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Why aren't there any Pokemon clones on consoles?

TheKeyPit

Banned
I'm thinking of something like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon. Take the formula and do it even better than what it is inspired by.

The last time I asked for a Harvest Moon game on PS4/Xbox One I got the news that a game like Stardew Valley was in production for PC then. Look where it is now. I want a good game like this but inspired by Pokemon and I want it to sell millions.
 

Toki767

Member
There isn't one in the same sense, but games like Ni no Kuni, World of Final Fantasy, Digimon, etc... all take cues from Pokemon.
 

kubev

Member
Jade Cocoon on PlayStation (1) is pretty interesting, assuming that the monsters don't have to be cute.
 

RRockman

Banned
OP I think you missed out


109910_front.jpg
 
SMT has been around longer than Pokémon. But yeah, SMT will have a Switch (console) equivalent by next year, but we'll have a legit major Pokémon console version by then too. Gonna be interesting times for sure.
 

Atheerios

Member
Maybe because the genre or type of gameplay by itself isn't that popular or enjoyed by most people?

I believe what made Pokémon popular is it's focus on trading and connecting with other people. Think of Pokénon without that aspect and the game suddenly seems a lot less interesting.

Collecting is as important as interacting with other people to get the creatures you don't have in the process, and for developers wanting to make something similar (yet not a plain copy) that's a though aspect to get right.
 

Sandfox

Member
Did you play that game though? It's pretty much "capture Digimon -> fight in a turn based battle" with them.

I could have phrased that better, but the Story games play closer to SMT(with the designs even being done by the Devil Survivor artist) and the World games are something else entirely. OP is asking about Pokemon clones.
 

RockmanBN

Member
Digimon World 2003 was a great game.
Ehh. That gane was padded like hell. It had the worst back tracking I've ever seen in a game. Battles were a little to simple and grinding could have been cut down.

Though the map design was one of my favorite aspects of the game.
 

CazTGG

Member
Ever heard of Spectrobes?

EDIT: Yeah, Origins is the best of the three, but Beyond the Portals is a solid title for what it's worth.
 

Kenai

Member
Most of them were around on the PS1/GBC after Pokemon first blew up. Jade Cocoon and Digimon were already mentioned, those were both gud. Monster Rancher was another. DQ Monsters yet another (but on portables yea). There was a one-off where you recruited monsters by talking to them like SMT on GB I think but forget the name (portable tho).

Most recent that I both played and liked was Ni No Kuni and Spectrobes.
 

TheKeyPit

Banned

Psyfer

Member
Jade Cocoon does not get the love it deserves on neogaf. it's wonderful.

Agreed. Shame that the sequel took the direction it did instead of expanding on the first game's mechanics.

Edit: Just want to say Jade Cocoon 2 is still a good game. The battle system is interesting, the procedurally generated dungeons were a nice change, and the story isn't terrible. If you haven't played either Jade Cocoon games and you like raising, fusing, and battling with monsters, give them a chance.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Maybe because the genre or type of gameplay by itself isn't that popular or enjoyed by most people?

I believe what made Pokémon popular is it's focus on trading and connecting with other people. Think of Pokénon without that aspect and the game suddenly seems a lot less interesting.

Collecting is as important as interacting with other people to get the creatures you don't have in the process, and for developers wanting to make something similar (yet not a plain copy) that's a though aspect to get right.

Yea, a console "clone" probably wouldn't be very popular due to it not having portable multiplayer to go alongside it.
 
Jade Cocoon on PlayStation (1) is pretty interesting, assuming that the monsters don't have to be cute.
Absolutely this. It's such a shame this game is STILL flying under the radar to this day. It was basically Pokémon for a more mature audience.

52313-Jade_Cocoon_-_Story_of_the_Tamamayu_(E)-1.jpg
 

Mozendo

Member
I'm not experienced with monster-sims that much or whatever the genre is called, but is there a thing as a Pokemon clone? Not counting your mobile games.

I don't get why people are calling Jade Cocoon and Digimon pokemon clones when they don't play the same. Of course they're similarities because they're part of the same genre but they're not pokemon clones.
 

Yohane

Member
is Jade Cocoon really that good?

Played as a kid (so a long time ago) but I rememberer it being nothing special
 
I think devs might be focusing too much on the "wacky monster designs" and "monster collecting" part, which is bound to fail if it's not supported by Pokémon's marketing (who cares about collecting random creatures?), and not enough on the "each individual team/creature is unique" part with the stats variations between individuals, numerous types and selection of movesets.

The combat system in Pokémon is huge with a lot of choice in differents units and tactics, due to being incrementally grown and balanced over the years, cloning something like that isn't done in a week unless you are Iwata and have access to the source code.
 
is Jade Cocoon really that good?

Played as a kid (so a long time ago) but I rememberer it being nothing special

It was good at the time but I definitely remember some annoying things about it overall. Loved the Resident Evil perspective and pokemon style combat though. Also the world was great.

Felt SUPER slow to me.
 

Heartfyre

Member
is Jade Cocoon really that good?

Played as a kid (so a long time ago) but I rememberer it being nothing special

I find the setting to be very memorable. And it felt very advanced compared to Pokémon First Generation, which is the only Pokémon generation it should be compared to as it predates the rest.

Fantastic for its time, at least, and I feel it deserves that much credit. I wouldn't expect a modern audience to be as blown away as I was in the 20th Century.
 

Sesuadra

Unconfirmed Member
I find the setting to be very memorable. And it felt very advanced compared to Pokémon First Generation, which is the only Pokémon generation it should be compared to as it predates the rest.

Fantastic for its time, at least, and I feel it deserves that much credit. I wouldn't expect a modern audience to be as blown away as I was in the 20th Century.

also:
It was developed by Genki in collaboration with Katsuya Kondō, character designer for the Studio Ghibli movies Kiki's Delivery Service and I Can Hear the Sea.

but of course, you should remember while playing that it came out in 1998 in japan. there is a lot of "old" game design choices.
 

Bridges

Member
OP I think you missed out

Wait this game was actually good?

I remember seeing ads for it in a Gameinformer or something and wanting to get it, but I never managed to pick one up. How good are we talking here?

EDIT: I suppose I should contribute,
It's based on a childrens cartoon of the same name (only saw a single episode and it seemed pretty mediocre), but for whatever reason I love this game. It's not particularly good, you spend the whole game doing block puzzles to move around the environment and find robots to fight, every robot you defeat becomes usable in future battles, and each level is only finished once you have defeated all the robots and fought that area's boss robot.

Like Pokemon, each robot has a different element that affects its effectiveness as well as decently sized arsenal of moves. Combat is turn based but before every attack you must spin a wheel of red and blue, if the arrow lands on blue you proceed with your attack, but if you land on red your opponent gets a hit on you. Weirdly enough though whenever you do get to attack it simply chooses an attack at random, some being noticeably more powerful than others.

It's very ugly, has extremely cheesy voice acting, combat is a mix of good timing and pure luck and the game isn't particularly long.

But I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a Pokemon-like, I personally get a lot of enjoyment from it and replay it every year or so.
 
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