I think it's fair to say that, like many people, I originally sort of laughed off Temtem as a whole hog ripoff of the series we know and "love" about a year ago when I first heard about and decided to look into it on Kickstarter. Queue the Sword and Shield fiasco, and as somebody who doesn't really want to purchase the game I gave this a second chance. All things considered, I will first state that I think Temtem is a [b]good game[/b]. If you're looking for a collectable creature game that can offer more of a challenge, especially in regards to PVP play with the wasteland Gen 8 has left the other series in, then yes, I think Temtem is great for that. Still, it has many problems, and I often find discussion about this game really touches on irrelevant stuff or ignores absolutely everything that doesn't agree with their take, so I'd like to be able to touch on the game in a bit more substantial light than others have.

[h1]Positives[/h1]

[u]Battle System[/u]

Pokemon has always thrived on the back of a really satisfying core gameplay loop and a really engaging but underutilized battle system, which has unfortunately stagnated and just been filled with gimmicks instead of substantial changes ever since Gen 5. Thankfully, Temtem makes a number of changes that both dash the idea of a mere ripoff while also carving out it's identity as a much more hardcore and difficult title that's much more interesting from a competitive standpoint. The most obvious change is forcing the format to almost universally be double battles - I've seen many complain about it as a mere ploy to try and be different, but I think it makes for a way more fun system that can't simply be rolled over by just switching into a type matchup that will always win 1v1. Instead, you take a much more active stance on building your team, taking into account who pairs well with who, who has synergies (attacks that gain bonus effects when you have an ally of a given type), and how you want to approach every fight that makes Temtem a more engaging title while not at all restricting the usage of any particular Temtem. Far from it, in fact - all final stage Temtem hover around a similar BST, meaning that there are very few fully evolved creatures who will ever be irrelevant simply because everything else has higher numbers, which is an extremely common occurrence in Pokemon. Likewise, weaker moves also get a spotlight from the Stamina system, which replaces the terrible PP with one shared pool that attacks drain from relative to how strong they are. Not only does it mean that you can't just spam potent STAB staples mindlessly, but it gives new value to weaker or often overlooked moves that might normally be irrelevant, especially now that stat boosts persist through switch ins and switch outs. Besides the new type, the weakness system remains the same, which I suspect many people will believe to be a sign of this game simply just being a shot for shot copy of it's inspiration, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The small changes add up, and Temtem is a wholly unique beast that constantly excites me to use different creatures and see what they can offer.

[u]The Visuals[/u]

Temtem's promotional art and visual style on paper might have been one of the most underwhelming things I've ever seen, and while I would never completely dump a game for mediocre visuals, it's hard to say that it ever could compare to the series it's so firmly rooted in. Perhaps I'm being too lenient, then, when I say that after playing the game I can only find one word to describe it: gorgeous. The bright and vibrant colors combined with a simplistic, cel-shaded style really make the more geometric art pop and every Temtem is animated with so much care and movement. Going the extra mile with things like having them follow you in the overworld with entirely custom animations, and I really found a newfound love for almost all of these creatures that I initially scoffed at as terrible and uninspired. Still, you may not at all care for that style, and that's fair. But what I do think is undeniably amazing is the quality in battles. All of the moves pop with clean visual effects top to bottom, but there's an amazing hierarchy of animations you discover as you gradually gain more powerful attacks, leading into some of the strongest having some quite literally breathtaking visuals that can even involve changing the background, ala Z-moves but both shorter and to the point and somehow much more satisfying and crunchy. Additionally, every battle background pops out well and looks great, which is a detail I think that can often go underappreciated. The human designs I find to be mediocre, but the trainer customization is still great and the world of Temtem itself they all inhabit is wonderful. I thought the first area was a bit uninspired for how pretty it was regardless, but the further you go, the more fantastical and striking environments you find, and none disappoint.

[u]The Online[/u]
It should go without saying that this game has way better connectivity options than a certain switch title, and past the servers issues which were annoying, yes, but only a dealbreaker for the whiny manchildren who probably only played this game for 2 hours anyways, I can say I've never even had a real hitch playing against or testing the trading with my friends online, and the queue times you might have heard about have been distilled down to basically a mere minute or less wait when you launch the game, which I can't really complain about. For a small company, Crema's done a great job keeping such a large server working nice and snugly, and there's never been a big example of latency being ridiculous I've seen.

[h2]Negatives[/h2]

[u]The Overworld[/u]

Unfortunately, while the battle system is a polished, joyous experience, I really can't say the same about this frankly terrible and archaic "gameplay" of the overworld. Progression through routes follows a very standard method of filling it with trainers and grass patches that vary between necessary and avoidable, and each route itself often contains a selection of new Temtem you'll be able to access on top of a number of items hidden throughout. For what it's worth, I don't think it's a broken system, though I resent wild encounters. No, the primary issue of this system rears it's ugly head when you're trying to progress through a route. [i]Temtem is not a game where you fight "filler" trainers.[/i] I very much enjoy this, as it makes every fight, even if they're not that hard, still engaging and prevents me from every tuning out. However, it means you're probably going to be walking out of some fights with more than a few bloody noses on your Temtem. Even worse if your current team is hard countered by a trainer you bump into, because you'll likely have to immediately be dashing back to a healing station afterwards in order to get back into fighting form. This is alleviated by a key item sort of akin to an Estus Flask that fully heals your group and stores a charge every single time you visit a healing station, but it's just not enough to alleviate this grind of constantly having to run back and forth to make sure your entire team is able-bodied, especially if you want to level up some of the less powerful members of your team. On top of that, fetch quests are [b]everywhere[/b] in Temtem, with almost every sidequest requiring you to brainlessly walk from point A to B for what ultimately amounts to be one or two consumable items that aren't really worth that much. After doing this for a while, my normal enthusiasm with exploring these areas for items or Temtem was all but extinguished, and the Tempedia offers no help on where to find specific kinds, forcing you to use third-party websites. All of this is forgettable while you're following the main plot, but becomes so frustrating if you ever decide to venture off the beaten path.

