Many kids grew up catching monsters in one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. With a collectible card game and anime to support the iconic video game series, Pokémon was a runaway success and remains one of the most dominant forces in gaming. Trying to catch them all was a simple, feverishly addictive hook that kept many playing happily for years.
Temtem has the bravery - some might say audacity - to celebrate, mimic, and innovate upon all things Pokémon. With so many similarities between the two games, it would be easy for Temtem's unique qualities to get lost in the shuffle. While the game isn't perfect, there's a ton to love about this new entry in the monster collecting genre. Here are some of the things we loved (and didn't love) about the game
6 Loved: The Game's Roots
The creative team behind Temtem isn't shy about admitting that their game was inspired by Pokémon. There have been countless knockoffs of the most popular monster collecting franchise of all time, but the overwhelming majority of those knockoffs fell flat. It's worth asking why. Temtem succeeds where most other games in the genre fall flat: offering a game that builds upon the greatness that is Pokémon without simply being a half-hearted skin.
With the choice of three starter Temtem, the quest to beat the dojo masters, and numerous other features that are ripped directly from the franchise that inspired it, Temtem left its brilliant foundation alone instead of trying to innovate for innovation's sake and thereby ruining the end result. That's not to say that Temtem doesn't deviate from Pokémon: it does, and its innovations are some of the best things about the game. The game simply knows the right balance to strike between homage and ingenuity.
5 Didn't Love: Endgame Uncertainty
Temtem is, among other things, an MMO, with all the good and bad that comes along with it. MMOs are, by design, supposed to keep players around for hundreds or thousands of hours, creating an evolving ecosystem for players to engage with long-term. Pulling this off is difficult, as the legion of flailed MMOs demonstrates.
One of the biggest questions now that Temtem has left early access is how well the endgame will hold up. It's too early to know. The game sports a variety of endgame options including tradition raids and even roguelike and draft-style modes to give players who want to keep playing options. Combined with the many play options that already existed in the game, this could lay the groundwork to keep Temtem viable for long into the future. With these features still being relatively new, however, it remains uncertain how well they will hold up and continue to retain players.
4 Loved: The Story
It's funny that the story is one of the best parts of Temtem, because there's a chance the game would've been almost as large a success with little or no story. The reason is simple: most players don't need that much reason to run around collecting and battling cute creatures. The collections and battles are enough of a point in themselves. Story is nice in this genre, but it's not absolutely essential the way that it is everywhere else.
Temtem's story feels tailor-made for players who crew up with Pokémon and wanted to see the story of those games continue. No, not by expanding upon the adventures of Ash, Brock, and Misty, but rather by taking many of the themes and ideas addressed in that franchise and taking a second look at them with an adult's more knowledgeable eye.
3 Didn't Love: Long Conversations
There are only so many ways to tell a story and round out characters. Given that most games would like to avoid the dreaded exposition dump -- overwhelming the player with a wall of text because the game lacks a more elegant way of sharing information - conversation is a vital storytelling tool.
The story in Temtem is great, and dialog is one of the many ways that story is told. Unfortunately, conversations in Temtem can overstay their welcome at time. How much patience a player will have for conversations is highly variable, so some players won't be bothered by these lengthy dialogs. Others, however, will be eager to get back into doing what the game does best: letting the player collect and battle Temtem.
2 Loved: The Battles
One of Temtem's biggest differences from the classic Pokémon experience is its battle format: all combat is 2v2. There are no singles battles in the game. While the change from 1v1 to 2v2 may seem like the most bare-bones way to shake up combat, the effects it has are wide-spread and deep.
Most monster catching games adopt a simple, rock paper scissors format, in which the player's primary goal is to use creatures and attacks of the right element to smash the competition. Battles in Temtem are deeper than that. With a Stamina system, gorgeous attack animations, overexertion, and a number of cool nuances, combat in Temtem has a huge amount going for it. It feels balanced, clever, and most of all fun.
1 Loved: The Temtem
A creature collecting game lives and dies by the quality of its creatures. From the first choice of Houchic, Smazee, and Crystle, the game makes it clear that creatures is one department in which it isn't lacking. It's hard to come up with huge numbers of fantasy creatures without many of them feeling derivative, out of place, or just plain silly. That is undoubtedly one of the hardest parts of making any game in the genre, but it's a part that Temtem nails.
The Temtem themselves are fantastic. Their distinct appearances make them easy to tell apart and remember, and their cutesy names are a player to cry out in the midst of battle. The game's artstyle could not be better suited for depicting these sometimes ferocious, always cuddly creatures. Just seeing these creatures, whether in the heat of battle or trotting along after the player, is a thrill. Monster tamers the world over have another monster-taming franchise to fall in love with thanks to Temtem.
Temtem is available now for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.