Temtem is a game that has some very good aspects but does not focus enough on them and instead spreads itself too thin trying to be something its not.

The battle system in this game and the tems themselves are very interesting, no battle is a cakewalk but rarely do they ever feel too difficult. This is helped a lot by an excellent level curve and islands being broken up by type to help players learn the new type matchups if coming from other games like Pokemon. The game is also visually pleasing with its simple but effective art style and 3d world.

Unfortunately temtem also tries to be an MMO and this is where it starts to fall apart for me. Firstly I am not a fan of MMOs to begin with so perhaps I am a bit biased but it really does feel like temtem has the worst aspects of MMOs, being poor/uninteresting side quests and overly wordy dialogue, without any of the benefits of a true MMO. The single player campaign also goes on far too long, it took me 50 hours to beat, a monster catching game does not need to be that long imo.

I am interested to see what this team can do next with a bit more focus and clarity on their project and goal. There are no plans to add more temtems/story updates to the game, which is not very MMO like but there is plenty of post game content at the moment for people who are enjoying the game.

Breath of the wild is a fun open world game that if it manages to charm you and engage you with its world I can see why you would absolutely adore this game. If you become invested in the game there is a lot of different content to keep you busy and occupied while you explore Hyrule.

However, this only applies if you become invested. If you are one of the seemingly few people not memorised by the game, the flaws start to show and unfortunately that's what happened to me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time with the game and I'm glad I gave it another chance, because now I understand a bit better why so many people love this game. Did I end up loving it? No but that's ok, I don't have to love it to understand why others do. There are merits to the game that just didn't click for me. I think a large part of it was the hype, when so many people and outlets praise this as almost the holy grail of modern gaming, that's a high bar to surpass and it's why I am fairly nitpicky in my gripe list as I expected a much more polished and refined game due to this unfair hype.
Gripes/QoL requests:
-Back flip dodge is bad with camera controls, a dodge roll would work better
-Exploration isn't as rewarding as it should be due to most rewards being a sword or a bow that will just break if you use it or collect dust if you don't.
-Not all shrines are created equal, I think rather than having health/stamina tied to shrine completion, you can cut back on shrines and have the upgrading orbs just littered around the map as rewards for exploring
-A lot of the side quests are woefully uninspired and just generic fetch quests
-Fuck the stealth segments and also the blue fire torch segments
-I understand you are supposed to feel weak starting off and progressively get stronger but it didn't feel as well done as I would have liked, maybe Elden Ring spoiled me with that
-Better instructions on some aspects of cooking would be nice as I'm still clueless as what some items were supposed to be used for
-Stop weapons from breaking. If you don't want people using the same stuff over and over then add stats and stat decay. Weapons not breaking also fixes part of the issue with lack of good exploration rewards.
-Test of strength shrines should have had different enemies rather than just the robots
-Going off the beaten path to get to an area rather than follow the "normal" path is punished at times because you miss out on how to get a required item or other info until you backtrack.
-Rain can fuck off
-I think some of the guardians are a bit too aggressive in terms of chasing you down, a bit fucking annoying for something that can one shot you if it hits
- I personally did not enjoy how the story/lore is told through the fragmented memories. It doesn't exactly flow well for me when they can be found in any order.
- I know it's a switch but come on fam, I didn't expect a launch title game to be lagging if I'm in a forest or using statis/magnet power in the rain. Definitely had more lag in areas than it should have and I have concerns for an ambitious sequel running on the same hardware
For me, a lot of that list is what stopped me from truly engaging with the world and the game as I do think it's a game you are meant to soak in for a while, rather than beating it to move onto something else like myself. If you can manage to get invested, I'm sure a majority of the list is something you'll overlook and that's fine also, just not me.

Just finished playing on the moral route and really really enjoyed playing. I do have a few nitpicks I want to get out of the way as I'd like to end the review with the good stuff as its sometimes easy to focus on negatives.

Cons:
So for the stuff I didn't like, its not a long list but its a list nonetheless. My first grip is while it is a visual novel and marketed as such, it does feel a bit excessive at times. The writers must be a big fan of "the rule of 3" because a lot of stuff happens in threes, meaning you kinda go through the same motions back to back to back and that can get a bit stale after a while.
Another gripe is I do wish there was a bit more difficulty in the combat sections, I didn't lose a fight until the first time you fight a Mega level boss and even then I was more so just caught off guard because until that point I was just on auto pilot, and to my knowledge NG+ does not increase boss difficulty so thats kinda disappointing.
Minor nitpick as this stuff doesn't really bother me but I know it will for some, but as the game progresses it does get a bit sloppy with some mistranslation issues. Nothing game-breaking but you'll definitely notice it a few times.

Pros:
Probably the best looking visual novel I have played, its very comparable to Danganronpa v3 for me as to which looks better, V3 has more sense of style but Survive just looks so clean and crisp.
While the plot can be somewhat predictable at times, thats not always a bad thing as often times it did what I expected it to do, but in a very extreme/unexpected way and that lead to some jaw drop moments. It also parallels the original Digimon Adventure anime a bit so thats nice nostalgia for old fans and something new for new fans.
I liked pretty much every character and they all have enough personality that anyone playing will surely be able to have a favorite and two and be able to dig into their backstory. I also really loved how the digimon partners were also given distinct personalities, excellent touch that can often be overlooked in Digimon games.

Will I play NG+? I'm not sure, as of right now I am leaning towards no, I was happy enough with my ending and playthrough and from what I have heard, NG+ doesn't do enough for me to justify playing it but I think that will depend on what ending you get on your first playthrough and how much you want to see the true ending.

Overall thoughts: If you aren't put off by visual novels and enjoy digimon in any sense or want to give digimon a try, I definitely recommend Digimon Survive. It looks good, has an interesting plot with fun characters and has very accessible, if slightly easy, SRPG gameplay to break up the sometimes heavy plot.

This is like if Danganronpa and Zero Escape had a weird love child, where it has a lot of the charm of Danganronpa and the mystery plot of Zero Escape. But on top of that, it also have the most childish humor of all those games and for me that was fine and right up my alley but I can see it grating for some people.
The main thing stopping the game from being rated higher is I wasn't a fan of the dialogue options at times, it just felt very drawn out, and I wasn't the biggest fan of Somniums, compared to Danganronpa trials and Zero Escape puzzles, its easily the weakest gameplay mechanic of the three.

Hilarious end credits scene lmao