Temtemis out! Finally, after about 2 years of waiting, fans are able to play an MMORPGPokémon-like game with an identity all its own.Temtemis an indie game, no two bones about it, but since it’s Kickstarter-inception people haven’t stopped comparing it toPokémon.
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And now that the finished product is released (and constantly being patched), we feel its the perfect time to compare the two overall. Obviously, withPokémonbeing one of the most successful IP’s in human history,Temtemisn’t about to overthrow it. Hopefully, this comparison both shows people what Game Freak does right, and what the franchise could still improve on.
10Temtem Does Better: Community Management And Critique
First and foremost let’s talk aboutTemtem’scommunity interaction. The game is made by a Spanish development studio named Crema, who has been absolutely on top of their fan interactions since day one. The team launched a Discord channel right away, kept to all their Kickstarter updates/promises, and has been patching the game constantly with fixes and patches since the release. Now, in comparison, the turnaround for Game Freak to change anything in their games is about an entire generation. You don’t like some aspect inSun & Moon? Well, better hope people scream loud enough that they fix it inUltra Sun & Moonor evenSword & Shieldyears later.
9Pokémon Does Better: Overall Design Quality
Genwunners aside,Pokémondesigns have peaks and valleys. Certain people will say the quality of the designs fell off around Gen 2 or 3, but that’s simply not the case. Each and every gen there have been at least 20+ radical new designs forPokémon. Galar, in particular, has a catalog of new creatures, 90% of which we like.Pokémondesigns are consistently high quality, andTemtem’sjust don’t quite stack up. The monsters inTemtemare great, in fact, each type has itsown winner or two. But they’re inconsistent and just not as masterfully done. It isn’t a huge demerit or anything, but the designs are pretty important in a monster-collecting game.
8Temtem Does Better: Integrating More Modern Mechanics
The entire step of the way,Pokémonhas always beenPokémon. What we mean by that is the games have always built upon what they pioneered inRed and Blue. Every step of the way they added new stuff based on the current gaming ecosystem, but always in service of their original design.
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Temtem, on the other hand, is a new IP that has the freedom to integrate aspects from all types of popular game franchises or genres. Want card game mechanics inPokémon? Go toTemtem.Pokémonmight be more faithful to their “brand”, but the consequence of doing so means that all their games are still able to be realistically compared to the ones that came out back in 1996
7Pokemon Does Better: Overall Polish and Extra Goodies
Game Freak can afford to put a massive team towards developing each game. Eventhe beloved Pokémon animeis starting to feel absurdly polished with the animation quality in the Alola and Galar seasons! And with a massive team comes a sleek finish. That finish means that every aspect of the game feels tested, well-thought-out, and tinkered with until it feels like a natural part of the game. It’s something that only happens with games that either have a large team, a long window of time to develop their game, or both.Temtemhad a good amount of time, but with a team the size of most indie studios, they just can’t quite match up. Anyone with the time to read just a few of the Galar Pokedex entries will see how much time was spent on just this aspect alone.
6Temtem Does Better: Idle Animations And Individual Charm
This is something that Game Freak has been hearing a lot lately, but oncePokémonwent 3D, it stopped looking as good. Why is that? Well, because it was easier to animate sprites than 3D models. There are 800+Pokémon, so expecting the dev team to go through them all and give each one unique idle and attack animations is asking a lot. Still, we know they can do it since the N64Pokémon Stadiumgames had them in spades, and their dev team has only grown in scale and budget since. Still,Temtemis showing Game Freak that custom animations, both idle and in combat are what people want from their monster collecting games.
5Pokémon Does Better: Extra-Deep Combat Systems
So,Temtemintroduces new combat mechanics like stamina, overexertion, and even pick banning in competitive. Their combat system is well thought out, has very little RNG, and just simply works. TheTemtemall have traits that are similar toPokémon’sabilities, there are type advantages, use items, and more. Normally, that would be where the comparison stops, as it’s clear that both games have well-developed combat.
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But, Pokémon’s list keeps going on. InPokémon, players can also grind their IV’s, train their EV’s, breed for a perfect ability, use Z moves, use Mega Evolutions, use GigantamaxPokémon, and even use HM’s in the free-roam world. The games just have systems upon systems built upon the foundation, andTemtemjust isn’t there yet.
4Temtem Does Better: True Co-Op Monster Collecting
For over a decade, fans ofPokémonhave asked for more. Yes, players can battle friends online and yes they can now go on “raids” with them. But, it’s nothing close to the MMO experience fans wanted. Over the years, there have been numerous “online” fan games forPokémonthat let friends experiencePocket Monsterstogether. But, officially, we’ve never got anything close until maybePokémon Go, something more franchisesshould try their hand at by the way. Anyway,Temtemis different. Players can co-op the campaign, explore together, and battle each other at any point. It has the entire online suitePokémonand more.
3Pokémon Does Better: Themes And World-Building
Now, while this article has gone over howTemtem’ssetting and visual style is more interesting, Game Freak’s developers are basically masters nowadays at the theme-ing ofPokémonregions and locations. Each new game takes place in a region similar to one we can encounter in real life, and that cohesion shows throughout the entire game. Take Alola for example, this region is obviously tropical/Hawaii based. As such, the NPC’s are all stereotypical islanders, thePokémontake new forms that match common island aspects, and there’s a ton of water in the game. When thePokémonteam picks an area for their game to take place, you can be sure that every minuscule aspect of their game will follow said theme.
2Temtem Does Better: Actual Difficulty
Next,Pokémonhas fallen off in difficulty over the years. Back in the early days, developers were still making games hyper difficult to facilitate replayability and a sense of “it was worth it” from the player. So, OGPokémonwas pretty difficult for kids. And, Gen 2 and 3 were pretty difficult as well.
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Since then, however, the games have become much easier for the sake of including any and all players. This would be fine if there was any sort of difficulty slider. But there isn’t, and it’s why players had to make their own hard mode with Nuzlocke runs.Temtemisn’t like that, it’s actually pretty dang difficult. At least, many players think so.
1Pokémon Does Better: Grinding Tactics
Temtemmay be an MMO, butPokémonwill always do grinding better. The games are incredibly long, but a good 40-50% of that playtime is spent grinding out yourPokémon’slevels and stats. But, even past there, there is grinding for shinies, grinding egg hatching for perfect IV’s, grinding the casino slots for coins to trade in, and even grinding the Wonder Trade in the hopes of something good. Because eachPokémongame is bogged down with other gimmicks outside battling, there are even more things for players to grind. What this means is that a game that only has a 30-40 hour story MAX, could actually take 100-200 hours to fully complete and that’s why everyPokémonfan has such brand loyalty.
