I read currently a lot about monster catching/raising games. Next week is Pokemon day with new announcements, we get new Tem Tem content and there is a hype game we probably all have heared from. Monster farming, fight and hunting is not new for jrpg’s. With Pokemon and Dragon Quest, there are two franchises with a long running history with this sub genre.
Here are some monster raising/fighting games i like:
World of Final Fantasy
I often want to write about World of Final Fantasy (Woff), because this game inspired me to name the community like that. There are probably people that doesn’t like the artstyle of Woff, but i just laught the first time i saw it. And Woff want to be like that. This games is constantly joking about Final Fantasy Characters and creatures. The story often is funny, but also has a bit of deph, so i enjoyed playing this game even more than once. Maybe one ot the two Final Fantasy games i enjoyed the most in the recent years. But also the fighting system is a bit unique, so you are able to stack the monsters and main characters to strengthen them or make more dmg. It’s look just funny and make fun at the same time.
Digimon Cyber Sleuth (Hackers Memory)
I think Digimon Cyber Sleuth is a bit like the favorite Pokemon, but it has a Story and not a perfectly blanace battle system. The Digimon franchise has sadly a lot inperfect games and people have different opinions what is the best games out of those, but a lot would agree, that the two Cyber Sleuth games are part of the better one. I think it kind of addicting to farm/collect and complete monsters in a lot of theses games and Digimon games are part of that. But i was never fan of the world games, that have a bigger focus on farming but more on the story games that have a plot you are able to follow. But at the same time you are able to get quite a lot of these monsters. The story is maybe not perfect, but i would say enjoyable because it has the same vibe as some of the digimon anime. I wouldn’t say the game is perfect, story and gameplay has a few flaws, i probably enjoyed it that much because i got a bit frustrated from another monster game and this game gave me everything i wanted. A decent story and side quests in which this monster interacting with us. A lillymon that go inside the mobile phone of a person because it falls in love with that person, has quite some charm other monster games doesn’t have.
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Art style is gorgeous, game is a lot of fun and the familiars are adorable. What else could you ask for?
Monster Rancher
I’ll toss in another vote for Monster Rancher ;) A Pet Raising and Breeding simulator that got it’s roots from an earlier 1996 game “Gallop Racer” which was a Horse racing and breeding sim. Monster Rancher replaces Horses with Fantasy monsters, and swaps out Races for Real Time battles.
While the Raising aspect is highly menu driven as you make constant adjustments to your strategies for raising stats, learning new attacks, or doing “side-quests” in the game to unlock even more monsters, the Battle is in real time where you control your monster moving between near and far ranges to use attacks that are unique to those ranges. The attacks themselves also have 2 primary types (Power or Intellect) and 5 sub-types (Heavy, Crit, Wither, Hit, and Special). Using attacks has an associated resource cost (Guts) and your monster’s guts regeneration differs based on it’s breed (or mixed breed).
Loads of variety of strong looking, silly, or fun monsters to pick and choose from.
- in 2021 the original first two games games were re-released as remasters on Switch, Steam, and iOS as Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. with upscaled graphics, some overhaul in the UI, and a lot of QoL features added in, but for the most part still looks and feels like the PSX game, just a lot smoother and zero load times.
- in 2022 a new game exclusive to Switch released asa crossover with Ultraman where you raise Kaiju from that franchise but with Monster Rancher rules.
This won’t be a seperate post, but as i said, there is to much info about monster games right now: Kazumasa Habu no longer producer of Digimon games; next Digimon Story game still underway
Shin Megami Tensei is by far my favorite one. Due to its adult theming it has got the best designs in my opinion. It ranges from cool to creepy to plain ugly to a giant penis on a chariot - what’s not to love? Monster can and should be merged into stronger ones, which I always prefer over evolutions. In addition, the press turn combat system is one of the best turn based system ever created.
If you like tactical RPGs (SRPGs), theres a spin-off series of SMT for that too called Devil Survivor. Thogether with SMT V, these are a some of my favorite games across genres.
Second up is Dragon Quest Monsters. I adore Toriyamas artstyle (e.g. Dragon Ball) and once again it is based on merging your monsters. However, unlike SMT where you’ll be constantly merging, you won’t be doing it much here. It’s also a lot more grinding, but depending on who you ask that’s a plus.
Lastly, there’s Jade Cocoon. Honestly I don’t remember much about them since they are PS/PS2 games, but I remember them being fun.
The art style did take a little getting used to, but I did have a lot of fun with World of Final Fantasy. My only wish was that I really wanted a third party member. Maybe a monster-only stack or something. I feel like ATB needs that to make the magic happen. Story also got shockingly dark, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Off-topic a bit, but I’m kind of a voice acting nerd and my favorite thing about WoFF is that the English cast is insane. It’s practically a who’s who of video game voice actors in English, and the localized writing is great, too.
My personal favorite monster collector is still probably Pokémon HG/SS. I’d love to see a trimmed-down Pokémon like that era, before all the feature bloat but still after the new quality-of-life changes and soundtrack style (X/Y’s soundtrack was such a breath of fresh air for me). I also really liked Dragon Quest V, though that’s more for the game overall than its monster collecting/battling elements.
Ohh yes, a third character or monster only stack would be good for that game. Completly agree with you. I still wish for a sequel, because the writer already has the story written for a sequel, but i don’t think it will happen.
And if i have to choose a Pokemon, it’s probably Saphire/Ruby for me, so more ore less the same time.