>>31983670As someone who grew up preferring Digimon over Pokemon, I honestly think comparing the two and trying to pick which one is objectively "better" is unfair. The two franchises are made for entirely different kinds of audiences. That's reflected in their shows, games, even down to the monster designs and music.
They're both franchises where combat and strategy revolve around monsters and have "mon" at the end of their names, and have some focus on exploring the world, but that's about as far as the similarities go. In Pokemon, you can have many different partners, but in Digimon, you're limited to one, sometimes two. In Pokemon, you can switch out between different partners to be the most effective at overcoming obstacles or beating opponents. In Digimon, the strength and effectiveness of your partner is based entirely on how you care for it, and a single fuckup can have serious consequences.
And in the anime of both shows, there's a huge difference in how relationships are portrayed. In Pokemon's anime, the people Ash meets and interacts with helps him develop better, stronger relationships with his Pokemon. In Digimon, it's the opposite; the protagonists build better relationships with their Digimon, and that in turn helps them be more communicative with other people.
And then there are the monster designs. In Pokemon, every single monster is designed to have some element of looking friendly enough to be a partner for the player. Even dangerous, legendary beasts have their more threatening elements toned down. While this prevents any Pokemon from having a really threatening/intimidating designs, players don't have to feel discouraged from having an "evil" Pokemon on their team. Meanwhile, in Digimon, that restriction is gone. Even vicious, dangerous, bloodthirsty monsters like Machinedramon could potentially be a player's partner and not be "evil".
So yeah, cut the crap.
Though a crossover game would be rad.