When Temtem was first announced there was a ton of buzz around the potential Pokemon killer. The kind of game that would realize what fans of the monster-taming genre have always begged for, a quality MMO experience where they can catch, battle, and trade monsters with their friends in an online world. Needless to say, there were expectations. Developer Crema and Publisher Humble Games had a hell of a miracle to pull off if any of these expectations were to be met. In any case, a new title in this genre is a welcome one. Temtem has its ups and downs but at the root of it all is a game I think understands its audience and really enjoys playing the genre they have now forayed into. 

Story

Jumping right into this game, the player wakes up in his room and needs to go get his first Temtem from the town Professor. Yes, it sounds familiar. Then, you must fight your rival and embark on a journey across the Temtem world catching, trading, and battling Temtem while fighting in a set number of dojos spread out across the lands. We, know…. It sounds like Pokemon and that's because it is very much the same premise. Some take this as a point of criticism but honestly, Pokemon got it right. So right in fact, that I don’t see any need for a dramatic change when it comes to a story like this. This is designed to facilitate the fantasy concept of monster battling and it does just that. The only gripe that could possibly leave players wanting more is that there is a lack of identity in the form of a story beat that sets this monster tamer apart from the rest. 

This type of story approach definitely does pull at the nostalgia chords and I think it lands exactly where it needs to. Unfortunately, it does come across as almost bootlegged when comparing characters like the town Professor to the iconic Professor Oak from Pokemon. This is even the case with the rival but is a hard argument to fight when giant franchises like Pokemon are having this issue within their own games. It’s a gripe but doesn't take anything away from the game at large.

GAMEPLAY

Let's be honest, we are all here to catch, battle, and trade these Temtem. That is the name of the game and I’ll be damned if Temtem doesn’t absolutely nail this feeling. It’s quite interesting that despite Pokemon and Digimon being such gigantic franchises within this genre (consequently creating it) there really isn’t a design bible for these types of games. They vary so greatly in mechanics and design that it just doesn't have the catalog to facilitate coherently ‘this is how it should be done’ set of rules. Despite this, Temtem gets it one hundred percent correct. Catching Temtem feels great, it's responsive and plain fun. Collecting monsters is a good chunk of this game and finding new ones that I find interesting always calls for an attempt at catching them. Battling is also very fun, albeit a little limiting and foreign. 

Battling utilizes a double battle system where two Temtem from each team are on the field at all times. This allows for some cool synergy and type matchups but ultimately leaves me wanting more variety. I understand this approach from a competitive standpoint since it is designed to balance and pace out battles more pleasantly, but I would be remiss to say it doesn’t get very repetitive very quickly. Sometimes I don’t want two Temtem to be vulnerable to attacks all the time and I think this is the main cause for my frequent trips to heal up my Temtem mid-journey. It gets frustrating and often left me annoyed rather than engaged in a battle. Alongside the battling arrangement, the type advantages and disadvantages are a problem that is not entirely Temtem’s fault. Obviously, Pokemon was most players' introduction to this genre and through extension, this game. Because of this, we have learned a lot from Pokemon games that unfortunately invade our minds when playing Temtem. Fire beating grass and lightning beating water are pretty straightforward but at times I found myself competing against not only my opponent in the game but my knowledge of type effectiveness from Pokemon. While this isn’t Temtem’s fault inherently, I do think they have a responsibility to understand that players are going in with this knowledge. A simple fix would be to add the type next to the Temtem’s name or have an optional feature that shows which moves are effective and which aren’t in real-time while battling. 

While roaming the world of Temtem there were a couple of small elements I noticed that I think deserve the spotlight despite being small. Games in this genre have found many ways to alleviate the sometimes annoying encounters in tall grass when a wild monster approaches you. This has been done by having 3D models in the overworld or by showing shaking grass to avoid but I think Temtem has nailed this. It all comes down to understanding where the player will be in terms of strength while they traverse this area for the first time, and the first time is key here because that’s when it's most annoying and troublesome. When it poses a threat to the player's progression. Encounters are paced beautifully and never got on my nerves, which is very rare! Unfortunately on the topic of pacing, the level of my Temtem relative to its actual damage output or health never felt aligned. I always felt too weak and my hunch is that this is Temtem’s way of increasing the difficulty to separate itself from other games in the genre. This just misses the mark and ends up frustrating me when I feel like my Temtem should be able to take an attack or dish some serious damage and they can’t.

While playing through the game I experienced very few glitches, which to be honest was expected because this game has had two years in Early Access where this should all be well and truly ironed out. Unfortunately, I did come across one pretty annoying and recurring glitch where if my Temtem evolved, which can happen during a fight, the fight would then be completely unplayable. This always caused my screen to glitch out and either showed me nothing or just display flashing images of Temtem or sprite sheets. This rendered that fight unplayable because I could no longer choose which enemy Temtem I was fighting and could only see my moves, and me and my enemies' health bars. This caused me to lose multiple fights which was a massive pain and forced me to run back to the area and reengage the fight. 

Lastly, Temtem sells itself as an MMO which is technically correct but extremely underwhelming. This doesn’t feel like an MMO, this feels like a single-player game with online co-op integration that also lets you see other people running around. Unfortunately, Temtem doesn’t capitalize on what made that idea of a Pokemon MMO so damn exciting. From my experience, an MMO world can be affected and changed by players logging in, whether that's mobs being killed or real-time world events taking place. Temtem doesn't have these elements and it definitely takes the wonder of a monster tamer MMO and makes it all feel a bit superficial. It is by far the most disappointing element of Temtem and took me by surprise since I was expecting to invite friends in to play alongside them and complete quests together. Alongside this glitch, the game was extremely choppy and stuttery on the Nintendo Switch which is a huge shame because I’ve seen the game on PC and it looks gorgeous.

