Recent reviews by skeleman588

Hey Behtesda, give us the TV show this game so wants!

How have I not written a review for this yet?

The best haggling system of any game on the market. I feel like if this game had the combat of Hades or Moonlighter it would absorb me and never let me go. Play this game, the only thing you'll regret is the fact that it will cause every game with similar mechanics to disappoint you as you eternally chase the best parts of this game to no avail. (In other words, sequel please?)

Definitely the kind of game you want a friend to have. It is absolutely amazing, and I hope they get DLC/free updates in the future. But as of now it took a friend and I about 5 hours to finish the game and get every achievement. That being said, if you know someone who has it, you can play with them for free which pretty much takes away the biggest issue with this game (the second being the occasional bug)

Good game, needs an undo button, I shouldn't have to go back to the beginning of a puzzle because I mixed up which button marks a blue hex and which doesn't

Good beginning and middle game, bad endgame

Everything you need in the end game takes forever to build and it only builds while the game is running, unlike every other major idle game. Voting up because I still got my money's worth, but dear god factories need a major buff

If Temtem could speak for itself, you'd want it to shut up about it not being Pokemon. This works both for and against it in plenty of ways that evens itself out into a generally positive experience if not one that seems angry at its dad.


Gameplay wise Temtem pulls off a lot of things Pokemon needs to either do or at least address. The biggest one being combat. Temtem has few single battles, mostly doubles, which manages to solve an issue Pokemon has had in its competitive scene for a long time in which all (official) competitive battles are double battles to save time, but most of the actual game is singles. The focus on double battles leads to mechanics that could not be feasibly added in Pokemon, like synergy moves in which a move can gain extra effects if the Tem not using it is of a certain type. Furthermore, the stamina bar mechanic allows for far more strategy than the PP system it replaces, allowing Tems to use attacks beyond its means for the price of some health and its next turn, and in the process doing away with the problem of running out of PP halfway to the next town. All randomness has also been removed as well, no more random crits or misses, no more chances for a status effect to proc, and the amount of turns until an effect goes away clearly listed on the health bar.

Overworld mechanics got a decent overhaul too. Every major update sees some new mechanic added, and the ones lifted from pokemon tend to get major improvements too. Flying Teleporting to places that are not necessarily healing centers but are still important, surfing by simply running into the water, breeding explained in far more simple terms, these are but a few of the things that Temtem manages to improve on its spiritual predecessor. Finally, gyms dojos have two types instead of one with both types typically equating to the most common type, which means most of the time one cannot just coast through a gym with one tem.

As for the story and other related writings, the staff really outdo themselves. Clan Belsoto (not Team Rocket) is more threatening than any Pokemon villain team. They manage a Mewtwo analogue by their second major appearance and only go darker from there, attempting to kill you by blowing up your airship, framing you for multiple crimes and getting you arrested, inciting a civil war, actually murdering your rival on screen, Belsoto time and again exhibits an edge that Pokemon would never attempt and as a result you get invested in their rise to power and your attempt to stop them. They are not a bunch of bumbling goons, they are organized and dangerous, with the grunts well written enough that it is understandable how they got there. Furthermore, even the smaller details flesh out the world in a way that Pokemon just doesn't quite reach. The complexities of the FreeTem organization and the factions surrounding it have more to say about the morality of the Pokemon/Temtem concept than all of gen 5 and it never undercuts itself like B/W does


Before we start lobbing the insults I should preface this by saying that most of my gripes have reasons to exist, I just see them as weak reasons or excuses to hide the bigger reason that Temtem wants to not under ANY circumstances be pokemon. The big exception to this caveat is the Doomed status effect. F**k the doomed status effect! Doomed is what happens when you take Perish Song and take away EVERYTHING that balanced it out. The fact that it also inflicts the user? Gone. The fact that it can be removed simply by switching out the afflicted? Gone. The fact that it can only be caused by one move that a very limited set can use? GONE. If your tem gets doomed, they instantly die in 4 turns, the timer goes down even when the tem is stashed in your party and its just not fun to work around. All of the other status effects are relatively well balanced but this one is just exhausting. With that out of the way, here are the smaller issues I have

If you didn't know how far pokemon has gotten and I asked you what types are the three starters in Gen 10 were, you'd probably tell me some order of Fire, Water, and Grass. You'd most likely be right (despite the fact that there is no Gen 10... yet) and there is good reason for this. You could explain to a 2 year old why fire beats grass beats water beats fire. You couldn't pull off the same feat with temtem, whose starters are Mental, Melee, and Crystal (figure that one out). Now there is a small reason for this, your rival has the same starting tem regardless of your choice and it is strong against all three of them, but honestly that seems like a rather small reason and the whole move reeks of "we're not Pokemon"

Speaking of "we're not Pokemon" the fertility system appears to attempt to solve a problem that isn't really a problem? Every tem has a very limited number of times it can be bred before it becomes "sterile", which feels like an odd mechanic to have? My best guess is that it's an attempt to make some tems worth more by reducing the amount of "breedjects" that can be added but even that misses that the ready production of those breedjects and top squad members allows for easier entrance into the competitive scene (check out Smogon's weekly giveaways to see that in action).

