawari (with Okawari meaning 'second helping'). There was also Monster Race 2 for the gameboy color, which was the last gameboy title in the series. There was also a playstation version of the original Monster Race game as well.

The overworld is sort of reminiscent of Pokemon in the first and second Monster race games, but the games themselves are fun and there are plenty of monsters to collect. The mascot for the games is a little pink porcupine creature called Ulrira, who's a grass type (Everytime I think of this guy's name I always think of Old Man Ulrira in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening xD). He's one of the starter monsters along with a yellow Triceratops-esque dinosaur called Tops (a Rock type) and a cute snake called Noko Noko (a water type). You get to choose one these three guys at the beginning of all the gameboy games and the playstation version I believe. The DS game changed the starters, but the 3 original starter monsters do appear in the game as wild monsters.

The series itself didn't get any merchandise, except for guides for each of the games. It did get a 4 koma manga based on it, but it's a very rare piece of merchandise to find and usually goes for about 6000 to 8000 yen online (way too much for a book really xD).

Monster Race 2 boxart
Monster Race playstation boxart
Monster Racers DS Japanese boxart
TAS (Tool Assisted Speedrun) of the origjnal Monster Race for gameboy.
Part 2 of the Monster Race TAS
Huge selection of playthroughs of the different Monster Race games on Nicozon (a video site). Also has BGM music as well.
Videos for the DS game Monster Racers
Monster Race comic (fanmade?)
Edited by KenjutheDenjuu, Jul 1 2011, 09:32 AM.
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She's a Witch!
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I've played the DS game. It really is quite fun, even if the races have a tendency to get annoying in the part I stopped at(I believe it was Asia, if I remember correctly)

Either way, I absolutely loved that game, and really loved making my monsters different colors xD
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KenjutheDenjuu
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You can change their colors? Wow, I didn't know that xD

EDIT: Though, I think I do remember there being some sort of equivalent to shiny monsters in the DS version?
Edited by KenjutheDenjuu, Jul 1 2011, 09:11 AM.
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She's a Witch!
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Yeah, in the DS game, there are jewels that you can pick up, and when you feed them to your monsters, it adds a certain amount of hue(can't remember the actual term for it). There were several different color, and I believe that there were somewhere around a dozen "levels" of hue(or whatever it was called). You could then place the cursor anywhere in the shaded part, and it would change the color of your monster.

Of course, I haven't played the game in ages now, so details are really foggy. It was kinda like your typical "color wheel"
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KenjutheDenjuu
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Hm, that sounds familiar. Maybe I have heard, but i've just forgotten after so long? I remember watching a playthrough a while back, but I don't remember getting too far. Oh well, i'll have to play sometime. My copy is still sitting in my game box unplayed as of now, I really need to get started! :O
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She's a Witch!
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Yeah. I didn't get very far because I did actually wanna buy it instead of emulating it, but I haven't found a copy ANYWHERE(then again, i haven't looked xD). I haven't played any of the previous games, but this one was indeed very fun. ~
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KenjutheDenjuu
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I had a little trouble trying to find a copy of the DS version as well, but then I eventually found one on ebay for a good price. It was really lucky, since I couldn't find it anywhere else i'd checked. I did wonder why it was so uncommon, maybe there were not that many copies released?
Edited by KenjutheDenjuu, Jul 1 2011, 09:21 AM.
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RacieB
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very good
Hmm, never heard of it before... I always wanted a good monster racing game though the one I had in mind was 3D. The monster designs look really neat though :D
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She's a Witch!
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Maybe so. It seems that while it was very popular in Japan, they weren't sure of the reception in America, and they may have underestimated it. Square-Enix still underestimates the popularity of Dragon Quest, for example, despite having such popular games in DQVIII and DQIX. They released so few copies of DQVDS and DQVIDS that they didn't even cover the pre-orders in the first run, and they had to make a whole lot more xD

Either way, I do hope that I can find a copy of Monster Race sometime xD
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KenjutheDenjuu
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There's a cheap copy of Monster Racers DS here on ebay that ships from Canada. It's brand new ^^

I think I heard that the Dragon Quest series wasn't as widely distributed outside of Japan, since it's not as well known here as it is there. All of the games appear to be pretty popular here though, like Dragon Warrior Monsters and such, so it's surprising.

