Here’s something that’s been bothering me.
For years, Pokémon fans have asked for the same things. Harder battles. Better online features. A world that feels alive with other players. Less hand-holding. Combat that requires actual thought instead of mashing your starter’s strongest move until the credits roll.
Then Temtem came along and did all of it. Genuinely. Not as a gimmick. Not half-heartedly. A small Spanish studio built the creature-collector MMO that fans had been describing in Reddit threads for years. And the response from the wider gaming world was basically a shrug.
I’ve played both extensively. Here’s what Temtem gets right, where it stumbles, and what Pokémon could actually learn from the game that dared to copy its homework and then do it better.
Yes, It Looks Like Pokémon. No, That’s Not the Point.
Let’s address the obvious thing first. Temtem looks like Pokémon. You catch creatures — called Temtem, not Pokémon — using cards instead of Poké Balls. You battle trainers. You defeat Dojo Masters instead of Gym Leaders. You explore an archipelago of floating islands instead of a contiguous region. The inspiration is so transparent it’s almost funny.
If that’s where you stopped paying attention, I don’t blame you. Most people saw the screenshots, thought “knockoff Pokémon,” and moved on with their lives.
But Temtem isn’t trying to hide its inspiration. It’s trying to build on it. And in several specific ways, it leaves the main series embarrassed.
Two-on-Two Battles Change Everything
Pokémon’s single battles have barely evolved since 1996. You pick a move. The opponent picks a move. Faster Pokémon goes first. Repeat until someone faints.
Temtem makes two-on-two the default. Every battle. Every trainer. Every Dojo Master. This isn’t a side mode or a gimmick — it’s the core combat system, and it fundamentally alters how you think about team composition.
You can’t just sweep with your starter anymore. Synergy matters. Type coverage across two active creatures matters. Supporting your partner with buffs or covering their weakness while they set up matters. The combat has actual strategic depth that isn’t just “use super effective move, win.”
A small change? Maybe. But it transforms every encounter from a math problem into something that requires genuine tactical thought. I lost to the second Dojo Master three times because I was still thinking like a Pokémon player. The game punished me for it. That’s good design.
Difficulty That Respects Your Intelligence
Here’s where Temtem makes modern Pokémon games look genuinely embarrassing.
The Dojo Masters are hard. Not unfair. Not cheap. Just properly designed encounters that expect you to understand the game’s systems. They use type matchups intelligently. They switch creatures to counter yours. They exploit weaknesses and set up synergies between their two active Temtem.
Modern Pokémon games have descended into an arms race of accessibility features. Your rival heals you before battles. NPCs give you directions every twelve steps. The Exp Share is permanently on and affects your entire party. By Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the games had evolved into something you can complete while barely paying attention.
Temtem takes the opposite approach. It trusts you to figure things out. There’s no warning when you’re walking into a fight that will destroy you. You lose, you learn, you adjust your team, you try again. Remember when games used to work like that?
The first time a Dojo Master wiped my carefully trained team, I was genuinely surprised. The second time, I was frustrated. The third time, I rebuilt my strategy and won. That progression — failure, frustration, adaptation, victory — is something Pokémon hasn’t delivered in years.
Online That Actually Works
Pokémon’s online features have always been bafflingly bad. Friend codes. Separate trading windows. Link battles that require navigating menus designed by someone who’s apparently never used the internet. For a franchise that makes billions, the online experience feels like it was built in 2005 and never updated.
Temtem makes online seamless because the entire game is online. You see other players running around the world. You can challenge them to battles by interacting with them. Trading is instant. Playing through the story with a friend works exactly how you’d expect — they join your session, they appear next to you, you explore together.
The first time I saw another player in the wild, running past me with their Temtem team, it felt like what Pokémon should have become a decade ago. Not a single-player game with multiplayer features bolted on. An actual shared world.
The downside, which I’ll get to, is that an MMO needs players. But the design itself is what Pokémon’s online should aspire to.
Progression That Goes Beyond “Catch Everything”
Temtem gives you reasons to keep playing beyond filling out your collection. There’s gear to buy that affects combat performance. Cosmetics to collect that make your character visually distinct. Housing items to decorate your personal space. Your progression is visible to other players, which gives it weight.
