Board 8 > So which Pokemon like game would you recommend?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm in the mood for a Pokmon game, but having played them all, I'm looking for an alternative. However, it's hard to choose between what's available.

At the moment I'm considering Cassette beasts or Temtem, but I'm not so sure. Hoping to find something that doesn't feature too much grinding and doesn't have too many of the same outdated mechanics as Pokmon has.

Persona 5

maybe check out Monster Sanctuary, if that counts? it's less pokemon-like than those two (though i haven't played them) but just mentioning it in case you haven't heard of it. i played a bit and had a good impression of it but the focus on skill trees and build-planning wasn't really my thing. but there's no grinding and from what i saw people consider it very balanced and rewarding to plan out a good synergistic team.

Palworld

Cassette Beasts is the best I've played.

I'd recommend against TemTem, personally. Me and my friend played it and it's alright, but because the game was in early access and updated an area at a time, each area is padded out really badly. Was probably fine when you had to wait a few months between each update, but playing it now all in one go is a slog to get through.

I've heard good things about Casette Beasts and Anode Heart though.

Thanks for the recommendatios!

JackMan posted...

I guess I'll give up on Temtem, a lot of reviews on steam are saying something similar. It's a shame, because when I started looking for something it did catch my eye.

Dels posted...

maybe check out Monster Sanctuary, if that counts?

It looks good, but I don't like metroidvanias unfortunately.

Mobilezoid posted...

Palworld

Probably picking this up when it comes out of early access

Raka_Putra posted...

Persona 5

I fear I'll not even make it halfway through before it's 2025. My gaming time has diminished a lot in my thirties.

MrSmartGuy posted...

Cassette Beasts is the best I've played.

I'll give it a go! Might pick it up for the Switch, have been looking for a new game to play (will be good to play something aside from Slay the Spire).

I'm really enjoying Pokemon Infinite Fusion atm

It's a fan made game if that counts

DemiKids

Cassette Beasts is by far the best I've played. Coromon is probably second best, but that's pretty much just Pokemon
right down to having a lot of the same moves. I've also played Disc Creatures (pretty good, but flawed) and Monster Crown (extremely flawed, but fun if you like glitches and jank).

I don't think any of them require grinding but Monster Crown and to an extent Disc Creatures are very hostile to the idea of keeping the same team all game. So you'd have to grind if you weren't willing to replace your team with stronger monsters.

I've also heard good things about the Nexomon games but I haven't played them personally.

Nthing the Cassette Beasts recommendation. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it's something I'm planning on replaying (something I can't say about any Pokemon game since.... B/W, I think?)

Nexomon and its sequel Extinction are both pretty good.

Cassette Beasts

Cassette Beasts, or Persona 5 if you count that.

Dragon Quest Monsters

Dragon Quest Monsters

Dragon Quest Monsters

Played a lot of Cassette Beasts yesterday and it's been a blast. It's also been a while that I had to genuinely laugh while playing a game, some of the descriptions and interactions are great. That Earth-moves are super-effective against plastic because plastic will end up at a landfill is hilarious (but not that illogical!)

I don't really care for the platforming, hope that that doesn't get much more complicated.

I recommend giving some of the better fangames a chance if you're up to it. Pokemon Sea and Sky... is still not out, but, it did have a demo back when it was still called Pokemon Ethereal Gates, and was a very authentic experience (albeit with some nice quality of life improvements, it's no romhack) with a lot of nods gameplay-wise to gen 5 specifically. Plus the region was set around where I live so of course I'm biased, hehe. Its dex is (or at least was at the time anyway) all original, but matches the general ethos of the mainline games up to that point well. In other words, it's very gen 5 lol. It also went by a few other names previously, including Helio Version and Imperial Sky.

Another one which has only ever had a partial release is Pokemon Phoenix Rising, which just announced it was rebranding last month to remove Pokemon ties out of copyright concerns. It's also gen 5-esque, but does its own thing a lot more (also not a romhack). Unlike Sea and Sky, its demo (or Episode 1, rather) was making use of existing mons, and even introducing new mega evolutions, though obviously that's not likely to remain true now. It also featured unique UI and a very different kind of plot structure. Unlike many fangames, it actively avoided adding fakemons (which was surely a blessing in disguise given how low the bar is, a big part of why I liked Ethereal Gates was because it actually made ones that didn't just feel like edgy tumblr/reddit crap) so the decision to rebrand now has definitely set it back that much further now, but given all the work they put in to distinguish itself in other areas, it could be worse.

Oh yeah also avoid ones like Uranium

also check out 200% Mixed Juice if you're remotely familiar with or open to trying out any of the other games from its dev group Orange_Juice. I'm always down to teach people the ropes when it comes to multiplayer matches in that (they're relatively pokemon-esque, though strictly 3v3 and moves fall into 3 types in different priority brackets. there's some fun depth to it)

Radical Red is a lot of fun

Bospsychopaat posted...

It looks good, but I don't like metroidvanias unfortunately.

The metroidvania aspects of Monster Sanctuary are really, really light. Everything you need is usually in the area.

pokemon unbound

Pocket Crystal League (++ version) for Pokemon + Inscryption