Gaming giant Koei Tecmo has celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Monster Rancher franchise by opening a brand-new, official Twitter account for the IP. While the first game in the series actually came out in 1997, it is the 1999 sequel Monster Rancher 2 which is being honored by the account’s creation. The account has been relatively quiet since its launch, only posting two tweets, but some fans are taking this a sign that the classic franchise is set for a return.
The account appears to be playfully posting from the perspective of the second game’s farming hand Colt, with both tweets stating how happy she is to back and marveling at how long it has been since she first appeared in 1999.
For the uninitiated, the Monster Rancher series sees players tending to a farm of monsters in a farming-sim style experience with an eclectic sheen over the top. The game asks you to raise, care for, breed, and even eventually fight your monsters in tournaments which will net your farm more money and fame.
コルト：
ふぅ・・・、信じられる？
一緒に働くことになって、もう20年もたっちゃったんだよ！#モンスターファーム2が20周年 #MF pic.twitter.com/HbL077BItC— モンスターファーム【公式】@『MF2』20周年！ (@MonsterFarm_KT) February 25, 2019
While the Monster Rancher series, known as Monster Farmer in the Japanese market, was always received relatively well by critics, there have been few entries into the franchise for some time now. The last major release was a mobile game My Monster Rancher in 2011 and since then there have been no Western released titles. The Twitter account for the game has mentioned in one of its posts that it would like support moving into the future but exactly how this comment should be interpreted remains to be seen.
If Koei Tecmo is gearing up for a Monster Rancher 2 HD re-release, or even a remake, it would fit right at home with the current popularity of this sim experience games. Over the past few years, we have seen the rise of games such as Stardew Valley and Slime Rancher bring farming style experiences to players with wild success, not to mention the evergreen popularity of monster collecting and fighting experiences like Pokémon.
