History YMMV / MonsterRancher

* EvilIsSexy: Pixie, Lilim, and Poison, as well as the brainwashed Granity.

** BonusBoss White Mocchi, Most, has all around high stats and a good move pool. Spamming your strongest low-cost moves is the best strategy for dealing with Most, but those can get neutralized by its high speed stats (unless your own monster has really high skill stats to counter it, which is easier said than done), as well as its unusually high defense numbers.

* VillainDecay: Durahan was introduced in the second season as Moo's powerful and terrifying [[TheStarscream Starscream]], with an army of monsters at his command which were creepily kept in cold storage until he had use for them. Third season rolls around, and he becomes the BigBad... and also more of a ''joke'', thanks to being saddled with a GoldfishPoopGang and [[spoiler: being reduced to a head]].

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner backs this up with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate Power tech with S force rating and 30 guts cost which Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, Back Charge, a close range tech costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit chance, Burning Palm, a good disposition Power Tech costing 50 guts that deals very heavy general damage with a decent critical hit chance and withering rate that is only balanced out by requiring 350 Power points to unlock, and for evil/bad disposition Metalners, Metalner Ray, a long range Intelligence tech that not only is the coolest looking technique in its arsenal, but deals obscene withering damage with above average critical hit chance even against opposing monsters with good guts regeneration rate, more so if you manage to get your Metalner's Intelligence points up to par, though it is balanced out by costing 50 guts points to use and requiring 350 Intelligence points to unlock. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well. This breed is so good when raised to its best potential that it's telling that there are no computer-controlled Metalner opponents in the game to encounter in battle because otherwise they can very easily be ThatOneBoss if they were ever featured.
*** Golems are designed under the idea that their techniques are mostly inaccurate, including their Hit techniques, they move slowly, and their Guts Rate are very slow, but to compensate for it, Golem's techniques are by far the most obscene in the game. The smaller moves of Golem have obscene guts-to-force ratio which means while it's not too much of a big deal if it missed, it's absolutely devastating to get hit by them; even their most basic moves such as Punch and Kick deal heavy general damage. The more expensive moves in Golem's arsenal offers so much force that getting hit by them can result in a OneHitKill even with max defense and power, which allows them to steal a match out of nowhere; notably Cyclone is one of the most powerful techniques in the game and Roll Assault, while noticeably more inaccurate than Cyclone, had a noticeable boost towards withering while still being obscenely strong. In particular, Brow Hit is an absolutely ridiculous move, despite being an 18 guts cost Sharp technique, its guts-to-force ratio is on par with the highest caliber of heavy class techniques in the game, it has high critical hit rate, acceptable withering, and is much more accurate for a move with that much power behind it. As with most breeds in the game, Golem's obscene techniques are meant to be balanced by its [[MightyGlacier natural parameter]] as well as its [[ReluctantWarrior natural aversion to battles]] (which gives it lower stats growth rate after entering a tournament), but several sub-breed choices for Golem offers it much higher guts rate, and accuracy which heavily undermines the intended weakness of the breed.

** The description for the Radial Niton, a special Niton that looks like a red racecar, states, "It is said there was a play called ''"Fracnhise/{{Cars}}"'' in the ancient era." That was from ''Monster Rancher 2,'' released in 1999.

** The description for the Radial Niton, a special Niton that looks like a red racecar, states, "It is said there was a play called ''"WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}"'' in the ancient era." That was from ''Monster Rancher 2,'' released in 1999.

** Foolery and its equivalents are periods where, if your monster's loyalty is low, your monster cannot attack or gain Guts while your opponent's hit percentages skyrocket.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: ''4'' has 22 different types of food for your monsters, but most players will only bother feeding their monsters watermelon as it's relatively affordable, recovers a lot of hunger and stress, and adds very little form. The only other food worth buying is vitamins for weight loss, and potatoes in the early game because they're cheap and filling.

* FriendlyFandoms: While it was closer to FandomRivalry in the 90s and 2000s, nowadays it's with ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', as the gameplay of the original V-Pets and the World games are very similar to ''Monster Rancher'', and unlike ''Monster Rancher'', are still being made. ''VideoGame/DigimonWorldReDigitize'' and ''VideoGame/DigimonWorldNextOrder'' in particular were praised as worthy [[SpiritualSuccessor Spiritual sucessors]] by the ''Monster Rancher'' community.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: ''4'' has 22 different types of food for your monsters, but most players will only bother feeding their monsters watermelon as it's relatively affordable, recovers a lot of hunger and stress, and adds very little form.

* HilariousInHindsight: The description for the Radial Niton, a special Niton that looks like a red racecar, states, "It is said there was a play called ''"WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}"'' in the ancient era." That was from ''Monster Rancher 2,'' released in 1999.

* MostWonderfulSound: The little tune that plays every time the Gaia Stone reacts to something and guides Holly.

* HoYay: Tiger and Hare.

** In the episode "Holly's Happy Birthday", Suezeo and Hare (both males) leap at each other for a kiss gone wrong after being influenced by an outside source. ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has a similar occurrence when two female characters are encouraged to kiss by a third party, but get interrupted.

