What are the best monster raising/training games out there?

SMT

SMT but "raising/training" doesn't really describe it well. Unless you like the loyalty and personality mechanics in Soul Hackers and getting demons drunk on sake just to force them to listen to you, which a lot of people didn't like but I fucking do, but it's simplified compared to what you get in other games
Built off what you get in Devil Summoner which isn't translated, and I'm not sure if it got expanded in the Raidou games because I haven't played those yet

I don't remember Mayan ruins in Monster Rancher

>>11817754
I'm sure the errantries have them or something pretty similar.

>>11817730 (OP)
Monster Rancher is the best actual monster raising simulator

The best non Pokemon adventure style game where you just take monsters with you and use them to fight, I'd say is this. I never cared for the Digimon games

>>11818259
That box art is absolutely disgusting. Idk why it triggered me so hard but I hate it

>>11818269
It is shit, because it's chibi toriyama art rendered in obnoxious plastic looking CGI, bad combo

>>11818269
The kid looks like a little fat ass and the eyes on the monsters look goofy in a bad way.

HOMM series

>>11817730 (OP)
I enjoyed raising chocobos in ffvii.

Every other monster game fucks at least one of two things up:

>Monsters have clear power scaling and you're constantly dropping old weak ones for new strong ones so you can't just use your favorites
Pokemon has a few obvious intentionally weak early game mons but the power divide between early and late game mons isn't so wide that you can't just use them anyway

>Monsters are designed to be extremely disposable and you're constantly fusing them out of existence and nothing stays on your team for long so you never get attached to the roster of your own team

>>11818269
The JP box art is very cute :)

>>11817730 (OP)
I don't know if you specifically mean like Pokemon or Tamagotchi so I'll mention both.

>SMT/Persona should be fairly obvious along with DemiKids.
>The Monster Rancher series if you want something more akin to Tamagotchi except with cockfighting in the tournaments.
>Digimon World if you want the raising aspect of a singular pet (Or 2 if you're playing Next Order), World 2, 3, or the Story games if you want JRPGs.
Nowadays there's a very clear definition that World = monster raising, Story = JRPG unlike during the PS1/PS2 era.
>Dragon Quest Monster games if you want a more monster-collecting-oriented game.
I keep trying to get into them but I always struggle. I think it might just be how training them works or something.
>Medabot/Medarot games are pseudo monster raising games except instead of separate monsters you are getting different parts and different medals. 90% of the games are JRPGs like this though only a few have been translated.
GBA has a localized one in Rokusho/Medabee (AX is a platform fighter), PS1 has R with a translation patch, GBC has a translation patch for Medarot 3, and GB has a translation patch for Medarot 1.
>You might know Telefang as the Pokemon Diamond/Jade bootlegs from way back in the day. It was a short-lived series that I'm sure was affected by that bootleg specifically since they never expanded into the west.
Telefang Power/Speed on GBC (What the bootlegs are based on) are solid but somewhat Yokai Watch-esque in how you obtain the monsters so it can be annoying to kill like 15 of something and not get their phone number. They both have fully completed translation patches.
Telefang 2 on GBA has a 98% completed translation that didn't translate the monster descriptions but it otherwise complete. Power is the only version that was done and Speed likely will never get one.
>Shaman King Legacy of Spirits on GBA is a fairly barebones and basic one.
>Bistro Recipe on WS and GBC are Japanese only ones but okay from what I saw.

>>11818798
>>SMT/Persona should be fairly obvious along with DemiKids.
Especially DemiKids/Devil Children if you want something more like Pokemon, I don't know if the earlier games(specifically the PS1 one with both games) are translated yet
I don't think Atlas understood the 2 versions scam, because most of the versions are their own games with different storylines that correspond with each other

>>11818781
I for one enjoy the Toriyama chibi art

Zanzarah

>>11818836
Yea that one is fine the other was just begging not to be bought

>>11818798
>I don't know if you specifically mean like Pokemon or Tamagotchi so I'll mention both.
Yeah, that's a BIG distinction a lot of people miss. There were two genres of monster raising games in the late 90s. Monster Rancher/Digimon World 1/Onegai Monsters were built more heavily off Princess Maker-style stat raising simulation games. While the Pokemon/SMT/Dragon Warrior Monsters games were RPGs with heavily customizable monster parties.

Hell, I don't even think Pokemon and SMT should be considered the same subgenre, since Pokemon's defining characteristic was that the entire game is built around multiplayer (even the single-player campaign is framed as playing multiplayer against NPCs).

>>11819225
That's why I just say monster games or mon games. It's so loose that it eventually encapsulates something like Darkstalkers, but also any other game with gameplay that focuses heavily monsters, whether it's raising one or recruiting a bunch.

>>11817745
>Adult for proto-Pokémon
Nice

>>11819225
>since Pokemon's defining characteristic was that the entire game is built around multiplayer (even the single-player campaign is framed as playing multiplayer against NPCs).
Strange that isn't how I see it at all. I always saw it as they are primarily single player adventure games with a strong emphasis on multiplayer and trading through a link cable. Most likely with your friend but maybe even acquaintances if they had the opposite game of yours and you were interested in Pokemon your version didn't have. So there was a social aspect to the games for sure but they were primarily single player games not multiplayer.

>>11818762
>Monsters are designed to be extremely disposable and you're constantly fusing them out of existence and nothing stays on your team for long so you never get attached
Spoken like someone who has never played Monster Rancher.

>>11818269
It was a good game though

>>11820446
Fusion in Monster Rancher is a beginners trap. If course you WANT to spend all day doing it, but it's a waste of time. If you wanna do it to get a specific baby monster it's fine, but otherwise it's pointless until you've already frozen multiple high level monsters with complimentary stats and understand the mechanics

And even that itself is a choice that's arguably pointless because you could also spend that time and money on a brand new monster/items. All just depends on what you want to do. But Monster Rancher again, is more like a sim game. Raising real animals for profit means cycling them out, putting them out to pasture etc. It's more a sim game than it is a fantasy adventure, you're not meant to just have one monster, and to finish the game with just one you've got to really be autistic and researched on all the mechanics and max training/money making strategies

>>11820446
I was talking about pokemon actually since that's what's on OP's subject line but I probably should have clarified.

>>11820810
You said "every other monster raising game is like this" for something Monster Rancher doesn't do

>>11817730 (OP)
monster rancher is nothing like pokémon

>>11817745
other way around, pokémon is like smt

>>11817730 (OP)
I really like the monster design of monster rancher

It hits the sweet spot for me between fantasy and still mostly animal-like. Digimon and Pokemon are too abstract.

>>11820857
>monster rancher is nothing like pokémon
Ironically it's in the nearest direction modern Pokemon is heading too, just without the cpu vs cpu

>>11822312
Monster Rancher has a variety, probably most fall into either Animal types whether more bestial or anthro, constructs like living armors and dolls, robots etc, and like mythical creatures like half serpent half men, pixies, golems etc