please note I haven't played past the first dojo yet and this game is not complete yet. I do intend to return to this game soon and I hope this game surprises me in some interesting ways. anyways anyone telling you this game is better than Pokemon is lying to you

I've always resisted the idea of a Pokemon MMO in fear that it'd just be.... kind of bad. admittedly, this game both confirms and deconfirms these fears

it feels very much like a poor man's Pokemon in so many aspects. the creatures outside of stars like Pigepic are horrendously bland, and the game occasionally has mechanics and concepts that even Dragon Quest and Pokemon considered old hat 10 years ago or are needlessly more complicated than they have to be. Pokemon could occasionally get hokey at times but at least in those cases it was genuine - Temtem feels irony poisoned as it shamelessly copies Pokemon's story beats

I can't say I hate it though - I signed up for a monster collecting game, and I sure as hell love monster collecting games of all kinds. and I absolutely do appreciate that I can simply play single-player in a way if I really wanted to... I just kind of wish this game had a stronger identity than "poor man's Pokemon but, like, make it an MMO", because if it broke away from the formula it's shamelessly copying I feel it could be great. even if I still have to sit through some incredibly bland monster designs