YMMV / Temtem

• Base-Breaking Character: Max is a pretty divisive rival. While most people agree they're a jerk, there's a split in regards to how much of a jerk they are. Some people consider them a "love to hate" character, but others feel Max is too much of a jerk and would've preferred they be rewritten or cut from the game entirely during the game's early access period. Their Disney Death moment and Heel–Face Turn didn't help matters, with some complaining about how out of character it is.
• Broken Base:
  • The game itself has been met with mixed reception. Some enjoyed Temtem for being a breath of fresh air from Pokémon, while others dislike it since it's essentially getting praises from doing what Pokemon has done before, but being more grindy and tedious. Its combat has been heavily contested as well; some players like it for the lack of RNG and being more strategic than Pokémon, others find the combat to be unnecessarily clunky with its mechanics, argue that not having RNG actually makes battles less exciting as well as either lacking or limiting features that makes competitive Pokémon battles engaging, such as entry hazards and weather.
  • The art direction of the monsters is a point of contention. Several fans like the colorful and fantastical designs of the temtems, whilst several others find them to be incredibly generic with only a few memorable designs.
  • The inclusion of micro-transaction and Battle Pass. Some see their inclusion to be harmless as these are purely cosmetic and not pay-to-win, others argue that being cosmetic alone is an appealing enough reason to spend money on those, especially with its in-game currency, Pansuns being notoriously difficult to earn, and don't see Battle Pass having a place in a paid game.
• Dancing Bear: The game was launched in early access during a period of heavy dissatisfaction among the Pokémon fanbase concerning the state of the series: from the early controversy surrounding Pokémon Sword and Shield placing a strict restriction on the Mons available for use, to the contested quality of said game upon release. In addition to its superb timing, temtem also had Platypet, a popular "Fakemon" that they got the rights to use in their game. temtem saw tens of thousands of players in early 2020, but activity soon fell drastically as many Pokémon fans who approached temtem as a replacement found it too different mechanically to truly serve as one. The game does continue to see temporary spikes in players whenever a new island gets released, however.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Ganki are everywhere during the first island, have decent stats and only one weakness, and being Electric-type, can hit super-effectively against most of the Temtem that the player has access to at that point, including one of the starters.
  • Barnshe is another Temtem that is encountered frequently throughout the early-game. It has pretty good stats, especially for the early-game, hits absurdly hard with Wind Burst and later Hypoxia further amplified by its Air Specialist trait, has access to Bamboozle to force you to waste a turn, and resists both Wind and Neutral, which are probably your main attacking types during the first island. The only thing stopping it from being totally overwhelming is its double weakness to Electric Temtem like Ganki, which you'll most likely be using anyway because of how good it is early-game. Barnshe also becomes a lot more manageable after the first island when the player is likely to have a more diverse team.
  • Sparzy isn't as prolific as Ganki or Barnshe, but like Ganki, it has the Electric type, which is very strong in the early-game, and like Barnshe, has rather good stats compared to what the player has access to early-game. It also has the Last Rush trait, which boosts its damage output significantly if the player's Temtem outnumber the NPC tamer's Temtem (which will be frequently), and its primary attack, Tesla Prison, lowers the target's speed on hit, so even if you can tank the attack, it will be that much harder to get a hit in before you get smacked again. It can also use the Psychosis technique to inflict Doom, guaranteeing that your Temtem will faint in 4 turns.
  • Cycrox is a bit different from the above Temtem, as it is exclusively encountered in the late-game; however, its trait Neurotoxins makes its primary attack Wastewater no longer inflict poison, instead inflicting 4 turns of doom, basically turning its main attack into a damaging, 0-hold Psychosis.
• Fandom Rivalry: Unsurprisingly, temtem vs. Pokémon is a hot-button debate.
  • A lot of temtem fans and supporters are those disgruntled by what they feel is a lack of innovation from the Pokémon series, combined with the controversy over the removal of Pokémon in Sword and Shield. The fans cite features — such as a full-region MMO (unlike Sword and Shield and its Wild Area, which limits most MMO features to briefly interacting with other players and seeing other players traveling through the world), removing the critical hits, missed attacks, and luck-based debuffs that can shift a multiplayer game into another's favor, and the responsiveness of the developers to rebalances and bug reports — to be a big plus over Pokémon.
  • Pokémon fans believe it's just a straight ripoff lacking the features that make it truly a MMO, see temtem as overly grindy compared to Pokémon's streamlined endgame, feel that the changes to the meta don't set it apart from Pokémon enough, and cite the designs as lacking in being iconic like the original generations of Pokémon that have been ingrained in pop culture.
