History Main / MonsterCompendium

* ''{{Final Fantasy XII}}''.

The amount of actual information shown on a given MonsterCompendium page varies from game to game; it can range from mere "flavor text" to a full blueprint of the enemy's statistics (including [[ElementalRockPaperScissors elemental affinities]], [[MoneySpider money]] and [[RandomlyDrops item drops]]), possibly even tips for battling them more easily.

This video game trope is related to EnemyScan. This is a list of all enemies (and sometimes more) that you encounter throughout the game with a varying amount of details available for each. Some of the entries can be LostForever if that particular enemy appears only in a specific area that you can't enter again.

Depending on the game, the information may be automatically acquired when you beat the enemy, or may require using the Enemy Scan. While this is mostly known as Bestiary or MonsterCompendium, its name and exact purpose can vary greatly. Frequently an extra in a VideoGameRemake if the original didn't have one. Filling one up can unlock {{Cosmetic Award}}s or otherwise be considered necessary for OneHundredPercentCompletion.

* ''TalesOfSymphonia'' gave Raine a title if you filled in 100% of all enemies. Aside from needing to compelete the game at least twice to get all enemies you also needed to use an item to scan every enemy in the game to get all this information.
** Oh, and you needed a particular character in your party as well when you used the item.

* ''{{Mother 3}}'' has the Battle Memory, which not only gives you info on all the enemies, but lets you practice fighting them in safety.

* ''{{Mother 3}}'' has one for all the enemies that you encounter. It gives you a short description of the creature and the ability to replay the battles which is really good for practicing song combos. Collecting all of them (including the front and back sprites) unlocks some extra features.

[[FinalFantasy http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BehemothBestiary_9684.jpg]]
[[caption-width:520:A typical Monster Compendium entry.]]

* ''{{The Suffering}}'' has detailed entries of all freakish enemies in both games.

* RatchetAndClank: The second game features one.

* ''{{The World Ends With You}}'' keeps a database of all the [[TheHeartless Noise]] you've defeated. It also lists the pins that they drop, combined with the difficulty required, and drop rate. Of course, you actually have to have defeated them at whatever level for it to list. Cue a lot of players getting frustrated at [[ThatOneBoss Sho Minamimoto]], and the various [[BossInMookClothing Elephant Noise]].

* Built up over multiple plays in {{Angband}}. Your characters are assumed to pass down a log of their experiences. The first time one of your characters runs into a monster, you get minimal information. As you encounter more of them, do damage, and take damage, the log automatically fills with lower and upper bounds of damage, AC, and hit points.
** {{ADOM}} and {{Nethack}} also have their own varieties.
* EndlessOcean has a non-violent version of this, as the player's whole role (before you start receving [[spoiler:threatening e-mails that VaguenessIsComing]]) is to catalog the various creatures found around a fictional south Pacific coral reef. You do this by [[strike:fondling]] interacting with them.

* The console-based SuperRobotWars has one for all characters and mecha, both good and evil. Even more, the pilots tend to have soundbites you can play where they say popular phrases. The same goes for its Gundam-only counterpart ''G-Generation.''
* {{Mother 3}} has one for all the enemies that you encounter. It gives you a short description of the creature and the ability to replay the battles which is really good for practicing song combos. Collecting all of them (including the front and back sprites) unlocks some extra features.
* Kirby64TheCrystalShards had a series of cards which could be collected at the end of a level. They depicted the monsters of the game, including the bosses.

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* So does the ''{{Digimon}}'' Analyzer.

* The Pokédex of ''{{Pokemon}}'' fame works exactly like this.

* The Pokedex of ''{{Pokemon}}'' fame works exactly like this.

* ''PaperMario: The Thousand-Year Door'' has one, though scanning in the first game (as well as the second) also provided a permanent benefit in that you could see the health bars of all further enemies of that type you'd encounter. ''Thousand-Year Door'' also avoided 1 or 2 time entries being LostForever if you checked Professr Frankly's trashcan.

* The ''{{Pokemon}}'' games, like the anime, has the Pokedex. It lists every Pokemon you've seen, and gives more details on the ones you've actually owned at some point (even if you've evolved, released, or traded them since). Usually each game has a mode that includes only the Pokemon you can obtain in that version, and another mode, the National Dex, available after beating the game (or in Ruby and Sapphire, after trading over a Pokemon from Fire Red and Leaf Green), which features all the Pokemon from the beginning.
** The ''Colosseum'' games have the ability to look at the 3D Pokemon from different angles using this feature (this was also in the N64 ''Stadium'' games). Since you can only catch a relatively small number of the possible Pokemon in those games, this "Strategy Memo" will catalog every Pokemon you've seen and give you the extra info by going to a particular NPC, rather than having to catch it.

* The free MMO ''AtlanticaOnline'' has an interesting variation in that each enemy of a type you kill has a chance to give you its Monster Info, split into three parts: General, Location and Items. Getting the complete Info also increases the amount of items dropped. The Info can be shared between players and is sometimes required for a certain quest, probably the most concrete use of this trope in gaming history. The game additonal also offers tons of information about NPCs, items and other points of interest without the need to unlock it (though information about which monster drops items is obviously tied to the Monster Info).

* ''TheLegendOfZelda: TheWindWaker'' features a sort of beastarium composed of statues of all the enemies (and the {{NPCs}}, too) with short descriptions of each. So how do you fill this out? Three statues at a time, one a [[InUniverseGameClock day/night cycle]]. [[IncrediblyLamePun Figures]].

** Much more common in fantasy, space fantasy, or sci-fi [=RPG=]s than in modern horror or historical, where the antagonists are usually the same things as the NPCs. The TropeNamer is the old ''DungeonsAndDragons'' Monstrous Compendiums, which in the game's earlier editions were batches of monsters specific to different themed settings that were sold in a packet.

* ''TalesOfSymphonia'' gave Genis a title if you filled in 100% of all enemies. Aside from needing to compelete the game at least twice to get all enemies you also needed to use an item to scan every enemy in the game to get all this information.

* The [[VideogameRemake DS remakes]] of ''DragonQuest'' ''[[DragonQuestIV IV]]'' and ''[[DragonQuestV V]]'' have the Big Book of Beasts, which shows you every type of enemy you've fought, as well as how many you've beaten, how easy they are to recruit in ''V'' (though you shouldn't trust [[RandomNumberGod those chances]] too much), what items you've gotten from them, and their in-battle sprite. You can even press A to see their attack animations. ''[[DragonQuestVIII VIII]]'' has a similar monster list, which also shows their character models and allows you to see their attack animations. Completing the monster list by defeating one of every monster (including bosses) netted you a secret item that would eliminate random encounters.

* The [[VideogameRemake DS remakes]] of ''DragonQuest'' ''[[DragonQuestIV IV]]'' and ''[[DragonQuestV V]]'' have the Big Book of Beasts, which shows you every type of enemy you've fought, as well as how many you've beaten, how easy they are to recruit in ''V'' (though you shouldn't trust [[RandomNumberGod those chances]] too much), what items you've gotten from them, and their in-battle sprite. You can even press A to see their attack animations. ''[[DragonQuestVIII VIII]]'' has a similar monster list, which also shows their character models and allows you to see their attack animations.

Depending on the game, the information may be automatically acquired when you beat the enemy, or may require using the Enemy Scan. While this is mostly known as Bestiary or MonsterCompendium, its name and exact purpose can vary greatly. Frequently an extra in a VideoGameRemake if the original didn't have one.

* Pretty much every Pen and Paper RPG ever concieved has additional material in the form of Monster Compendium books. However, they aren't available in character; they are reference material for the Game Master.