Pokemon Legends: Arceus is the best monster taming game you can play in 2026, and the one that finally made catching Pokemon feel like exploring a wild world. Below it are 19 more games built on the same itch: find a creature, earn it, raise it, and build a team around it, from Pokemon’s biggest rivals to demon fusion, monster ranching, creature roguelites and one very good volleyball game.
We ranked them on how good the taming itself is (how you find, recruit, raise and combine creatures), how well each game is received, and how easy it is to play today. Reception comes from Steam’s user reviews and critics’ scores on Metacritic, all as of November 4, 2026, and platforms come from each game’s official site or store page. The list covers every platform, so Nintendo’s own games sit alongside PC and console picks.
20. Moonstone Island
Platforms: PC (Steam) and Switch. Steam reviews: 84 percent positive across about 4,100 reviews.
Studio Supersoft’s game is a creature-collecting life sim, which makes it the coziest pick here. You arrive in an open world of 100 islands to finish your Alchemy training, make friends, brew potions, and collect Spirits that fight in card-based encounters. It is a farming-and-friendship game first, but the creature collecting is what gives every island a reason to visit, and the PC version holds an 80 on Metacritic.
19. Monster Rancher 1 and 2 DX
Platforms: Switch, PC (Steam), and iOS. Steam reviews: 90 percent positive across about 1,000 reviews.
Koei Tecmo’s double pack brings back the two PlayStation games that turned monster raising into its own genre. You do not catch anything: you generate monsters, train them, feed them and send them into tournaments. The famous CD trick survives in a new form, too. Koei Tecmo says you search an in-game CD database by song name and artist to get monsters, so the music you love decides what you raise.
18. Coromon
Platforms: PC and Mac (Steam), Switch, iOS, and Android. Steam reviews: 85 percent positive across about 6,400 reviews.
TRAGsoft’s pixel-art RPG is the most classic Pokemon-style game on this list, and it does that style well. It is a 30-hour-plus adventure where you catch and train more than 120 Coromon across six biomes and fight turn-based battles while you unravel a mystery that could change the region of Velua. If you want the feel of the handheld Pokemon games in a new world, start here.
17. Siralim Ultimate
Platforms: PC, Mac, and Linux (Steam), Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, iOS, and Android. Steam reviews: 92 percent positive across about 2,200 reviews.
Thylacine Studios calls Siralim Ultimate a monster-catching dungeon crawler “with a ridiculous amount of depth,” and that is fair. You summon from more than 1,200 different creatures and dive into randomly generated dungeons for resources, loot and new monsters, so the real game is building a team whose traits break the rules together. It is the one on this list for players who love theorycrafting more than story.
16. Temtem
Platforms: PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch. Steam reviews: 82 percent positive across about 31,300 reviews.
Crema’s online creature-collection adventure is the closest thing to a Pokemon MMO. You tame 165 creatures across seven islands, battle other tamers, take on Lairs, hunt rare Luma and Umbra variants, and breed your favorites, all with friends alongside you. Its battles are two-on-two by default, which makes team building more interesting than a straight one-on-one, and the PC version holds a 79 on Metacritic.
15. Aethermancer
Platforms: PC (Steam, Windows and Linux, Early Access). Steam reviews: 91 percent positive across about 2,700 reviews.
The next game from moi rai games, the studio behind Monster Sanctuary further up this list, turns monster taming into a roguelite. You explore the ever-changing Fractured Ruins, plan each turn-based battle carefully, and your monsters grow stronger from their previous lives, so even a failed run moves you forward. It has been in Early Access since September 23, 2025, and our news story on the free Maverick’s Compendium update covers the latest additions and the studio’s word that Early Access will “soon come to an end.”
14. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered
Platforms: PC (Steam), PS4, and Switch. Steam reviews: 83 percent positive across about 4,100 reviews.
Level-5’s RPG, with animation by Studio Ghibli and a score by Joe Hisaishi, is the most beautiful game on this list. Young Oliver travels into another world to save his mother, and the creatures you recruit there, called familiars, fight for you and grow as you train them. The taming is gentler than in the games further up, but no other monster game looks or sounds like it, and the remaster is easy to find on PC, PS4 and Switch.
13. Aniimo
Platforms: PC (Steam, Epic, and Xbox app), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, iOS, and Android. Free to play. Steam reviews: Mostly Positive, 72 percent positive across about 29,000 reviews.