    • There's also a sub-group of fans of Pokémon fangames (especially those of fan MMOs like Crater and Revolution Online), who may see temtem as better than the most recent main-series games but still worse than a well-made fangame (as of Summer 2020, most of the game's story content has not dropped, and the Temtem 'dex is still not complete — compare to Revolution Online's roster) — and far more expensive as well.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Due to being expies of the Eeveelutions, Tuwai and its evolutions are collectively referred to as the Tuwailutions or Tulutions.
  • The single-stage Tems with low catch rates and a 5% encounter rate in one area — Rhoulder, Ocerara, Innki, Shuine, Kinu, Gharunder, and Yowlar — are collectively referred to as 5%ers.
  • Some techniques are referred to with shortened names in competitive circles. For example, Energy Manipulation is shortened to Emanip.
• Game-Breaker:
  • In-game examples:
    • Nessla has a special trait called Electric Synthesize, which heals it if it's hit by an Electric move. The best part is that Nessla is also a Water/Electric Temtem, giving it a reasonable amount of damage potential. Considering that the Temtem trainers never check for the traits, it's possible to defeat Max's Oree and Dr. Hamijo's Zaobian by sending a combo of Ganki/Gazuma and Nessla, and then spamming Chain Lightning at Temtem that are weak to electric, without the worry of being damaged by electric moves.
    • Loatle with the Voodoo trait prior to v1.3 can be used to easily cheese the dojo rematches. When a Temtem with Voodoo attacks their ally, the damage dealt to that ally is duplicated onto both enemy Temtem. When used alongside a Fast Charge Temtem such as Gazuma or Oree, Loatle is potentially able to KO the entire enemy team via attacking its ally before the computer even realizes what is happening. This team style is also doable in Player Versus Player, but it's generally harder to pull off thanks to humans being better able to plan around Voodoo. It was so overpowered that in v1.3 even after the nerfs, it was changed to where if Loatle applied a negative status condition or change to a rival, those effects would also effect the rival's partner.
  • PvP examples:
    • Kinu is widely considered game-breakingly powerful by the competitive playerbase thanks to its Protector trait. Protector gives Kinu's ally an additional stat stage of Defense and Special Defense when Kinu switches in. This basically enables any Temtem to become an extremely durable Mighty Glacier or Lightning Bruiser, with "raid boss" teams featuring Yowlar, Valash, or Pocus becoming popular. Kinu also has the very good Mental type, with its Beta Burst hitting decently hard by the standards of an uninvested attacking stat, and an array of supportive moves such as Hypnosis, Revitalize, and Sacrifice. Both Protector and Kinu itself have received multiple nerfs since the trait's introduction, yet it still remains one of the most used Temtem due to the sheer supportive capabilities it offers.
    • Yowlar was immediately noticed by players as being very overpowered, even before it was obtainable. It's extremely bulky, is weak only to the Mental type, has Show Off to boost its Attack, has two very strong attacks in Savage Suplex and Oshi-Dashi, and is able to heal itself via Hibernate. It's rather slow, but that can become a strength thanks to its trait Comebacker, which increases Yowlar's damage against enemies that attacked it earlier in the turn, to the point that players have begun breeding Yowlar that have the minimum speed possible. Even without support from the aforementioned Kinu, it can be a daunting task to take down a Yowlar, since it can sometimes come out ahead against the Mental-types it is supposed to lose to.
    • Nagaise can be considered a game-breaker thanks to its trait Deceit Aura. Deceit Aura functions like the Trick Room move from Pokémon, inverting the speed order and making the slowest Temtem move first in the turn, converting slow, bulky Temtem such as Yowlar and Goolder into fast, bulky Temtem as long as Nagaise remains on the field, making them incredibly difficult to deal with. Goolder deserves special mention due to its Bamboozle technique being able to shield Nagaise for a turn so that Nagaise can boost its stats with Madness Buff. Nagaise also has the very good Mental type, and the "fastest" sleep move in the game via speed-inverted Lullaby. Deceit Aura was nerfed significantly in the Cipanku patch, being changed to last only for the first 4 turns Nagaise is on the field, but it's still a force to be reckoned with. Deceit Aura was so centralizing that in the v0.9 update, it was changed to where it now cuts half of its user's HP when they enter the battlefield, making it challenging for Nagaise to stick around. And even then, it was still centralizing to the point that Deceit Aura was changed again in v1.5 to invert the priority of techniques used instead.
