>>48707759Shin Megami Tensei and Digimon Story, are both good, traditional monster catching JRPGs with complex fusion mechanics you need to fully explore to build perfect monsters. They have a lot more on the fly experimenting than Pokemon, the fun is in learning and then breaking the mechanics so you have a Lilith with 999 in all stats and immunity to all damage or a GigaSeadramon that can spam damage cap AoEs 3 times in a row. Fun stuff.
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is also totally traditional monster catcher with a Studio Ghibli animated cutscenes. Beautiful game, very straight forward, but with some jaw shattering difficulty. I honestly think it's PERFECT for a DQM fan since it's very similar humor.
Monster Rancher is a bitch to emulate, but a switch port of 1 and 2 is coming out next month. It's more about raising and bonding with your monster, not big on the adventure/jrpg aspects, and combat is more like a fighting game where you press buttons to do attacks in real time. Digimon World 1 and Next Order are also more similar to this, real time combat, mash buttons, and just kinda hope the AI does what you want. They're fun if you like getting attached to your monsters.
Monster Hunter Stories is, imo, just a strictly better version of Pokemon. There's a deep customization in the gene system, even though the combat itself is literally rock-paper-scissors when it comes to types. MHS2 changed it up with a little more combat variation, and you don't need to play the first one to get into it, though I recommend it just because its fun.
Monster Sanctuary is also fun. One of the few indie 'Pokemon-Like' games I've enjoyed. It's really difficult but straight forward strategy style combat with some Metroidvania mechanics.
I can probably think of more, but those are the ones that come to mind.
