#nexomon original

[nayvwriter]

(nexomon spoilers?)

...Wait a minute.

Look at the designs on his ribbons.

They're all the others! They're shaped like the other children of Omnicron, on the ribbon for their element! And then the black ribbon has the diamond pattern seen on Omnicron himself!

He's all of them, he's every one of the other Primordial Tyrants and more! And this is reflected in not only his design, but his moveset too - I figured out that one a while ago but I never noticed the pictures on the ribbons before!

And now I want to write some stuff about him. There's so much potential there.

Might follow up with sources and further explanation if I can be bothered (most of my sources are from the wiki).

@anacharafan this is your fault you got me thinking about him

[tulipsnflowers]

I shouldn't be allowed near Nara work

This is for the wonderful work brambles by @nayvwriter!

The work comes with a gut punch, and I'm making it worse!

[1-nexomon-a-day]

4/14/24 - Roohopu

[somepunaboutspace]

They say that the beast is attracted to the scent of dread and fear the lost feel when close to drawing their last breath

-------

Drew the tyrant boy

[glitchven]

Ok so i was just playing nexomon 1 and i finally got to grundas nightmare and look

Normal landscape, right? but look closer

Its literally a mural of Nara!!!!!!!

I cant really tell whats going on in the left side of the picture but on the right it clearly shows Nara running, so im just sayinggggggg, what if its supposed to depict Nara running away from Omnicron during the war between humans and nexomon???

[player-1]

Me, trying to grind for Cosmic Venefelis cause I like the ghostly colors: :’)

Also me, finding a updated Cosmic Dex w. the Abyssal story 'mon: …Huh? Why do all the Abyssals have their crystals blue as well? Apart from some drastic color changes, why does it look so fami-

Oh…

Oh no…

[jangmo-othewarrior]

I'm sorry but one of the CoO headcannons I posted previously has taken over my brain (along with another idea that I am attempting to draw art for but shush)...... so I wrote a drabble. (SPOILER ALERT: IT IS NO LONGER A DRABBLE IT IS BASICALLY A SHORT STORY I'M SORRY YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Fenrir sighed. Being alive again was nice, but his redemption had already been realized. His purpose was fulfilled. He had no reason to continue being on this plane. His journey was over.

To put it simply, he was bored and he felt like shit.

He had promised the kid he wouldn't sent anything on fire if he couldn't find anything to do. And he would be hanging out with the kid right now, but they had ran off to go look for a 'Cosmic Skerdi', whatever that is. The cat, glasses girl, skull boy, anger issues 1.0 and 2.0, water himbo, and Riley went with them, so at the very least things might not get destroyed to much. He wasn't about to go hang out with any of the other guild members, and Celine was busy with Laterian shit or whatever. Which left Fenrir with his siblings.

Zetta and Merida were out of the question. He did not have the time nor the energy to deal with volleyball matches or Zetta's entire existence. Nadine was also out of the question, as she had explicitly told all of them to leave her alone for at least week after Xanders had tried to kill her. Again. And Deena was dealing with that whole situation.

Which left Grunda. Honestly, Grunda was probably his first pick anyways, other than his niece. He is easily the most mature out of all of the them, and he has calmed down significantly since his second death. The only problem with visiting Grunda is his current residence.

His brother lived in and ran a human orphanage. With human children. Everywhere. And Fenrir only liked 1 human child on this planet, at most 6. So on one hand, even entering a building filled to the brim with emotional, disgusting, and chaotic human children sounds like a nightmare.

But on the other hand, Fenrir had nothing else to do. And maybe if he was quiet he could just sneak up to Grunda's personal quarters. No unnecessary human interaction needed.

And so here he stood, in front of the two large Orphanage doors at 8 in the morning. The kids probably weren't awake at this time, so he was safe to run up and start pestering Grunda. The old wooden doors creaked as he slowly pushed them open. No one was in the barely lit hall, and the entire building felt as quiet as a torched landscape. The pillar within the center of the entryway was covered with pictures, some old, some new. Fenrir made his way towards the the pillar, footsteps echoing down the hall lit only by the sun beginning to shine through the windows. The pictures were similarly lit, with a multitude of faces unrecognizable to himself.

It was odd, how Fenrir felt looking at these photos. He had thought that humans only hung pictures of their triumphs to boast about them to other humans, like how Omnicron had shown him and his siblings off the the human populace so long ago. Most of the pictures on the pillar, if not all of them, were captured moments of triumph. But, they did not feel like they were bragging about anything.

There was a picture of a young woman wrapping a bandage around the end of a child's leg, where they were missing a foot. The child was laughing as the young woman appeared to be telling him a joke along with caring for his injury. Another photo featured a large group of young children sitting underneath a large structure made out of pillows. It wasn't well crafted, but they were all clearly proud of their work. However, the last photo that really caught Fenrir's eye was one of the most plain picture of the bunch.

