"Obscure" monster-tamer recs?

[Warlock2k]

As we all know, Pokémon is the most popular monster-tamer, followed by Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon. However, I'm curious about other monster-tamers that may have gone under the radar. I'm familiar with Telefang, Dragon Quest Monsters, DemiKids, and Robopon, but that's the extent of it.
I've played adjacent games, like Metal Walker, Bakugan, Fossil Fighters, and Medarot 1, but I'd like for y'all to recommend more if you can!
Please don't recommend rom-hacks/fangames tho, I'm looking for original stuff! Indie stuff is appreciated as well!
Thank you in advance :)

 

[-------]

In these two games you can also train monsters.

Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu (USA+UNDUB) PSX ISO – The Repo

Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu (USA+UNDUB) PSX ISO Game ID: SLUS-00854. Languages: English, Undub. For Sony PlayStation.

retrogametalk.com

Jade Cocoon 2: Complete Edition (UNDUB) PS2 ISO – The Repo

Jade Cocoon 2: Complete Edition (UNDUB) PS2 ISO Game ID: SLUS-20309. Languages: English, Undub. For Sony PlayStation 2.

retrogametalk.com

 

[Tenshishi]

The mainline Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as its Devil Summoner and Devil Survivor spinoffs (as well as DemiKids, though that's explicitly for kids), heavily feature battling, recruiting, and combining Demons, Angels, etc. I recommend Soul Hackers overall, SMT V if you want something fairly streamlined, and Strange Journey if you want a challenge.

The Siralim series was heavily inspired by DQM and is a great set of indies to discover and battle new monsters in. I'd recommend Ultimate but any of them are good.

 

[IamtheWalrus]

Two words:
Monster Rancher.
In fact, there is a LOT of the games here on the Repo, but if you want convenience? Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is on steam for $30, with one of the QoL being that it swapped the the disc swapping mechanic with a music database to summon monsters.
If you, however, want to use said disc swap mechanic to summon monsters, you'd need a modified PS1 and a modified PS2 that allows backups. Or, if you have the money, buy the games as they were I believed all released (except the MMO) in the West if I recall correctly.
Also, Anyone, please do correct me if I am wrong, I'm just going throw my personal experience with modified consoles.

 

[PacGuy]

I played the Siralim games awhile ago and really liked them. This talk is kind of making me want to pick that up again. I'm curious what else is out there too.
Found this list while I was trying to remember Siralim's name:

Current list of all Monster Taming Games on Steam :: Monster Taming Games

Hi everyone, please let's go ahead and tag these games as "Monster Taming", this will help us (and everyone) find games of this type on steam when this tag has been used enough. If you know of other games that fit this tag please leave a comment :). 9th Dawn III 9th Dawn Remake A Legend In...

steamcommunity.com

 

[Zerohour2k12]

There are Indies called Nexomon and Cassette Beasts that I have heard good things about as well as Tem-tem. Not really my cup of tea but the closest I've played would probly be Legend of Legaia on PS1, the WitchSpring Series and a little of Monster Hunter Stories.

 

[PacGuy]

The mainline Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as its Devil Summoner and Devil Survivor spinoffs (as well as DemiKids, though that's explicitly for kids), heavily feature battling, recruiting, and combining Demons, Angels, etc. I recommend Soul Hackers overall, SMT V if you want something fairly streamlined, and Strange Journey if you want a challenge.

The Siralim series was heavily inspired by DQM and is a great set of indies to discover and battle new monsters in. I'd recommend Ultimate but any of them are good.

Ayy someone else mentioned Siralim. Damn now I'm really thinking about playing it again

 

[DinoRexMax DinoRexMax]

Monster Sanctuary is dopes as hell, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness has CCRPG elements (it's like an extension of the SotN familiars). There's Monster Racers and Spectrobes for the DS, though Spectrobes also has a Wii sequel that's more action-y. You've already mentioned Digimon, but just play it more. Azure Dreams on the PS1/GBC (the music is really bad, on PS1). There's also Fighting Foodons (aka Bistro Recipe) and Chocovaders, which haven't been translated. There's also Digimon, I know you said that already, but I just think it's worth mentioning again.

