Playing Pokémon Clone, TemTem, Was a Frustrating Experience

In 2020, I found myself furloughed. It was a shock because I’d never expected to have that much free time as an adult. I could suddenly do things I’d neglected to do earlier, like finish video games that I hadn’t had the chance to while working a full-time job.

I don’t have the best computer, so I don’t play computer games, but I knew I had to when I discovered TemTem. TemTem was marketed as an open-world Pokémon clone that was still in development, but was available to purchase for a discount. It was created by Pokémon fans who wanted more online features for the game. The trailer looked amazing, and I wanted to see how the game would shape up, so I bought it.

I was ready to play the game as soon as I downloaded it, but the load time took so long that I initially got a refund. I later found out that the game takes an abnormally long time to load, so I repurchased it and left the load screen on while I did other things. After about an hour and a half, the game was finally ready to play.

I found myself disappointed with the character customizations, which leaned towards a more masculine look. There was no long hair option and no feminine clothes. There were only shorts and t-shirts, which may have been intentional, but I like for my character to resemble me. While the character customization may not be a big deal for some, I think there is a lot that can be done with it.

Introducing a salon system, like in Sword and Shield seems reasonable. There could be more customizations added for each region that you visit. You could also be given the chance to buy certain clothing or hair items, which could raise money to improve the game.

The next step in my TemTem journey was picking a starter. I enjoyed this and found myself pleased that there was a larger selection than in Pokémon. There were about six TemTem to choose from, and if you hover your mouse over them, the game would give you some basic information about them. You knew what types of TemTem yours was weak and strong against.

The TemTems themselves resemble Pokémon. Some of them are cute, some are ugly, but I wanted to catch them all. I enjoyed building my team and levelling them up through battles. The battle system was also similar to that found in Pokémon, but it took some getting used to the new attacks and special moves.

My favorite part of the Pokémon games is exploring, but I found exploring impossible in TemTem. It was hard to control my character, which may have just been because I was playing with a computer and not using a controller. I would like to see if the controls improve with a controller.

I also don’t remember having a map feature, so I could not find important places, such as gyms. I ended up going into the same buildings repeatedly, which wasted the limited time I spent playing the game.

The game also froze whenever anyone attempted to battle me, or when I stumbled across a TemTem. This usually led to me fleeing the battle or refusing to catch a TemTem that I had already captured. It took away from the gameplay experience, and lead to me not enjoying the game as much as I would have liked it. I became frustrated and ended my game before I wanted to.

I’ve only played the game a handful of times because of the long load times. I’ve looked into my computer’s specs, but it should be able to run TemTem with no issue.

There are several features that have been added since the last time I played, like including customizable houses. I would like to check out these features, but I can’t justify spending so much time waiting for the game to load. I do plan to check the game out again once the bugs are fixed.

While I want to love TemTem, I find there are little bugs that keep me from doing so. The long load time makes it almost impossible to play, and the character customizations are lacking. The game also froze whenever I entered any type of battle, which lead to me avoiding other players. If TemTem can fix these bugs, they’ll have an amazing game on their hands.