Temtem Review

Temtem is an MMORPG, developed by Crema and published by Humble Bundle. After a successful Kickstarter campaign that reached its goal in 48 hours and following four years of development, the game has finally left Early Access. As a homage to Pokémon, it seeks to resolve its flaws as an original title while also providing a unique experience on its own. 

In Temtem, you play as a Temtem tamer. It's your job to go out into the world, capture every Temtem you can find, battle other tamers, defeat your rival, beat all the Dojo Masters, stop the evil team, and become the best that no one ever was. Simple right? Yeah… things get slightly more complicated as you go through the main campaign. While the game is mainly whimsical and adventurous, it can get dark at times with some really surprising twists thrown in. I like it for what it is and it quickly made me invested in the world of Temtem, but I did find some of the writing iffy in parts and it definitely is more appropriate for teens than young kids.

Speaking of the world, the Archipelago the game is set in is vibrant with various lands to run through, with a pleasant art style to look at when you're taking a break from the battles and capturing. Some faces can be jarring and ugly to look at, but it didn’t really take me out of it. I loved a lot of the Temtem designs and animations here. The attack animations themselves are of high quality and you don’t really get sick of seeing them.

I really liked the overworld, and seeing other players running around is nice and makes the world more active and lived-in. I especially liked being able to register Temtems you can find in the overworld. It can make completing the Tempedia that much easier. Even player Temtems can be registered so if you see a player with a rather powerful-looking one, you'll at least know what it is and where to get them for yourself.

I really like the battling system. Double battles require a lot of forethought.

However, you aren’t going to enjoy much of the world without needing to fight other Temtem. Most battles are two-on-two, both wild encounters and fights against other tamers. Every turn, you can use a move, skip your turn to regain stamina, use an item, switch out your Temtem, or run from a wild encounter. Nothing surprising here, but this familiar formula has its own quirks. Some moves require a certain number of turns to pass before they can be used, while others can be powered up if the other Temtem on your team is of a certain type.

However, you just can’t spam your most powerful attack. Every move has a stamina cost and if you don’t have enough stamina to use a move, the rest of the cost is taken out of your HP and your Temtem will be forced to wait or switch on the next turn — and yes, it is possible to knock your own Temtem out from this.

These mechanics force you to have a good team with partners that can work effectively with each other, and to make sure that every Temtem in your squad is roughly around the same level. Every member of your squad needs to be useful or else you’ll be sent back to the nearest Temporium over and over again.

The type chart can be a little hard to grasp, however. Each of the 12 types do mostly have logical strengths and weaknesses so you could probably assume, but I did prefer to have a type chart on hand. However, you don’t really have to worry much about memorisation. If you hover over the enemy team before attacking, they will flash red for reduced damage or green for increased damage; very useful to have when you’re still learning the ropes.

The attack animations are so detailed and wonderful to see.

The Dojos themselves are quite fun, and the fight against the Master at the end provides a good challenge as they have a competently leveled full team of six. They are a test for making sure you understand the mechanics of the game, and ensuring that you are ready for whatever else the game decides to throw at you later in your adventure. If you want a rematch with them they will use competitive level teams and the ability to pick and ban Temtem.

Overall, I liked the difficulty the game had. I’m not quite overpowered, but I’m not banging my head against a wall hoping to knock it down as I go through the game. Every fight requires at least some level of strategy and for you to carefully consider what to do for the best outcome. You can't just brute force your way into a win, but you can beat Temtem with higher levels if you're smart about it. Every Temtem you encounter is a credible threat even if they’re only a few levels below yours, but if you find yourself low on items you at least have something to help you in the form of the Temessence Phial. It’s a key item that fully revives and heals your team, but can only be used once before it needs a refill at the healing station. A nice thing to have when you’re in the middle of a dungeon, before a big fight, or just grinding out levels.

However, if you really want to prove yourself, there’s always the competitive scene. Temtem really does cater to competitive players. A Temtem’s SV (Single Value, or what determines a Temtem’s best and worst stats) and TV (Training Value, or how many points a stat gains on level up) is freely available to view at any time, useful for when breeding the best possible squad for PvP. However, if a strategy gets too popular, those Temtem will be banned from competitive play. The breeding mechanic itself is rather frustrating to deal with as it requires a lot of in-game money and a lot of luck if you want to get the best Temtem out of it. While I didn’t go anywhere near anything competitive, it's nice to see that the developers pay attention to it and I hope it grows more in the future.

As for how the game performed, I did encounter a few bugs. Healing my team with items sometimes won't show HP being restored; one battle had a Temtem overexerted despite only just switching in, and sometimes after loading my screen will freeze for a moment. Overall, though, it ran smoothly both in the overworld and in battle at around 60 FPS, even with all the other players running around. There is nothing really technically wrong I can find in Temtem. The most annoying part of the game technically is that I can’t play it offline. It requires a good internet connection for the best experience and not everyone has that.

Maybe some areas shouldn’t have other players in it.

There is a battle pass for some reason, and a store to spend some real world money on cosmetics and furniture for your home that cycle through their inventory every day. However, it’s mainly for PvP and your player home once you unlock it later in your playthrough. I didn’t mess around with it, but I did find it odd that Weekly Challenges are locked out until you complete the main campaign. Also, seeing microtransactions in a full priced game feels scummy. I know this is an MMO and without a subscription fee it needs some way to keep the servers running but it feels so tacked on and locks out some cool stuff like music and different loading screens (yes, really) behind a paywall.

Despite those flaws, I really liked my time with Temtem. The whole game can be enjoyed either as a single-player experience or with friends. I also appreciated all the little details like Temtem being able to evolve mid-fight and detailed descriptions of abilities, and it strikes a good balance between the casual and competitive sides of the game. If you’re finding yourself itching for another monster collecting game, Temtem is for you. Just keep in mind that it not only requires a constant internet connection, but has some questionable game mechanics when compared to Pokémon. While it’s definitely worth the price, try not to spend any more unless you want to support the developers.