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Pokémon is undoubtedly a system seller, and through the years it’s been one of my main reasons to upgrade my Nintendo hardware, be it a new Nintendo 3DS or even a Nintendo Switch. However, sometimes I crave something different in my Pokémon games, and luckily, there are a ton of passion projects out there that take the Pokémon formula and successfully turn it into something new and refreshing to play.
And those will be my focus today. I will be looking at Pokémon-like games that have some of the following features:
- Monsters to capture and train
- Turn-Based Combat
- Gyms and Trainer Battles
- World exploration
- Trying to stop an evil team
- Pokédex to Complete
I think these sum up what I’m looking for in a Pokémon experience, but it doesn’t mean that I’m looking for all of these features in a single game.
Quick Disclaimer Before Starting:
I’ve only included games that I’ve actually played until the end, and with this said, enjoy!
Watch it on YouTube:
5. Yo-Kai-Watch 1
It might surprise you, but Yo-Kai-Watch 1 is available on the Nintendo Switch from the Japanese Eshop. Having played the original on the Nintendo 3DS, I was able to navigate through it quite comfortably, while referring to a guide once in a while to make sure I knew what I needed to do in certain quests.
Unlike Pokémon, you do not have trainer battles or even gyms to beat, but you do have a ton of Yo-Kai to befriend and evolve with the goal of filling your Medallium, which is more challenging than most Pokémon games.
Part of the challenge is due to this mechanic called Crank-a-Kai, where daily you’ll be given a certain number of pulls from a crank machine, each costing a Yo-Kai medal. Depending on the coin, you’ll be awarded certain items or Yo-kai.
Some of these Yo-Kai are completely exclusive to the Crank-a-Kai. And, when you combine their rarity, the low number of cranks you get a day, and the frustrating ways of getting medals in-game, you get an almost impossible to complete Medallium.
But apart from this and the language barrier, the game is beautiful on the Nintendo Switch. I love the design of each Yo-Kai and its unique gameplay, although some mechanics don’t translate as well from the Nintendo 3DS, which relied heavily on the use of the Stylus.
While the story is lighthearted and geared towards a children’s audience, there are some bosses that can give you quite a challenge and even frighten any child, especially Massiface; that guy still gives me the creeps.
4. TemTem
Throughout the years, there have been games that had the pleasure of being called the Pokémon Killer, and just like Yo-Kai-Watch, TemTem held that title.
However, by this point, it’s almost impossible to kill a franchise like Pokémon. Even TemTem failed to build the momentum needed to capitalize on its early success, and it took years for TemTem to reach a point where I can fully recommend it.
By now, TemTem has had several updates that added new content, fixed bugs, balanced the gameplay, and even removed the microtransactions.
As a Pokémon Clone, TemTem has everything you’d expect:
- Gym battles;
- Catchable and breedable monsters;
- An evil team;
- And even a Battle Frontier;
Battling online is also great, despite not being as popular. You do not need to spend hours breeding a perfect TemTem. You can just hop online, build your team, much like Pokémon Showdown, and you are good to go!
However, there has been something stopping TemTem from reaching its full potential, the fact that it’s an MMO, or MMO-lite, like the developers call it. Which makes many areas of the game, like breeding or getting money, grinder than your usual Pokémon game.
Nonetheless, TemTem is still one of the best games like Pokémon on the Nintendo Switch.
3. Cassette Beasts
I first played Cassette Beasts when it launched on Steam; I loved it so much that I had to purchase it again once I found out it had a release on the Nintendo Switch as well.
But what makes Cassette Beasts so appealing?
First, there’s the art style and sprites work that bring me straight to the Nintendo DS era of Pokémon. Had Pokémon kept its 2D style, I’d be more than happy it was anything as endearing as Cassette Beasts.
Then there’s the story. Despite its looks, the story has a mature tone that Pokémon fans of my age can relate to. You wake up in a world you don’t know with people from different points who are trying to not just return home but also learn how to adapt and thrive in this new world.
The world is filled with dangerous Cassette Beasts that you can capture, train, and evolve. And through your journey, you’ll find great party members that will help you in battle.
If your bond is strong enough, you’ll be able to fuse your Cassette Beasts, which will be helpful when battling the Captains and, most importantly, the Angels. Who are these massive bosses that share a very uncomfortable design.
But the best part of Cassette Beasts is being able to explore with other players through multiplayer! It’s a lot like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Multiplayer, but this one is actually good since your friends can assist you in battle.
Moreover, if you decide to play Cassette Beasts, be ready to be blasted with one of the best soundtracks in Monster Taming games.
