I would like to thank Koei Tecmo for the review key to this title.

For those old enough to remember, there was a toy called a Tamagotchi, where you could raise a digital pet. Back around 1997-1999, the PlayStation had two games similar in concepts called Monster Rancher 1 and 2. Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is an updated for modern audiences version of these games, though their quality is mixed.

Both games have a very similar premise. In both, you play as a prospective monster trainer, one of many who raises various beings of all shapes and sizes to do useful work, compete in tournaments, and otherwise, you serve as a combination of their tamer and parent.

Both games allow you to play as a monster rancher, though the second allows the mostly cosmetic choice to pick male or female as your gender. You can either be assigned a random monster by the computer, or the far more interesting option of going to the Shrine and picking one based on "CD Data".

In the original releases, you could pop out the game CD and pop in a music or game CD, which would be checked against the game database and you would get a monster based on the name of the CD and the track data it contained. Since the port has been been made for an era where CD drives are either not as common or may not even exist on certain systems (like the Switch and many models of current-day PCs), the Shrine has been modified in both titles to allow the player to input the data of a CD (or let the game pick one at random) to achieve the same results.

Frankly, this portion of the game alone can be fun, just to see what CDs are recognized. Musical artists, video games, and even some PC games of both the retro and modern era can be found with valid data from around the world. That said, while this is an interesting gimmick that was faithfully preserved for both games, the rest of the gameplay in both titles is more rudimentary.

There are options to train your monster in various stats, they can be employed on various jobs, and they can be given certain items. Your monster can get sick, tired, and even die, so maintenance of their health is important. There are ranked battle tournaments they can enter to unlock the privilege of unlocking higher ranked monsters and other benefits. The combat system is a rather simplistic "rock-paper-scissors" style contest based on your stats and the choices you select. Finally, once you unlock more than one monster, options to combine them into a new one, archive their "data" for later use, and other customizations are made available.

Graphically, both games are presented like their PS1 versions, though some smoothing and upscaling were provided. The game can play in Windowed mode or a Fullscreen mode with borders to mimic the original resolutions. The graphics for both have a simple if adequate hand-drawn anime style, though the second game makes slightly more use of 3D models and better animation quality.

The sounds and music are nothing special, generally synthesized classic fantasy style soundtracks, though the second game has a choice between original quality music and somewhat higher quality remastered music. Aside from better instrumentation and cleaner sound, this is not that much different from the original tracks. The sound effects are not remarkable in the slightest but adequate to the purpose of the game.

Being ports of PS1 games, controllers compatible with Steam are supported, as is keyboard and mouse. I found the latter to be rather well adapted to the port, though there is little instruction on game controls. There is an option to read an online manual, but since I reviewed this game before release, this was not available.

I am pleased to say stability is excellent, with both games loading with no discernable issues and requirements are quite modest. This will run out of the box on Linux via Steam Proton, though the opening videos did not display due to codec issues, custom versions of Steam Proton like Proton GE may have better results. There is an online battle feature, but this was not available to test before release.

Morally, both games are fairly clean, aside from some red flags detailed below.

Violence is of a very sterile "give orders and watch it happen" RPG variety in the combat modes like the tournaments. The ESRB warned of possible references to drugs and other mature topics in randomized monster names assigned by the game AI in the original games, but this seems to have been cleaned up somewhat, as they advise you to avoid foul names for monsters or your player character. Still, a few monsters have things like h*ll in their names, and the original ESRB ratings warned of possible sightings of d**k, b***h, and b**t**d, which still may be present in the remakes.

Sexual content is present to a mild extent. A few female monsters look a tad on the scantily clad side, though the low detail of the game models mutes this somewhat. Thankfully, this is apparently confined to only a few female monsters only.

The games have a shrine mechanic for rolling the dice and getting a random monster, and this is presented in such a generic fashion (aside from a very mild Catholic aesthetic at best) there are no issues of particular note, the shrine serving more as a game mechanic vehicle than anything else. The monsters themselves are portrayed as generic fantasy beings capable of death and subject to illness, fatigue, and otherwise treated like one would breed and raise livestock and pets, so nothing overly offensive here in general, aside from some monsters that look like serial numbers filed off skeletons and demons.

Morally, you are encouraged to be a responsible monster rancher, though the choice to do ill-advised things like overfeeding them sweets, overworking them, or refusing to punish them for cheating at various tests is up to the player. Otherwise, there is no moral or ethical content to be concerned by.

Overall, while technically competent, this port is not going to provide a lot of involved gameplay. It's suitable if you have nostalgia for the series or want a simple "raising sim" game, but neither included title is overly interesting, the admittedly intriguing CD data gimmick aside. Morally, anyone who is a teenager on up should be able to handle its themes.