Imagine you’re playing a game where, after customizing your character, you’re awakened by your mother in your room because it’s your big day to finally leave your hometown for the grandest adventure of your life. You go meet the esteemed professor who lets you choose your companion creature while also becoming acquainted with your frenemy, Max. However, after these short introductory scenes, characters with names like Pochinator, Qhanris and Speric hovering above their heads appear on-screen. No, these are not the names of the game’s creatures, but that of other players who are also playing in real-time.

Yes, Temtem looks, feels and plays like a Pokémon game but with the bonus of MMO elements. The game has Pokémon plastered all over the place from random encounters with Temtem creatures to dojos to items that all bear a counterpart from the Pokemon world (Temporium? That’s a Pokémon Center! Tempedia? A Pokédex! Temtem card? Definitely a Pokéball!). Even the story bears numerous resemblance to a classic Pokémon title, like the need to catch Temtems, clear dojos while countering the plans of the Team Rocket-like baddies and be the very best, like no one ever was. Nevertheless, Temtem does bring some of its own flair with diverse Temtem designs (even if they feel generic), more NPC interactions, a different battle mechanic and integrating MMO elements.

Most noticeable is the battle system. Firstly, each Temtem has a set amount of PPs that it can spend in a battle to use its abilities. Using an ability that consumes more than the available PP will cause the Temtem to injure itself while still performing the selected ability. On the flip side, the Temtem will have to rest the next turn, leaving it open to an opponent’s offense. Secondly, from encounters with wild Temtems to battles with fellow tamers, battles are mostly a 2v2 affair. Sometimes you’ll even be at an advantage with 2v1 battles so you’ll own your opponent but those 2v2 ones are what populate the battle landscape. This formula does offer an interesting take on strategizing combat by pairing the most effective Temtem types against the opponent’s ones. It also adds a layer of challenge to the traditional 1-on-1 combat and it’s a welcome change. Third, the Synergy mechanic plays well into the 2-on-2 battles since this allows for some Temtem types to supplement others for more effective damage.

However, determining a creature’s type can prove to be tricky. Looks can be deceptive and I’ve mostly been able to determine the type of an opponent’s Temtem through trial and error. With time you’ll probably get used to it, but be prepared to be deceived when your strongest Temtem’s attack does only ¼ of the normal damage to some newly discovered Temtem.

Unfortunately, Temtem’s MMO feature mostly serves as a nice gimmick. Although you can trade Temtems and battle with other players (both of which I haven’t been able to do during my playthrough up to now, for some unknown reason), what the MMO aspect mostly means is that you’ll see fellow players’ avatars running along the same path as you do throughout the game. It’s cool to see that you aren’t the only one running around catching Temtems and clearing dojos, but it doesn’t change much to the gameplay or the story itself. You can’t really interact with other players other than sharing emotes. It feels like a missed opportunity at this time but developer Crema might be holding these features post-Early Access, I hope…

Nevertheless, as an Early Access title, Temtem plays out fluidly. The animations are crisp and the combat delivers nice visuals. There are some WIP areas which are marked in-game and a few areas where the developers could improve on. For one, I found the map to be quite inconvenient since it is not properly marked even after I’ve explored every nook and cranny of an area. Having key locations like Temporiums explicitly marked would really aid players (there are some logos but they can easily be missed, and explicitly written locations would go a long way). Other issues I’ve come across were minor like the info of challengers appearing only for a split second, giving me barely enough time to read anything. Since I’ve first started the game, the developers have pushed some updates and I haven’t come across framerate issues that were present in the Alpha version. It’s clear that they are still fine-tuning the game and I hope that post-Early Access, Temtem will stand out more as an MMORPG monster-catching title than a Pokémon-clone with some MMO features.

If you’ve played a Pokémon game before, you aren’t missing much with Temtem. Sure it has appealing graphics, varied landscapes and a whole lot of Temtem to discover which serve as eye candies but other than that, the game feels like fan service for diehard PC gamers who have resisted the need to get a Nintendo console to catch ‘em all. But with Temtem, you’ll finally realize your dream to subjugate cute creatures and force them to battle each other on a PC!

On a more serious note, it’s worth keeping Temtem on your radar to see how it evolves with time. Right now in Early Access, there's no need to jump on the game if you already own a Nintendo console but as the developers (hopefully) include more features in future updates, Temtem might offer more of what it promises. This review's score might not reflect what the final version of the game will offer, and as such, I'll omit more detailed scores like on Gameplay, Presentation and Lasting Appeal but in its current state, it's worth a buy only if you're itching for catching adorable-looking monsters on your PC.

Temtem - Gameplay Overview & Early Access Announcement