I made the very silly mistake of trusting the controls screen and didnt realize the top row of Saturn buttons controlled the bird much more elegantly then the contextual button and cycling through the options with the shoulder buttons. So make sure to use the top row of buttons to control the bird you will have a much better time.

With my dumb mistake out of the way Astal is a pretty solid game. The thing thatll immediately impress you when you play are the visuals. The backgrounds are digitized from hand drawn art and all the characters and enemies are traditional pixel art (some enemies and bosses are prerendered 3d sprites like DKC) and its on obvious step up in tech from the 2D art of the 4th generation. Another thing that Astal does frequently that 4th generation console games couldn't do is zoom in and zoom out the camera which helps the stages and game feel dynamic and flexible, and the scaling of sprites when it happens doesn't look too rough or jarring. The color choice also feels pretty different than 4th generation games, it isnt super saturated like SNES or PC-Engine games, but isnt quite the dark gritty color choices of Genesis games. Lots of pale purples, pinks, and blues make up the odd crystal backgrounds that help give the environments this otherwordly look that is compelling.

When it comes to gameplay Astal has a surprising amount of moves up his sleeve and often times levels are more about using the right ability at the right time then running, jumping, and punching your way to the end.
(Review in progress will finish my thoughts later)

Monster Rancher is such an essentially PS1 game. Not in the fact that its a critically acclaimed or culturally important masterpiece or anything (Good luck even finding it on top 100 PS1 game lists), but in the fact it could exist and get so many sequels, spin-offs and even a tv show. Just existing in its own little niche, benefitting a bit on Pokemon fever despite being a much weirder and cooler game. Instead of a big sprawling adventure like Pokemon, Monster Rancher is a menu based raising game where you actually have to worry about your monster being happy and even their inevitable death. If you have ever played Tokimeki Memorial or Princess Maker the gameplay will be immediately familiar. You have to figure out the best way to go about raising your monster's stats without making it too tired or unhappy, and doing it all while making sure you dont run out of money. The goal is to win all the tournaments but Monsters roughly only live 3-4 years so you have to find the most efficient way to raise your stats in this timespan enough to actually win. The battle system is real timeish and its all about managing your spacing and your will which is your resource you need to attack, its kind of sloppy but in a way thats what makes it so tense. If the game was only battling it would be pretty lousy but in the context of all the work you have been putting it in it makes it exciting, and the clever inclusion of making it so if you get knocked out while being low on will has a chance of putting your monster in the hospital (the game even says they can die but this didn't happen to me but the fear was always there!) which can lose you valuable time to make your Monster even stronger makes it so battles are surprisingly tense and you get invested in easy. With a turbo button I find Monster Rancher hits a really nice sweet spot where you get the feeling of long term planning and decisions feeling really rewarding, while failure doesn't set you back too far and there is always a bit of fun to trying another monster.

Especially since the games main gimmick of summoning monsters off of real discs makes it so you have no idea what you are even going to get. Gacha games and other exploitive practices have kind of soured mechanics like this but there is a joy to not knowing what Monster you are going to get and it helps your playthrough feel even more unique and personable. I am happy to report the disc summoning works pretty flawlessly in Duckstation so emulator players dont have to worry about not being able to play the game properly.

Overall I feel like the true magic to Monster Rancher is how the long term planning with real consequences leads to the player becoming naturally invested into the monsters they are raising in a way the more traditional RPG monster catching games fail to do. And in a less emotional way there is a joy to figuring out how to play the game skillfully, it feels inherently good to go from stumbling and guessing with your first few monsters to cracking the code and dominating on the Monster you finally win with. Its a little barebones and I think having other Ranchers be your rivals or a few more unique events throughout the calendar years would really make the game truly come to life but its pretty great for what it is and I cant wait to get around to playing its sequels.