Developed by Crema and published by Humble Bundle, Temtem hit Early Access on Steam on January 21st and made waves with its Pokemon-like gameplay. Core RPG Pokemon titles have almost always had points of criticism stemming from each game being more of the same, slashing features, or generally not being up to par with modern game design and infrastructure. I think a lot of Pokemon fans, especially older ones, are getting more and more fed up with there not being major innovations. It took the Switch before the main Pokemon games even came to home consoles. Despite these criticisms, Pokemon games sell tremendously well and not many comparable RPGs have come close. With Temtem selling over 500,000 copies, it could be a sizable competition to Pokemon in the creature capture genre.
Taking a look at the stats, it’s interesting to see such a large number of players being taken out in their first battle. It also shows which Temtem are the rarest, at least when going on the percentage of players that own them. I find it fascinating when companies share this sort of data and it can be the sort of thing that can shake up the metagame in competitive play. Clearly Volarend is a powerful and hard to come by Temtem. Crema has also announced via press release that a content roadmap will be revealed soon which will chart several updates leading up to a full release.
It’s also important to note that there is a Switch version of Temtem being developed, which could result in a huge boost in sales as most indie titles tend to do better on the handheld hybrid than other platforms. If Temtem was out now on Switch, I definitely would have more hours logged than I do currently on Steam.
I’ve always enjoyed creature capture games. Even back when Game Boy games like Dragon Quest Monsters and Final Fantasy Legend II were new, I was exploring games similar to Pokemon. Modern releases and franchises rarely become as popular as mainline Pokemon titles but they are out there. I’ve enjoyed my adventures (mostly) in Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and I loved collecting iconic monsters in World of Final Fantasy. Nowadays indie games like Disc Creatures and Temtem look to capture the magic of the genre while having the freedom to experiment and innovate in areas that are often overlooked.
From what I’ve played of Temtem, it seems to emulate the Pokemon formula really well. Even at the outset, I find the Temtem battle more engaging because I’m unfamiliar with types and due to the stamina system that has to be managed. Two-on-two battles I was never a big fan of in Pokemon titles but I seem to be enjoying them well enough in Temtem. There haven’t been any creatures that I could call a favorite yet and I think the character models definitely need work but overall the game is off to a good start.
With enough work, Temtem could be stellar and it could become a banner raiser for the creature capture genre as a whole.