[u]The Plot/Progression[/u]
Temtem is not really a mindless game. If you have an imbalanced team or only power level one, you will get smacked by it sooner or later. Difficulty spikes are utlimately I thing I won't mind - bosses will always be exponentially harder than the rest of the game due to carrying full, or almost full teams, and I'm perfectly comfortable with Dojos being the proper readiness checks they should be. At the same time... there are several times you'll run into fights that spike insanely hard in levels or difficulty without any particular warning ahead of time, and while in theory not having to grind or adjust your team to be them because they don't force you to win for the sake of the plot is nice, but it feels... unsatisfying? The unfortunate "theming" of each area in Temtem means that certain types will be completely restricted to the player for earlier parts of the game, most significantly the first area with it's oversaturation of water and neutral types, neither of which help you out at all against the first gym. It leaves you with only two singular options for what are good against the Dojo ignoring starters, and this imbalance constantly creates frustration when you deal with some types or species the player can't even counter or access, like digital or electric types.

The plot goes hand in hand with this, following an atypical story of you wanting to become the best tamer in all the lands and visiting these various buildings where people who can survive off of consuming oxygen solely relax all day waiting for your challenges. Perhaps a bit disingenuous, as I can say that the Dojo masters are at least somewhat more involved than the usual gym leaders, but I wouldn't really say much. What's worse is how utterly forgettable every character in Temtem is. I can only really read off 2 well by heart, and one of them is your rival... who isn't really memorable because he's a good character, but because he demolishes the player in some fights that while "winnable" feel basically scripted with how hard their levels spike relative to what came before. Not only that, bu you have to just stomach his annoying trashtalk as you never get to rematch him (yet). I can say I'm getting legitimately interested in the plot now with the third island in, but it realistically shouldn't have taken this long to get me to care, and I don't exactly have enthusiasm that it won't just resolve in an unsatisfying way.

[u]The Grind/MMO[/u]

After getting demolished by said Rival battle, I decided to check in on the discord just to verify I hadn't missed something when his team was several levels higher than mine. And, no, I hadn't - I was just told I should have probably been grinding more despite being on par with the gym I just beat without too much trouble or usage of items. That left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, but that amplified when I began to find the only selection of Temtem I was using, being mostly water or neutral along with my melee starter almost completely worthless or nullified by the predominant grass themes of the next area I found myself in. This resulted in me having to reevaluate and catch new members of my team based on what's required to check this area, and while I'm fine with that, it's utterly baffling to me that the area right after this dojo had wilds that were almost up to [i]ten levels lower than what the average was[/i] Catching one of those grass types and then trying to train it up on his brethren that were scarcely stronger than he was is frustrating, and only alleviated by wandering all the way back over to the first island to an inconveniently placed cave that I didn't even realize had a good grinding spot because it only had higher level Temtem on the top floor exclusively. In theory, the best place to grind should be the closest accessible route... but even that was often difficult.

Furthermore, the breeding prices have been up with recent patches to insane levels. I won't comment too much on this matter, as I haven't even started getting into that whole field and I feel like it's being balanced around the later stages of the game where more currency will be accessible, but for that matter, why are you inherently balancing the one part of this game that will generate unlimited playtime around content that does not, and likely for almost a year, will not exist? This effectively leads into the main issue of "it's an MMO" that I feel like is underlining a bunch of these kinds of questionable to me decisions that sort of kill my enthusiasm. The grinding is "because it's an MMO", but I'd argue that this is far more brainless than even killing level one boars over and over again, and it certainly doesn't at all compare in fun value to grinding in something like dungeons or raids. It's a valid statement to say this MMO model can't sustain only having content that you play once and no more, but then, what about this model besides the server marks it as an MMO? Is it the social aspect? If so, I don't think that's true, because in my rare attempts to try and interact with someone via the incredibly limited and sort of terrible emote system, the other person has immediately walked away. The only people I've actually communed with come from either already knowing them or via another network, which sort of defeats the point to me. Is it because the Temtem are treated equivalent to gear in a large, player run economy? That too, is confusing to me, because not only is there a much less dramatic demand for specific items depending on who you are, but it's not even the reward for playing the game like those items usually are. In the case of what will be serious, competitive Temtem, it is the [i]prerequisite.[/i] As far as I can tell, the MMO label is lost on this as it lacks a lot of the other kind of checks that would normally make similar grinding games so enjoyable, and it keeps all of the monotony.

Overall, Temtem is bizarre. I can see great things in this game's future if it continues to be supported and can find ways to break the archaic systems that reek of old Pokemon it still seems to bind itself to, but I'm very much worried that to some degree, that's intentional. To siphon it's players time in ways that aren't fun or interesting in order to pad out playtime, and restrict what would normally be the results of your hard work in a standard MMO to "a competitively viable Temtem, now I just need 5 more." It's a difficult game to rate because of that, and I'd be skeptical of all the downsides I posted because while I can chug through them, I know some other people can't.