You should probably give us the extent through which you've played some of the more popular franchises you went over, since there's always something you might've missed. Like, have you tried Digimon?

 

[Rampy]

Everyone else has already recommended a lot of great games, so instead I'm going to recommend a youtube channel you might want to check out.

https://www.youtube.com/@GymLeaderEd

The channel is focused on monster taming games in general and regularly posts videos talking about recently released or upcoming games in the genre.

 

[Sfjeov]

for me, it's smt but if you already heard of that well there's linda^3 again. the monster design is something and the story is pretty bonkers from what I've heard.

 

[garbodorman]

Lufia : The Ruins of Lore

 

[Warlock2k]

In these two games you can also train monsters.

Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu (USA+UNDUB) PSX ISO – The Repo

Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu (USA+UNDUB) PSX ISO Game ID: SLUS-00854. Languages: English, Undub. For Sony PlayStation.

retrogametalk.com

Jade Cocoon 2: Complete Edition (UNDUB) PS2 ISO – The Repo

Jade Cocoon 2: Complete Edition (UNDUB) PS2 ISO Game ID: SLUS-20309. Languages: English, Undub. For Sony PlayStation 2.

retrogametalk.com

These look great! Thanks for sharing!

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 1:07 AM

The mainline Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as its Devil Summoner and Devil Survivor spinoffs (as well as DemiKids, though that's explicitly for kids), heavily feature battling, recruiting, and combining Demons, Angels, etc. I recommend Soul Hackers overall, SMT V if you want something fairly streamlined, and Strange Journey if you want a challenge.

The Siralim series was heavily inspired by DQM and is a great set of indies to discover and battle new monsters in. I'd recommend Ultimate but any of them are good.

I definitely wanna try the Soul Hackers games

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 1:09 AM

Two words:
Monster Rancher.
In fact, there is a LOT of the games here on the Repo, but if you want convenience? Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is on steam for $30, with one of the QoL being that it swapped the the disc swapping mechanic with a music database to summon monsters.
If you, however, want to use said disc swap mechanic to summon monsters, you'd need a modified PS1 and a modified PS2 that allows backups. Or, if you have the money, buy the games as they were I believed all released (except the MMO) in the West if I recall correctly.
Also, Anyone, please do correct me if I am wrong, I'm just going throw my personal experience with modified consoles.

I've heard some good things about Monster Rancher, but emulating it on a PS1 emulator seems like a pain, due to the disc swapping thing. I'll likely get the DX versions sometime in the future!

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 1:10 AM

I played the Siralim games awhile ago and really liked them. This talk is kind of making me want to pick that up again. I'm curious what else is out there too.
Found this list while I was trying to remember Siralim's name:

Current list of all Monster Taming Games on Steam :: Monster Taming Games

Hi everyone, please let's go ahead and tag these games as "Monster Taming", this will help us (and everyone) find games of this type on steam when this tag has been used enough. If you know of other games that fit this tag please leave a comment :). 9th Dawn III 9th Dawn Remake A Legend In...

steamcommunity.com

Thanks for the link!
Also, I played Siralim Ultimate for a little while, but the overall vibe just wasn't for me. I do understand why other people praise it though

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 1:12 AM

There are Indies called Nexomon and Cassette Beasts that I have heard good things about as well as Tem-tem. Not really my cup of tea but the closest I've played would probly be Legend of Legaia on PS1, the WitchSpring Series and a little of Monster Hunter Stories.

I completely forgot about Cassette Beasts omg. Thankfully I bought it digitally on Switch a few years ago, so I can redownload it!

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 1:15 AM

Monster Sanctuary is dopes as hell, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness has CCRPG elements (it's like an extension of the SotN familiars). There's Monster Racers and Spectrobes for the DS, though Spectrobes also has a Wii sequel that's more action-y. You've already mentioned Digimon, but just play it more. Azure Dreams on the PS1/GBC (the music is really bad, on PS1). There's also Fighting Foodons (aka Bistro Recipe) and Chocovaders, which haven't been translated. There's also Digimon, I know you said that already, but I just think it's worth mentioning again.