2. Monster Hunter Stories
There are 2 Monster Hunter Story games on the Nintendo Switch, and I still think the first one is superior, and I’ll explain why by showing how the original Monster Hunter Stories is a great game like Pokémon.
First there’s the obvious, the Monster Taming, where you can befriend roughly 100 popular monsters spanning the entire Monster Hunter franchise until Monster Hunter Generations.
And just like you can make Pokémon feel Unique by giving them unique moves, ev’s, and natures, you can also customize your Monsters with genes from other Monsters.
With this method, you can give new moves to your Monsters, and even change it’s typing if given enough genes of a certain type! Which is a nightmare to deal with online, believe me.
Gene Swapping is a bit daunting at first, but you need to understand it if you want to be successful in the post game, the content that puts this Monster Hunter Stories 1 above Monster Hunter Stories 2. Mainly the Tower of Illusion.
You can think of this like the Battle Tower in Pokémon games. In the Tower of Illusion, you have 3 paths you can choose, and your goal is to reach the top of each path, and it’s not easy, believe me. Unlike Pokémon, there are checkpoints in certain levels, meaning you don’t need to start all over again.
Completing this tower is very rewarding since it forces you to understand all the game’s mechanics, and it’s a shame that there’s nothing like this in Pokémon Games anymore or in Monster Hunter Stories 2.
Honorable Mentions:
Before the number 1 spot, I want to briefly mention a few games that barely missed the cut for me:
World of Final Fantasy
World of Final Fantasy is Final Fantasy’s take on the monster-taming genre, and it does an impressive job in making the combat feel unique. The monsters have a wonderful design, and you can recognize most of them from previous games.
However, unlike Monster Hunter Stories, you do need to have played other games in the franchise to fully enjoy it. Since the story of World of Final Fantasy leans heavily on previously established characters and references, it’s harder to recommend it.
Coromon
I’ve known about Coromon for years now, and I was eagerly waiting for the Nintendo Switch release. It’s a great Pokémon-like game where you can capture monsters, go on an adventure, and stop a calamity from happening.
And while I loved my time with the game, I never got around to finishing it… I think there were other games being launched at the time I was playing it and dropped it. I still want to get around to finishing it one day, though.
Digimon Cyber Sleuth + Hacker’s Memory
By now, Digimon fans must be disappointed their Digimon games didn’t make the cut. But the truth is, these games are very different from Pokémon games and lean heavily on something most Pokémon don’t enjoy in recent games: cutscenes with plenty of dialogs.
If you don’t mind, here you’ll find 2 great games with a lot of content to enjoy for more than 100 hours. There are hundreds of Digimon to obtain. The real seller for these games is the fact that any Digimon can become almost any Digimon you want, since you’ll always have different dissolution options and you can even devolve them to try a different route.
I had a great time with these games, and I can’t wait to get my hands on Time Stranger in the near future.
1. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince
Dragon Quest Monster’s the Dark Prince was my biggest surprise of 2023, the perfect Christmas gift if you will. I wasn’t completely sold on the game due to its lack of polish and performance issue, but after unlocking Monster Synthesis I was completely hooked.
I thought that Monster Hunter Stories was the strongest Monster Taming in terms of customization, but then comes The Dark Prince with its synthesis mechanic and knocks it out the park.
This mechanic alone makes sure that every single playthrough feels unique since there’s almost no limit to what you can do with a certain monster. Any monster can be a tank, a healer, or an attacker based on how they are built.
You should use and abuse this mechanic if you want to clear all the game’s content, especially the last secret boss.
But it’s not just the synthesis mechanic who makes this great appealing to me. There’s a decent story to follow with ties to Dragon Quest IV, which I found to have a very satisfying conclusion, despite taking a while to pick up the pace.
You can also expect a big world to explore, with many areas and monsters to capture. With more than 500 monsters from the Dragon Quest franchise to capture, don’t expect to run out of things to do quick. I have roughly 100 hours, and I’m still missing a few spots in my collection.
And to close, there’s also an online ladder for those that want to put their creations to the test; however, it’s very unbalanced and too heavy on RNG, and in my opinion, it’s not worth your time.
But the rest of the content is so great that I can recommend it 100%. In my eyes, it’s one of the best Monster Taming games on the Nintendo Switch and a game I can fully recommend to Pokémon fans.
Thanks for Reading!
Thank you so much for reading this blog post until the end! Games like Pokémon or Monster Taming games are some favorites of mine to play, and ranking these was difficult since I thoroughly enjoyed every single game mentioned here today.
But in the end, I think I ended up with a list of the Best Games Like Pokémon on the Nintendo Switch that I agree, and be proud of.