Better than Pokemon is a low bar. Your active 'mon can only do 4 things at any given time.
and crappy breeding mechanics that just for IV/EV crap (DQM your stats carry over to the newborn)
and slow AS F (dragon quests are slow, but not pokemon slow, i mean even 3ds pokemon games feel slow) almost no pokemon games have instant text i have to CHEAT for this.
and 1 vs 1 is the majority of those games, i'd like a pokemon game with all double battles a LOT
so many games better than pokemon easy:
nexomon extinction: this is really close to pokemon but with some tweaks like level scaling opponents and wilds, randomizer built-in (after game clear) but very fast paced compared to pokemon.
Cassete beasts, this is literally "what if we made a co-op pokemon game right?"
you can pair up with another NPC (said npc can be controlled by player 2) and you become the beasts and can even fuse both into one bigger beast (theres almost 20,000 combinations and it TRACKS IT)
it's also the most strategic pokemon-like game i've seen all the moves have a passive (randomly generated with rarities) you can use about 8 moves (i think more by skills) and you can FREELY pick and choose said moves, called "stickers" you can move them between monsters! of course type matchup and blah blah, it also makes a very interesting elemental chart, like, fire melts plastic, but also causes poison since melting plastic is toxic.
but also very very broken with specific setups aka "hit 7 first strikes right when the match starts" is the common one. it never got patched lol (but you can disable using multiple of same move in online vs)
i'll just say, Shin megami tensei (SMT) and persona in general, i don't wanna make this a big thing, i like fusing demons/persona and transferring moves via fusion.
world of Final Fantasy,
final fantasy pokemon, need i say more? you can stack em up to 3!, you can use 4 monsters and your 2 human Mains all at once! it plays like a FF game! (FF4 to 9 ATB style, but also has a turn based style)
you can both evolve and devolve monsters! (you can only stack smaller monsters on bigger ones so it ends up needed) it has much to do and much to capture, has a difficulty setting, and a new game plus!
plus it's ADORABLE FF characters in it! (if thats your thing, i like the chibis!)
