The Best Monster-Catching Square Enix Games

10/05/2024

While Pokemon is the biggest monster-catching franchise of all time, it wasn’t the first to introduce the concept.
Square Enix are no stranger to the genre, including such mechanics in popular franchises like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts
Square Enix’s Dragon Quest series introduced monster catching in 1992, setting the stage for classic games like Dragon Quest Monsters.

Nintendo and Game Freak helped popularize the monster-catching genre when they released the first Pokemon games in 1996. That was in Japan, but the West would not get a taste until 1998. While the Pokemon franchise popularized the genre, it was not the first game to feature monster-catching mechanics.

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Many game historians would cite Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei franchise as the genre’s origins. Even some Square Enix games came out before the Pokemon games. Over the years, Square Enix has featured monster-catching in many of their titles, from Dragon Quest to Final Fantasy. Here are some of the best examples that would stand up against even the best Pokemon games Nintendo and Game Freak have produced.

Final Fantasy 13-2

A Time-Traveling Monster Party

Final Fantasy 13-2

Platform(s)PS3, Xbox 360, PCReleasedJanuary 31, 2012Developer(s) Square Enix

Final Fantasy 13-2 took place not long after the events of the first game. The tables turned for the leading roles as, this time, Serah had to save her sister Lightning from certain doom. A time traveler from the future, Noel, appears one day to help Serah reset the timeline.

Time travel was an experience Square Enix had experimented with before via Chrono Trigger. However, monster-catching was not a huge part of the franchise yet. Players would predominantly play as Serah and Noel in battle, but they could also befriend every monster they faced. The party size was maxed out at three and monsters would be swapped out mid-battle.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

Defy Destiny And Retake The World

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

FranchiseDragon QuestPlatform(s)SwitchReleasedDecember 1, 2023Developer(s)Armor Project, TosePublisher(s)Square EnixGenre(s)JRPG

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is the latest entry in the Dragon Quest Monsters franchise and most closely resembles Pokemon. Players assumed the role of the titular Dark Prince rebelling against his father who was trying to take over/destroy the world. The plot was cliché, but the gameplay was something that longtime fans enjoyed.

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There weren’t a lot of new features in this installment compared to the other games, besides the bigger open-world areas, and time and weather played a big role in exploration and monster-catching purposes. It’s a solid monster-catching clone on the Switch that most Nintendo fans would dig if they gave Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince a chance.

Final Fantasy Tactics

An Endless Supply Of Soldiers And Beasts

Final Fantasy Tactics

Platform(s)PS1ReleasedJune 20, 1997Developer(s)Square

Final Fantasy Tactics was the first big game in the franchise to feature a monster-catching-like mechanic. Players could recruit mainline story characters in their travels who had distinct jobs and could change jobs at any time. This included the Cid of the game, Cidolfus Orlandeau, who was one of the strongest characters.

Players could also befriend most monsters in the game to join their party, but their jobs were set and they could not equip anything. While this limited strategies, it was still a great experience to go into battle with an army of rainbow-colored Chocobo.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Use Dream Animals To Fight Nightmares

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Platform(s)3DSReleasedJuly 31, 2012Developer(s) Square Enix

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance was the only 3DS entry, and was also the first in a long while that moved the plot forward instead of another prequel or side story. Sora and Riku had to take their Keyblade Mastery exams and Master Yen Sid tasked the young heroes with entering the dream version of worlds. Both characters were playable in separate campaigns, and they were controlled like most other entries.

In this title, players could also craft allies called Spirits, as the game’s dream worlds were being destroyed by Nightmare versions of monsters called Dream Eaters, making Spirits a good version of them. Spirits acted on their own accord in battle, but Sora and Riku could also team up with them for combo attacks. It’s one of the few entries on the list that allowed players to directly interact with the monsters, whether that involved feeding them or petting them using the touch controls.

World Of Final Fantasy

A Crossover Fan Letter To The Franchise

World Of Final Fantasy

Platform(s)PS Vita, Switch, PS4, PC, Xbox OneReleasedOctober 25, 2016Developer(s)TosePublisher(s) Square EnixGenre(s)JRPG

World of Final Fantasy shared similarities with the likes of Kingdom Hearts games in that it was a crossover title. The main heroes, Lann and Reynn, got transported into the literal world of Final Fantasy via a book, where they could befriend classic monsters to help them in turn-based battles.

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The odd thing about this was that the monsters were stacked on top of their heads, while bigger ones could be ridden. It’s as silly as it sounds, but fit the story well, as it was a more whimsical adventure overall. Fans praised it at the time because they could meet a lot of classic heroes, from Final Fantasy 7’s Cloud to Final Fantasy 13’s Lightning. Many fans are still hoping for Square Enix to return to this game someday for a direct or spiritual sequel.

Dragon Quest 5: Hand Of The Heavenly Bride

A Groundbreaking Entry For The Series

Dragon Quest 5

Platform(s)PS2, iOS, Android, Nintendo DS, SNESReleasedSeptember 27, 1992DeveloperChunsoft, ArtePiazza, Matrix Software

Dragon Quest 5: Hand of the Heavenly Bride is one of the most important entries in the franchise. It was here in 1992 that Square Enix, or just Enix then, first put monster catching into the series. Monsters took the place of traditional party members assisting the hero, with the game being so popular that they decided to start the aforementioned Dragon Quest Monsters series for portable systems like the Game Boy Color.

It was also a more involved entry in the series, as players got to see themselves grow up as the hero from infant to adult, and could even get married. Again, it was released in 1992 for the SNES, but that was in Japan only. Westerners couldn’t enjoy it until the DS version in 2009.

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