1998 - Dragon Warrior: Monsters
I talked about the monster-collecting element is basically introduced in Dragon Quest V, this is the game that they made where that's the entire premise. You're quite literally a little kid who gets dragged into another world (it was the 90s and he didn't die, so is it an isekai? yes) to save your sister and get drafted into a monster taming and training competition.
I don't have a lot to say here except that it rules. I recently started replaying it and my god, the absolute joy of grinding in that game. My monsters are probably over-leveled because I'll just run around an empty map tile looking for fights. With fast-forward turned on, it's peak JRPG grinding. I mentioned at some point that I tried replaying some of the old Dragon Warrior games and stalled out in 2 or 3--b/c I was playing the switch port, iirc, there was no fast-forward button. If I had it, I probably would've breezed through just like this.
What's also fun about Dragon Warrior: Monsters is that breeding aspect. I'm not a huge breeder in Pokemon because that shit is, frankly, insane. Like, I know enough to understand that basics, but even that feels overwhelming. DW:M is undoubtedly also complicated, but in different ways. Inheriting moves feels much more intuitive and easy to understand. But, also, there's no restrictions like egg groups and no waiting; you tell the guy which ones you want to breed, they do and they make an egg. Then you tell him you wanna hatch the egg and the egg hatches. It's great. Also, because it's a totally different breeding system and you can crossbreed ANYTHING, you can get a new monster out of your breeding, which is both fun and actually what you're supposed to be doing!
As an example of the breeding: the first outing as a monster tamer, you finish the quest and get a Healslime. Great access to buff and healing spells, so it's going to be something you want to keep with you. Unfortunately, its stats are ass. The solution to this is to breed it as soon as you get the option so you can have a hardier monster that retains the healing abilities of its parent. In my current game, I waved good bye to the Healslime ages ago and now I have a unicorn rabbit (of course I do) that is magnitudes better as a healer because it's got more HP and Defense and can also dish out some damage if I need him to.
I'll finish by saying this is one that has a lot of nostalgia for me. I remember playing it a bunch as a kid on the Gameboy Color and I remember getting stalled out at some point, probably cause I didn't understand the breeding well enough, although I'm pretty sure I had a game guide for it because I was That Kid. But, I still think the game overall holds up. Especially with the fast-forward option ;)