It was a photo of four young children, no more than 8 years old. In center of photo sat his niece, smiling wide at the camera with her arms hooked around two humans on either side of her. The human child on the right had glasses on, with short pink hair and a large book held tightly against her chest. She seemed slightly suprised by his niece's actions, but gave a small smile towards the camera. The other human child had bright orange hair, with a pair of Google to large for him on his head. He was laughing, with one eye open and looking at the camera. The last child, a cat, sat just below his niece, his body slightly cut off by the frame. The cat had bright eyes and a small smile directed towards the camera, although the smile almost seemed like a smirk.

It was his niece, Nora, Ross and Coco. All of the photos were of children who were either at or were from the Orphanage. Their accomplishments, triumphs, and achievements. And their daily lives. It wasn't boasting. It was pride and praise. It was contentment, a feeling of causal happiness in a destruction filled world. It was something him and his siblings never got.

"Excuse me?" Fenrir jumped out of his thoughts and whirled towards the voice as the room got a few degrees hotter.

It was a young child standing against the lefthand side of the pillar. Their hair appeared to a ginger color, and they had a red scarf around their neck. They hid slightly behind the pillar as he locked eyes with them. Fenrir let out an exhale, and the room returned to its regular tempature. He struck a hand against his forehead. So much for not running into any humans. "What do you want, kid?"

The human blinked a couple of times before emerging from behind the pillar. They were probably around ten years old. "Whose picture are you looking at?"

Fenrir huffed. He pointed to the photo of his niece and her friends. "The one in the middle is my niece." A pause. "Not the cat." He added.

Suddenly, a small gasp came from the child. Small footsteps echoed down the hallway as the child ran straight up to him and looked him in the eye. Fenrir nearly transformed right then and there, but there was something about the child's eyes that stopped him. They were bright, full, and nearly shining. They were looking at him like he was a god, despite having no way of knowing that he actually was one.

"You're one of Mr. Grunda's brothers!" The child started rocking back and forth on their heels. "Which one? What's your name?"

Fenrir stared at the child. One of Mr. Grunda's brothers? How on earth did this kid know that? He blinked down at the child, who was waiting with... baited breath? Fenrir silently prayed that Grunda used their human names instead of their true ones. "Ummm.. My name is Fenrir?"

The child immediately started bouncing up and down. "I knew it! You have the long coat, just like he said!" And with that, the child dashed into the down the hallway, into the last room on the right. Fenrir stood next to the pillar, trying to process whatever the child had shouted before running away. Suddenly, as if a tsunami had appeared on the horizon, a swarm of children erupted from the door the child had ran into. All of the other doors in the hall also swiftly opened up, and joined the swarm. And then, they were upon him.

Fona, the Primordial Tyrant of Fire, is known across time and space for scorching anyone and anything who stood in his way. The third child of King Omnicron, only able to be held back by Ulzar's chains. At times Fona was known to turn into Fenrir, champion of the flames and a ruthless member of the Nexolord's council. Fona was cursed, demonized, and above all feared by humanity. Fona...

...has been bested by a group of human children.

He was surrounded on all sides by hopping, screaming children. All of them were asking questions, but they were lost to the eternal screeches of the masses. The original child had been lost to the crowd, probably to save himself from the mountain of children he caused. Fenrir didn't know what to do. This was just so... overwhelming.

A sudden thunk hushed all of the children almost immediately. A cat stood there, at the base of the stairs with a book hooked under one arm. She was clearly older than Coco, with black fur and white and carmel markings with light green eyes. One tooth was sticking out slightly over her lip. She was wearing a red sweater with a pair of jeans. All of the children were looking at her guiltily.

"What in Ulzar's name is going on here?" She said as she made her way over to Fenrir and the mass of children. "Why are you all up so early?"

"Mr. Fenrir's here!" At least ten children all pointed at him.

"Mr. Fenrir?" She blinked. "Well, what are you doing here?" She gestured to him.

Fenrir's mind blanked. Yet, his mouth moved anyway. "I came to see Grunda."

The cat nodded. The children began to murmur to each other before her voice silenced them. "Well, I will take you to him. Fo?" The child who originally saw him shuffled up to her. The cat passed the book to him. "Can you please take this to the library for me?"

The child, Fo, nodded and clutched the book against his chest tightly. "Okay, Bee." The cat, Bee, gave him a small smile before addressing the group as a whole.

"All of you, go get ready for breakfast. I think it will be a bit special today." Bee grabbed his wrist and began to drag him towards the stairs. Fenrir wanted to say something, but his throat had throughly clamped shut. He glanced back at the mass of children.

All of the children lit up as he looked back at them. "Bye Mr. Fenrir!" They all shouted as they waved at him. Fenrir, throughly overwhelmed, simply waved back.

As the two of the them walked up the stairs, Fenrir finally felt like he could breathe. It didn't feel like he was suffocating under his father's the children's expectations. At the top of the stairs, Bee came to stop.

