Best creature collecting RPGs that are not Pokemon?

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Fuck that patent. Persona 5 being one example is funny because it’s part of a much wider franchise that actually happens to have been the one to pioneer monster catching. The accessibility of said wider franchise isn’t great, but you can play many of them on the Repo

willing to bet you knew this as it’s slowly becoming public knowledge but in the case you didn’t, I’ll even mention all the games in the franchise you can play in the Repo

-Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
-Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II
-Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei (remaster of the above two games)
-Shin Megami Tensei (nearly every version has a fan translation)
-Shin Megami Tensei II (probably less versions have fan translations)
-Shin Megami Tensei if (PlayStation remake with more content isn’t translated yet as far as I know)
-Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Maniax is both an enhanced port and the international release)
-Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
-Majin Tensei (SRPG spinoff duology for SNES, not to be confused for mainline)
-Majin Tensei II: Spiral Nemesis
-Revelations: Persona (international localization of Persona 1, generally not recommended to play this version. Removes Snow Queen Quest and renames everything. Redesigns them too, but black Mark is an absolute gem)
-Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP remaster of Persona 1. Stays as close to the original JP release as possible but replaces the music and pause screen among others. Despite this, it’s viewed as the definitive version to play)
-Persona 2: Innocent Sin (the PSX version was translated a while ago and Eternal Punishment PSX was already localized)
-Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSX version was localized, PSP Remaster was not)
-Persona 2: Innocent Sin PSP (the PSP versions are the way to go, with extra content)
-Persona 2: Eternal Punishment PSP (fan translated)
-Persona 3
-Persona 3 FES (the better Persona 3)
-Persona 3 Portable (practically a remake of Persona 3 with how different it is)
-Persona 4 (some people argue whether the PS2 original or the Vita Golden is better)
-Persona 4 Golden
-Devil Survivor (another SRPG spinoff duology, but for Nintendo DS)
-Devil Survivor 2
-Digital Devil Saga
-Digital Devil Saga 2
-Revelations: The Demon Slayer (no this is not related to Persona 1’s localization, it’s a localization of Last Bible, the second closest time SMT became Pokemon)
-Last Bible (fan translated version on Gameboy)
-Last Bible II
-Last Bible III (easily the best in this spinoff series)
-Another Bible
-Last Bible Special
-Jack Bros (fun fact: this was the first game in this franchise to be localized. Exclusive to Virtual Boy but has some fun gameplay and rockin tunes)
-SMT Synchronicity (Windows only game that was only put on the Repo recently. Was made to advertise Strange Journey Redux, a remake of Strange Journey for 3DS that isn’t on the Repo)
-Demikids: Black and Red Book (this is the closest SMT has ever gotten to Pokemon. Just like Pokemon, these games have multiple versions, the twist is that they’re completely different games unlike Pokemon)
-Demikids: White Book
-Demikids: Light and Dark Book
-Demikids: Book of Fire and Ice

Actually you know what, I’m not even entirely sure if all the Demikids games were fan translated.

For the stuff not on the Repo that can actually be played in English you have

-Soul Hackers
-Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD
-Shin Megami Tensei IV
-Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse
-Soul Hackers 2
-Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
-Raidou HD
-you probably know the Persona games so I’ll avoid naming them lmao

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Fuck that patent.

Yeah, that was the inspiration for the thread but I'm trying not to be too negative or rile people up. I mainly wanted to give more shine/focus to other games in that genre instead.

I do know the Persona games, but I'm pretty acquainted with SMT as well I still appreciate that list. That's an awesome thing to have for reference, and for others less familiar with that franchise overall. Cheers, friendo!

 

[manoloco]

Im gonna give a shout-out to @ pokelikemonsters (i don't know if i can post links to other sites in here) on twitter, he is showcasing a bunch of these games and the monsters you can "capture" in them and it impressed me how many games this genre have.

And also here is some games that i didn't see no one commenting: dragon ball fusions 3ds, metal walker gbc, medarot/medabots series, world of final fantasy vita and pc.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Im gonna give a shout-out to @ pokelikemonsters (i don't know if i can post links to other sites in here) on twitter, he is showcasing a bunch of these games and the monsters you can "capture" in them and it impressed me how many games this genre have.

And also here is some games that i didn't see no one commenting: dragon ball fusions 3ds, metal walker gbc, medarot/medabots series, world of final fantasy vita and pc.

How did I forget World of Final Fantasy!?
There's no sarcasm there, I genuinely love that game. I legit have a folder on my PC of my favourite clips that I recorded from it.

I didn't think of DB Fusions, but that is such a fun game.

 

[UnDubious]

Fuck that patent. Persona 5 being one example is funny because it’s part of a much wider franchise that actually happens

The other DemiKids/Devil Children games are not fan-translated. One of the Game Boy games is, but apparently the translation is garbage to the point you can't follow the story.
Also, for Last Bible, you can play the superior fan-translated Game Gear version, which is faster, has better visuals, and adds an extra dungeon at the end that is more in the Shin Megami Tensei style.

 

[qw90700]

dragon ball fusions 3ds

Wow sounds like a good game but it doesn't allow me to fuse weak ass Kuririn (Chestnut-Lin ("Chestnut" as in to mean "bald" + "Lin" of "Shaolin" so it kinda means "Bald Shaolin")) and Yamucha (means "Drink Tea" but it's the name of Cantonese brunch of having dim sum and tea) into one to fuse Kuricha (Chestnut Tea) so my hopes are beaten up lolol.

 

[VGumby]

azure dreams is a hidden gem on play station and game boy color both versions are substantially different as well

 

[QuestForTori]

Everyone brought up Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth already (And it is amazing!), so I'll just recommend the translation patch of Dragon Quest Monsters 2's 3DS remake - IMO, it's the best in the DQM series, and one of the best monster raising games ever!

