Pokémon Vs. Temtem, Combat System Review

Pokémon is a well-known titan in the gaming landscape with over 25 years of turn-based strategy combat design experience, though there have been some competitors as of late. Having extensively played Temtem, a monster-catching mmo from Spanish developers Crema, currently in early-access, I thought it would be interesting to compare the two games. Quick note: i'll refer to both Pokémon and Temtem creatures as monsters for simplicity.

        
        Pokémon                                  Temtem

+ Diverse movepools                       + Simple complexity
+ Unique mechanics                        + Clear descriptions
- Relies on extreme randomness            + No randomness
- Unclear descriptions                    + Inventive balance
- Balance issues                          - Lack of magic moments

At a glance the two games will seem very similar. You get 4 moves to use, an ability and a held item and an elemental type, which all work essentially the same way, but the nuances of these systems make a huge difference. The first most notable change are the moves themselves. In Pokémon a move has PP (power points) which determine how many times it can be used. A common weak move might have 25 where as the strongest moves tend to be around 5. This seems fine in principle, you can't use the best moves too often, but in practice it is largely irrelevant, with the strongest moves being able to be used on demand with no real drawbacks leading to a lack of tactical choices. Sure, some moves might leave you needing to recharge, or the user suffers from negative stat debuffs but these are specific to each move, not the system as a whole which means the vast majority of moves comes down to what is the most powerful super-effective attack at that moment and thats it. On the flip side, Temtem uses a stamina and hold system that forces the user to wait (hold, symbolised by slanted bars) a certain number of turns before a move can be used. Often the most powerful moves require up to 3 hold which already adds skilled decision making. In addition, every move has a stamina cost which adds a simple yet mind bending complexity to a monsters roster of moves. A 150 damage attack seems like an obvious choice in Pokémon but here it might cost 30 out of a monsters 50 stamina. A monster can overexert itself and take damage based on the amount of stamina it used past its maximum, also leaving it unable to do anything the next turn. Suddenly that 30 damage, 9 stamina move with 0 hold seems quite appealing! These systems work beautifully together as the foundation for robust and balanced battle system.

Where Pokémon draws its complexity is from its unique, yet hard to understand mechanics. 'Gravity' is just one example in a sea of unwieldy and confusing moves which can leave players searching up the wiki page during battle just to figure out what it does. In this case, the move forces flying types to lose their immunity to ground attacks, as well as monsters with the 'Levitate' ability, but also prevents moves that involve flying being used, multiplies the accuracy stat of every monster by 5/3 for 5 turns and that's not even the end of it. Not only is this way too many effects for one move, but the game never explains them all, and you have absolutely no clue which moves constitute as flying, especially when animations change from game to game. Don't get me wrong, it is a very interesting mechanic and adds a ton of depth but it's just too many things on top of each other that never get taught to you as a player. Temtem opts for a somewhat safer, slightly less complex but equally as rewarding and interesting system where the vast majority of effects are present on the move itself. All moves have a priority which can range from slow to ultra fast, signified by an arrow which clearly shows how it works. If a monster with equal speed to its opponent uses a move with >>> priority and the opponent uses a move with >> the user will go first. Under the hood, the move multiplies the speed stat and for exact numbers and calculations more reading is required but at least it makes visual sense for new players and can ease them into the system. A common theme is that most of these effects are global to all moves. They all have a priority making it a recurring point of learning, rather than, say some very specific moves in Pokémon like quick-attack which have priority over their opponent.

One aspect of Pokémon which can be hit or miss is its magical selling point. By this I mean the gimmick that usually takes centre stage for each new game, be that Mega-evolutions, Z-moves or Dynamaxing. These massively change up the battle by giving extreme power advantages at sometimes completely random points of a battle as you can never predict when they will be used. On one hand they can be exciting moments which help you claw back from the verge of defeat, and on the other hand they can completely ruin the experience when straight up frustratingly broken events occur. For better or for worse, Temtem forgoes any extravagant mechanics, but does have its own unique gimmick in the form of synergy moves, which are additional effects (ranging from more damage, faster speed, inflicting status effects etc.) when used in combination with an ally of the appropriate type which can have a drastic effect.

The absolute most monumental difference in the two games has to be the randomness or 'RNG' (random number generator). Pokémon is well known for its heavy reliance on random gameplay which is a deal-breaker for many where moves can have a chance of hitting the opponent (say 70% accuracy) and then a chance to paralyze them (say 30%) and then when they ae paralysed there is a 50% chance for it to actually stun them when they try to attack. Randomness can definitely add to a game, unpredictability creates tension where risky plays and educated guesses can either pay off or go horribly wrong and it did have that effect in the earlier games. These days though there is simply way too much randomness to go around which can make entire games a cointoss and completely through away any semblance of strategy and planning. Even the most basic fundamentals like the damage a move deals is based on a minimum and maximum value randomly generated when you use it. Quite possibly one of the best aspects of Temtem then its its ZERO randomness mission. Attacks deal the damage they say they do, moves either inflict a status like burn or they don't. Said burn will always do the same thing and last for the exact amount of turns specified and every single point in a match can be traced back using the simple maths formulas its based on. This leaves ample room for skill expression and strategy without any of the frustrating RNG.

Pokémon never started out as a competitive battling game so it can attribute many of its weak points to its early days and continued evolution over the years however its competitive scene leaves much to be desired. It's in-game battle options lack a ranked ladder or rewards while the e-sports side is run by multiple different organisations, both official and not. One only needs to look at the mesmerising list of rules and regulations which state which monsters and items and moves are banned in which tiers (that can change at a moments notice) to see that its an absolute mess. Temtem even in its early access stage actively balances underused and overused monsters while having an in-game ranked ladder (with auto-scaling putting everyone on a equal playing field) with a well thought out pick-and-ban system where anything in the game is allowed, simply because its all designed to be allowed... oh and there's rewards. At the time of writing in-game tournaments are a feature planned but not yet implemented, though outside organisations can still freely organise their own using the competitive battle mode, which even has a spectator mode!