"Are you okay? They didn't mean to overwhelm you." She retracted her paw back to her chest. It struck Fenrir in this moment that this cat only had one functional arm. Her left arm was in a sling that matched the red sweater she was wearing, down to the green butterfly pattern. It was almost unnoticeable if it weren't for the carmel and white paw sticking out of the end of the sling.

Fenrir suddenly remembered that he was having a conversation, and quickly shoved his hands into his coat pockets. "I'm... I'm fine."

Bee quirked her brow, but didn't press him. "Well, my name is Buttercup, but everyone just calls me Bee." She put her right paw on her hip. "And you are Fenrir, I presume."

Fenrir snorted. "How could you tell? The coat?"

"That and the eye scar. You are quite famous here, Mr. Fenrir."

Fenrir sighed. "Can I ask why?"

Bee laughed and pointed at the large doors Fenrir had neglected to notice down the hall. "You will find your answer through there, Mr. Fenrir."

Huffing, Fenrir opened the doors. To no one's surprise, Grunda was sitting there waiting for him, cane leaning against the edge of the table. The most surprising part was the smirk fitted on his face.

"You knew." Fenrir says into the morning air.

Grunda huffs. "I didn't know you were coming until shout of 'Mr. Fenrir!' hit my office. I did know they were excited about meeting you, however." The smirk didn't fade. In fact, it got wider.

"How do they know about me?" The air in room got hotter. "The stories about 'Fenrir, champion of flame' are long gone now."

"They don't know the champion of flame," Grunda got out of his seat, and stared into Fenrir's eyes. "They know the determined, passionate, and fierce person you are. And they only know that because I told them."

As two of the stared at each other, it struck Fenrir just how different Grunda was compared to their... their childhood. Grunda had always been Omnicron's favorite, with his sheer destructive power and ability to take damage with little effort. Fona had idolized him for that destructive power and tried to emulate it for their father's attention. Even after death, Grunda maintained the most power out of all of them, able to create a physical form easily. But now, Grunda seemed more... calm. Reserved. At peace. Which was ironic, considering their niece only resurrected him a few months ago.

"Am I interrupting something?" Both of them turned to Bee, who was leaning against the door at the entrance.

Grunda sighed. "No, Buttercup. What is it?" Bee staggered into the room like she owned the place.

"Breakfast is gonna start soon, but the kids are antsy for," She gestured towards Fenrir. "Obvious reasons. Can you get them to settle down?" Grunda nodded, patting her on the back in sympathy.

Yet another thing that has changed. The thought sat in the back of Fenrir's mind.

Bee turned to leave before waving him down. "I'm sorry about Fona summoning the horde, by the way. He can get caught up in his excitement easily." And with that, she strutted out the door, and closed it behind her with a gentle thud.

That was the only sound in the room for a long time. Or, at least what felt like a long time. Of course, that morning air silence would have to break eventually.

"Is he named after.. me?" Fenrir's voice felt quieter than it had been for a long time.

Grunda's sighed, but it felt more sad and burdened that anything relieving. "His father named him after you."

Fenrir stared wide-eyed at Grunda. "Why?" He found himself saying, unable to comprehend why a human would name their child after the ancient primordial tryant of fire, who was known for scorching entire landscapes to ashes.

Grunda looked at him sadly. "He wanted Fo to be like you, I suppose." But why? Fenrir asked himself. "Fo's father was not... not a nice man."

"What happened to him?"

"Prison happened. He was found guilty on multiple accounts of assault and one attempted homicide. Fo was seven, I believe. He's been here ever since."

"What.. who.. why...?" How ironic. The Primordial Tyrant of Fire feeling sympathy for a human. Their father would have lost his mind. The thought silenced Fenrir for a moment. "Can I talk to him?"

Grunda smiled at him sadly. "I was hoping you would say that."

------

"This is a horrible idea." The words reached no ears as Fenrir stood, murmuring to himself in front of the doors to the library. Breakfast had been chaotic, with questions being thrown at him from all directions. The only person not asking questions was Fo, who had eaten so quickly that Fenrir had barely noticed that he was even there. Luckily, Grunda and Buttercup had been able to distract the other children enough for him to slip away. And so, here he was, nervously (By their father's name, when was the last time he was nervous?) standing in front of two large doors, about to have a conversation with a child about their emotional relationship with their father. So nothing major.

Fenrir opened the door slightly to peak inside. The library was large, and primarily composed of books Grunda had collected throughout the centuries. There were no windows, with only a lamp sitting at the centermost desk lighting the entire room. At that desk sat Fo, leaning over a book, his eyes glued to the page. As Fenrir slowly opened the door, the child did not even acknowledge his presence. Unsure of what to do, Fenrir began to shuffle his way towards Fo.

Wow. He thought to himself. I used to enter rooms by causing explosions of flame and smoke to erupt out of my feet. Now I'm trying to quietly sneak into a library. Ivan would get a kick out of seeing me now.

