In the main story mode, the player selects one of six masters each with different abilities, backstory, and pool of available summon creatures. Over a series of battles on varied maps the player must defeat the other five masters and, ultimately, Gaia himself to claim his throne. There is also a map-select mode where any map can be played outside the story mode, a vs mode for two players, and a map-edit mode.
A heavily revised PlayStation port which replaces the master characters with more anime-style designs, adds an in-depth story component, and redesigns some of the maps was released the following year as Master of Monsters: Disciples of Gaia.