TemTem is an interesting design case study. The Monster Taming genre is already a niche in itself, and they're has been multiple attempts by different developers to branch out into different genres.
To name a few:
- Monster Sanctuary: This indie title incorporated Monster Taming design elements around the CastleVania genre and achieved a level of design cohesion that perfectly melded the disparate elements into a solid experience.
- Digimon World: Next Order: This title is the most recent release from the Digimon World series, this game tackles Monster Taming as a pet raising simulator (e.g. Tamagotchi) so taking care of the daily necessities of your Digimon is pivotal. Feeding, cleaning, putting them to bed, etc. Depending on the quality of life you gave them and meeting other parameters can lead to your monsters evolving into much stronger creatures, allowing you to explore further afield and to fight stronger Digimon.
- Lost Kingdoms 2: A much older game from the sixth console generation. This title was more action based as the gimmick here was the player been able to summon monsters contained within cards to fight for them. It may not fall within the more orthodox Monster Taming game design but the principle still stands. Cards within the game functioned differently. Monster's could be summoned to follow you around the levels and protect you from wild monsters as they acted interpedently from you, or you could summon a more powerful variety of monster that when initiated with a short cinematic giving you time to decide which attack it would unleash. Again, there was gentle melding of different design and genre conventions that harmonised into an authentic experience.
The point I'm trying to make here is that the Monster Taming sub-genre can cross over into other genres if care and attention is put into the design of the game. Instead of falling back on the cliches found throughout the genre. Not every Monster Taming experience has to be Pokémon.
Intrinsically, TemTem does border along those design lines. To a fault at least, as the foundations need to be placed somewhere, the mutation here is deciding to take TemTem into more of an MMO-lite route.
The very notion is baffling, surprising, but quite intriguing. The execution is what matters here. And how the game was delivered went about as well as you could've expected.
The most important thing is to assess how developers incorporated a traditional Monster-Taming design into a GaaS framework. A major positive was seeing players active in the overworld, it made the world feel all the more alive and populated, an auction centre is built-in so you can outbid other players for monsters and items on auction.
A real effort is put in place to support online competitive battling, it's this section of the game that holds the most attention and retention. I'm not sure if the majority of online battling players still remain but the bulk of the games design pillars were holding this aspect up high and wide.
Other online features do exist such as raids where players work together to gather powerful monsters and bonuses in a gauntlet of encounters which ultimately leads to the players fighting a very powerful raid boss. And if the team is successful they receive an egg which hatches into said raid boss.
Those are some positives now for some negatives. At the time of my experience, the game released on the Switch, that's where I played it. (The Switch version had it's own issues but I can get to that later.) At the time, (and I must stress this, at the time) the game utilised a Season Pass feature that was justified as a means to help fund the games continued online operations. The content of the pass was the usual suspects of content found within any other similar pass. Emotes, skins or assets that can be used to decorate your in-game home. Nothing overt, but, and a huge but here. A season pass included in a full retail priced release is not good, not at all. I understand the inclusion and it is optional but the fact it exists is concerning. What didn't alleviate the matter of the pass was how grindy the pass is. At the time of my completion of the main campaign I had only unlocked a scarce number of tiers in the pass. The post-game I believe is the best method of fleshing out progress for the pass, but at that point I was done with the game. In the later seasons, season passes were effectively dropped, so that did remedy some minor long-term woes of the game.
The worst malefactor of the GaaS design was the always online functionality. You could not play this game offline, when a game of this nature lacks that option it's as if a noose has been slowly tied around your neck and are just waiting for your internet connection to fluctuate or disconnect to kick the floor out from under you.
For the game in general, it's roots are dug deep into the prototypical design schemes of the Monster-Taming genre, albeit a turn-based JRPG.
For it's narrative, I'm not going to lie this is a very shallow element, as the narrative only serves as a vehicle to get the experience moving along. No real stand-out characters or world-building to be found here. The writing/dialogue tries it's best to present itself as quirky and wacky but it comes across as awkward and stilted. Almost cringe-worthy, again the narrative is weakest element in the design.
The Aesthetics I'm conflicted on, the art style is very pastel-like it holds a nice, bright colour scheme but it feels mundane and quite muted. Character designs don't favour any better as any NPC's you come across are quite generic. The more unique characters you encounter do have a more refined design that do distinct them from the pale horde of standards NPC's but that's the only appealing aspect of them.
The TemTem on the other hand, these are the stars of the show and they shine very brightly. The designs here vary greatly, obvious that some designs are rather simplistic and others are more elaborate. The better designs here you could contrast with other games and argue that the TemTem designs can stand with the best of them.
To further complement the designs, is their presentation in battle. As each TemTem will animate and express accordingly to the their actions and commands they recieve. Attack animations are well thought and fleshed out as when they are cast in battle it the ensuing attack animation provides quite the spectacle.
