First announced back in 2018 before dropping onto Steam Early Access in 2020 and later PS5, Temtem garnered a lot of well-deserved attention as a worthy challenger to Pokémon’s tried-and-true formula, with a focus on developing the online social and competitive elements of Game Freak's series. Lucky for us Nintendo fans, Madrid-based developer Crema confirmed that the monster-battling MMO will also land on the Switch on 6th September with its 1.0 launch across all platforms.
“There were a lot of sacrifices and there were a lot of difficulties in bringing Temtem to Switch,” said Game Director Guillermo Andrades via email. The humble, ageing little Switch celebrated its fifth birthday back in March and hardcore Nintendo fans await some word — any word -- of a more powerful successor, we thought it prudent to ask how the game is stacking up on Switch compared to the more powerful hardware it was developed for.
“The Switch port has always been in our heads, ever since we started Temtem, so luckily we were prepared and didn't face an impossible scenario, but Temtem has been growing a lot over the years and it has become a massive game with a lot of content and different features.”
Indeed, Temtem raised nearly $600,000 USD on Kickstarter, which has led to a wealth of features being added. Currently, there are over 160 obtainable Temtem with their own colourful designs and animations. A full story campaign along with a healthy amount of side quests promise to keep players engaged when exploring the Airborne Archipelago where Temtem takes place. A wealth of customization options set players’ appearances apart from one another in its fully online world. Add in co-op with friends, player housing, and competitive player versus player battles, and the amount of content Crema has packed in for Temtem’s launch ensures early adopters won’t lack for things to do.
"We’ve changed almost every system [from Pokémon] and iterated them a lot to ensure our goal with competitive battles is met."
Andrades emphasises that it is this online functionality that sets Temtem apart from similar monster-battling adventures. “In Temtem you are always in that online world [with] everyone else that is playing too. This streamlines every multiplayer activity and the interactions you can do with the rest of the players, and impacts your whole experience with the game.”
There are no link cables here to fiddle with, or menus to open to turn on online functionality. Temtem aims for a much more seamless approach to player interactivity.
“Another huge focus for us has been in the competitive battles. We’ve always pushed for a more competitive and skill-based approach for PvP battles, [so] we’ve removed all the random factors from them,” Andrades elaborated. All tamer battles in Temtem are two-on-two, adding a layer of strategy for which opposing Tem to attack and when, there are no random factors such as Critical Hits and Freeze chances, and there is also a stamina system for attacks. “We’ve changed almost every system [from Pokémon] and iterated them a lot to ensure our goal with competitive battles is met.”
These online functions seem like a tall task to manage on the Switch. We asked Andrades to elaborate on the difficulties of porting to Nintendo’s hardware.
“Originally our plan was to render at 30fps outside of battles and at 60fps inside battles. This made sense at that time because battles are a much more controlled scenario (only four Tems and two characters, small scenarios, etc). However, over the development, we've been doing better, bigger, and more complex technique animations. Very soon during the optimization process, we noticed that we would need to either tweak all the animations or cap battles at 30fps (which we ended up doing). The battles still feel great at 30fps so it is not a huge sacrifice but it is one of the many things we had to ‘cut’.
“I think one of the biggest [difficulties with the Switch] has been handling the low amount of available memory compared to other platforms,” Andrades continued. “We've spent a lot of time optimising that and making sure that almost everything in the game gets dynamically loaded so the memory management is always in check.”
This is great news for those who want to play Temtem on Switch – the experience will play functionally the same with downgrades in frame rates and resolution we’ve come to expect from Switch ports. Even the on-screen player count, Andrades assured us, will remain similar across all platforms. As Temtem is an always online game, it was important for him and his team to maintain that feel of the world being alive, filled with other tamers.
“I'm very proud of the whole port,” Andrades concluded. “The team has made an amazing achievement in bringing the game to Switch while maintaining its essence.”
Stay tuned to Nintendo Life for more on Temtem before its September 6th launch. Will you be beginning your Temtem adventure along with us? Let us know!
Comments (39)
Must Online to play = No for me.
I already have Yokai Watch games on 3DS.
I've played a bit of it on PS5 and its pretty solid but being honest i'm not big on the monster designs. I do think though its going to be dead on Switch sadly though because a month or two after its launch a game changing new Pokemon gen launches that is giving us it seems the first full 3D true open world in the series.
