Is Pokémon the best monster catching/collecting game you've played?

Would you say it is? If there is something in the monster catching and collecting genre you enjoy more, what is it and why?

Well... I think Pokémon may not be the best in terms of game mechanics, but it definitely blows its competitors away in terms of monster designs. They are easily recognizable (and thus easily marketable), consistent with one another across generations, and most of all, creative and original. As smooth as games like Digimon, Yokai Watch or Shin Megami Tensei might play, the monster designs get kinda same-y after a while - as they do in direct Pokémon clones like TemTem or NexoMon. I believe that the Pokémon themselves are the main draw of the games, and at the end of the day, that should be the point.

On a side note, this is exactly what makes me dread the recent changes in art direction for PLA and SV. I fear that Pokémon, in an attempt to "shake things up" and regain the favor of a vocal minority of the fanbase, will do away with the particular uniqueness and consistency that defined the monster designs in favor of "polishing" the game mechanics or worse, aping its competitors. Only time will tell, but I don't have a good feeling about the new Mons in SV (with the exception of Fuecoco and possibly Miraidon.)

Pokemon is always simplfied train and catch system, the elemental charts are like rock paper scissors. There are also other pokemon games that inspires by this such as Coromon too expect Cormon is more of a mix rpg and pokemon XD

Played relatively few monster catching games besides Pokemon. Thinks of three off-hand:

1. Dragon Warrior Mosnters for the Game Boy Color. Remembers liking it decently at the time. Definitely played Pokemon more, though.
2. Yo-Kai Watch for the 3DS. Completed it and dropped it. Hated replacing Yo-kai for better ones. May not have fully understood the mechanics, however. Makes it harder to sink your teeth into.
3. Tales of Symphonia 2: Dawn of a New World for the Wii. Stretches this a little here to qualify. Falls back to level 1 upon evolving. Retains moves and 20% of stats (supposedly). Felt awful for it to become weaker after evolving, regardless.

Prefers Pokemon over all three. Draws from a small pool, though. Acknowledges the possibility of better being out there.

I actually never played Pokémon with a catching/collecting mindset except for Legends Arceus. Never been much into this aspect, I normally just catch:
-Pokémon I think it might be interesting to add to my team.
-Whatever accidentally gets in range for an easy catch.
-Pokémon required for HMs, specific rewards or other things outside battling.

I didn't play any similar games, but for a monster catching series I think Pokémon games' lack of options for quickly sorting boxed Pokémon is a pretty big flaw.

Nope. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory - the latter especially - earn that prize, for having a far more intricate and interesting gameplay system, an actual narrative to speak of, and monster designs that are...well, at least on par with Pokemon.

But the Cyber Sleuth title's flexibility - i.e. being able to de-digivolve your Digimon and take them down completely different evolution paths for different skills - in its gameplay makes it far superior to Pokemon, as far as I'm concerned. I've never really been all that engaged with the competitive side of Pokemon because it comes down to a lot of invisible manipulation of things that could come down entirely to RNG, and the effects of some of these things are pretty minimal. They've made some real positive changes to minimise this - like Super Training in Gen VI making EV training less of a hassle - but they never really stick with them and improve them; they're gimmicks of a single generation, rather than the permanent improvements that they should be...and would be with a competent developer. With Cyber Sleuth you have far more control of how your team ends up, there are far more options, greater variety in terms of what is viable for stats etc., and things are just...infinitely more satisfying. It also doesn't have the severe pacing issues the Persona and SMT franchises both suffer from, even when they're at their best.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is also better than any Pokemon game I've ever played. It might have a smaller roster, but it does far more with it than Pokemon ever did, and the presentation is of a much higher quality.

While I consider Pokémon to be the best one I've played, Nexomon and World of Final Fantasy certainly come close (you would think making a monster catching game out of Final Fantasy would be weird, but it works surprisingly well!).

Do any of them treat them like real creature not tools for the player? They have a real personality and aren't just a bunch of stats.

Honestly? Yeah. I've played only one other Monster collecting game and it was godawful. It was called Crystal Monsters, it was terrible. I wanted to try Nexomon at some point and Tem Tem but still haven't tried either of them, so for me, there's just no competition besides Pokemon.

Oh, right, played Yokai Watch, too, but that game was too autorun and done to be actually fun, tbh.

It's the best one that I've played so far. I played another similar game to Pokemon before, which was Digimon Dawn but I wasn't a big fan of it. It's a shame because I'm a big fan of Digimon.

To be fair, I don't think I ever played any other monster catching games other than Pokémon!

The monster capturing games I've played are multiple Digimon games for the DS and a few levels of YoKai Watch.

I loved the YoKai watch art style and concept but I don't think the mechanics were really well explained so I couldn't really get into it? Like, for all of the complexity that Pokémon has, it's a game you can mash A and get far (for better or for worse) so it's a lot easier to get invested.

I probably could just force through and I'll probably end up doing a full run at some time but I think it's got a rougher onboarding process than Pokémon.

As for the Digimon games, I hated the monster capture system, but I freaking loved everything else. It was an interesting battle system, I loved the evolution system, the games were hard to a teenager me but not too hard that I couldn't get through.

I just legit love Digimon World DS, it's a game that's very dear to me and I'd say it's a more satisfying experience than Pokémon in a lot of ways to me.

Probably not the best, but definitely the most well known and popular. The Only of monster catcher ive played is SMT V, which was good

Definitely not.

Honestly, yes. I don't think any of them have as many memorable monster designs as Pokémon. The best one I have encountered was Yo-kai Watch, and even then I would still say Pokémon has the better battle system. Yo-Kai Watch works because of the town design and the amount of things you can do in each area. The battling isn't really the draw of the game. I do think it does a better job at showing the characters in action though. They definitely interact with the world more directly than Pokémon do.

If the Megami Tensei series does not count (i.e. a series where you recruit, collect, and fuse monsters) then Pokemon is the best monster catching/collecting game I have played. Have yet to try out digimon.

I'd say it terms of story, Nexomon Extinction was the best Monster Catching/Training game I've played in a while.
I don't know if the story would hold up to some of the greatest of pokemon, but of the more recent main series games, NE tops 'em for me.

For gameplay it holds up, but I wouldn't say its better.

It is mostly a yes coming from me, even though I am a big fan of Digimon World and Digimon World 2003 of the original Play Station console as well, which I still play from time to time.
Digimon World 2003 - in particular - is comparable to the Pokémon video games, since you're allowed to make yourself a team of three Digimon there.