Ichinome Monsters offers a barebones but faithful throwback to the start of the monster collecting craze

• Ichinome Monsters offers throwback action to the early days of creature collectors
• Taking cues from older JRPGs too it's already had some positive early reception
• Dive into tactical battles where every move counts

When it comes to remakes and the spiritually inspired takes on a genre, you often find that slavish devotion to reproducing the original can hold them back. Sometimes, however, it's that same attention that produces something which, while niche, is sure to provoke feelings of nostalgia.

Which is exactly the case with Ichinome Monsters. Coming direct from Japan by solo developer Takahiko Yao, it's already been featured on some of the sites over there. And as you might expect, this is a true throwback to the very early days of the creature-collector genre and hits such as Pokémon Red & Blue.

Admittedly, in terms of actual battle mechanics, Ichinome Monsters owes a lot more to traditional JRPGs such as Dragon Quest. You'll place multiple monsters on the field and have to think tactically about your choices and the abilities that your monsters end up using.

Agh! Ichinome Monsters!

Admittedly, the first thing you'll think looking at Ichinome Monsters is that it looks like your typical RPG-maker fare. And that's because it probably is, but judging by initial reactions across the Pacific, that's not necessarily being taken as a bad thing.

And certainly, with praise being singled out for the depth of content and the systems on show, you know it's not just all talk. If you can look past some of the rather basic art and into the actual breadth of things to do here, then it might be you might find that same sort of appeal in Ichinome Monsters as others clearly have.

But there is a lot of competition on mobile for Ichinome Monsters. Just take a look at our list of the best mobile games of 2025 and take a nostalgic trip past some of the greatest releases of the last 12 months to see what I mean.