Monster Rancher DS (DS)

Monster Rancher DS, known as Monster Farm DS 2: Yomigaeru! Master Breeder Densetsu in Japan, is a Life Simulation video game developed by Cing and published by Koei Tecmo for the Nintendo DS. The game, taking place in the BOMBA region, involves raising, fighting, and breeding monsters. The main character is never seen on screen, but always talks to his apprentice, Cleo, directly. The player chooses his actions and choices through menu options. Monsters are created primarily through two ways drawing pictures in the Magic Field using the touchscreen or reciting an Incantation using the microphone. Other methods include combining two existing monsters to create a new monster as well as an additional unrevealed method.
New to the combination process is the "-ish" or "modoki" monster, a glitch monster whose purpose is to give you a monster when you attempt combinations that are not in the game, and appear as a light blue untextured version of the normal model, and appear as the last monster in each monster's entries in the monster encyclopedia, using the ???-subtype normally used by special monsters. The way you make money, and gain ranks, is by having your monster fight in tournaments. In a fight, your monster starts with a fixed amount of guts, which is basically energy to spend on the moves they know. You can control the monster yourself, or let them fight on their own as they do when they get into a battle in the wild.
Moves can be done in one of three ranges. You can move forward or backward on the battlefield to toggle between the ranges. If you get in very close, you can also push the opponent away from you. A major change from the previous games is that you are able to use the touchscreen to move your monster forward or backwards, as well as to order it to attack.