Best creature collecting RPGs that are not Pokemon?

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I like Pokemon, but it isn't, and nor should it be, the only game out there of its kind. There was a point around 10-15 years ago where I started playing and enjoying other RPGs with a similar formula. RPGs with a feature of collecting or recruiting creatures/characters that you could also level up and battle with.

I thought I would share a few of my favourites and encourage people to recommend the ones that they enjoy:

Special bonus points to Inazuma Eleven. It has some fun, over the top "Dragon Ball"-esque special moves and is the most I've ever been interested in soccer.

 

[Retro Doomer]

I only know Palworld right now.
in terms of creature collecting

 

[PSVitaForever]

I quote myself because I mentioned it yesterday in another topic.

"Nexomon Extinction" comes to mind, somewhat a Pokemon clone, a game we've enjoyed MORE than P. and that I really recommend if you're into genre: no two versions, no (paid) online to trade creatures because everything is in one game, colourful graphics similar to but way better than pearl (we played them at around the same time some years ago), a huge free update that added new monsters and new areas post-game. Only downside? No minimap, but for the trickier parts we followed a video.

Oh, and I loved the first Monster Hunter Stories on 3ds and the first Yo-kai (despite also having played 2 and 3, and the second title of MHStories, the first titles remain my favs)

 

[Tonberry]

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

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.

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 )

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I quote myself because I mentioned it yesterday in another topic.

View attachment 109305


Oh, and I loved the first Monster Hunter Stories on 3ds and the first Yo-kai (despite also having played 2 and 3, and the second title of MHStories, the first titles remain my favs)

I played the first Nexomon earlier this year and really enjoyed it! I haven't gotten around to Extinction yet, though.
MH Stories & Yo-Kai watch are both pretty fun franchises, I just wish we'd get an official English release of Yo-Kai Watch 4!

 

[Matricks]

Kind of.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

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'm also looking forward to Time Stranger

Dark Prince was good, but I wouldn't say drop everything and buy it ASAP. More of a "when you get around to it" kinda game

I'd say MH Stories is pretty good, but I find it hard to get into the OG series. It's possible I really like MH Stories just because I prefer RPGs.

Yeah, I see that point for SMT/Persona. They're definitely not primarily creature collectors, and they usually lack a feature to store the creatures you recruit. Just re-summon the ones you've already registered. That, and Inazuma Eleven, I am more including in a tongue-in-cheek manner

 

[PrismRed]

Spectrobes on DS.

 

[trickybus]

Monster Sanctuary. It's Pokemon reimagined as a metroidvania with skill trees and cute pixel graphics. Most battles are three-on-three and the expectation is to experiment with different monster compositions to find good synergies.

Monster Sanctuary on Steam

Monster taming meets metroidvania. Collect, train and battle monsters in a lovely side-scroller pixel world.

store.steampowered.com

 

[GardeniaSky's icon GardeniaSky GardeniaSky]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 has a creature collecting/training system. The third party slot is for whatever you 'catch'.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Spectrobes on DS.

Monster Sanctuary. It's Pokemon reimagined as a metroidvania with skill trees and cute pixel graphics. Most battles are three-on-three and the expectation is to experiment with different monster compositions to find good synergies.

Monster Sanctuary on Steam

Monster taming meets metroidvania. Collect, train and battle monsters in a lovely side-scroller pixel world.

store.steampowered.com

Looks like I have a few new recommendations there!

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:11 PM

Final Fantasy XIII-2 has a creature collecting/training system. The third party slot is for whatever you 'catch'.

True. That was an interesting feature! It was kinda weird that you could get Lightning through the DLC and that she had to be in the "creature" slot for you to use her

 

[PrismRed]

Oh I forgot, also Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner on PSP.

 

[HITMAKER_99]

Unchained Blades (USA+UNDUB) PSP ISO – RGT Repository

Unchained Blades (USA+UNDUB) PSP ISO Game ID: NPUH-10123. Languages: English, Undub. For Sony PlayStation Portable.

retrogametalk.com

 

[garbodorman]

Digimon World 2 (slow + grind heavy + no "pokedex")
Digimon Adventure : Anode/Cathode Tamer( it's shitty but maybe you'll like it)
Digimon Adventure 02 : Tag Tamers(grind heavy)
Digimon Adventure 02 : D1 Tamers
Digimon World DS ( slow + grind heavy)
Digimon World : Dusk/Dawn ( slow + grind heavy)
Digimon Story : Lost Evolution
SMT/ Devil Summoner/ Devil Children/ Devil Survivor
Dinosaur King
Fossil Fighters
Fossil League : Dino Tournament Championship

 

[Yousef]

I like Pokemon, but it isn't, and nor should it be, the only game out there of its kind. There was a point around 10-15 years ago where I started playing and enjoying other RPGs with a similar formula. RPGs with a feature of collecting or recruiting creatures/characters that you could also level up and battle with.