* ContestedSequel: ''4'' is possibly one of the most polarizing games in the series, with one half considering one of, if not, the best game in the series and the other considering it deeply flawed at best, though nowhere near as disliked as ''Evo''. Fans of the game cite the ability to raise more than one monster, customizing your ranch, faster-paced gameplay, and a great roster. The detractors cite poor balance, especially when it comes to countering, [[ItsEasySoItSucks overall low difficulty]], monsters not showing much personality, too much focus on story instead of letting you be yourself like in previous games, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks and just being way too different from the previous games]] overall. The adventuring feature in itself is also very polarizing, with one side finding it to be a highlight of the game and far more engaging [[LuckBasedMission and less frustrating]] than the expeditions in previous games, while the other finds it to be repetitive.

** While monsters in ''1'' are generally hideously overpowered, two particular monsters stand out as far and away the best monster in the game: Plant with Pixie sub-breed and Pixie with Tiger sub-breed. Guts rate for monsters in the first game are programmed individually, instead of being the average of sorts between the main and sub-breed of the monster. Plant/Pixie and Pixie/Tiger both shares the distinction of having the fastest guts rate in the game and extreme withering on Monster Rancher 1's version of Toxic Nectar, Toxic Pollen, Drain, and Kiss. Toxic Nectar is a 21 Guts B hit rate move with B withering, while Toxic Nectar is a 24 Guts A hit rate move with A withering. Drain is a 50 guts move with B hit rate, B damage rating, and S withering. Kiss is an S withering with D hit rate but between its 20 guts cost, and Pixie/Tiger guts rate it was heavily spammable. All of these are made worse by the fact that in ''1'', guts correction as a mechanic haven't been implemented yet so there's no downside at all towards having faster guts rate. The result of this is massive nerfing towards Plant and Pixie in the second game, the most notable one being Kiss now didn't deal damage at all stopping Pixies from being able to use it exclusively for the entire match and the introduction of guts correction mechanic and the standardization of guts rate calculation are implemented to avoid the same mistake. Queen Plant's status as a massive GameBreaker in ''1'' was then referenced in ''2'''s card entry [[MemeticBadass where it is said to be considered as the strongest monster in the FIMBA area]].

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner backs this up with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate Power tech with S force rating and 30 guts cost which Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, Back Charge, a close range tech costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit chance, Burning Palm, a good disposition Power Tech costing 50 guts that deals very heavy general damage with a decent critical hit chance and withering rate that is only balanced out by requiring 350 Power points to unlock, and for evil/bad disposition Metalners, Metalner Ray, a long range Intelligence tech that not only is the coolest looking technique in its arsenal, but deals obscene withering damage with above average critical hit chance even against opposing monsters with good guts regeneration rate, more so if you manage to get your Metalner's Intelligence points up to par, though it is balanced out by costing 50 guts points to use and requiring 350 Intelligence points to unlock. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.

** The other S-Rank FIMBA monster that is ThatOneBoss is Akirel, statistically the most powerful monster in the game (800+ in all stats save Skill). Unlike Hammed or Most, Akirel has no special tricks: it will simply smash your monster into the ground using its most powerful moves while dodging your counterattacks. Surprisingly amongst the three IMA vs FIMBA high tier monster, it's the ONLY one who has a WeaksauceWeakness. It only has its base attack as its range 4 move.

* AdaptationDisplacement: The anime is probably better known than the video games. Doesn't help the game is hard or that there hasn't been a console release in years.

** In the episode "Holly's Happy Birthday", Suezeo and Hare (both males) leap at each other for a kiss gone wrong after being influenced by an outside source. ''Videogame/{{Undertale}} has a similar occurrence when two female characters are encouraged to kiss by a third party, but get interrupted.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped:
** The anime's anti-war message really hits home after you see what war did to the planet in the past, and how it affects the Monster Rancher world in the present day. The backstory has humans who grew proud and destructive, creating Monsters for anything that would suit their wants. Eventually they created Moo in an attempt to end the last war, which ended up nearly destroying the entire planet until they created the Phoenix to stop him—and what it took to defeat Moo involved destroying virtually everything. When Moo returns to finish what he started, great sacrifice is required yet again--this time on a personal level, with [[spoiler:the Searchers fusing together to become the Phoenix, and their consciousnesses ceasing to exist]].
** Episode 73 has Mum Mew screaming that she likes herself just as she is when Moo's soul starts to consume her and the others. After an entire season of buying exercise gadgets and hating being called old, when her life is on the line Mum Mew accepts herself and her body image.

** In another case of Bowlderization making things more intense, Moo's beam attacks against the Dragon army. They're clearly hit, and in the uncut version they spiral to the ground like airplanes. By removing that, the dub implies they were ''vaporized'' on contact. Given Moo's an Expy of Franchise/{{Godzilla}}, including the nuclear weapons metaphor, it works quite well.

* FanonDiscontinuity: For some, the PostScriptSeason third season. Though mostly because they find the third's LighterAndSofter tone not up to snuff of the previous seasons.

* BrokenBase: What is the best game it be series? It is overall a four way divide between ''2'', ''3'', ''4'', and ''Advance 2''.

* ItsEasySoItSucks: Despite the games' infamous difficulty, veteran players found the games far too easy and thus made [[https://pastebin.com/TM1KhnKd a Hard Mode mod]].

* QuicksandBox: Part of what makes the first two games NintendoHard. There is a lot that can be done even early on and it can be really overwhelming to know what to do from how to properly train your monster to how to get resources, all with little guidance. The stronger focus on story starting in ''3'' did help alleviate this with more linearity and better explaining how things work.