Sounds more like they didn't want to spend the time and $$ to make the Switch version as good as it could be because that game looks rather bland and ugly to begin with. Shouldn't have had much problem if they put in the effort to get it looking and running well.
Online focused Pokemon is a big pass from me anyway.
I've been eyeing this game on steam and a switch port is even more of a reason to grab it. It looks very good, can't wait to finally play!
Easily the worst Pokémon clone, even if it worked it would be a hard pass.
@WallyWest now see, i want to believe that the upcoming Pokemon games are going to be any different from any of the other games in the series, but i highly doubt it.
Legends Arceus was decent though, but these games look nothing like that.
Not trying to be rude but has any “Pokémon killer” ever sold over a million copies?
I’m not really a Pokémon fan but just was curious lol.
@ThomastheTankEngine
Yokai Watch 1 & 2 games on 3DS sold pretty good, more than 1 million copies in very few days.
Nexomon games sales also quite good, even just more than 100,000 copies sold.
Will be playing this on pc.
@ThomastheTankEngine if I’m not mistaken Temtem sold like 500k copies in its first month of EA, wouldn’t surprise me if it has already past the 1 million mark 2 years later.
@Anti-Matter Yo-Kai Watch seems to be the best and most competent Pokémon competitor.
@psyki probably not, heard a lot of hype died down for it. Maybe the new Digimon game might sell over a million though.
@ThomastheTankEngine Monster Hunter Stories 2 done very well though calling it a PM clone doesn't sound right despite playing and feeling exactly like a PM game.
@WallyWest I don’t think that counts since it wasn’t advertised as a “Pokémon killer” like this game or SMT V were.
@Screen
There's a lot worse, especially with false advertising. Ever seen those Evertale ads?
@SteamEngenius meanwhile Pokémon Company sleeps on money and look how Arceus looked like, even compared to BOTW…
Not saying that TemTem looks good, but it would be naive to not admit how weak the Switch is now after 5+ years, keep that in mind.
@ModdedInkling
Is that the one that claims be a horror game?
@ThomastheTankEngine
And now Yokai Watch is all but dead and irrelevant.
Being a "______ killer" is no longer a selling point for games anymore.
@Screen
Yep...
@ModdedInkling
Out of morbid curiosity (and apologies to TemTem, worst legitamte clone lol) what was it really?
@SteamEngenius Completely wrong - I am a hardcore Pokemon fan and must have played 100+ clones over the years, TemTem is excellent on every level.
Seems like there are a lot of comments here from people who've never played TemTem. The game is incredible, the battle system, the difficulty level/ramp - for any hardcore Pokemon fan here (early games..) that feels like they've played 100+ clones over the years and nothing has come close. Please do check out TemTem.
I really dislike how westerners act like any monster collector is a "Pokemon rival" as if the idea of sharing a genre is some kind of unthinkable act. If the Japanese thought this way, Pokemon would have died off and be dismissed as a shallow, glitchy Dragon Quest wannabe, which Red Blue and Yellow are super easy to argue being with how much Dragon Quest DNA and inspiration is in those games. You could easily call Pokemon a clone of Dragon Quest 5 and no one would really have a good faith argument against that. Japan loves Pokemon more than any other country and makes the games yet has no issue playing other games in the genre, so why should I? I'm told they love TemTem.
That said, I'm looking forward to this game all the same.
@westman98 That's really not even close to true. Yo-Kai Watch mobile games continue to make bank in Japan and get frequent updates and the anime remains ongoing. Japanese franchises have never relied on non-Japanese audiences to remain alive, profitable and relevant. If you want to see other examples of that, look at Crayon Shin-Chan, Case Closed and Kochikame. Some of those are arguably more relevant and alive due to being even longer than One Piece despite their lack of a western audience. Plus, they never marketed themselves as a "Pokemon Killer". Only Viz Media said that and they only publish the manga and yet that phrase continues to live rent free in the heads of angry Pokemon fans for no reason. Having played Pokemon since the beginning and having played even newer entries like Legends Arceus, I can confidently say none of them come close to how big and good Yo-Kai Watch 3 is.
I'm not saying anyone has to drop Pokemon for other monster collectors or anything like that. You can play other games in a genre. It's not a crime to play both Mario and Sonic despite both being platformers, so why not do that for monster collectors?
@Screen
From what I can find on YouTube and Reddit, it's outright false advertising. Evertale ended up being some gacha waifu mobile game that had absolutely nothing to do with what was advertised, other than owning creatures and bringing them into battle. As an RPG, it's very mediocre.
