It’s hard to imagine a world where the Pokemon series gets beaten by its own game. Will there ever be a monster-catching RPG as successful as this series? Will one ever come close? Let’s take a look at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for an apt comparison. That game changed its series and the gaming landscape forever. Already a third party has bested it via Genshin Impact.
That game is raking in the dough. Will there be a Genshin Impact-like phenomenon for Pokemon in 2022? Some standout candidates may release after Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The question is, will that game, or these six others, be worth the time? The end of January isn't that far away so fans won't have to wait long. Most of these should release across a wide array of platforms including the PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox One X.
7 Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Pokemon Legends: Arceus seems like it wants to blend the open areas of Pokemon Sword/Shield with the more vast adventures from Breath of the Wild. That is seemingly what fans are hoping for at least. It’ll be interesting to see if this game meets those expectations.
This series has been in dire need of a refresh for quite some time now. That was the same case for the Zelda series too and its hard turn left proved to be successful. Will the same be true for Pokemon Legends: Arceus? Fingers crossed.
6 Digimon Survive
Digimon has been the Pokemon series’ biggest rival since the 90s. Now, Digimon Survive has been cooking for a long time. It was announced in 2018 but keeps getting delayed. It's also been a while since the last new game in this series was released.
The last date was for 2021 which has since moved up to an unspecified time in 2022. This will be a worldwide release on PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One. This means fans don’t have to wait past a Japanese exclusive launch. It’s not as common a practice today as it used to be but it can still happen. The game itself is a tactical RPG with Digimon being the heroes of choice.
5 Dokev
Dokev made a huge splash in 2021. However, this is not when the game was first announced. It had a quiet reveal in 2019, seemingly took 2020 off, and then came back with a huge trailer in 2021. There is no exact date on it yet, but it certainly could hit 2022. That new trailer did showcase a lot of content.
It looks like a cross between Pokemon because players can recruit monsters and Kingdom Hearts in terms of the visual style and action RPG gameplay. That sounds like a heck of a combo. When it does launch it is planned to hit PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
4 Monster Tale
Monster Tale is not a traditional monster-catching RPG. It is more of a Metroidvania at its core. This is also a remaster of a 2011 DS game. Players control a young girl who befriends a monster egg.
This monster hatches and depending on what players feed it, it can evolve in several directions. It is a monster-raising sim game in that sense which is all wrapped up in a neat Metroidvania bow. It may not exactly be what Pokemon fans are looking for. However, the original was an underrated gem that players should try out at least.
3 Cassette Beasts
Cassette Beasts looks like a more classic entry in the Pokemon franchise. It is a top-down, turn-based RPG with monsters. There is a twist though. Instead of capturing monsters to do fighting, players collect cassette tapes that then transform their characters into monsters.
Characters can even fuse to create new monsters. It’s like the fourth season of Digimon. This game was revealed back in 2020. There is no date for it yet, but when it does launch it will be for PC, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
2 Coromon
Coromon was revealed as far back as 2018. This is another top-down turn-based RPG but one that is playing more by the Pokemon rules. The monster battling and collecting should feel familiar. The graphics don’t look like they are pushing further than what the DS was capable of which is charming. The battle mechanics look pretty close to the older Pokemon games as well.
The game is set to release in Q1 of 2022 which means March 31 at the latest. It could be later but that is the standard for Q1 dates. That will be for PC and Switch. For fans eager to play it now, there is a PC demo.
1 Temtem
Temtem was also revealed in 2018. That is when this MMO RPG with monster-catching tendencies was launched on Kickstarter. Unlike most other entries, this has been in Early Access for a while now. It was released on PC and PS5 in 2020.
The Switch and the Xbox family of consoles were supposed to get a playable build of the game in 2021 but that never happened. Hopefully, that means the team decided to focus things up to finally release a 1.0 version across all platforms in 2022.