Yeah, personally I just don’t see the appeal of Pokémon without the grind though.
Not saying that it’s wrong to use the EXP share, but it’s just not for me. Which is okay, but also a little sad that a game I used to love isn’t for me anymore.
Starting to feel the lack of time for grind myself, but there's a better answer. I can't remember which gen did it, but you were able to toggle exp share on or off. So you could choose if you wanted to grind. I'd like to see that come back.
I really want a good pokemon spiritual successor targeted at adults. Like I hope it's still cute and wholesome, just balanced for adults, and without so much hand-holding.
I've heard Palworld is really good, but also that it's more like Arc than Pokemon.
I wish the Monster Rancher series would return. Not sure how you'd do the "collection" aspect tho. Not many CDs/DVDs around anymore. Maybe something with qr/barcodes. Or image recognition. Regardless, I always felt that game series had a slightly older demographic.
Monster Rancher has made a return!, in a sense.
"MR1&2DX" a "Remaster" is on Steam, Switch, and iOS. This came out in 2021. (It's mostly the same game, just with a searchable CD Database/Song List instead of physical media, upscaling, both JP and English monsters in the same game, Enemy monsters raisable, extra freezer slots, fast forward, instant loads etc. a bunch of QoL stuff).
Also there's Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher (This one is on Switch only) that came out in 2022... a Crossover franchise of raising Ultraman Kaiju that plays like a mix of both MR1 and MR2
And LINE: Monster Farm, came out in 2023. A JP only gacha game, though there's some hopium that it will be released in the west eventually.
There's a huge Monster Rancher community and Discord that even holds public tournaments with varying formats and stat-cap limits. It's a lot of fun!
I felt like my team was a little restricted by what I could find in the first two areas of the story, but TemTem is a generally good game with all double battles.
There are a lot of monster catching games, mostly aimed at old fans fed up with the current state of pokemon. One I played and really enjoyed is called cassette beasts. You can scale the difficulty so that enemy levels scale based on your level, it's also moddable so people can add new monsters, modes, etc.
I would love an adult-balanced pokemon, whether it be a difficulty slider or full game. Closest is ROM hacking and indie games. Nuzlocking doesn't quite scratch the same itch.
I remember playing Red over and over as a kid. Eventually I stopped being interested in grinding levels and would just rush to Cinnabar Island so I could MissingNo dupe rare candies.
Even then I wouldn't balance, I'd just throw them all on my favorite Pokemon of that run and get them to 100.