Temtem: What Pokemon Could Have Been

Temtem was released on January 20th for the PC and was highly regarded as a rival to Pokemon and let me tell you this underdog just might be winning this match.

The more I played Temtem the more Pokémon felt undercooked and barren, and this is coming from someone who has been with Pokémon since he was a kid, watching every season of the anime and playing every main series game. Directly speaking Temtem just makes Pokémon feel undercooked and makes it feel as though so much more could have been done with the series moving to the Switch but Game freak just didn’t go all the way they could’ve gone.

From the moment I began my journey in Temtem get a character creater deeper than Pokemon ever gave me one and I’m hooked, then comes you’re Temtem being able to follow you which I honestly think Sword and Shield needed to have since its a fan favourite feature and the games are on better hardware. You’re character actually talks which is shown in text bubbles giving you’re character some depth. The random people in the towns are so much better than the one sided NPC in the Pokémon games thanks to them having interesting dialogue and being in greater number in town giving it a bustling feel. And the visuals are downright amazing, the cartoony aesthetic with the vibrant colors are a treat for the eyes and the animations of the battles just look and feel that much better.

But the best thing to me are the battles, playing Pokemon had set my mind that these battles would be a breeze but boy was I wrong, every battle I faced right from the beginning was a welcome challange as I needed to use strategy and keep an eye on my stamina bar at the same time so I wouldn’t end up hurting my Temtem.I never had to go the Pokémon Center as much is did in Temtem. And not just because the type matchups weren’t known to me yet, because the addition of the stamina bar and smart AI actually made the battles harder. For now Temtem is my go to for that Pokémon itch.