Fenrir stopped about a foot away from the child's shoulder, and he was now close enough to lean over and look at the book Fo was reading. It was... a picture book. A familiar looking tiger was laying on the ground in what appeared to be a cave, with two cubs spouting small puffs of flame from their mouths as they climbed on the older nexomon.

"That's an interesting book." Fenrir found himself saying. Fo jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Mr. Fenrir!" The kid's eyes were blown out wide. "What are you doing here?"

Fenrir smirked. "I saw you slip away and figured I would go have a chat with someone I've talked to before. Now," he pulled over the chair on the other side of the desk and sat down. "What are you reading?"

Fo closed the book and pointed at the cover. "It's an old picture book on fire type nexomon. Most of them are extinct now though." The kid's eyes dimmed.

Fenrir nodded. "Well.. which one is your favorite?" Fo's eyes lit up again as he excitedly began thumbing through the pages. As the pages flipped by the kid kept stopping and pondering the nexomon on the page, probly trying to figure out his favorite one. Eventually the kid stopped, but he thumbed the next page. The current page featured a skunk with a long flame shooting out of its tail standing the middle of a large plain. Fenrir vaguely remembered this nexomon. "Is this your favorite?"

"No, but it is pretty cool." The kids eyes were hesitant, and he gnawed on his lip before turning the page.

Unlike the previous pages, this image filled the entire space. The centerpiece was the nexomon standing on a large cliff, with a forest below and around it. The nexomon stood proudly, but also appeared almost at peace. It was Fona. It was him.

The room was quiet. Fenrir would of been able to hear the sounds of the other children if he wasn't staring at the page. Suddenly, Fo pointed at the him on the page.

"He's my favorite. There's no nexomon like him in the book." The kid paused. "I'm also named after him."

Fenrir felt dread creeping down his spine. "Why is he your favorite?" His somehow calm voice asked the child.

The kid blinked a couple of times before looking up at the ceiling. "He was one of Omnicron's kids, supposedly. " Supposedly is far from the truth, kid. Fenrir thought. "Apparently he burned down a ton of stuff too."

Lord, please don't let this kid idolize him for burning down entire continents.

"But.." The kid looked down at the page once more. "This drawing has none of that. Fona is just standing there, looking out onto the landscape. Nothing is burning down. Nobody is running away in fear. He just... exists." The kid gestured to all of the scenery on the page. "But if he can exist peacefully, why would he burn down other places? I think its because he never really wanted to burn those places to the ground."

Febrir nearly spit out a rebuttal right then and there, but his words dies in his throat as the kid continued.

"I think he only did bad things because his dad wanted him too. Because his dad made him." The unsaid words sat in the air. Fenrir's throat felt like it had snapped shut. "I don't think his dad was nice to him." Fo's words were simply a whisper, but they felt like a punch to the gut to Fenrir.

Because the kid was right, at least in some capacity. Omnicron was not kind to them, not fatherly to them. He only gave them the light of day when they did something he liked, so that's what they did. Destruction and death, all for Omnicron's attention. The things they had done were their own choices, but Omnicron was often a reason behind them. Omnicron did not tolerate anything he disliked either, Nara being the prime example. But Nara had not been thrown out, she had escaped. To put it simply, Fenrir felt like the past thousands of years have all come crashing down onto him. Fo continued, oblivious to Fenrir's internal breakdown.

"But here his is, peacefully standing in a forest. I think he got better." The kids voiced wavered slightly. "He got away because if he didn't that forest wouldn't be there. This picture wouldn't exist. And if he got better, then I can get better."

The picture was fake. Fona had never gotten better. Fona had continued to torch everything in sight even after Ulzar had killed Omnicron. Fona had worked to resurrect the father who would absorb him and his siblings simply to bring himself back. Fona had stayed by his father's side until the day he died.

But he was back. He had earned his redemption through his niece's ascension. He had continued to live, despite Omnicron's soul being forever gone from any and all planes. Just like this human child, he had gotten out, alongside the rest of his siblings.

Fenrir let out a large exhale as he leaned back in his chair and stared at the false image of him on that page. Despite the inaccuracies, he smirked at the picture. His journey wasn't over. It would be hard, grueling, and painful. But maybe...

Maybe Fona, Fenrir, or whoever he was could get better.

[stormbluestories]

Well THIS isn’t good!

Why am I DEAD.

[zscyber]

Chapters 4 & 5 of 'The City of Science'

Chapter 4: 大統領, Part 1

Chapter summary: Cadium's President will always stand by the city's people..

AO3 Link:

Chapter 5: 大統領, Part 2

Chapter summary: …and Cadium’s people will always stand with their President.

AO3 Link:

[digic300]

I cannot find my original poll but I also wanted to make an new one anyways

NOT INCLUDING THESE IN THE POLL:

Pokemon/Digimon: Waaaay to wildly popular. I had them in the last poll and they basically dominated it all, so I wanted to shine the light on these gems!