There's another similar monster racing game that was done in 3D called Animastar. It had a game on the Dreamcast. There was also a gameboy color game as well. It's another series that isn't too well known and was never released outside of Japan.
Edited by KenjutheDenjuu, Jul 3 2011, 04:08 PM.
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RacieB
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very good
Hmm, I have a Dreamcast, I wonder if that's any good...?
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KenjutheDenjuu
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There's a video of Animastar here on Youtube if you're interested.
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RacieB
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very good
Yeah, I looked it up and watched that one after I'd posted. It reminds me a lot of Monster Rancher 2 from that sample (probably the monster designs.)
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andwhyisit
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She's a Witch!
Jul 1 2011, 09:18 AM
Yeah. I didn't get very far because I did actually wanna buy it instead of emulating it, but I haven't found a copy ANYWHERE(then again, i haven't looked xD). I haven't played any of the previous games, but this one was indeed very fun. ~
http://videogames.shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_nkw=monster+race+game+boy&_sacat=1249&Platform=!&LH_AvailTo=15&_dmpt=AU_PC_Video_Games_Games&_odkw=monster+race&_osacat=1249&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
If I say that I am going to do something and I don't get around to it then please remind me.
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KenjutheDenjuu
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I think She's a Witch! was actually looking for the DS Monster Race game, I already posted a link above. Hit-Japan has the first two gameboy games in your link though, looks like they're complete as well. The games come with a map of the overworld and there's something like a chart on the back (detailing type effectiveness I think?).
Edited by KenjutheDenjuu, Jul 2 2011, 09:09 AM.
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DeKaFu
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I've played the English DS game quite a bit. I think it's absolutely hilarious that it's set in the "real" world, and all the dungeons and such are based on real locations (Wow, uh, I don't remember Niagara Falls looking quite like this...)

Another feature that's cool in it is "Exotic" monsters, kind of equivilant to "Shiny" Pokémon, only much much much less rare. They're alternate-colour versions of the monsters that turn up rarely, are generally much better, and usually have a different element.

This is also the game that I use as my personal baseline for horrible monster names. Bandicute the bandicoot? Bamboozil the panda? Cuboom?

Just...Cuboom. It's a tiger cub.

):
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KenjutheDenjuu
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Thanks for reminding me, I thought i'd heard of shiny 'exotic' monsters somewhere before.

The starter monsters in the DS game, Leafee/Phoechik/Cuboom, were originally called Jupiter, Mars, and Uranus after planets. I think some of the monster names might have been changed because they referenced some parts of mythology kids wouldn't know about and I guess the developers thought appearance related names would be easier to understand maybe? The same thing happened with Devil Children when they made it into Demikids for a US audience. The names are not bad, but I guess it depends on personal preference xD

EDIT: Oh, by the way, there's a Japanese wiki for Monster Racers DS here: http://www19.atwiki.jp/monsterracers/
Edited by KenjutheDenjuu, Jul 3 2011, 05:36 AM.
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AgentBJ09
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KenjutheDenjuu
Jul 1 2011, 09:01 AM
A neat little monster RPG by Koei where you race monsters and they join your team if you beat them in races. The aim of the game is to compete in and win the Very Best Cup and become the best Monster Racer. Each of the monsters have different elements and are good and bad at running on certain terrains such as grass or water etc. A nice feature is that you can switch out your monsters in the middle of races to change to ones better suited to the terrain you're on (or you can just stick to a monster you like). The monster has to slow down briefly to do this, however. The most recent game was Monster Racers for the DS, which is the most well known one outside of Japan since it got an English translation.
I saw this game a while back, and I was wondering if it was worth the price. Apparently it is, so I'll be sure to grab a new copy ASAP. Koei makes/publishes some of my favorite games on the market, and I really want to support this game.
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KenjutheDenjuu
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I recently started playing Monster Racers (I chose Leafee, the grass starter) and got to a place called Kamchatka. I think it's related to Russia? One thing I found out is that the monsters all have randomised skills (even the starters when you start the game) and you either end up with good or bad skills (some good, but mostly not so great ones, unless you get really lucky). Luckily the Leafee I started off with had Grass star (the best for running on grass) and Hyperspeed (speed +20). Because of the randomised skillsets, you have to reset to get the starter skills you want.

The racing in the games is pretty fun, although it's a little challenging at some points since the enemies level up faster than you do and always seem to run faster even if you have an advantage. It's relatively easy to train up though, although you'll have to train a lot because of how high the enemy levels jump between each level. Recruiting other monsters is a challenge as well (or frustration, depending on how you find the game). The terrain often works against you unless you can find a straight bit to fire Monstars at them. Exotics are also near impossible to catch because of how fast they are.

One annoying thing is when you try to jump a gap behind another monster and they somehow hit you on the head and you fall into a pit. This happens a fair bit since most of the races are usually close quarters. It also happens with turbos as well. Also, you slow down a lot if you fall and unfortunately the game unhelpfully places you right next to the edge of the pit, meaning you fall down it again because you don't have enough speed to clear the gap properly.

The game is pretty good otherwise, although I do dislike the randomised skill sets a little because you have to go through the slightly annoying process of catching two or three monsters to get a decent skillset.

In all, it's a lot of fun really, despite some of the things not being perfect. When it's not frustrating it's really enjoyable and addictive to play. The noises the monsters make when they start a race are really good, by the way. It brings back all the memories of listening to Pokedex cries in Pokemon ;_; *nostalgia*
Edited by KenjutheDenjuu, Nov 2 2011, 05:26 AM.
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