Monster tamers are a subgenre of RPGs that focus on capturing and training a team of monsters. This subgenre has existed since the NES with games like Megami Tensei. The first one to become vaguely popular in a particular region was Dragon Quest 5 in Japan.
Pokemon Red and Blue would then help the genre spread rapidly in popularity worldwide. This list will highlight the ten best monster tamers series in terms of their quality and importance to the genre.
Temtem
Ranking in tenth place is Temtem. Many monster tamers live in the shadows of Pokemon simply due to the massive gap in popularity between it and most other series that attempt a similar formula. Temtem is one such game. It gets compared to Pokemon constantly, and in this specific case it’s actually easy to see why. It takes very clear inspiration from Pokemon, but does have some unique twists that helps it stand out. Most notably is the fact that all battles are 2v2s. This means your team will actually be interacting with each other constantly, rather than the more traditional 1v1 experience.
It has online multiplayer and even a spin-off called Temtem Showdown that focuses more on competitive play. These factors give the series a solid foundation. Unfortunately the story, characters, and goals don’t stick out enough for this title to stand out among the crowd. Its monster roster of just 160 is also slightly small when compared to most modern games in the genre. For that reason it only ranks in tenth place on this list.
Cassette Beasts
This indie game offers a music themed adventure in which characters turn into monsters that they recorded on their cassettes. It’s a charming game, and one with a world more fun to explore than the one seen in Temtem. It also has up to 8 player multiplayer. On the downside it’s roster is merely 120, and the monsters aren’t quite as memorable as monsters in games ranked higher on this list.
Monster Rancher
Monster Rancher was once a vaguely well known series within the genre, although it quickly faded into obscurity. It had many unique ideas such as scanning disks to obtain monsters, a heavy focus on monster breeding, and shock value story moments. Very few games in the genre we’re willing to ever kill off a beloved ally, but not Monster Rancher. The life cycle of monsters is very important, for better and for worse.
The reason the series became significantly less popular over time is in part due to the lack of games, but a more important reason is the monster designs. Besides the mascot, most monsters never gained even slight mainstream popularity. Other series like Pokemon, Digimon, and Dragon Quest were overflowing with memorable creatures whose names would never be forgotten. Monster Rancher monsters just couldn’t compete with Pikachu, Agumon, Slime, Jibanyon, and a plethora of other series mascots.
Digimon
Digimon may be more fondly remembered for its anime, however, it did actually start as tomodachi-esc games. The video games have taken many different forms over the years, but the ones that rank within the best monster tamers series on this list are the more serious and story focused titles.
Cyber Sleuth especially offers a neat mystery oriented narrative. Cyber Sleuth contains 250 monsters, which isn’t as massive as some games higher on this list, but it’s noticeably bigger than Temtem and Cassette Beasts.
Fossil Fighters
The original Fossil Fighters was based on three simple ideas; digging up fossils, turning them into dinosaurs, and then having them fight other dinosaurs. That’s all it had to be, but the devs actually put quite a lot of effort into it. The story was filled with a massive amount of plot twists revolving around aliens, time travel, and so much more. Even the combat was deeper than a simple DS monster tamer had to be.
The sequel’s story wasn’t as mind blowing as the first’s, but it was still good. One thing it was better at compared to the original was monster diversity, as it had many ancient animals and plants rather than just dinosaurs. Both games were fantastic for their time, although the third and final game in the series didn’t quite live up to their quality. It decided to focus on cars rather than actual dinosaur action. Many consider its failure as the reason the series has never received a fourth entry. Regardless, the first two Fossil Fighters remain top quality games from their era.
Persona
When it comes to popularity there are very few monster tamers that can compete with Persona 5, but popularity isn’t always everything. Fortunately, the Persona series is filled with fun characters, stories, and a more mature atmosphere than what other games in the genre typically offer. Entries like Persona 2 surpass a large majority of games in the genre when it comes to story depth. Additionally, the combat in modern Persona games is fast paced while still being complex enough to feel satisfying.
