Needless to say, Pokémon is the very last word in creature-collecting RPG action. From the days of Pokémon Red and Blue (and Green), the franchise has been capturing imaginations and accruing a formidable fanbase. Said fanbase isn’t afraid of heavily criticizing Game Freak for cutting the National Pokédex and such, but the series’ popularity shows no signs of waning.
As a result, it’s no surprise that similar titles have tried to piggyback on Pokémon’s success. One recent example is Internet sensation Temtem. Fans were quick to note the similarities between this new title and Pokémon, but there are a fair few differences too. Let’s take a look!
10 SIMILAR: The General Formula
That’s right, friends. We’ve got to address the huge, unmistakable, neon-colored elephant in the room first: the core concept of Crema’s new MMORPG is a very familiar one.
In Temtem, the player takes the role of a new Tamer, who sets out across the islands of the Airborne Archipelago to explore and discover new Temtem. The goal is to create a powerful and varied team, proving yourself as the best Tamer around. As the game’s story is still being worked on, we don’t know the ins and outs of the plot, but still: so far, so Pokémon.
9 DIFFERENT: The Stamina System
In Pokémon, each attack used in battle has a certain PP (Power Points) value. Stronger moves have less PP, and when it’s all depleted, that Pokémon won’t be able to use that particular move until it’s restored. If the PP of all four moves is lost, that Pokémon can only use Struggle.
Temtem takes a very different approach. Here, a given Temtem has a separate Stamina stat, and each Technique it uses drains Stamina from a shared pool. A little restores over the course of each turn (there’s also a Rest command that can be used instead of an attack to recover more), but if a Temtem runs out, they enter a state of Overexertion which causes each attack they use to damage them (relative to the technique’s power).
8 SIMILAR: The Iconic Tall Grass
Now, granted, the Pokémon series doesn’t own any kind of patent on tall grass. Grass, in a whole range of lengths, is featured in 17,843,211 different video games (no, we didn’t really count them all), and nobody at Game Freak wants to individually deal with all those lawsuits.
Grass is free game for everybody, is what we’re getting at here. Even so, though, you’ve got to admit that the design of this specific area looks just a little too familiar as well. That’s the tallest, grassiest homage to Pokémon’s tall grass we’ve ever seen.
7 DIFFERENT: Typings
As the buzz on the Internet has made clear since Temtem first appeared, the game has quite a clear mission statement: to be as Pokémon-esque as possible (to piggyback on the much-beloved games’ success) while still seeking to differentiate itself just enough.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at another key concept of Pokémon: typings. We’re all familiar with the usual Fire, Water, Grass, Rock, Steel and so on, but what does Temtem bring to the table? Well, Fire, Water, and Electric are here, but the other types put interesting spins on the formula. Aside from those, there are also Neutral, Nature, Wind, Earth, Mental, Melee, Toxic, Digital, and Crystal Temtem.
6 SIMILAR: Character Customisation
As with most RPGs that don’t have a set main character, Temtem allows the player to fiddle with various elements of their character’s appearance. It’s nothing ground-breaking, but a variety of clothing styles, accessories, facial features, hairstyles and more are available to pick from.
Meanwhile, Pokémon only adopted a mechanic like this recently, and it’s still very much rudimentary. For Temtem, though, there’s a long road ahead, and a lot of potential for new cosmetics to be added to the mix.
5 DIFFERENT: Online Play Is More Of A Priority
Now, we all know what Nintendo are like. They’re famous for two things: putting huge, smiling faces on clouds, hills and anywhere else they can pull it off, and being great lumbering dinosaurs when it comes to online functionality.
As great advocates of local/split screen play, that’s no surprise, but it does limit their performance somewhat (Nintendo Switch Online is more than a little lacking, for instance). Fans have been crying out for a fully-fledged Pokémon MMO for some time now, but it still just doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. Temtem may scratch that itch, then, with its focus on online play and interacting with other Tamers.
4 SIMILAR: There’s An Evil Team™, Because Of Course There Is
If you’re a long-time Pokémon player, you’ll be intimately familiar with the way the plot plays out. More specifically, with a certain wrinkle that always has to disrupt proceedings at some point or another: the Evil Team™ of the hour.
Clan Belsoto, you could say, is the Team Rocket of Temtem. This enigmatic organization is plotting to take control of the whole Airborne Archipelago, through a combination of unscrupulous experiments and brute force. Their ranks include General X, Dr. Hamijo and Lady Lottie, all of whom are as arrogant and ruthless as they are talented Tamers.
3 DIFFERENT: The Capturing Mechanic
Here’s another example of Temtem being as Pokémon-like as possible while also trying to spin things in a slightly different direction. The capturing mechanic and the concepts behind it are best looked at as a cross between Pokémon and Digimon.
You’ve probably seen the TemCards in action. Instead of Poké Balls, Temtem are stored on these high-tech metal ‘cards’, from which they emerge when battle begins. Interestingly, some Temtem are partly digital themselves (the Digital type ones, funnily enough), having been invented in the labs of Nanto. This has some interesting connotations beyond anything Pokémon has quite brought to the table.
2 SIMILAR: Rare/Legendary Capturing Woes
We’ve all felt the sheer RNG pain that comes with trying to capture Legendary Pokémon. It’s been hit with a status effect and has a scarcely visible pixel of red HP, but it absolutely will not settle down in that Poké Ball. It then knocks itself out by using Struggle and you try to enter a state of transcendence like Zenyatta from Overwatch to prevent yourself from flipping the entire planet over in fury.
Fun times all around. As rarer Temtem are discovered, the situation may be exactly the same (if not worse, in fact), thanks to the Stamina mechanic. There’s potential for wild Temtem to start damaging themselves sooner than wild Pokémon, which could prove to be a heck of a pain if the system isn’t tweaked.
1 DIFFERENT: Status Conditions
Here’s another pain that Pokémon veterans will be familiar with: status conditions. Thunder Wave spam, lucky freezes from Ice Beam, the way-too-high burn rate of Scald… we’ve all been on the receiving end of these shenanigans, and more besides. Will you take the maximum number of sleep turns, or will you not? It’s all down to RNG.
Temtem has a status system completely its own. There are a total of 14 different statuses that can be inflicted on a Temtem (only two can be active on a Temtem at once), including Doom (which works like Perish Song), Trapped (that Temtem can’t switch), Burnt (a little damage each turn, plus a 30% reduction in attack and special attack) and Neutralized (weaknesses and resistances are ignored). Interestingly, no statuses linger, as their duration is set according to the move that inflicted them.
NEXT: 10 Tips To Make An Overpowered Team In Temtem
