We’ll be looking into the origins of the Monster Taming genre to see how monsters were “caught”, and then I share my plans and my latest creature of my Stema Project.
Thank you to @FCPlaythroughs and @worldoflongplays for the gameplay footage
Learn more through the links below:
Imaginary Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GegAvpiWd_Q&pp=ygUPaW1hZ2lucmFyeSB0aW1l&ab_channel=ParthG
Stephen Hawking Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iURvKJT_eg&ab_channel=SD
Additional Video Sources:
Shim Megami Tensei II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln9VjfEVbaY&ab_channel=Ice-Raptor
Dragon Quest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz1Vm1Pg-qE&list=PLo7iwskv4WkZE0XVTYjuhwTJNppXdAbKd&ab_channel=XenXander
Digimon World Dusk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg4wSVUm-os&list=PLxYb6LVQvyFbEGfXQhhrzNTRAO1VGInd_&index=13&ab_channel=Chaosinthesky13
Temtem: https://store.steampowered.com/app/745920/Temtem/
Coromon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1218210/Coromon/
Cassette Beasts: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1321440/Cassette_Beasts/
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#pokemon #digimon #gamedev #stem #fakemon
source
With cassettes 😛
I was quite surprised you didn't touch on the Yo-kai Watch series, since it solved a few problems with "catching" creatures that Pokémon had, and worked quite similarly to your own summoning concept.
Now, I haven't played the series, so I might get stuff a bit wrong, but for starters: All (or most) Yo-kai have "yo-kai medals"; they're a token of friendship in the yo-kai world, received only if one decides they like you. These medals are also the summoning devices(along with the titular yo-kai watch), so the only way you can obtain them is befriending yo-kai.
The gameplay is still fighting them, but it's explained that Yo-kai cause strange things in the world, some unintentionally but others being outright malicious, and the protagonist has to defeat them to stop the chaos. If I remember correctly, they're unaware of being summoned, but usually don't mind and will help restore peace.
Yo-kai all have special abilities or actions they do in combat, but they'll mostly do their own thing, and certain Attitudes your Yo-kai have can cause them to favour different actions, including loafing around(nothing basically). The player only assists them during battle, like purifying negative effects, unlocking special moves or feeding them. They also have most and least liked foods that will affect how much the particular food item will fill them up, or the chance of befriending them after battle.
In Pokemon, status effects are actually much better for increasing the odds of you catching a Pokemon. In fact, I believe this is only for the original Red and Blue games, but iirc while Ultra balls are allegedly the best, they are not any better than Great Balls if you merely damage the pokemon. Instead, Ultra Balls benefit much more from statuses, to the point where it's kinda pointless to even bother damaging the enemy mons. Just put them to sleep and start chucking balls. This optimal strategy is, funnily enough, much less violent. I don't think this was intentional though
In SMT you make contracts with spirits
I don’t think it was entirely unintentional to show those darker implications. That was the entire logic of Team Rocket in gen one. They reduced these creatures to their utility. I suspect gamefreak noticed the implications of the mechanic and instead of ignoring it they have it be the opinion of the bad guys
Honestly, the reason I don't like Digimon that much is because the monsters talk to you.
Like, man, me, a kid, has the entire control over another living thing. I say when it eats, when it goes to the bathroom, when it sleep, how to spend its life and I can even decided when it should die.
Digimon just feels so creepy to me.
Ans that's without mentioning that all Digimon that follow you are boring. They have no personality, no story, no independence, no nothing, it's all other Digimon who can show something resembling a personality.
I do think that Pokémon and Megami Tensei/persona are the best at making relationships with the monsters (even if in persona you can force two being to mesh into one, disregarding their individualism, but whatever).
In Tensei the Monster can have a real conversation, you must learn what to say to convince them to join and you also fight along with them.
And, regarding pokemon, they are your pets, and they are the default animal of the entire world, that's not the case for neither Digimon (yes, there are regular animals in digimon) nor Tensei, which makes everything work more natural.
And, well, just like animals, we have examples of them being well treated, some of them abused and such.
I actually really like the Pokémon Conquest system. Humans don't use pokeballs, but rather they create links with the Pokémon, if the Pokémon and trainer are compatible, they both get stronger and closer.
Such a shame that concept was ditched.
i like the idea of the catching abjects to be a device that look like flash cards and think its fantastic that the way there are being "caught" cames from studying a creature kinda how we develop some technology by studying animals
Ok so something that people ether dont know never knew is the pokeball doesn't shrink the mon. that is a natural thing a pokemon can do all the pokeball does is simulate a safe place for the pokemon and this is why in modern games it looks like they shrink when they run away and yes this is canon it's just vary obscure lore
Look up primape in eyeglasses case
Your flash card idea sounds a lot like Yokai Watch badges, where if you earn the respect of a Yokai, they will give you their badge
pokéballs canonically enslave and brainwash pokémon. they even say it in sun and moon, not just those team plasma members in balck and white.
Like Yo-kai Watch 9:33
Not hearing anything about Yokai Watch after mentioning the "living their lives until called" felt criminal (it's more of an anime thing i think but there's no reason it can't be applied to the games, it probably already is)
I think the new game fighting spirits does it best. I refuse to elaborate.
I'm going to use pokemon teens for simplicity and familiarity. The capture mechanic i have no specific idea for but the use to jave the stema with you coind be they are quantumly entangled to a device and when they faint the entaglment breaks. You could limit the number entagled to a device and increase throughout the story while making optional exp share through the quantum device and toggle which should get exp and how much. Another idea would be that if the stema reaches i high level you cant entangle them to the device but you could use a quantum echo of them at a lower level so you still have your favorite stema. The exp gain for capped level stema could be banked based on type and stema of same type could draw on that exp as a bonus for battles they participate in up to double what they would have gotten normaly.
Cassette Beasts mention!!!!!! Hope to see it pop up more 🙏
I like your idea of making this mechanic meaningful and a part of worldbuilding :3
Oh, also you should make a STEMA who is just a red blob of stem cells named Carl. If you know, you know.😂
11:30 I wonder if Pokémon did actually based on those alternative timelines with the concept of Paradox Pokémon, uh.
At least the concept itself is already done in the Nasuverse, specially in series like Fate Grand Order where solving paralel world issues based on key historical events that change their timeline and such they shouldn't exist to beging with as part of the main plot. Crazy, right?
Anyway another mechanic you could talk, related to catching new creatures, is the breeding mechanics. Almost all games go to the "lazy" route of making all them lay eggs and that's it. Others use fusions instead, or teach abilities and techniches to other creatures and then theh are free.
Ps: If your creatures where digital or in a similar vein, why not being sended to the battlefield with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth? Just a thought.
Shadow of war has a interessing mechanic attached to the catch: your orcs can betray you, if you treat them bad, or show weakness, or some other thing they may turn on you and try to atack you
can we at least acknowledge that it would be immensely funny for a battle to start, both trainers call their mon and just sit there waiting for like an hour as each mon makes it's way through public transit to the fight only for your opponent to have the equivalent of 3 rattata and you have a full team of legendaries, the fight lasts like a minute and only one of them fights then you get like 10 bucks and say "great work team see ya" and walk like 10 feet and run into another trainer and call them all back again