The tournaments in Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX are a ton of fun. But thanks to the way Koei Tecmo handled these ports, there seem to be some lingering bugs with ongoing games. There’s one tournament, in particular, that seems to be a problem. The special 8-monster Free-for-All known as the New Years Cup seems to be a constant source of crashes. Here’s a way to bypass the New Years Cup crash while we wait for a patch.
The New Years Cup crash occurs always at the same time, in 1003 Wk 4 of January. The tournament occurs once a year, but it seems that only this run in this specific instance is bugged. There are many possible causes, but the workaround is pretty simple.
Since the game autosave by default at the beginning of each week, start by loading the autosave. Once you’re back on the Ranch, don’t go right to the tournament. The game will just crash again if you do. Instead, go to Town first, and then back to the Ranch. Finally, go back to Battle and then select the tournament. It should load just fine. Whatever corrupted memory address or other issue seems to be bypassed by doing this. And so, you can get past the New Years Cup crash and continue your game.
Since you’re here, you might want to check out some of our other Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX guides. Maybe you want to learn how to get the best monsters from certain discs. You could also need help with Expeditions if you find yourself getting lost a lot. There’s also a lot to learn about training and unlocking new moves. If you’re trying to max out training gains, you might want to keep some special items in mind.