Aniimo is the newest big monster taming game, and the biggest free one. Pawprint Studio’s open-world RPG launched in September 2026 and sends you across the continent of Idyll as a Pathfinder, catching creatures (also called Aniimo), unlocking new abilities with them, and battling in competitions after you travel to a sky-floating metropolis. Your first choice is the starter, and our guide to the best starter in Aniimo breaks down Lunara and Helion; once your roster grows, our best Aniimo teams guide shows how to build around one damage dealer. Its Steam reviews are among the most divided here, so read our answer on whether Aniimo is a gacha game before you spend. Our Aniimo hub has everything else, including how to evolve your Aniimo.
12. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
Platforms: Switch, PS4, and PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 82 percent positive across about 11,900 reviews.
Capcom’s turn-based spin-off flips Monster Hunter around: instead of hunting monsters, you become a Rider and form bonds with friendly monsters known as Monsties, who fight alongside you through an epic story. Monsters from across the main series become your partners, which is a thrill if you know Monster Hunter, and online co-op lets a friend join your fights. The PC version holds an 82 on Metacritic, and its sequel sits higher on this list.
11. Beastieball
Platforms: PC and Mac (Steam, Early Access). Steam reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive, 97 percent positive across about 1,500 reviews.
The best-reviewed game on this list on Steam is a turn-based volleyball RPG. Wishes Ultd. and Klei’s Beastieball has you coach a sports team of Beasties, and the relationships between them grow and change, unlocking new abilities and combo plays. It sounds like a joke, and it is one of the smartest, most original monster games around, with online matches against other coaches. It has been in Early Access since November 12, 2024.
10. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince
Platforms: Switch and PC (Steam). Steam reviews: Mostly Positive, 71 percent positive across about 1,250 reviews.
Square Enix’s spin-off stars Psaro, the half-monster prince better known as the villain of Dragon Quest IV, in the years before he became one. You recruit monsters from across the whole Dragon Quest series and, above all, synthesize them into new creatures to compose your ideal team, and that synthesis is the deepest of any game here outside Shin Megami Tensei. The Switch version came first, and the PC version followed on September 11, 2024.
9. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
Platforms: Switch. Metacritic: 72 (Scarlet) and 71 (Violet).
The first fully open-world mainline Pokemon games let you go almost anywhere in the Paldea region from the start, and you can explore it with up to three friends. Terastallizing, which changes a Pokemon’s type mid-battle, adds a real wrinkle to team building, and our guide to changing Tera Type covers how to set it up. Critics scored it lower than the other Pokemon games here, but it is the biggest Pokemon world to catch in, and it has the most to do after the story, from breeding (our guide to getting eggs explains the picnic method) to raids.
8. Monster Sanctuary
Platforms: PC, Mac, and Linux (Steam), Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. Steam reviews: 91 percent positive across about 10,500 reviews.
moi rai games’ debut is “monster taming meets metroidvania,” and it is the best mix of genres on this list. You collect, train and battle monsters in a side-scrolling pixel world, and your monsters are also how you get around it, so a new recruit can open up a new path as well as a new strategy. The PC version holds an 81 on Metacritic, and its studio’s follow-up, Aethermancer, is also on this list.
7. Digimon Story Time Stranger
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 89 percent positive across about 16,100 reviews.
The latest Digimon Story game, from Media.Vision and Bandai Namco, came out on October 2, 2025, and it is the best Digimon game in years. You unravel a mystery that spans the human world and the Digital World, collecting and raising a huge range of Digimon to save both. Raising is the whole game: Digimon change form as they grow, and steering each one toward the form you want is what keeps you playing. Steam rates it Verified on Steam Deck.
6. Pokemon Legends: Z-A
Platforms: Switch, with a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Metacritic: 78.
The second Legends game moves the series into a single city, Lumiose, and swaps turn-based fights for real-time battles where you move your trainer and call moves as the action plays out. Mega Evolution is back, too. It is the boldest change the series has made in years. Our guides cover the big catches, such as how to get Mewtwo, and moving Pokemon in with HOME.
5. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC (Steam). Steam reviews: Mostly Positive, 77 percent positive across about 5,800 reviews.
The third Monster Hunter Stories, released in March 2026, starts with twin Rathalos born in a twist of fate, and once again you become a Rider, raising and bonding with your favorite monsters. Critics rate it higher than Wings of Ruin, with an 87 on Metacritic for the PC version against 82, though Steam’s user reviews are cooler. If you liked Wings of Ruin, this is its sequel on every current platform.
