I can agree for sure. I do like the game and at it’s core, it’s still a fun game as it’s an interesting mish-mash of MR1 and MR2 mechanics. But I can say that after multiple 100% playthroughs, it’s always a reminder that this could have been a legit true mainline sequel rather than a spin-off.
There’s a TON of nods to Monster Rancher. The obvious ones are the Kaiju rare subs that are Monster Rancher breeds, but there’s also a lot of dialogue or the occasional random mail that has some references for fans of the series. There’s even a Pure-breed Plant sitting in grandma Teresa’s shop that I only noticed for the first time after someone pointed it out haha.
I did put some effort into learning a bit more about Ultraman than I knew before, which made it slightly more enjoyable, and also fun for naming them, because I’m a sucker for Punny names.
Like this one… Kaiju is a Melba.
I named him… Idris Melba. (First he fought Kaiju, now he IS a Kaiju! lol)
for the remaster, the CD reading system is replaced with a built in searchable Song List. This is how you can play it on Mobile, Switch, Steam etc. The Song List doesn’t exactly equate to original CDs (the function is mechanically different) but there are a handful of entries that equate to their originals (this accounts for about 0.01% of entries within the 664,909 that create their original monsters.
The good news is, Everyone now has access to the entire game and can raise any monster they want to (once they’re unlocked, of course), and the Song List is 100% solved and published. You can Random Button if you like the surprise, but if you want something specific, you can just view the published Song List, Pick your Monster Main/Sub, then pick the Title/Artist suggestion for the variant you want. :)