Temtem 2020 Alpha Full Impressions Review

Alright, so I know a lot of you who follow me on Twitter, or generally just talk to me or have me come bother you in streams know that I will not shut up about Temtem, and you know what, I’m not sorry. And you probably clicked this video because you’re curious about it, so perfect, now we can talk about it. I’m going to show you as much about it as I can and talk about it from my own personal experience, because that’s all I got.

So I’d like to preface this by stating that before we dive into this, I come from a very limited Pokemon background and that’s just me being honest. I was more a Digimon girl, watched the Anime and played the MMO. The only fallback to Pokemon I can really compare this to is the new Pokemon Sword and Shield game and Pokemon Snap where you take pictures of different Pokemon, so yeah, that’s just where I’m coming from with this so don’t eat me alive for getting things incorrect with the Pokemon references.

With that said, from the outside looking in, a lot of people are seeing a Pokemon-esque game, and you’re not incorrect, but you’re not fully right either. For a generalizing overview, Temtem is a game where you, the tamer, go out with your Temtem’s into the world of the … Airborne Archipelago – six unique floating islands each having their own unique environments, Temtem to capture, and aesthetic feel. Your goal? To become the ultimate Temtem trainer. This particular game was created by Crema Games, which is an indie developer, and has some twists and turns to this take upon the Pokemon genre that give us players something most of us have been craving. This will be a game that people will be able to go in and actually play co-op in an MMO style game and tackle capturing, battling, and experiencing the well-developed story together. And to put this to the test, I brought along my guinea pig, Stix, for the alpha playthrough. He only died when the sacrifice was necessary. If you’re looking to play the game, then it will be launching January 21st into early access on Steam and the Humble Bumble Store. There are future plans to have this game move over to console, but for now, we have the PC!

So first things first, character creation. Right out the gate this game is establishing its own unique stamp on gaming. I was in the midst of creating my character and looking between body types when I suddenly discovered that my girl had a man’s chest. What? Ok, hold up, is this game really going 2020 on me this early? Yes, this game is extremely gender fluid. You can be a he, she, or them. And there are homosexual and heterosexual relationships placed about the game. I had no clue this was going to be coming at me, but I was pleasantly surprised that not only could I make my character cute, but it made an effort to include what others identify as. I feel like this is pretty unique of Temtem because not many MMOs or games will offer this choice. This gives people of this generation a way of identifying more personally with the character they’re playing. So after making my lovely girl, I also have to state that each new city you enter into will have a clothing store. Of the eight cities with dojos, you’ll be able to select from a plethora of outfits, hairstyles, and color options. They do come at quite a hefty cost though, as Stix will no doubt attest to as he may have been forced to trade me all the money he earned through Temtem battles to feed my insatiable thirst for fashion!

Beyond the creation factor, you’ll notice that the NPCs have fully scripted conversations with you but verbally don’t speak more than a sound much like in Zelda games. They’ll even drop life lessons on you if you’re actually paying attention and have different responses depending on your choice of conversation. I’ll let you guys find those funny little nuggets on your own though.

As for the Temtems themselves, each one has their own unique elemental affinities, and generally just by looking at them you can kind of get a rough gauge as to what type they are. The combat between them is more of a rock-paper-scissors combat system with one type being super effective against a specific type, and weak against another. You’ll also need to be aware that if you use up the stamina of your Temtem fighting, it will injure your Temtem and could cost you the battle. This makes for a much more strategic, tactical combat as it requires you to make plans to combat specific enemies in advance. Like Dojo’s, which generally have a single type of Temtem and therefore require specific combinations to combat them. Speaking of Dojo’s, each major city has a Dojo along with a Dojo Leader that gates progression behind defeating them. Each Dojo also has a fun mini-game you’re required to pass to make it to the Dojo leader, and I’ll admit, they were a fun little addition to the game. You’re presented with three types of Temtem at the beginning of your adventure, much like in main Pokemon games. You’ll need to choose your starter Temtem wisely though as your type will likely affect the overall difficulty of the game. From there, you’ll go out into the world, complete quests and capture more Temtem. You can also breed your Temtem much like in Pokemon. As far as I can tell, there are a maximum of three evolutions to a Temtem. You’ll have six Temtem for your main squad, however, if you pair up with a partner like I did, you’ll find that you’ll be faced with the difficult task of choosing what three you want in your squad. And let me tell you, Stix and I had literal debates on who’s cuter fire-type got to stay in the party and evolve. I, of course, reign champion still.

The co-op within the game itself is just utterly without a doubt, together. Most games advertise themselves as MMOs or co-op but you have so many solo instances that you travel into you wonder what’s the point. But within Temtem, you can experience the whole story together. And should one of you run into a wild Temtem while going through a bit of grass, you best bet you’re going to be dragged halfway across the map to experience that battle too whether you like it or not! The only frustrating thing I see about that is if you go into a shop to buy something real quick, your buddy is coming with you unless you decide to break party. So for better or for worse, if you’re in a party, you’re doing it all together. You can also heal one another’s Temtem or choose to send out your partner’s Temtem while in a fight. I’ll admit that initially I kept making this mistake as I’d send out Stix’s Temtem thinking it was mine and getting it damaged. As for the solo experience, by all means this is very doable and we saw a lot of alpha testers out there soloing it and having tons of fun just like we were.

As you’re running throughout the world, you’ll run into lots of other players, and you’ll also have the ability to fight them in a friendly spar of Temtem, no one would accept my requests, but alas, one day someone will be bold enough to fight me! And other things to do besides battle Temtem include a few things not yet added or I didn’t yet get to experience is the ability to build your own house, go to an auction house to trade Temtem, luma temtem which are similiar to shiny Pokemon, and ride a mount. So I think it’s safe to say that we will have plenty to do once this game releases in just a few weeks!

And on that note, I feel like since this game is an MMO, Temtem are gearing themselves up to last a long time. Pokemon have made each of their games rather finite, where as Temtem they’ll have the ability to expand on this particular game much like most MMOs do. And within just the Alpha itself, Stix and I probably spent 30 + hours just playing the game, and that only included four Dojo leaders out of the eight planned upon the full release of the game. So I’m thrilled to say, we’ll be going back in to play the game when it launches into Early Access because I could not get enough. I found this to be equally if not more addictive to play than Pokemon Sword and Shield, and one of us will likely do an updated video on the game as soon as it has a more complete version available.