Nexomon & Nexomon: Extinction

I had been looking for a new monster-catching game to replace Pokémon as I grew more disappointed with the quality of their latest installments. After checking out both Temtem and Nexomon, I decided to go with the latter since it didn't require to be online at all, and I think it was a great choice.

As you would expect with that intro, Nexomon shares a lot of similarities with Pokémon and it's a good substitute depending on what you like from monster-catching games. If you're into them for collecting creatures and its story, it's a good one. If you're into the battles and their competitive aspect, I don't think it'd be as interesting since they aren't very strategic and there's no online mode.

Visually, it uses the same top-down perspective from older Pokémon games but with modern sprites. I like that all the NPCs, including random villagers, are very distinct from one another. And, as you progress through the story, you can see them again in new locations (based on the dialog you know it's the same one). The regions are very colorful, especially in Nexomon: Extinction, which added ambiance effects (lights, snow, etc.). The creatures themselves are 2D, with animations during battles.

Both games have a pretty large set of Nexomon to catch (310 and 427 respectively), although most species aren't shared between the games for reasons that I won't spoil here. For me, this aspect of collecting stuff is one of the things that I liked the most from Pokémon games, so I really appreciate the variety and love the designs.

If you're interested on checking them, there are databases in the wiki for Nexomon and Nexomon: Extinction, but careful with spoilers if you scroll all the way down to the legendaries. The concept of "shinies" was introduced in Nexomon: Extinction as "cosmics". Here, have some favorites: a cosmic Moga (based on the pomeranian of one of the game devs), a Heifry, an Artivore and a Sorvian.

Another point that I really enjoyed was the story, especially in Nexomon: Extinction, since the first installment felt a bit basic and too close to the original Pokémon games (still entertaining though). It's something that I think this franchise does much better, as the focus is put on it rather than being something that happens in parallel with earning medals.

It really left me wanting for a continuation, so here I am, waiting for the third game of the series to come out (still no confirmed date). I also find the characters much more interesting, with my favorite being Fenrir (the angry dude down here), but still a hard pick with so many good options.

The only thing that felt a bit lacking for me was the combat. The first game assigned rarity levels to Nexomon, which biases you towards picking the rarest ones since those had better stats (although you could do fine with commons anyways). And some status effects were overpowered, like inflicting confusion.

Nexomon: Extinction tried to compensate the stats bias and, as a result, the different creatures ended up with stats that were a bit same-y. On the bright side, it meant you could choose the ones you liked. There wasn't that much of a strategy when using moves either, but I liked the concept of having Stamina instead of PP (like Pokémon had) as well as moves having their own stats (power, accuracy, speed, stamina and crit). Hopefully these images explain better what I mean:

For the post-game, both installments did a good job. Each of them had a free DLC, with Nexomon: Extinction also adding more secondary missions, cosmic hunting, having some collectibles and including a custom mode for replaying the game with special rules. But keep in mind the custom mode is not available on mobile if you plan on buying it.

In summary, this franchise was a great find, and I really hope the third game continues being like that as it moves to 3D environments and models. You can find it in most platforms for a good price, sometimes with a discount. I'm leaving here an image from their Discord server showing how the third game will look like :D