RPG with the best monster raising mechanics?

[Damned Registrations]

Seriously no mention of Monster Rancher? It's like, the only one I know of that's actually all about raising the monster. You have to manage their loyalty vs their stress and fear/love for you, stats can be trained through generic workouts, expensive training camps, or more by fighting for prize money or being sent to do work. You can take them on expeditions to ruins as well to find useful artifacts, and their stats determine their stamina and ability to clear obstacles or find hidden passages or loot. They grow old and eventually die too, which I feel like is a critical part of any proper monster raising game, and the personality and lifespan of a particular breed is a big factor in how easy it is to effectively raise, aside from it's inherent stats and moveset. Huge monster variety too, ranging from pixies to golems to haunted dolls, animated walls or more simple stuff like wolves or giant boxing rabbits.

1 and 2 got a rerelease for steam a while back, definitely worth checking out if you like the premise. 2 was the best in the series anyways imo.

 

[Lucumo]

Seriously no mention of Monster Rancher? It's like, the only one I know of that's actually all about raising the monster. You have to manage their loyalty vs their stress and fear/love for you, stats can be trained through generic workouts, expensive training camps, or more by fighting for prize money or being sent to do work. You can take them on expeditions to ruins as well to find useful artifacts, and their stats determine their stamina and ability to clear obstacles or find hidden passages or loot. They grow old and eventually die too, which I feel like is a critical part of any proper monster raising game, and the personality and lifespan of a particular breed is a big factor in how easy it is to effectively raise, aside from it's inherent stats and moveset. Huge monster variety too, ranging from pixies to golems to haunted dolls, animated walls or more simple stuff like wolves or giant boxing rabbits.

1 and 2 got a rerelease for steam a while back, definitely worth checking out if you like the premise. 2 was the best in the series anyways imo.

So basically Digimon World.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Monster Rancher 2 was a good –great even– game back when it released. It didn't age too well, the gameplay loop is repetitive (and not in that addictive 1 more turn and I go to bed way), and progression is unsatisfying for the most part. If you played it in the PSX era, keep the good memories, I wouldn't recommend it nowadays.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Aren't we looking for non-weeb games? And non-porn! I know a few porn ones where well, let's just say fucking them is part of their training.

 

[Damned Registrations]

??? OP mentioned Pokemon and Digimon so I figured weeb games were on the table. If not... I honestly can't think of anything at all. Honestly most power progression from western devs is tied to loot. The closest you get to a game focused around training anything is something like Rimworld, and again, it's more loot and tech tree driven than anything. Even when something like training/tutoring is an option it's often merely a way to convert money directly into stat gains, with no depth at all, as seen in something like Morrowind.

Honestly the monster/pet raising/management genre in general is painfully underserved, only ever really getting hybrid stuff like Ark or Palworld. Bit of a shame, would be cool to see a big game really focused on the raising aspect with more variety in what you do with the monsters; like having races or various other contests or purposes for a monster. Ideally a whole web of interdependent roles, so you'd need a spelunking monster to get you gems needed for one type of progression, a fighter to win tournaments for another, a racer for another, a scout/explorer type for another... really vary up the gameplay and types of monsters you'd want to collect and aspects you'd want to emphasize among them.

Edit: Azure Dreams is another old PSX game focused on pet monsters. Not a lot of 'raising' going on, but the core element is that the tower all the exploration takes place in is effectively a procedurally generated dungeon where your human character is reset to level 1 every time he leaves, while your pet monsters are not. So you level them up and find new ones to gain and edge and climb higher each time. You can also only bring in a very limited number of items. Cool game, but like I said, not really focused on the raising aspect. Also has a few minigames, and a town upgrading and dating aspect as well.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Speaking of PSX games, did anyone play Jade Cocoon? Is it any good (by contemporary standards)? I remember reading about it and wanting to play it but the game simply wasn’t available where I lived.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Never played the first one, I've seen some reviews/gameplay of it and can't remember much details (There's some crazy monster fusion/genetics system?) but the fact I never tried it implies it's probably not great. I played Jade Cocoon 2 a fair bit but can't really recommend it- it's got a novel combat system and some rewarding exploration, but so much of the game is dull cutscenes and tedious cannon fodder battles. Which is a shame because the characters and setting are actually fairly charming; just so many filler scenes and sidequests. And while the combat has lots of cool strategies and a novel system, it's terribly balanced.

 

[The Jester]

Why is monster raising a jRPG thing only?
Discuss.

Bug fighting is huge in Japan.

 

[Vic]

^ That's cool.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Right click to raise which consumes mana. There's a cap on how many you can raise and the cap can be increased on level up. Mana slowly replenishes over time but can also be replenished by drinking potions.

 

[the mole]

It took so many posts until someone said Geneforge. Is the old codex guard truly on their way out? It's more likely than you think. Letting the meek populate the site... please.

in wrpgs monster taming/breeding is never a main part of gameplay, in geneforge how many monsters can you have in your party, can you breed them to create a new monster?

then objectively it can't have the best monster gameplay

 

[Ryzer]

I would recommend playing Dragon Quest Monster Joker 1-(2 in japanese as it is the superior edition), Dragon quest V and Dragon Quest Monsters.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Princess Maker 2

 

[Bastardchops]

Dogz 3 demolished Pokemon before it even came out.