I thought I would share a few of my favourites and encourage people to recommend the ones that they enjoy:
View attachment 109296View attachment 109297View attachment 109299View attachment 109300View attachment 109301
Special bonus points to Inazuma Eleven. It has some fun, over the top "Dragon Ball"-esque special moves and is the most I've ever been interested in soccer.

I think you’ve already laid out most of the great ones. Though i Wasn’t aware of inazuma, I’ll check it out! How does it capture the formula exactly?

 

[HITMAKER_99]

Though i Wasn’t aware of inazuma, I’ll check it out! How does it capture the formula exactly?

you play as the guy who din't LTG himself and collect all the children to work as unpaid slaves for you.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I think you’ve already laid out most of the great ones. Though i Wasn’t aware of inazuma, I’ll check it out! How does it capture the formula exactly?

You can recruit various new players for your soccer team from around the game world. It's usually from up to hundreds of different players. You level them up, have them learn special moves and improve their stats.
It's maybe not the most "creature collector"-ish among the bunch, but it is still a pretty fun RPG series.

 

[Dany28]

Digimon I think is good.

 

[qw90700]

- Well Dragon Quest V is prime example to give about such games which its popularity combined with the popularity of Megami Tensei games' "making monsters join your side to fight for you" game feature which is prime game feature of Cosmic Soldier beforehand built a ground for the existence of Pokemon games from the start because people liked such games + there were popular virtual pet idea that exploded with Tamagotchi. However Nintendo at the time had to compete with rivals and popularity of arcades so they used some popular ideas they gathered from "industry standards" to develop games to sell their consoles like NES, SNES and Gameboy. So Pokemon seemed liked "Call of Duty" when people enjoyed playing DOOM, Quake, Duke Nukem, Zero Tolerance, et cetera so Pokemon being a bridge between newer generation by Gameboy being a console that directly targets little kids who wouldn't know about such games before it is what newer generation got to know such gameplay style as if how kids these days would believe Volarant is the most big deal FPS in existence like there is no other FPS before it lolol.

- However in this topic I would be very surprised if no one would mention Monster Rancher series which a huge well-known big deal series about such games, and it does way more deep into what this genre is about as it's more like simulation game of the genre. A person may dislike such games but they may like Monster Rancher games.

- On SNES there is less known game called Robotrek that is about raising robots so they can fight for you. In its own context a significant game about this genre IMO.

- On PS1 there is Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu that is about collecting spirits of forest that's more like bug monsters and breeding them to make them fight for you.

- On PS2 there are rather "create your own monster so it will fight for you" games like Magic Pengel - The Quest for Color and Graffiti Kingdom.

So outside of games that are mentioned here so far these are the only games I know regarding this topic.

 

[trickybus]

Looks like I have a few new recommendations there!

I hope you enjoy it!

I didn't realize how much I missed well-designed skill trees until I played this game. There are lots of viable play-styles and some are straight-up busted. I enjoyed exploring each monster's potential as much as I enjoyed exploring the world

 

[Bandini]

Ni No Kuni (NDS/ps3)

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Ni No Kuni (NDS/ps3)

I love that game! I was recently informed on how different the OG DS version actually is. I need to play that version some day!

 

[koenigmj94]

Two niche ones, Amazing Island and Monster Rancher 4.

Amazing Island isn't really 'creature collecting' but more 'creature making' and its about minigames but given the stuff you listed I think you'd get some enjoyment out of it.

Monster Rancher 4 is a great game about raising and fighting monsters, and with advancements to PCSX2 it's now more or less playable in the intended way. You can't do CDs or movie DVDs but you can load up your PS2 ISO collection and generate monsters the way the devs intended (more or less)

 

[qw90700]

Ni No Kuni (NDS/ps3)

I forgot Ni no Kuni had such a system because I didn't care about this aspect of the game, I only focused on wizard simulator gameplay. That's why never had to do anything with the familiar system whatsoever in both versions of the game especially because non-familiar party members are enough too. I just became a classic wizard instead of a familiar master lol.

 

[UnDubious]

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.

(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 )

You're not wrong. Megami Tensei had demon-recruiting before Pokemon existed, so it wasn't based on the Pokemon formula. Instead, it was a dungeon crawler that just happened to have that gameplay aspect. You could remove it entirely from most SMT & Persona games and throw in a few more human characters and they would still work. You couldn't do that with Pokemon.
I've played a lot of the older Dragon Quest Monsters, they're usually good. DQM2 on the GBC is really good, Caravan Hearts is nice. Don't know about the new one. DQ also had monster taming before Pokemon, though DQM was still inspired by Pokemon's formula.