Palworld: I know its new, that's not why its not included. The company fully supports AI/GPT and I can't in good conscious include it. I'll include a link in the reblog for more info on it, cause I still don't know if they still shadowban posts with links in em initially.

GAMES I WANT TO INCLUDE BUT LITERALLY ONLY HAVE SO MANY OPTIONS:

World of Final Fantasy

Monster Crown

Disc Creatures

Siralim Ultimate

Moonstone Island

Anode Heart

Feel free to reblog/comment with other monster-collector games!! I love playing these type of games and love collecting them!

[nayvwriter]

Have a piece of writing I found in my drafts.

Nexomon Extinction Spoilers:

They'd taken multiple family photos. The first they'd taken at the orphanage, so it had the building in the background.

Far left was Fenrir, with a charred hat on his head – Zetta had plonked it on to hide the horns, and Fenrir had reflexively set it on fire because Zetta had not warned him. It still managed to make Fenrir look vaguely normal, though if you looked closely you might see the fire in his eyes. He wore a faint smirk on his face, but there was a trace of a smile.

Next to him was Nadine. She'd let her hair down and it was blowing out behind her, despite it not being a windy day. She'd taken her cape off, too, so all in all she didn't look quite so much like she was trying to cosplay her Tyrant form.

Far right was Zetta, a few sparks floating around him – but they could just be considered a trick of the light on the photo. He'd tried, but he was just too excited to stop sparking. He'd taken his visor off too, but he was grinning so much you could barely see his eyes.

Next in from the right was Merida, one of the most practised at looking 'normal'. Though the others had insisted that she not put on her 'happy little volleyball player' façade, so her expression was a little awkward, not quite knowing how to smile.

In the middle were Deena, on the left with her hair down, and Ulrich on the right – better known as the Mentor to some. Both wore proud smiles on their faces, looking at the centrepiece of the photo. Luke, their child – Deena their mother by birth, and Ulrich the one who'd raised them. Luke had said they considered them both their parents, just in different ways.

All in all, it was a nearly normal family photo, which was quite an accomplishment for the Primordial Tyrants.

The others? Not so much.

[feministmetalgreymon]

The reality behind the Palworld vs Pokemon contreversy

I have been a lifelong Pokemon fan. And one thing I have observed is there are two kinds of Pokemon fans.

One type of Pokemon fan is what I call the sane fans. They acknowledge Pokemon is one game in a long line of monster taming games. They may like or prefer Pokemon over other monster taming franchises but they acknowledge those franchises legitimacy rather than dismissing them as Pokemon clones and rip offs.

The other type is the insane Pokemon fans. These are the people who will insist, despite evidence to the contrary, that Pokemon is the first and only original monster taming game. And accuse any monster taming game of being a Pokemon rip off. If a monster taming franchise looks like it might be become popular they immediately lie about it and slander it. And if it doesn't become a "Pokemon Killer" they deride it as a failure that wasn't as good as Pokemon.

I have seen these insane Pokemon fans attack any monster taming game including franchises that predate Pokemon like Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Quest. When Tem Tem came out they swarmed social media with accusations that Tem Tem was just a lazy Pokemon clone. And now they want people to take them seriously when they call Palworld a Pokemon rip off. Yeah sure.🙄

Palworld isn't even in the same game genre as Pokemon let alone being a Pokemon clone. Palworld is a survival crafting game with a monster taming mechanic. The Pals you tame aren't just used for fighting like in Pokemon. They are also used for chores like crafting, farming, building and gathering resources. The only similarities Pokemon and Palworld shares is a small number of vaguely similar parody designs.

The only thing that has changed is that now that the Pokemon games have declined in quality. Fewer people are willing to take the insane Pokemon fans seriously. When Game Freak released Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and it was a broken buggy mess. That was a wake up call to the Pokemon fandom. They realized that blindly worshipping a billionaire dollar corporation was a bad idea. And so they started trying other monster collecting franchises like Digimon, Nexomon, Cassette Beast, Dragon Quest Monsters and now Palworld.

They realized that they were missing out on a lot of good games by worshipping Pokemon and insisting it's the best just because it's more popular. And that's when Palworld came along.

You want a monster taming game where you fight alongside your monsters. Palworld has it. You want to use your monsters for more than just fighting. Palworld has it. You want a large and challenging open world. Palworld has it. You want to play with your friends. Palworld has it. You want to build a base and watch as your monsters perform tasks. Palworld has it. You want creature breeding mechanics that aren't slow and tedious grinding. Palworld has it. You want deep creature raising sim mechanics. Palworld has it.

Despite all of the attempts to accuse Palworld of "plagiarizing" Palworld. Palworld has improved drastically on the Pokemon formula and has added more interactivity and depth to it. This is why insane Pokemon fans hate Palworld. They can't argue that Palworld has worse gameplay than Pokemon. So instead they make the issue about "originality".