 

[Bakuma1997]

Nice try Nintendo of America spy

Jokes aside, since i got beaten to the punch to mentioning SMT i can reccoment twi relatively obscure ones i love:

Firs t one is the Medarot/Medabots series, i got excited when i learned the anime i loved as a kid got GBA games, they are kinda hard to grasp mechanically but once you do the Mix-and-match mechanic of building is addicting

Another one for DS is a little known one called Monster Racers, as the name implies rather than beating each other, the monsters race, in this case in a sort of Sonic-esque level, you can train and customize your monster as you wish, imagine it as Uma Nusume but you control the horse (And your Monster doesn't kick you when you win)

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Nice try Nintendo of America spy
View attachment 109391

Jokes aside, since i got beaten to the punch to mentioning SMT i can reccoment twi relatively obscure ones i love:

Firs t one is the Medarot/Medabots series, i got excited when i learned the anime i loved as a kid got GBA games, they are kinda hard to grasp mechanically but once you do the Mix-and-match mechanic of building is addicting

Another one for DS is a little known one called Monster Racers, as the name implies rather than beating each other, the monsters race, in this case in a sort of Sonic-esque level, you can train and customize your monster as you wish, imagine it as Uma Nusume but you control the horse (And your Monster doesn't kick you when you win)

Medabots is something I think I would've loved as a kid, but I don't remember watching it.
All those games look pretty interesting though!

 

[qw90700]

Nice try Nintendo of America spy

You are wrong, but would be right to say "Nintendo of Japan" spy instead!!!

"Jayonnaise6105" username made of "Jay + Onna + Ise" which Onna is a Japanese word that means "woman", Ise is a name of a city in Japan but "Jay" is the tricky part!! A japanese would use the sounds "Jei" instead. So it means it's a spy name of a woman from the city Ise nicknamed "Jei" as spy name!!! Then what 6105 means???? Of course it's agent number like 007, so this Jei from Ise spy is 6105th Nintendo of Japan spy!!!!!

lolol

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

You are wrong, but would be right to say "Nintendo of Japan" spy instead!!!

"Jayonnaise6105" username made of "Jay + Onna + Ise" which Onna is a Japanese word that means "woman", Ise is a name of a city in Japan but "Jay" is the tricky part!! A japanese would use the sounds "Jei" instead. So it means it's a spy name of a woman from the city Ise nicknamed "Jei" as spy name. Then what 6105 means? Of course it's agent number like 007, so this Jei from Ise spy is 6105th Nintendo of Japan spy!!!!!

View attachment 109402

lolol

Or it just rhymes with mayonnaise and I find that funny Who can say for sure?

 

[Pjira]

SMT as many have mentioned already and also

 

[koenigmj94]

Fuck that patent.

Did... did you type out that entire list?

 

[99nereids]

Seconding the Monster Rancher series. I’ve mostly played the gba & nds versions which play a lot like the PlayStation counterparts.
It almost feels like a mix pokemon, tamagotchi, & those stat-raising dating sims as you spend a lot of your time taking care of & training your monsters (for use in tournaments and other things I think)
Very cute & fun game series, big fan of the monster designs

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

I really really REALLY like Digimon Cyber Sleuth, especially Hacker's Memory. Super stoked for Time Stranger!

View attachment 109307​

I also want to try the Dragon Quest Monsters games, I've just never gotten around to it, and I wasn't sure if the new one was any good or not when it was brand new, so I hesitated on getting it.

View attachment 109308​

I also really want to play the Monster Hunter Stories games, also just haven't had time to try them out.

(I know I'm likely in the minority but I have a hard time calling Persona a creature collector even though it's definitaly an aspect of them, but even harder for me to call SMT that because the demons feel so much like actual people in those games, what with their unique personalities and the fact that they speak etc, and the fact that you kind of throw them away when you're done with them. They feel more like mercenaries or something, since the player character is the odd one out usually, not the other way around.
I KNOW I'm probably wrong for this though and I get why they get grouped together with these other games, but it's no big deal so who cares )

I always forgotbthat dragon quest had a monster-tamer game and it is really good too .

I need to play it . Not only for the nostalgia when i saw it on a magazine but im getting in a mood for something like this .

I mean the gameboy color had its fair share of other monster-tamer games too that were awesome on their own.
There was one about having a robot and make him into a kick-ass machine but i cant remember the name of it and it looked like Metal max spin-off too .

 

[Badseed]

Monster Rancher for the PSX. Honestly I remember nothing special about the gameplay, but generating monsters from random CDs still sticks in my head almost 30 years later.

 

[reila]

Seconding Nexomon Extinction, the story was really, really good imo. If you're in the mood for a story that reminds you of mainline pokemon I think it's not that bad. It kind of reminded me of Emerald a little and the OST is cool. If you're good at complex puzzles (I'm a brainlet tbh) then you should give Coromon a shot bc that game has amazing spritework!

This channel does Monster Taming Directs and has put me on some interesting games. (Almost started Cassette Beasts but got caught up with irl stuff.)

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Did... did you type out that entire list?

It’s not the longest thing I’ve typed on here.
Or ever

 

[jarshale]

DQM Joker 2 might be my all time favorite, next would be SMT 3 Nocturne. Maybe Cyber Sleuth in 3rd place.

 

[SproutGremlin.exe]

For GBC/GBA there's the Keitai Denjuu Telefang series. There is a fan translation project for them as well.
Disc Creatures on PC is lots of fun.
Monster Sanctuary if you like Metroidvania style games + Monster collecting.