The 7 best Pokémon-likes to play while you wait for Scarlet and Violet

polygon.com:

Ever since its inception in Japan 26 years ago, Pokémon has been one of the most ubiquitous forces in not just video games, but pop culture at large. It’s the highest-grossing entertainment franchise in history, and has naturally attracted lots of imitators as a result. Unfortunately, most of them aren’t very good.

That being said, there are some video games that manage to capture a similar magic to Nintendo’s iconic catch-’em-up, while also experimenting with its formula in intriguing ways. The degree of allegiance to which they owe said formula varies, but all of them are beholden to Pokémonin one way or another.

With Pokémon Scarlet and Violet just around the corner, it’s only natural that people’s appetites have been whetted for a new monster-taming experience. So, to help ease the wait until you can catch ’em all and become the very best (like no one ever was), here are seven of the best Pokémon-likes you can play right now.

OK, so this one looks nothing like Pokémon. It’s a side-scrolling Metroidvania that takes far more visual cues from that genre’s namesakes than anything Game Freak has ever put out.

Still, the core premise of Monster Sanctuaryinvolves capturing and taming dozens of different creatures to attain the rank of “Master” in the Monster Keeper order. In doing so, you can finally take on the nefarious Alchemists, a guild of evil mages who want to conquer the titular Monster Sanctuary and use it to wage war on the Old World.

They’re sort of like Team Rocket, but with an actual story that isn’t “We want world domination, but we’re only willing to achieve it if we can do so while using objectively terrible Pokémon.” In other words, these opponents are a legitimate threat — especially when compared to