Temtem proves that Pokémon is a genre now

Temtem reminds me of being eight years old and playing Pokémon Yellow for the first time. I already knew a lot about Pokémon, like the various evolution trees, but when it came to the mechanics of the game, namely managing the stats for each of my chosen creatures, I was a novice. I learned by catching one of every Pokémon I encountered and, in turn, taking them into battle, until I had the type chart permanently ingrained in my brain. My love for the Pokémon franchise was born out of the excitement of purely not knowing what I was doing - and of how rewarding it felt when I had built a party strong enough to defeat the Elite Four.

Years of playing Pokémon has slowly dissolved that feeling to the point that I've had to ban myself from using particular Pokémon, because I know them too well (sorry Lapras.) Playing Temtem, a new PC game with some very familiar ideas, for the first time this week allowed me to embrace that feeling of unknowing once again. I experimented with a range of Temtem, beginning what I hope will be a balanced team, and explored every area carefully to ensure that I didn't miss anything important. As I played, however, I couldn't stop thinking about how similar this game is to the mainline Pokémon series.

Temtem is never going to escape being compared to Pokémon, because it is, in many ways, a clone of a Pokémon game. From the opening minutes, in which you leave your hometown to begin a grand adventure, to testing the abilities of your Temtems at the first dojo, it's very clear where the developers drew their inspiration from. You even have a rival who appears every so often to insult you. The fact is that Pokémon is no longer part of a genre about collecting and training magical beasts. It has, instead, become its own genre. Temtem can easily be described as a clone, but it's also currently carving out its own place within this genre. It's introducing its own ideas, while bringing a fresh perspective to the staples created by the Pokémon franchise.

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