You should probably give us the extent through which you've played some of the more popular franchises you went over, since there's always something you might've missed. Like, have you tried Digimon?

I've played quite a few Digimon games, but I don't like the ones where your mons die after a while. Just a personal preference.
I love Cyber Sleuth though, one of my favorite games of all time tbh

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 1:16 AM

Everyone else has already recommended a lot of great games, so instead I'm going to recommend a youtube channel you might want to check out.

https://www.youtube.com/@GymLeaderEd

The channel is focused on monster taming games in general and regularly posts videos talking about recently released or upcoming games in the genre.

Thank you for the link!

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Touhou: Puppet Dance Performance

Touhou fangame directly based off Pokemon but with a lot of differences.

Kinda a hassle to set up though. It’s never been ported to Steam like other fangames and it’s a doujin game from Japan so you have to go through a lot in order to get English working. It’s also Windows-only.

 

[Dew Prism]

These are my favorites:

Shin Megami Tensei IV - 3DS
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional - 3DS
Digimon Lost Evolution - DS
Digimon World - Next Order - Switch/PC/Etc
Siralim Ultimate - PC/Switch
Azure Dreams - PSX
Monster Sanctuary - PC/Switch

Out of this entire list, my favorite is definitely going to DQM Joker 3 Pro. I fully understand it's hard for people to get into since of emulation or requiring a modded 3DS. But it's totally worth it.

 

[DinoRexMax DinoRexMax]

These are my favorites:

Shin Megami Tensei IV - 3DS
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional - 3DS
Digimon Lost Evolution - DS
Digimon World - Next Order - Switch/PC/Etc
Siralim Ultimate - PC/Switch
Azure Dreams - PSX
Monster Sanctuary - PC/Switch

Out of this entire list, my favorite is definitely going to DQM Joker 3 Pro. I fully understand it's hard for people to get into since of emulation or requiring a modded 3DS. But it's totally worth it.

There are 3DS emulators, it's just somehow fundamentally easier to softmod a 3DS and put games on it, in spite of that. I don't know why that is. I haven't had a potato clock PC in a long time, so it's not my specs that are the problem. But I run Joker 3 and it chugs on a system that can 4k ARK at 60 fps (not that I want to ) but I can't get Citrus running for shit.

However, it's getting harder and harder to recommend picking up a 3DS/2DS to even do this anymore, so it's slowly becoming emulation of bust if you missed out.

 

[Abecero]

I see the more famous games of the genre got recommended, so I'm gonna name two more obscure-r ones:
Monkey Puncher for the GBC

(Before you ask, no, you do not punch monkeys in here, lol, you raise one to punch others)

And Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shito Ikusei/Angel Raising Project, for the Wonderswan

You get to raise your own anime hellspawn, would say that's pretty cool. It has an english fan translation, which you can find somewhere close by, heh.

 

[Dew Prism]

There are 3DS emulators, it's just somehow fundamentally easier to softmod a 3DS and put games on it, in spite of that. I don't know why that is. I haven't had a potato clock PC in a long time, so it's not my specs that are the problem. But I run Joker 3 and it chugs on a system that can 4k ARK at 60 fps (not that I want to ) but I can't get Citrus running for shit.

However, it's getting harder and harder to recommend picking up a 3DS/2DS to even do this anymore, so it's slowly becoming emulation of bust if you missed out.

Yes, sadly Citra performs very poorly with certain games. Joker 3 is one of them. I got lucky on an Ebay bid YEARS ago, and managed to buy a cheap New 3DS. Getting Luma3DS on there was a breeze. It took almost no real effort. But now in 2026, the prices of 3DS's have skyrocketed. It's really a damn shame these companies aren't remastering these games on 3DS when there's simply no other options to play them. I believe Azahar emulator has been working on making Citra better, but I haven't really seen much difference.