Fans ofPokemonwho are impatiently waiting forThe Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra Wild Areas to be introduced withSwordandShield’s Expansion Passmight be able to find a reprieve with CremaGames' MMOTemtem, a title proclaiming it will be the “next evolution of creature collecting games.” After being put through a final stress test on Saturday,Temtemwill release on Steam Early Access January 21 at 10:00 a.m. PST.
For the uninitiated,Temtemis essentially the answer to the question “what ifPokemonwere a Massively-Multiplayer Online experience?” It features the same general gameplay loop of capturing (or “taming”) a variety of monsters, and either training or breeding them to take on significant characters and an evil organization across a land called the Airborne Archipelago.
RELATED:Pokemon-like MMO Temtem Reveals Starter Monsters
The game is not just a carbon copy of its popular inspiration, however. Some major differencesthat were presented in a trailer last DecemberincludeTemtemfocusing on double battles with more synergistic attacks, adding in a stamina system to prevent players from falling into monotonous commands, and all the trappings that come from it being an online multiplayer game (constant updates, a wide array of outfits, etc.).
CremaGames put out a trailer in the style of an anime openingto coincide with the game’s impending early access release, which according to its Steam page will include over 20 hours of gameplay to start. This trailer, again, drew comparisons to GameFreak’s inescapable media empire.
To say thatPokemonis inescapable in modern-day popular culture is truly an understatement. It is currently the highest-grossing media franchise of all time; aboveHello Kitty,Star Wars, and other Nintendo properties likeMario. Its reach continues to expand too,with an ASMR video starring Charmanderuploaded toPokemon’s YouTube channel last week.
But that said,Temtemis not the only property trying to nab a piece of that lucrative pie which has been in the news recently. AnotherPokemon-inspired RPG,Nexomon: Extinction,was just announced to be coming to the Nintendo Switch. Oddly enough, that game also uses “tamers” to describe its playerbase rather thanPokemon’s familiar “trainers.”
It’s pretty likely thatTemtemcould be a huge deal, particularly for fans ofPokemonwho felt the series' Switch debut was an underwhelmingendeavor. Not only is it going to offer a fresh take on a long-running formula, but doing so as an MMO provides CremaGames the opportunity to continually develop its game into something fans will love to come back to.
But for now eager tamers will just have to wait and see howTemtem’s early access launch will go tomorrow, as the full game is not expected to release until 2021.