"Originality" has nothing to do with how good or well done a game is. But it works as a distraction from debates about quality. By making the Palworld debate about originality they don't have to discuss how broken and buggy the Pokemon games are. Nor acknowledge any of the improvements and advances Palworld has made to the monster taming genre. Instead the debate becomes about who did what first.

The reality is it doesn't matter who did what first, what matters is who did it best.

[1-nexomon-a-day]

3/29/24 - Tomathorn

[familiaralien]

Giant monster tamer megathread

Decided for the sake of education and my own neurodiversity to make a post including every video game series or stand alone title I know of that focuses on creature capturing competitions that isn't Pokemon.

One big exception: the game has to be a reasonably playable state. So no games that are effectively or literally lost media (like Micromon) or games that only playable state is currently a short demo (like Bestieball). With that in mind here we go:

Digimon

This one is pretty obvious. While more of a multimedia franchise it has tons of games to its IP. The one that probably would appeal most to Pokenerds is Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and its sequel as they're turned based RPGs with a monster capture mechanic.

Monster Rancher

Another one I think a lot of folks have heard about or least millennials would remember. I haven't personally played any of these titles myself but from what I gather they're raising sims with tournament combat. For a while their availability was mostly limited to emulation but Monster Rancher 1 and 2 have been ported to modern systems like the Switch.

Yo-kai Watch

A mid 2010s franchise that had a whole lot of initial success in Japan. Its an RPG series that doesn't take itself very seriously with cute and goofy monster design based on the Japanese folklore creatures called... well yokai. Has real time combat instead of turn based and more luck based capturing mechanics than Pokemon.

Palworld

Brand new game that's only in its alpha release as of now. Its effectively a parody of Pokemon where you're stuck trying to survive in the wilderness so you must build a base and farm resources to survive. Game did have some initial controversy due to some of its designs stepping a little TOO close to being outright ripoffs of existing designs. Also you can capture and enslave humans which may not vibe with some folks.

Temtem

Basically Pokemon meets a MMO lite. The game can be played mostly as single player campaign but does unfortunately still require a constant internet connection. Battles are turned based but 2 versus 2.

Shin Megami Tensei

What could be consider the original monster tamer game. The series is aimed at a somewhat older audience and the plots tend to be more philosophical then like "gotta be the best *insert title here* ever". Focuses a lot on fusing monsters as well as trying to convince them to join you. You actually battle alongside your monsters.

Dragon Quest Monsters

Monster Capturing mechanics do exist in the mainline DQ games as well (at least since DQ5 I think?) but its these games have them as the main gameplay. Much like SMT it focuses on fusing monsters as one of the main ways to expand your library off available species.

Nexomon

Franchise that started its life as a mobile game but has since gotten ports to other systems. Its very similar to Pokemon in terms of creature designs and combat but the worldbuilding is quite different as is its tone being a lot more comedic.

Coromon

Indie game with visuals similar to Pokemon Black and White. Its story was originally kinda so-so and its ending pretty abrupt but its since gotten a free patch that smoothed that out quite a bit. Also has a sorta unique "shiny" system where alternate colors are associated with higher potential which can actually be altered once. Also has a built in randomizer and "nuzlocke" mode.

Cassette Beasts

A pretty recent indie game. Unlike all the others you don't capture or hatch monsters but rather record them to transform into them yourself. Battles are always between you and a companion which there are multiple to befriend throughout your journey (including a dog!). Has some really interesting quirks with its type chart that adds a lot of extra depth. Will soon be releasing a mutiplayer update for anyone that's into that kind of thing.

Monster Crown

A game with visual based on the Gameboy era. It has some pretty fascinating breeding mechanics and a somewhat darker tone than Pokemon. WARNING: DO NOT GET THE SWITCH PORT! For whatever reason its especially glitchy and I have genuinely gotten entire save files ruined by game breaking bugs (such as my player character getting stuck in walls or clipping out of a bounds). As far as I'm aware the PC version is not nearly as much as a mess though.

Monster Sanctuary

Monster collecting meets metroidvania. Has a really fun skill tree type move learning system that allows for quite a bit of strategy. Also the monster designs are way less Pokemon and more inspired by traditional roleplay monsters (so there's like Goblins and stuff). My only gripe with the game is how you get monsters involves getting specific scores in battle which makes getting 1 of each monster way more tedious than it needed to be.

Fossil Fighters

Franchise is maybe dead since there hasn't been a new entry in it since the 3DS but its still easy enough to these games. Anyway this series involve reviving dinosaurs (and some other ancient animals) into new lifeforms called vivosaur and using them in 3 on 3 combat. Vivosaurs are obtained with a fossil digging minigame which is kinda neat.

Spectrobes

Another franchise that's been pretty dead for a while (it last entry was on the Wii). Spectrobes has a more sci fi like setting with its monsters being aliens you revive from fossils. Combat is real time and you participate alongside a couple of your monsters. I'm btw describing only the first game because I haven't played either sequel!

