>>20369228Digimon World Dawn/Dusk (DS) came close while retaining basic Digimon digivolution tree and moves. You raise a team of three that follow you in a combat based system, with some elemental rock paper scissors thrown in. You can, if you want, grind the weakest rookie of your choice into a 999 stat behemoth with perfect moves (emphasis on the grind), so you're always free to fight with whoever you want.
It isn't like you aren't going to get a full team of megas/Bursts anyways.Dragon Quest Monsters I/2(GBC) and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 1/2 (DS) are the Enix equivalents. They have a long history of monster raising mechanics as other anons have gone into in the thread. You raise a team of three that follow you in a combat based system. It strongly is based off of the Dragon Quest series, so while they're monsters, they're also like RPG classes given their stats and moves. You can always breed you way to better stats (species capped though in Joker 1/2), and perfect movesets (not capped), leaving you lots to do and plan.
It isn't like you aren't going to use most of the boss level monsters anyways.Monster Rancher 2/3 (PS/PS2) and MR on the DS take a more personal approach to monster raising. Your mons have personalities and characteristics, and the emphasis is most definitely on the journey with the mon towards reaching the highest tournament levels rather than just the combat. If you get attached to your 'bro' and 'sis' in Pokemon, this game was made for you. Stats are uncapped by species, but it'll take you several generations until you can first max out more than one or two stats. Combat is more about resource management and spacing than the other two series are. This is one game where you are definitely free to raise whatever mon you want
though it isn't like you aren't going to raise a Dragon, Phoenix, or Zan at some point.
Fossil Fighters was also great.
