Pokemon with metroidvania elements, meshes both ideas together very cleverly. The combat system is fun, and the game rewards you for making good team combos. You'll always be able to use any monster as anything you capture is a level or two below your max level monster. You unlock new areas by capturing monsters with specific abilities, like flight or breaking down walls. There are 5 main areas you can explore in any order you like, so long as you get the prerequisite monster to access it, making every playthrough a unique experience.
Few things I didnt like: The game doesnt allow you use less than 6 monsters, not sure why? Every monster can equip itself with 1 weapon and 3 accessories, and be upgraded with materials, but you cant store anything away, so you're left with an overwhelming amount of monsters and item clutter, making it hard to organize anything and make teams easily. Most of the music is boring and repetitive, had to play the game on mute for large chunks of the game, but the late game areas had some banger music at least.

Note that there is PvP but I didnt really mess with that content.