Pokémon’s post-game has historically been “catch the legendaries, maybe finish the battle tower, wait for the next game.” Temtem’s MMO structure means there’s always something to work toward — seasonal content, clan activities, competitive ladders.
It’s not infinite. No game is. But the sense that the world continues after the credits roll is stronger here than in any Pokémon title.
Where Temtem Stumbles
I want to be fair. Temtem isn’t a perfect game, and being “Pokémon but better in some ways” doesn’t automatically make it great.
The story is forgettable. Pokémon narratives aren’t exactly literary masterpieces, but they have memorable villains, emotional beats, and world-building that sticks with you. Team Rocket is iconic. N is a genuinely compelling character. Temtem’s story is functional at best — there’s a villain, there’s a conflict, you resolve it, and a week later you couldn’t describe the plot if someone asked.
The MMO problem is real. Temtem requires an internet connection. Always. If the servers go down, you can’t play. If the player population drops, the world feels empty. If the developer eventually stops supporting the game — which happens to MMOs eventually — your experience degrades. Pokémon cartridges from twenty years ago still work perfectly. Will Temtem be playable in 2035? Probably not.
The creature count is smaller. Pokémon has over a thousand species across nine generations. Temtem has around 160. That’s enough for a complete game, but if collecting is your primary motivation, it’s a smaller sandbox.
The grind gets real. Like many MMOs, Temtem has stretches where progression slows down and you’re doing repetitive activities to inch forward. Luma hunting — Temtem’s equivalent of shiny hunting — is brutal if you’re chasing a specific variant.
What Pokémon Should Actually Learn From This
Game Freak isn’t going to turn Pokémon into an MMO. That’s not the ask. But there are specific things Temtem does that the main series should pay attention to.
Battle systems need to evolve. Two-on-two isn’t the only answer, but Pokémon’s single-battle format has been coasting for nearly thirty years. Temtem proves that changing the fundamental format creates strategic depth without alienating players.
Difficulty settings should exist. The hand-holding in modern Pokémon games has crossed from helpful to insulting. Temtem shows there’s an audience — a large one — that wants creature collectors to actually challenge them. Let us toggle hard mode at the start of the game. It’s not complicated.
Online should be seamless. If a small Spanish studio can build a creature-collector MMO with functional co-op, trading, and matchmaking, a company that makes billions annually can figure out how to make trading Pokémon not require a twelve-digit friend code and a prayer.
Progress should be visible. Give players things to earn beyond the Pokédex. Cosmetics. Housing. Titles. Achievements that other players can see. Make the world feel persistent and social, even if it stays primarily single-player.
Is Temtem Worth Playing Now?
If you’re a Pokémon fan who’s been frustrated with the direction of the series — the hand-holding, the technical issues, the lack of challenge — Temtem is absolutely worth your time. The combat is better. The difficulty is better. The online features are better. It respects your intelligence in ways modern Pokémon doesn’t.
If you need the nostalgia and world-building of Pokémon specifically, Temtem won’t replace it. The creatures are well-designed but they’re not Pikachu. The world is interesting but it’s not Kanto. The story is there but it’s not going to make you emotional.
If the MMO requirement bothers you — if you regularly play on the go without internet, or if the thought of a game that might one day become unplayable stresses you out — stick with Pokémon. Temtem’s always-online requirement is the game’s biggest structural weakness.
Temtem didn’t fail. It released, found an audience, and delivered exactly what it promised. But it also didn’t become the Pokémon killer some people hoped for, because nothing does. The franchise is too big, too nostalgic, too deeply embedded in too many childhoods.
What Temtem did was prove that the creature-collector genre isn’t stuck. It can evolve. The mechanics can be deeper. The difficulty can be real. The online can work. Someone just has to care enough to build it.
If you’re tired of waiting for Pokémon to take risks, Temtem is right there. It’s not perfect. But it’s proof that someone, somewhere, is paying attention to what fans actually want. And that’s worth more than any review score.
Independent technology writer focused on artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and digital innovation. Covers AI applications in sports, productivity, and online business.