Evolution is also odd. Tems don't evolve at specific levels, they instead evolve once they obtain a certain amount of levels since they were caught. This means if you catch two of the same tem, with one at lv 30 and one at lv 50, and the first evolves at lv 50, the second won't evolve until lv 70. Again, this feels like the game trying to not be pokemon. At least with fertility I could kind of understand where it was coming from but I have no clue what the purpose of this one is.

Finally, the writing stumbles on "we're not Pokemon" a couple times too. Yes Temtem, we see that there are no Ice or Dragon type tems can we move on please?


This being said, Temtem could afford to crib a couple things from Pokemon that could make things better.

VS Seeker

Look, the fact that we can rematch dojo masters is cool, and I'm glad it exists, but maybe there should be a way to rematch regular tamers for either training or profit? Grinding for experience at this moment is a slog and grinding for pansuns is doubly so.

Location setting in Tempedia

There is a sidequest early on that requires you to find a Barnshe for a photographer. The problem is that Barnshes only have a 5% chance of spawning in a very specific area and the game doesn't telegraph its location. This is the first of several quests that ask you to find something of similar rarity. Perhaps a function of the tempedia that shows the location of any tem you've seen could remedy this?

Sweet Scent

In pokemon, sweet scent is a move that can be used in the overworld that causes a wild encounter to occur immediately (considering that you are in an area one can occur) In Temtem, if you are trying to cause a wild encounter you... run in circles and pray. Sure there are pheromones but those are just chance increases for specific tems and as such don't help with the more rare tems.


As of writing, I have 113 hours clocked into this game, have defeated both available raid bosses, finished all possible quests and sidequests, caught a luna (this game's version of shinies) and seen all available tems. Temtem is all in all a good game and I can't wait to see where the devs take it as it leaves early access. It does, however, suffer from an insatiable desire to separate itself from pokemon that handicaps itself at times. However, if Pokemon's latest offerings aren't exciting you anymore it is definitely worth seeing what Temtem brings to the table.

Will scratch the itch for VA-11 Hall-A if you have it, but feels like a pale imitation besides. If you're considering this game but haven't played Va-11 Hall-A first, you should go get that instead. Otherwise, this game delivers a bit of Valhalla's atmosphere without as much character depth.

Henry Stickmin... now that's a name that has been missing from the gaming sphere for a long time. If you're reading these reviews for reasons other than watching other fans gush about this series' (most likely) swan song, you're doing it wrong. Go to the browser of your choice, search up the first five chapters on Newgrounds, and play through them all. This collection is just the HD remasters of all of those, mainly as a prelude to the final game: Completing the Mission, which requires you to know the previous chapters beforehand. The humor is intact and only gets better in CtM. The only cons I can think of are the fact that there is no fullscreen and that a couple of the bios (new collectibles for this game) are bugged.

It is amazing to see the titans from the era of Newgrounds/ Armor Games/ Addicting Games (pre-Nick) find new life in the industry, and whatever Puffballs United plans for the future, I have a feeling it is a great plan, some might even say the greatest.

Okay, let me explain why this game is good without either underselling it or writing a college thesis.

Story/Characters:
Most of the complaints center around protag Ajna being a bit of a ♥♥♥♥, the story being bog-standard, and the side characters being underdeveloped, all three of these are called out and subverted starting on the leadup to the midpoint (first area after the map opens up) (Razmi's best girl)
(Also how cool is it that for once a game is based on Buddhist/Hindu theology instead of GrecoRoman, Norse, or JudeoChristian theologies?)
Gameplay:
With the exception of three specific minibosses (you'll know which ones) and a couple of platforms, the fight mechanics are well designed. The platforming starts simple but gets complex when you get far enough. If it's still easy for you then there's an entire DLC that is just optional platforming challenges. (I do not have this DLC so imma stop the mentions of that there)
Visuals:
You know skullgirls? Yeah the other Lab Zero project? Yeah that same style is brought to life here and it's as beautiful as ever.
Conclusion
9/10, my tears are crying for multiple reasons. Shame about those minibosses though

Okay, first off, I feel like I should split my thoughts into talking about both of the characters separately, because my opinions differ wildly about them and how they are handled.

Miriam:
A worthy successor to SOTN, a beautiful environment, tricky but generally fair bosses, freedom of builds and an interesting story and characters make Miriam's campaign great for good old-fashioned Metroidvania fun.

Zangetsu:
Oh Zangetsu, there was so much hope for you. After completing Miriam's story and seeing that a new character is unlocked, you might be forgiven in thinking that the next character campaign would be built like Shovel Knight's characters, where the environment is about the same but there are just enough differences that the campaign feels new, fresh, and complements the character's abilities. Failing that, you might also be forgiven for thinking it will at least be like KH:COM's reverse/rebirth mode where the environment is the same but the new character's abilities are a decent spin on the combat and the story beats and unique bosses can hold your attention between stretches of area you've seen before. Zangetsu does... none of these things. There is no story in Zangetsu's campaign, which takes place on the exact same map as Miriam's campaign except that all NPCs from sidequests to shopkeepers are gone. Zangetsu also doesn't gain new abilities or grow save for health, attack, defense, and mana buffs obtained from either the environment or leveling. The abilities he does have are vomited at you via text box at the beginning and never again, not even through the compendium which only contains character bios anyway. Unless you are a speedrunner, there is no reason to play Zangetsu's "campaign" and you will get bored of it by the end of the first area.

In conclusion, buy for Miriam's story, ignore Zangetsu entirely, his "campaign" feels incredibly unfinished