Evocreo

Mobile only monster game with a style similar to Pokemon Black and White not unlike Coromon mentioned above. Has a lot of focus on split path evolution. The devs are apparently going to release a sequel soon but its been in development hell for years so I'll come back and edit this if that actually happens.

Monster Hunter Stories

I have not played nor watched gameplay of this one so I can't really describe it that deeply all I know is its a spinoff of Monster Hunter involving befriending and using the titular monsters in combat.

Telefang

Its sad this game series is most famous for being badly translated and repackaged as a Pokemon game. Anyway these are Japanese only titles though fan translations exist. The gimmick of this game is that you call monsters up on your cellphone to get them over to participate in combat. This series this sprout out when cellphones were consider newfangled and hip so it makes sense.

Anode Heart

Pretty sure this one is PC only. Takes some inspiration from the Digimon World games and is semi open world. Sadly this one I don't know much about outside of that though it does have a free demo on Steam for anyone that wants to try it for themselves.

Ooblets

Extremely wholesome monster catching and farming game. Battles are actually dancing competitions instead of violent confrontations and monsters are recruited simply by beating them in a fight. Thing is monsters will only fight you if you offer them their favourite food so that's where strategy comes in.

Moonstone Island

I know very little about this one except its also a monster catching and farming game. I've heard that its really good though and I believe its PC only right now but has a planned Switch port.

Timenet

Probably the most obscure ass monster tamer on this entire list. This is a Japanese exclusive set of Gameboy games featuring very cute monster designs... and Hello Kitty. Yes Sanrio made a monster tamer back in the late 90s. I only learned this even existed after scrolling down a comment section on a random YouTube video.

Abomi Nation

I'm mostly excluding roguelike games due to most having nothing but battles an 0 plot but this one does actually has a story! You play as the actual monster as you make your way through somewhat randomly generated maps with lots of other randomized elements. The game allows for a lot of customization including turning off permadeath if you're not a fan of that. The visual style is a bit crude but its still a pretty cute game.

Jade Concoon

Another somewhat obscure entry but at least this one got an English release. Anyway its an old RPG for the PSX with monster capturing and a very fascinating monster fusing mechanic that uses an algorithm to determine the appearance of the fusion. The player character can also participate in battle and the plot is very complex. The game also has a sequel on the PS2 but I know even less about that one.

Robopon

Now if you thought Palworld was bordering on some copyright infringement this game is basically nothing but "Pokemon but the designs are robots". Still worth bringing up I think!

Ni No Kuni

Not sure how I got to mentioning several obscure titles and somehow didn't mention something that really isn't. Ni No Kuni is real time battles between you and 2 party members. You can both battle as the actual human characters or switch into a monster. Wrath of the White Witch's visual style in particular is very whimsical and even has some animated cutscene done by Studio Ghibli. I haven't played any other game in the franchise.

Siralim

I haven't played any entry in this series yet (there's apparently 4 games + a spinoff) but from reading up on the most recent entry these are basically procedurally generated dungeon crawlers with an insane level of depth. The story is apparently not that great but the games themselves apparently also make fun of it so it seems its an intentional dev choice. Battles are 6 on 6 and there's over 1000 monsters to collect.

Disc Creatures

A monster tamer with a visual style similar to the Gameboy and Gameboy Color. It has 3 on 3 combat. Impressively I'm pretty sure it was developed by just one person in the RPG Maker engine (I'm honestly surprised this is the first indie game made with ya know... an engine meant for turned based RPGs).

Monster Harvest

A Dungeon crawler mixed with farming. Its a bit shorter than anything else I've mentioned here and its a bit glitchy but its a cute little game worth picking up on sale at the least. Notably also only about a 1/3 of the monster in the game are combative with the rest being either used for farming resources or as mounts.

Loomian Legacy

A Roblox monster tamer.... yes there's 2 of those in this (I could even have added 3 but I think one is in still a pretty early state). Pretty sure this started as a Pokemon fangame and become its own thing later. It has your typical 1 on 1 turn based combat and all that. I think its free to play and there's like several hours of content on it so maybe worth a gander.

Tales of Tonorio

Pretty sure this is the same basic deal as Loomian (Roblox game, started as a Pokemon fan game, etc etc) though its has its own world building and creature designs since I'm pretty sure its made by a completely different team.

So yeah that's all of them I can think of right now. If I learn of others and/or there's new releases I may expand this.

PS: There is almost certainly numerous typoes in this. This post is way longer than anything else I've ever made on Tumblr so I can't be arse to fix them you're just going to have to deal!