The reason Persona barely misses the top 5 series on this list is mainly due to it focusing on story, character socializing, and dungeon crawling more than it does actual monster taming. It’s hard to really call it the best monster tamer when most of the player’s play time revolves around human character interactions rather than gameplay. Even within combat most party members only have access to a small handful of demons to control. The protagonist’s ability to recruit and train demons offers much more, but is ultimately still lacking in customization compared to what other series on this list offer. The monster rosters also tend to be a little low. Even if you buy all DLC, Persona 5 Royale’s 100 hour long story contains under 300 monsters.
Yokai Watch
Yokai Watch 1 was a fairly successful 3DS game with unique combat and charming monster designs. The second game multiplied the series popularity five fold, expanded the monster roster vastly, and overall was one of the best monster tamers in the platform. Yokai Watch went on to receive a third entry on 3DS, as well as multiple spin-offs. The popularity of those games never quite reached 2’s, but that’s far from meaning they were unsuccessful.
3’s biggest pro was that it had one of the largest monster rosters in any monster tamer on the platform. The overall quality of life made it a must play for any fan of the genre. The developers restricting the 4th game to Japan only has made Yokai Watch’s popularity dwindle, but it remains one of the most memorable Nintendo exclusive series released in the 3DS era. There are over 600 monsters in Yokai Watch 3, although this does include redskins and costume swaps. Still, that is an impressively high number compared to every game on this list thus far.
Shin Megami Tensei
Something that makes the original Megami Tensei very special is the fact that it was the very first monster tamer game. It has since evolved multiple times, but many things have remained the same. The diverse cast of monsters pulled from mythology are all very memorable, and the combat of modern games consistently receives high praise.
Unlike Persona which focuses more on character writing and cutscenes, mainline Shin Megami Tensei puts its focus on constant battles. Your team will consist of the protagonist and multiple monsters you recruit on your journey. This means that when it comes to specifically being a better monster tamer, mainline SMT takes the show.
Pokemon
When it comes to catching them all, there is one series that shines far above the rest in popularity. Pokemon may not have been the first game to come up with the idea of taming and using monsters in turn-based battles, but it did introduce many concepts that would help the genre expand rapidly. First off was giving players the ability to trade each other Pokemon. No prior monster tamer had such a high focus on player interconnectivity. The original generation of Pokemon games exploded in popularity all around the world which finally made the genre popular outside of Japan for the very first time.
Pokemon has consistently been a gateway series not only into the genre, but video games as a whole. It’s even popular in the anime, manga, trading cards, and multiple other industries. The quality of the games has varied over the years, yet even after the Pokedex was cut it still has an incredibly large monster roster that far surpasses most other games. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet contains 400 Pokemon before DLC, and over 600 after buying the expansions. The highest roster of any Pokemon game is Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon with over 800 completely unique Pokemon. Most monster tamers have a plethora of reskins, but Pokemon does not include shinies, costumes, or even slight variations as entirely different Pokemon. This makes that massive number all the more impressive.
Dragon Quest Monsters
Dragon Quest didn’t originally start as a monster tamer, but DQ5 did make the genre popular in Japan. So much so in fact, that there was a large wave of other monster tamers after it. This includes series like Pokemon. Dragon Quest Monsters is a spin-off series that focuses on taking monsters. Modern titles like The Dark Prince have 4v4 battles, and every monster you find can have an extremely customizable moveset via a monster fusion mechanic. It also features over 500 monsters in the base game. One pro it has over most other games is writing and charm. The story is serious at times and contains multiple engaging twists like Persona 5 and Digimon Cyber Sleuth, while still containing the child-like charm that Pokemon and Yokai Watch have. It’s the kind of game that appeals to both older and younger fans equally.
Older games in the series like Monsters Joker 3 even let you ride every monster in their line-up. The first two Monsters Joker games were some of the most impressive games on DS since they offered fully 3D environments, monsters in the over world instead of random encounters, and even had massive monsters bigger than some loading areas. The series has continuously pushed the genre to it’s limits, and for that reason Dragon Quest Monsters ranks #1 on this list.
