Recent reviews by Mikkaddo

TLDR: buy and play if you're a veteran of 1 and 2, or if you're determined to make it all the way through them, otherwise, there are other far more reasonable entries in monster training games to play. this title will remain on my steam list, in my library, because it's an important part of gaming history, but I don't see myself putting any more time into them.


I came in to this series at the 4th game, on the PS2. I had not seen, nor played, the first 3 games until this steam port.

to begin with, this appears to be a MOBILE port, which doesn't make sense to me, it's an old playstation game why would you port it to mobile and port *that* to PC when playstation 1 emulation is still strong and possible? but that's a comparatively petty issue I have.

the larger issue is the lack of a CD reading system, and a lack of a reliable music library to search. I can only assume it wants you to search by *song* titles and band names rather than album like it says ON THE STEAM PAGE. further more, I tried famous albums, I tried famous songs, by well known artists over and over and came up with 0 results EVERY time, finally, I hit the random button and . . . . I'm not even sure most of these bands names are written in english at all, much less who the hell they are.

so, using the random option, I finally get a monster for both games and start getting into the game itself, and realize that it's in no way as refined or friendly to new players as the 4th entry is even once you get past the problem of not being able to just rip from CDs you actually have (yes I know, most people no longer have a CD tray on their PC, but you have to accept the HUGE liability with completely removing that and using your OWN library for monster data), and once I have my monster, and take it to my ranch, I find out about the RNG.

both games have what seems, at least at this early stage, to be VERY unfair RNG. be it for the training, or the tournaments the RNG seems entirely stacked against you.

And you only earn money from tournaments in 2, and from work and tournaments in 1, and the money that cmes in from work is a TINY sum compared to the ammount for winning a tournament, but good luck winning a tournament.

both of which also have a month long hard core training regimen for your monster that has a HUGE pricetag that takes winning at least a D rank tourney to earn, yes, WINNING the tournament because if you win a D rank, you get 1,000 plus some bonus . . . . get second place and you earn about 350.

I'm seeing more and more reasons why no one knew about the Monster Rancher games in my childhood until I was in highschool and the 4th game in the series was coming out.

A relaxing experience

Journey is a nice quick game that can be finished in a little under an hour, it's by no means a very challenging game to reach the end of, but has a lot of meaty challenge if you want to get every secret and collectible in the game. Little something for everyone really, plus, the visual style cannot be surpassed! absolutely gorgeous and smooth controlling.

The game is advertised as "The Master Chief Collection" and proudly claims to include Halo 1-4, Reach, and Halo 3 ODST, and costs $40 to download, I purchased the collection as it would not let me have only ODST without the collection, which I took to mean "IT WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE COLLECTION" since it's called, as the name says: "The Master Chief COLLECTION"

however, it turns out the collection includes only 1 game. Reach. and the rest of the games listed as "included in this collection" on it's own blurb are PAID DLC.

I did not before, and do not now, have any interest in purchasing or playing Reach, or most of the rest of the series, I was only interested in ODST and was perhaps willing to give the other games a chance if I had to pay $40 for all 6 games, but $40 for a game I have no interest in, or desire to play, and another $5 on TOP of that for the one I actually intended to play feels exactly like false advertising.

I have thus requested a refund.