You can tell the most effort and detail was put into the TemTem's and their presentation, there's a real style here that can only be found in a smaller scale 3D Monster Taming experience. It's a sentiment I can share across all of TemTem's indie contemporaries 2D of 3D. Games such as Nexomon and Coromon. The diversity of monster designs across all these titles are extraordinary, so much creativity and imagination can be found in this genre.
For the mechanics, the meat of the gameplay lies in the combat. Overall, the combat is your standard turn-based faire. But here it utilises a double-battle format, this is universal across all battles.
A lot of depth can be found in this system as the idiosyncrasies are felt with whichever TemTem you have in your party. The idea here is to craft and build the best team possible to ensure victory, The means to do that is to find the best TemTem that can synergise with each other, whether that's covering each other's weaknesses or supporting each other in battle by buffing each others stats.
There's a lot on offer in the combat, possibly been the most robust turn-based combat I've seen in some time. TemTem's operate with an energy meter instead of having a certain amount of uses per move. Each skill costs so much energy and when the entirety of a Temtem's energy has been exhausted it needs to rest. At this point the TemTem is at it's most vulnerable. It's a very technical system that will take some time to master it's nuances. Again, a lot of depth on offer here in these systems, the more you learn of it's complexities the more strategies you can discover. It involves a lot of experimentation, but any player who likes to dive deeply into any turn-based combat will feel right at home.
The only real negative for the mechanical aspects of this title is what usually plagues this genre... Grinding. Unfortunately, TemTem does not escape it's clutches. Grinding is a necessity in this game. If this is enough to turn you away, then I wouldn't begrudge you for doing so.
To be frank, my experience here was on the Switch. Not the best choice of platform for this game. There were stability issues aplenty, whether it's poor optimisation I cant really say. Multiple system crashes did occur but they were few and far between. The performance was marred with some lag, an issue derived from the always online requirement.
The frame-rate was a casulty also, but this is more than likely because of the Switch's hardware. I've seen the game played on other platforms and the performance was generally much smoother. If the Switch isn't your only option I would advise you to get this game on any other system. The frame-rate is at it's worst when there's so much activity going on the screen at the same time, the Switch labours to get things processed but falls short and the frame-rate tanks because of it.
To summarise, the attempt here to marry a standard monster taming turn-based RPG within an MMO framework did not mesh well. The experience on the Switch is hampered by the constant frame-rate drops and the need for an always-online connection, but if you can grin and bear it you'll find an extremely satisfying, technical and deep combat system and a complete new world of original and distinctive monsters to raise and battle with.
To name a few:
- Monster Sanctuary: This indie title incorporated Monster Taming design elements around the CastleVania genre and achieved a level of design cohesion that perfectly melded the disparate elements into a solid experience.
- Digimon World: Next Order: This title is the most recent release from the Digimon World series, this game tackles Monster Taming as a pet raising simulator (e.g. Tamagotchi) so taking care of the daily necessities of your Digimon is pivotal. Feeding, cleaning, putting them to bed, etc. Depending on the quality of life you gave them and meeting other parameters can lead to your monsters evolving into much stronger creatures, allowing you to explore further afield and to fight stronger Digimon.
- Lost Kingdoms 2: A much older game from the sixth console generation. This title was more action based as the gimmick here was the player been able to summon monsters contained within cards to fight for them. It may not fall within the more orthodox Monster Taming game design but the principle still stands. Cards within the game functioned differently. Monster's could be summoned to follow you around the levels and protect you from wild monsters as they acted interpedently from you, or you could summon a more powerful variety of monster that when initiated with a short cinematic giving you time to decide which attack it would unleash. Again, there was gentle melding of different design and genre conventions that harmonised into an authentic experience.
The point I'm trying to make here is that the Monster Taming sub-genre can cross over into other genres if care and attention is put into the design of the game. Instead of falling back on the cliches found throughout the genre. Not every Monster Taming experience has to be Pokémon.
Intrinsically, TemTem does border along those design lines. To a fault at least, as the foundations need to be placed somewhere, the mutation here is deciding to take TemTem into more of an MMO-lite route.
The very notion is baffling, surprising, but quite intriguing. The execution is what matters here. And how the game was delivered went about as well as you could've expected.
The most important thing is to assess how developers incorporated a traditional Monster-Taming design into a GaaS framework. A major positive was seeing players active in the overworld, it made the world feel all the more alive and populated, an auction centre is built-in so you can outbid other players for monsters and items on auction.
A real effort is put in place to support online competitive battling, it's this section of the game that holds the most attention and retention. I'm not sure if the majority of online battling players still remain but the bulk of the games design pillars were holding this aspect up high and wide.
Other online features do exist such as raids where players work together to gather powerful monsters and bonuses in a gauntlet of encounters which ultimately leads to the players fighting a very powerful raid boss. And if the team is successful they receive an egg which hatches into said raid boss.