Audio And Visuals

A big part of the monster-taming genre is visual identity. I know Pokemon just by looking at them even if I’ve never seen the individual Pokemon before and the same goes for Digimon, Spectrobes, etc. Temtem is so close when it comes to this visual identity. It does miss at points and that definitely hurts its overall direction but since this is Crema’s first dive into this genre I think it's fair to cut them some slack in this department. You can very clearly tell which Temtem were afterthoughts or early designs and which were thought out and designed after they established their visual ruleset. This carries over onto the overall art direction of the entire game. While it all looks nice graphically, it struggles with portraying a solid idea. At times Temtem’s designs get confused and they seem to be constantly at odds with either a Japanese anime-inspired style akin to Pokemon and Digimon, or a European style that brings in more of a simplistic indie game style. Both directions are very interesting but it seems Temtem hasn’t yet made up its mind on which it wants to pursue. In saying that, a mix of both could be quite cool, I think Temtem needs to establish its design rules before stepping further into this muddy direction which I think they are starting to do, especially with the later designs of Temtem. 

On the topic of Temtem, these designs are very hit or miss. Some of them like Koish are designed excellently and some like Loali really are just not interesting designs at all. These Temtem designs that really miss the mark are a huge reason why I don’t particularly resonate with the game. It takes far too long to find Temtem that I like because all the weird and boring ones are thrown to the first few hours of the game. I feel like this is their attempt at building up to the cool designs but it honestly just makes those first few hours almost unbearable since I can’t find any Temtem that I care for in the slightest. I can’t help but feel like this is due to the designs I enjoy being made later in production. There is a clear distinction between the designs that are great and those that aren’t. Those that aren’t really haven't had much thought put in, often being a simple shape or just an animal with eyes and legs, whereas the great designs are unique and interesting with twists on animals and mythical creatures that catch the eye and have personality. 

The people in this game…. We are going to need a minute to explain what's going on here. So due to this visual identity crisis blend of Japanese and European aesthetics, Temtem’s people look very very strange as a result. Some people look like a generic anime RPG NPC while some look like over-painted puppets. I say puppets because I really have no other word to describe them, they are strange and uncanny in a very unsettling way with most grinning at the player. They often display wrinkles in a very exaggerated way which further adds to this uncanniness and feel like they're staring into my soul. It’s very strange and leaves me thinking that a lot of the attention was put into the Temtem and that the people were almost an afterthought. 

The overall look of the game is great. The polish is here visually and it shows the time and effort put in by the developers. The game looks especially good during battles when the focus is on the monsters themselves. This unfortunately is overshadowed by the poor visual display on the Nintendo Switch. This gives the game a very pixelated and blurry look, completely diminishing how amazing the game actually looks. As stated previously, I have seen this game on PC and it looks smooth and crisp and incredible. It's such a shame the Nintendo Switch treats the visuals of the game this way and made me regret getting the Nintendo Switch review copy as opposed to the PC or PlayStation 5 one.

The music here is great and evokes that peaceful adventure feeling that Temtem is really reaching for. The soundtrack is one of the highlights in my opinion and captures everything the game sets out to do. It’s calm when your adventuring around and then ramps up for the battle theme. This soundtrack has been stuck in my head and actually kept me pretty calm during very frustrating moments. Alongside this, the sound design is absolutely top-tier! The sound effects are super satisfying and responsive, making every button or attack have that extra layer of oomph that you crave in a game like this. The simple act of healing your Temtem at a healing station is like ASMR. 

Replayability

Yes, it is and no it isn't. Temtem is at odds a bit with its replayability. While yes replaying the game is often refreshing in this genre, it does feel a bit pointless in one that makes use of online elements and continued support and content. Just in my playthrough alone, I was able to stumble across one of the other starter Temtem that I hadn’t chosen and got to catch it. This isn’t the case in other games of the same genre and I think generally facilitates a lot of their replayability. In terms of team creation, with Temtem being online there are endless battles to win after you finish the main story. So creating multiple teams is a given, thus kind of diminishing the fun of a second playthrough. In short, I would never personally replay Temtem but I understand the desire to.

What It Could Have Done Better

Temtem suffers from a number of problems that I’m certain to have very simple and straightforward solutions. I also am certain that Crema knows these problems exist and plan to slowly eradicate them with time in Temtem or in a potential follow-up game. As outlined in previous points Temtem needs to tackle its visual identity and coherency, and almost more importantly its MMO elements. If a follow-up game could encapsulate the heart and soul of a true MMO then we would bare witness to a game that would truly change the genre as we know it and would have the potential to dethrone a giant like Pokemon. 

Verdict

With a plethora of issues and a great many positives, Temtem is a very particular game. If you have played every monster-taming game and just need something new then Temtem is your fix. But if a friend wants to enter the genre for the first time, I would not recommend Temtem as their first foray. Temtem is also not a game I could see myself pouring countless hours into, grinding, and building the perfect team. Despite all this, it is a wonderfully made game with some very unique monsters and fun mechanics. My takeaway is ultimately positive but nothing above average expectations. 

Temtem is now available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.