[theinsidiousdice]

Okay so Nexomon Extinction is the sequel to Nexomon. Good so far, makes sense. Takes place something like, some centuries after the first one. Features the ghost of the original player character. Cool, I dig stuff like that. They play a lot with that in the game, and made it so I could figure it out even without playing the first one--

Wait, Nexomon is a sequel itself? Extinction is the third game in the series? And the game Nexomon is a sequel to is Micromon, and it's explicitly stated that in the Nexomon universe, Micromon is a game. Cool. I'm here for it. And a dude from Micromon leaves the game and shows up in Nexomon. Hell yeah, I'm here for it.

So now that I've finished Extinction I kind of want to play the previous games at some point. Nexomon is easy, couple of bucks on the Switch. How about Micromon? Oh, it's a mobile game? No problem, I can do that. Wait, the Android version either never existed or is completely wiped from the internet? And there's another game with almost the same name that makes it impossible to search for? And it's only on iOS? So the only way to play it is to have an iPhone??

Hell.

[drkineildwicks]

Okay so let’s talk about Palworld

Because I really do gotta talk about it this thing blew up

Apparently the guys who made it were expecting to sell like 300K the first week and ended up selling two million

They’re having to run damage control on the servers because the servers legit cannot handle the traffic

Last time I saw a game look like this it was Temtem on its first days

Because literally everybody underestimated how much game freak ticked off its fanbase

Which brings us to the Donphan in the room

Pokémon VS Palworld

Look we all knew going in that this was going to be a meme factory, whenever we talked about it the game is Pokémon: Gun

But it was also one of those games that popped up when GF started its stunts with dexit, reused assets, releasing half-baked games, etc.

People made fun of it and it’s stayed off the radar until this year, when it released

And yes caution should be exercised because this developer’s other game is still in early access so people are on the lookout for a scam

Not to mention the whole thing about using Pokémon assets, apparently aping Legends’ UI, the AI stuff, NFTs, a ton of other stuff

There’s apparently a whole thread on Twitter comparing and contrasting Pokémon designs with Pal designs and you can easily pick apart where assets were, if not outright stolen, were closely copied

So going in there’s a lot of weighing of pros and cons and some actual moral dilemmas as opposed to the whole fabricated BS of Hogwarts Legacy

Yes it was terrible that Rowling said *checks notes* that biological women exist and that victimized women should be allowed to dictate who is allowed in their safe spaces, these are obviously reasons to cancel somebody please don’t slip on the sarcasm there

But I’ve been watching streams of Palworld and…I want to play it???

You can look at it and 100% name that Pokémon and go okay they got THAT idea from THIS game (watching it I can list BotW, Sunkenland, and a couple others) apparently it’s the Pokémon ripoff version of Once Human

Which also ticks me off because after watching videos of that one I want to play that one too

And originally the big reason for looking more seriously at Palworld is…game freak needs to suffer

They’ve been releasing trash games for years now, the only good Pokémon game as of late is Legends Arceus and do not get me STARTED on the state that ScarVi released in

And then them having the gall to charge the price of a full game for DLC

So in order to play the ‘full game,’ you have to pay for BotW, TotK, and possibly a Mario game on top of it

Ain’t nobody got funds for that

Also the shills

I was telling Mom about all this earlier and when it came to discussing Pokémon games, even comparing them to previous Pokémon games, discussions online go like this anymore: “Well it’s not MADE for you!  It’s for kids!  Go find something else to do and quit picking on the poor multibillion dollar franchise! uwu”

And thus the people who grew up with Pokémon move on to other games, like Nexomon, Temtem, Cassette Beasts, Kindred Fates, Coromon, Palworld, etc.

Shills: “Wait no that’s illegal”

Honestly it’s like the YouTube vs Rumble or Twitter/Tumblr vs Conservative/right-wing websites thing—if you chase them off, what did you think they were going to do?

And then the design thing…a big fat part of me does not feel sorry about that

Because every single other game I listed?  The shills will look at those designs and go “what ripoffs they’re obviously Pokémon but not friend-shaped so ugly!”

So basically anything’s a ripoff, you might as well go full ripoff because the ‘fans’ are going to hate on it anyway

Also if anything even remotely shaped like a Pokémon is a ripoff, then Flamigo angers me even more because that is such a lazy design yes I’m still mad

Most of Gen IX legit looks like they asked an AI to spit out some Pokémon-shaped stuff and called it a day maybe a quarter of the ‘dex is salvageable and that’s being generous

And having spent the past year or so designing ‘mons for the DA group I help mod…three people doing designs have no problem filling a ‘dex out, the most time-consuming part of creating new Pokémon ought to be modeling the thing and once that’s down you’re good

Which means that Pokémon…has honestly asked for Palworld

Because let me tell you something—when I look at this ripoff of a game, this scam game that comes from people who think that NFTs and AI scraping and plagiarism is a good thing, that claims that every Pal that escapes from a ball had parents that never married, and I STILL want to play it over Pokémon?  When the scam game released in a better state than ScarVi?????

Pokémon drove every single customer to Palworld and because of it Palworld deserves every single one of those two million purchases