Folklore
Many of these Pokémon-like games share a common theme — you’ll investigate in the real-world, and do battle in a fantasy world. Folklore has you travelling into strange mythological spaces, where you’ll do battle with creatures based on real-life folklore.
While this is an action-game, you’ll still need to acquire the folklore critters and set them to your face-buttons, where you’ll use them to initiate a variety of special attacks and maneuvers. It’s a much faster-paced game, and a fun take on the capture-and-collect gameplay loop.
And some of the locations you visit in Folklore get really, really surreal. You’ll have to fight a giant Dahli-esque face-and-lips monster hanging from the ceiling in one encounter. And that’s not even the weirdest thing you’ll find.
Monster Rancher 2
A childhood favorite, Monster Rancher 2 had one of the most unique methods for collecting new creatures — instead of finding them in the wild, you’d need to scan your CDs. Tossing a CD into your PlayStation system, you’d eagerly anticipate your next find; would it be a cool yellow Suezo or a creepy Joker?
Obviously, this is one gimmick that isn’t going to work in the modern age. Who still has a CD collection sitting around to scan? Even as a youngster, I didn’t have too many CDs in the house, so we were forced to checkout random CDs from the local library to fill up our Monster Rancher collection. For those fond memories alone, Monster Rancher 2 deserves a solid spot on the list. Maybe one day the franchise will be revived with a new gimmick that doesn’t require so much physical media?
Discover more of the best catch-and-collect games of all time on the next page.