4. Cassette Beasts
Platforms: PC (Steam, Windows and Linux), Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. Steam reviews: 94 percent positive across about 9,100 reviews.
Bytten Studio’s open-world RPG is the best indie monster taming game ever made. You record monsters onto cassette tapes and transform into them in turn-based battles, and its Fusion System combines any two monster forms into a new creature, so the number of possible fusions is enormous. It has local split-screen co-op for two and an online multiplayer mode, and a soundtrack that is as good as everything else.
3. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
Platforms: PC (Steam), PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Switch. Steam reviews: 91 percent positive across about 8,100 reviews.
ATLUS’s demon RPG is the deepest monster collecting game on this list. You become a demigod in a decimated Tokyo caught in a war between angels and demons, and you recruit from hundreds of demons by talking to them, since most demons you meet can be negotiated with, bribed or flattered into joining. Then you fuse them, combining demons into stronger ones and passing down the skills you want, which is the most satisfying team-building loop in the genre. Vengeance is the definitive version, with a second story route, and the PC version holds a 90 on Metacritic. It is hard, and that is the point.
2. Palworld
Platforms: PC (Steam and Microsoft Store), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Mac. Steam reviews: 94 percent positive across about 417,500 reviews.
Palworld took monster taming somewhere nobody expected: a multiplayer, open-world survival and crafting game where you fight, farm, build and work alongside creatures called Pals. Pals do not just battle for you. They chop wood, mine ore, craft at workbenches and run your base, which makes every catch useful in a way no other game on this list matches. Pocketpair’s 1.0 release arrived in July 2026, online co-op works across platforms, and Steam rates it Verified on Steam Deck. Our Palworld hub covers the whole game, our list of the best Palworld mods covers what to add, and our guide on how to get to the World Tree covers one of its biggest trips.
1. Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Platforms: Switch (plays on Switch 2). Metacritic: 83.
Game Freak’s Legends: Arceus is the best monster taming game you can play because it changed the oldest rule in the genre. Set in Hisui, the Sinnoh region long before the modern games, it sends you out to build the region’s first-ever Pokedex, and catching is done in the open world itself: you sneak through tall grass, study how each Pokemon behaves, and throw a Poke Ball without starting a battle at all. Battles are still there when you want them, but catching is a skill now, not a menu.
That shift makes every Pokedex entry feel earned. Research tasks ask you to see each Pokemon use a move, catch several, or beat them in particular ways, so filling the Pokedex means really learning each creature, and huge Alpha Pokemon and the boss fights against frenzied nobles break up the exploring. It holds an 83 on Metacritic, the highest of the Pokemon games on this list, and it plays on Switch 2 as well as Switch. Our Pokemon hub has every guide for the series.
Honorable Mentions
These just missed the cut. Pokemon Pokopia is a building and life sim with no battling at all, where you make a home that Pokemon want to live in; our guide to the best Pokemon to attract in Pokopia is a good place to start. Nexomon: Extinction is a strong classic-style catcher, Ooblets is a farming game where creature dance-offs replace battles, and Persona 5 Royal shares Shin Megami Tensei’s fusion system, though the life sim is the star.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best monster taming game? Pokemon Legends: Arceus, for the way it turned catching into exploring. If you play on PC, the best picks are Palworld, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance and Cassette Beasts.
What is the best monster taming game on PC? Palworld is the biggest, with online co-op and its Pals working your base. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is the deepest, and Cassette Beasts is the best indie pick. All three are on Steam.
What are the best games like Pokemon that are not Pokemon? Cassette Beasts, Coromon and Temtem play closest to the classic formula, Palworld takes the idea into survival crafting, and Aniimo is the biggest free option. Digimon Story Time Stranger and Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince are the best picks from other big monster series.
Which monster taming games have co-op? Palworld has online co-op across platforms, Cassette Beasts has local split-screen co-op, Temtem is built around playing with friends, Monster Hunter Stories 2 has online co-op, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet let you explore with up to three friends.
Is Aniimo free? Yes, Aniimo is free to play on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and mobile. Our guide on whether Aniimo is a gacha game covers what it sells and how much you can do without paying.
What is the hardest monster taming game? Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is the toughest on this list, with demanding bosses that punish weak teams. Siralim Ultimate is the deepest for building teams, and Aethermancer’s roguelite runs get hard fast.