>>55800472>Also, actually having to raise and care for digimon gives them more weight than Pokemon who (up until gen 6) were merely stat blocks who existed only to fight.Forgetting Pokémon Contests in Gen3-4, Pokémon Musicals and PokéStar Studios in Gen5, following Pokemon in HGSS and partially in DPPt, dressing up your Pokemon in Gen4 games, Pokéthlon in HGSS, the following Pikachu in Yellow which was the first attempt to make the player form a bond with Pokémon outside of battles, the entire Pokémon Ranger saga that lacks battles entirely, the PokéWalker, the DreamWorld mechanics, and the Pokémon Jump minigame in FRLG.
Pokémon has hardly ever been just about battles and attempts to flesh this out have started as early as Yellow, and especially in Gen3 with Contests which were the first thing that considerably expanded the concept of Pokemon existing beyond battles.
