this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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Genre, or franchise?
I'm not a Pokemon player myself, so I'm on the outside looking in here, but it seems to have been a phenomenon on its own. What else is in Pokemon's genre? Maybe Digimon? Is that also a Nintendo property?
Or are we looking at the birth of a genre because the sole franchise that occupied it is descendant?
Monster capturing RPGs are a "genre" but Palworld isn't in that genre at all. Palworld is a survival game with mons instead of robotic automation.
There's a lot of monster collecting RPG games out there, and I will say that recently there've been a few more original ideas, but by and large they've mostly just followed the Pokemon formula, because it was "safe".
Just a few that come to mind immediately, but there are lots. Not that they're all Pokemon clones, but go watch a few trailers and you'll see very Pokemon-style battle systems, monster capturing systems, and general presentation present in some degree each of them.
Palworld isn't really part of that genre, but it takes the key parts of it and does something which is original, even if the component parts are not, and that's really what the we've been asking for and not getting for quite some time.
There are lots of other games in that genre.
The Megami Tensei series, along with a lot of its spin-offs, is very far from Pokémon's style and themes, came before it, and clearly a (very dark) monster collection RPG.
One game that I only tried recently and that I wasn't even aware was in this genre is Ni no kuni. Its monster collecting aspect only really begins a few hours in, but when it comes into play it becomes a major element of the game. Very cute and charming RPG.
There's a Dragon Quest Monsters series, Yo-Kai Watch, and a lot of other ones I am aware of but didn't try. Pokémon doesn't really exist in a vacuum, it's just by far the most successful.