Raise monsters to explore and battle in this PS2 monster raising sim from Tecmo. This game improves upon previous installments by allowing more than one monster to be raised at once, interaction with the main character and the monsters, improved explorations, a customizable ranch, tag-team battles, improved 2P mode, a re-vamped battle system, and more detailed monsters. This game also features the longest most involved storyline of any Monster Rancher game to date.

Your goal is to raise monsters to win in-game tournaments, explore for items, and improve your ranch. You can also test your raising skills by battling your monsters against a friend in 2P mode.

The game still uses the innovative system of having a player insert music CDs, game discs, or DVDs into the PS2 to be read and used in making monsters. If you have a good sized collection of music, games, or movies, you can have access to a large variety of monsters very fast.