Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

You misunderstand me, I did not compare it to Pokemon because of monsters. I compare them because, to me, they share a somewhat goofy design of their creatures.
I see a huge fanbase for pokemon and a worship of the creatures themselves, much more so than for the actual games. Hence me asking if this game tickle those people too.
I can't see why this game would get such a hype if not for a reason that I can't grasp, since it appeals neither to my Ghibli love, nor my jrpg interest.

For me, it looks absolutely beautiful, and I've been a big fan of Level 5 RPGs. They have never disappointed. I even love White Knight Chronicles, and I use the word even because so many people hated it. Rogue Galaxy, Dark Cloud, all kinds of games they've released and they are all fantastic in my opinion. They are masters of JRPGs in my honest opinion.

I honestly don't have any knowledge about Studio Ghibli outside of the fact that they made some renown animes, animes which I've never watched, but they can certainly create some fantastic visuals. The music is great too. Story is superb so far with great characters as well. I love the battle system as well. I know there are people complaining about it, saying that it's just "mash until you win," but if you actually play it with some focus, you can see that the battle system is a hell of a lot more advanced than people make it seem. You can certainly win if you just mash Attack, but really that's true for just about every JRPG that exists. If you actually want to play it, though, you have such vast options in it that it's far more than people who bash it make it seem. Everything that makes a great JRPG the game has in my opinion.

At this point, really, if you don't have weird and funky looking creatures, regardless of if you can recruit them or not, you (as a developer) will get bashed for it. It's really impossible to win at this point. No matter what you do people complain. This is why I don't go to forums like GameFAQs, GameTrailers, IGN, etc. People are never happy, and no matter what there are complaints. A lot of them time it's just people trying to find stuff to complain about instead of valid reasons too. Whether it be because the game isn't on their console of choice, or just because they don't like the genre, it's ridiculous.