Those are some positives now for some negatives. At the time of my experience, the game released on the Switch, that's where I played it. (The Switch version had it's own issues but I can get to that later.) At the time, (and I must stress this, at the time) the game utilised a Season Pass feature that was justified as a means to help fund the games continued online operations. The content of the pass was the usual suspects of content found within any other similar pass. Emotes, skins or assets that can be used to decorate your in-game home. Nothing overt, but, and a huge but here. A season pass included in a full retail priced release is not good, not at all. I understand the inclusion and it is optional but the fact it exists is concerning. What didn't alleviate the matter of the pass was how grindy the pass is. At the time of my completion of the main campaign I had only unlocked a scarce number of tiers in the pass. The post-game I believe is the best method of fleshing out progress for the pass, but at that point I was done with the game. In the later seasons, season passes were effectively dropped, so that did remedy some minor long-term woes of the game.
The worst malefactor of the GaaS design was the always online functionality. You could not play this game offline, when a game of this nature lacks that option it's as if a noose has been slowly tied around your neck and are just waiting for your internet connection to fluctuate or disconnect to kick the floor out from under you.
For the game in general, it's roots are dug deep into the prototypical design schemes of the Monster-Taming genre, albeit a turn-based JRPG.
For it's narrative, I'm not going to lie this is a very shallow element, as the narrative only serves as a vehicle to get the experience moving along. No real stand-out characters or world-building to be found here. The writing/dialogue tries it's best to present itself as quirky and wacky but it comes across as awkward and stilted. Almost cringe-worthy, again the narrative is weakest element in the design.
The Aesthetics I'm conflicted on, the art style is very pastel-like it holds a nice, bright colour scheme but it feels mundane and quite muted. Character designs don't favour any better as any NPC's you come across are quite generic. The more unique characters you encounter do have a more refined design that do distinct them from the pale horde of standards NPC's but that's the only appealing aspect of them.
The TemTem on the other hand, these are the stars of the show and they shine very brightly. The designs here vary greatly, obvious that some designs are rather simplistic and others are more elaborate. The better designs here you could contrast with other games and argue that the TemTem designs can stand with the best of them.
To further complement the designs, is their presentation in battle. As each TemTem will animate and express accordingly to the their actions and commands they recieve. Attack animations are well thought and fleshed out as when they are cast in battle it the ensuing attack animation provides quite the spectacle.
You can tell the most effort and detail was put into the TemTem's and their presentation, there's a real style here that can only be found in a smaller scale 3D Monster Taming experience. It's a sentiment I can share across all of TemTem's indie contemporaries 2D of 3D. Games such as Nexomon and Coromon. The diversity of monster designs across all these titles are extraordinary, so much creativity and imagination can be found in this genre.
For the mechanics, the meat of the gameplay lies in the combat. Overall, the combat is your standard turn-based faire. But here it utilises a double-battle format, this is universal across all battles.
A lot of depth can be found in this system as the idiosyncrasies are felt with whichever TemTem you have in your party. The idea here is to craft and build the best team possible to ensure victory, The means to do that is to find the best TemTem that can synergise with each other, whether that's covering each other's weaknesses or supporting each other in battle by buffing each others stats.
There's a lot on offer in the combat, possibly been the most robust turn-based combat I've seen in some time. TemTem's operate with an energy meter instead of having a certain amount of uses per move. Each skill costs so much energy and when the entirety of a Temtem's energy has been exhausted it needs to rest. At this point the TemTem is at it's most vulnerable. It's a very technical system that will take some time to master it's nuances. Again, a lot of depth on offer here in these systems, the more you learn of it's complexities the more strategies you can discover. It involves a lot of experimentation, but any player who likes to dive deeply into any turn-based combat will feel right at home.
The only real negative for the mechanical aspects of this title is what usually plagues this genre... Grinding. Unfortunately, TemTem does not escape it's clutches. Grinding is a necessity in this game. If this is enough to turn you away, then I wouldn't begrudge you for doing so.
To be frank, my experience here was on the Switch. Not the best choice of platform for this game. There were stability issues aplenty, whether it's poor optimisation I cant really say. Multiple system crashes did occur but they were few and far between. The performance was marred with some lag, an issue derived from the always online requirement.
The frame-rate was a casulty also, but this is more than likely because of the Switch's hardware. I've seen the game played on other platforms and the performance was generally much smoother. If the Switch isn't your only option I would advise you to get this game on any other system. The frame-rate is at it's worst when there's so much activity going on the screen at the same time, the Switch labours to get things processed but falls short and the frame-rate tanks because of it.
To summarise, the attempt here to marry a standard monster taming turn-based RPG within an MMO framework did not mesh well. The experience on the Switch is hampered by the constant frame-rate drops and the need for an always-online connection, but if you can grin and bear it you'll find an extremely satisfying, technical and deep combat system and a complete new world of original and distinctive monsters to raise and battle with.