>>54131516I was unsure what exactly captivated me on Pokémon, so I went with what I believed that I enjoyed on the game: Monster design, competitive gameplay while playing online, relaxing gameplay while playing offline/coop.
First I tried other monster games (Temtem, Digimon, Monster Hunter) and MH was the only remotely good one, but even then I had no reason to play after beating the game.
Then I tried competitive games (Overwatch, Splatoon, Valorant, CS:GO) and got to a pretty high rank on all of them, but every victory felt like a chore and every defeat felt crushing.
Then finally I went on the relaxing route (as I loved to breed and trade Pokémon), so I played Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing... it felt pretty good, but after a while even that got underwhelming
>>54131517Yes, actually. Going on a few walks helped my physical and mental health, I had a pretty terrible job as an underpaid manager but after I got my life together I managed to go to college and get a good job. I think that just comes with age and wasn't directly influenced by Pokémon, though
