This caused many players' first experience with monster-taming games to be Pokémon, which was introduced in the mid-1990s. However, the Satanic panic of the 1980s caused the occult-themed series to be slow to enter the Western market. The origins of the genre lay in the Megami Tensei or MegaTen games, which let players capture and summon demons.

In many such games, these creatures are the only means of combat, although the darker-themed Megami Tensei series also allows the player to participate in combat, using weapons such as guns. Monster-taming games share core mechanics such as being able to capture creatures, train them, and use them in battle against similar creatures. While Pokémon is the most recognizable example of such a game to Western audiences, the origins of the genre were in the Megami Tensei series, which involved fighting, negotiating with and recruiting demons and other mythological beings. Monster-taming game (also known as monster-catching, creature-collecting or simply Pokémon clone) is a subgenre of role-playing video game that significantly resembles the Pokémon franchise.

Monster catching games