“A rival to Pokémon”? Lol, you wish.
@ZionWario
Don't know much about the mobile game, but I do know that (in Japan) Yokai Watch went from selling ~6 million copies with Yokai Watch 2 to <500,000 copies with Yokai Watch 4.
That's a cataclysmic decline.
I do like the idea of a monster-collecting MMO, and applaud Temtem for trying it out. But I'm so invested in Pokemon already that it's difficult to give another franchise the time.
@TheMelodiusRose 2015 chip, in all honesty it is weak as of now even as a portable.
And in 2017 it was fine as a portable, but weak as a home console.
Don't get me wrong, I prefer handhelds and don't care as much about graphics on them, VIta, Switch, 3DS, heck even GameBoy for me it is about the games.
But I am not going to deny that the Switch is weak.
I backed on Kickstarter in 2018 and chose the Switch as my platform of choice. Here we are four years later and I'm sadly no longer interested.
I tried the early access on PS5 and it just didn't do it for me. I'm glad to have helped fund the project but I don't see it holding its own long-term.
Crema positioned TemTem as a competitor to Pokémon that would make a number of changes Pokémon fans were looking for back in 2018. However, here we are in 2022, post-Legends Arceus, and with Scarlet & Violet on the horizon with open-world and online multiplayer gameplay mechanics.
TemTem will certainly have its niche audience and that's great, but this backer is backing out. 👋🏼
@TheMelodiusRose Is this sarcasm?
If yes then ok
If not then I slowely leave you alone in that bubble and walk away, healthier for me but also spares me time to explain something to someone that refuses to understand it.
P.S. don't go the cheapskate route of "you just complain" because I do not (and didn't do it in my previous comment), I hear that many times from people that lack any better argument for their own claims.
Anyhow unless sarcasm, I walk away from this discussion for the reason I just mentioned.
@Screen The worst clone IMO is Axie Infinity, which was a thinly veiled NFT scam. 🤢
@westman98 It really isn't. Yo-Kai Watch games have always and continued to sell just as well as any first party Nintendo games on the same consoles in Japan and said first party Nintendo games do well in Japak. Especially YKW4 and Y-Academy selling just as well in their opening time frames as games that did just fine like Mario Tennis Aces or Mario Golf Super Rush. Heck, YKW4 sold more in its opening week than Mario Tennis Aces, yet nobody insists on calling Mario games dead or in cataclysmic decline, so please do more research. The fact of the mobile games still stand as throughout its years of lifetime, Yo-Kai Watch Puni Puni has always remained strong as one of the top grossing mobile games in Japan. Even some sales charts have neglected digital sales of Level-5 games for whatever reason where most of the sakes come from and which give more money to the devs than physical anyway.
@ZionWario
Yokai Watch went from selling as much as a mainline Pokemon RPG to selling as much as a Mario sports spin-off.
That is the very definition of a cataclysmic decline.
@westman98 Again, no it really isn't. No one claims Mario spinoffs are dead or declining as they continue to top charts. Also take the time to note you couldn't disprove my other points involving mobile game profits.
@ZionWario
Going from selling like a mainline Pokemon RPG (5+ million copies) to selling like a Mario sports spin-off (<500,000 copies) is objectively and unquestionably a massive decline.
Nobody considers Mario sports spin-offs to be flops because they have never sold that much (5+ million) in the first place.
Now if Mario Golf Super Rush sold 5+ million copies in Japan alone, and then Mario Golf Super Rush 2 on Switch 2 sold 500,000 copies, then Super Rush 2 would be considered a massive flop, but that obviously hasnt happened.
@westman98 New Pokemon Snap is also a first party game that sold monumentally less than that in Japan, yet no one is insisting it to be a flop or dead. Objectively, you still continue to brush aside my point of mobile game profits.
@ZionWario
Right, because Pokemon spin-offs have never sold as much as the mainline Pokemon RPGs, much like how Mario Golf has never sold as much as the mainline Mario platformers.
It sucks that the switch is so under powered. This is why I only play games I know will look good and play good which is not a lot.
@westman98 Yo-Kai Watch just announced a collaboration with Hololive. As of now, a good chunk of the more popular VTubers are now officially Yo-Kai Watch characters just as Cloud, Sephiroth and Hello Kitty are.
That's the exact opposite of "dead and irrelevant". That's ongoing and relevant.
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