Knock-off pokemon has always been wild

Me at age 9:

Narrator: it did
- It could be worse. Like, Pixie (Monster Rancher) tiers of worse:
  
  (I liked the MR games way more than Pokemon or Digimon to be honest. Also screw Octachrome.)

Digimon is so much better than pokemon. Besides, they were developed around the same time anyway, so it's not possible for it to be a knock off. The ideas of monster hunting and taming isn't exactly novel, wasn't even original back then.

Digimon started as a Tamogotchi clone more than a Pokémon clone, the original Digimon toys were virtual pet devices.
- Clone is a weird word, since both toys had the same people behind them.
- And the early Wonderswan games were basically tamagotchi with short path battles, a true upgrade I feel.
The title is a nod at Palworlds current relevance.

Digimon similarly did a lot of stuff Pokémon wouldn't.
It doesn't have much in common with Pokemon at all, IMO... I wouldn't even describe the concept as "monster hunting and taming," really. Both have kids who partner up with monsters that start out cute and endearing and evolve to more powerful forms... Which is a significant part of the premise, but the similarities fall off pretty sharply after that.
- The games are monster taming. The show, yeah, I'd agree with that. You aren't exactly going out hunting for more digimon in the show. That's why it was better to me. The premise was actually more complex than, gotta catch em all.
The Digimon anime was straight up fire. The digitations (?) were absolutely wild. Not like, it's a bigger rat now but really insane. Loved it as a child
- Unfortunately it suffered even more from the "it evolves into an anthropomorphic animal" syndrome than pokemon does...

Seriously, is there anything about this character that is a "monster"? This is literally just a person in tight clothing

This is Lady Devimon. Digimon designs are very on the nose.
- Warning: SFW link
- Looks more like an SMT design to be fair
Whoever made the meme cropped out her wings and claws.
Maybe the real monsters are the people we met along the way.
- Traumamon can confirm that.

Wait 'til you find out about Yu-Gi-Oh

They're not really monsters though. They're like... Some sort of otherworld demons.

Which means it's acceptable to procreate.
It's all covered over in the west anyway.

how about the show where children train succubi

Oh! Someone else that remembers Monster Rancher!
- Monster Rancher is alive and kicking!
  
  There's a remaster of the first 2 games (Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX) on Steam, Switch, iOS and release a couple years back.
  
  MR2 has a huge competitive scene, with lots of community run tournaments. it's even going to be at Combo Breaker, a fairly large annual event/competition for fighting games!
  
  There's a Spinoff/Crossover game "Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher" released just over a year ago, where instead of traditional monsters, you raise giant Kaiju from the Ultraman franchise. (Switch only)
  
  There's a Japanese only mobile gacha game LINE:Monster Farm that's hugely popular atm

The anime will always be superior, but even the games noticed it's more fun to actually take care of your monster friends since they put on all kinds of systems like making sandwiches, grooming, giving a bath, etc.

I hate it that Digimon is the monster taming franchise that has had the deepest mechanics about the actual taming part, yet they don't consistently try to polish them until a consistently good game comes out of it.

R63 Griffin

so that's where it all started

Palworld hit different