    • The technique Quetza-leño immediately became a meta force upon being introduced, giving birth to a new, strong team archetype. It's an already strong Fire-type technique, but when used alongside a Neutral-type ally, it gains a level of priority, effectively giving its user a 50% boost to speed, along with a slight power boost. It also has 0 hold, enabling the user to spam it turn after turn. The primary drawback is its high stamina cost, but that's well worth the cost.
    • The Fire and Nature-type varieties of Koish are also considered game-breakers. Koish is a Water Temtem that can have any secondary type, which is determined upon capture, and the different varieties each have slightly different move-lists. All Koish had the trait Synergy Master, which gives a 25% damage boost to the user or its ally when using a synergy technique. In v0.9, its Synergy Master trait was replaced with Synergy Adept, which boosts synergy techniques by 15% instead. The alternative trait, Iridescence, inverts all of Koish's defensive matchups (meaning that it is weak to anything that it would otherwise resist and vice-versa), which can be a nasty surprise for an unsuspecting opponent. The Fire-type Koish is by far the best user of the aforementioned Quetza-leño thanks to its Water typing threatening the Earth Temtem which threaten the other Quetza-leño users, as well as threatening the other Quetza-leño users itself. Fire Koish was already strong upon its introduction, but was actually buffed in the Cipanku update, in which it gained Lava Wave, which is essentially a Quetza-leño that synergizes with Water Temtem instead of Neutrals. This got so bad that Quetza-leño was removed from Koish's movepool in version 0.7.2 (it got to keep Lava Wave, though). Nature Koish isn't as oppressive as its fiery sibling, but its Water-Cutting Lily technique still hits rather hard when used alongside a Water ally, with Babawa being a popular partner thanks to it also knowing WCL; while on paper, both of them are wrecked by Toxic moves, if Koish has Iridescence, it actually resists Toxic moves, so opponents can't just throw a Toxic-type onto the field and expect it to shut them down every time.
    • Oceara arguably became a game-breaker after the Cipanku update granted it Hurry-wart, letting it fire off Tsunamis and Aquatic Whirlwinds immediately after switching in, when previously it needed to wait a turn to charge up. This change alone propelled Oceara from the bottom of the tier list to the top, with it becoming a popular partner for the aforementioned Koish-Fire. Its main weakness is low stamina, but that doesn't matter much when you're dealing huge damage every turn.
    • Chromeon possesses the fantastic Digital type, which nothing resists. Most Digital Temtem are actually rather well-balanced around the fact that they have unresisted STAB, but Chromeon has the Synertyper trait, which gives it a 30% damage boost if Chromeon's ally shares a type with it. Chromeon is also like Koish in that it can have any secondary type, so you can determine at the teambuilding stage what type of Chromeon is most likely to get the boost from Synertyper.
    • Mimit's Landing Transmog trait transforms it into the Temtem on its left upon entering battle, letting you potentially get two of any of the aforementioned game-breakers, with Koish and Chromeon being popular partners.
    • Chimurian has a very ideal stat spread with high defenses and speed and good attack, with only its Special Attack being bad. It also has the Hostile trait, which gives it free Attack and Special Attack buffs upon entering the battlefield, and the Disgrace trait, which lowers the defensive stats of any Temtem that switches out. It was so overpowered that its stats were nerfed in v0.9, and it's still considered one of the strongest Temtem in the game.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Back in 2018, a fake Pokémon leak popped up showing a platypus as the Gen 8 Water-type starter. The leak ultimately turned out to be fake, but nonetheless the platypus mon became very popular. Cut to the release of Temtem, and one Temtem, Platypet, uses that exact design!^How?One of the backers of the game's Kickstarter, who pledged $6,000 to work with Crema to design their own Temtem, instead bought the rights to the platypus fakemon from the original artist and transferred those rights to Crema.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Prior to the 1.0 patch, Valiar was one of, if not the worst PvP Temtem in the game. While it has good stats, anything it does, every other Mental type in the game (with the possible exception of Mental Koish and Mental Chromeon) does better. And it also lacked any 0 Hold Mental Techniques until the 1.0 patch made Telekenetic Shrapnel a 0 Hold Technique.
  • Broccolem has the same problems as Valiar did before 1.0 in that it's outclassed by every other Nature and Melee type in what it can do.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Joking that temtem is, in fact, Digimon/Yu-Gi-Oh!/Yo Kai Watch/Monster Rancher/Duel Masters/(insert Mons Series here).
  • "She/Her" "He/Him" "They/Them" ^ExplanationThe option to have your character linked to gender-neutral pronouns, and select pronouns separately from your character's body type, led to a brief storm of angry (bigoted) gamers bombing Temtem with negative reviews. This led to those who agreed with the inclusion of non-binary and trans-affirming pronouns joking about the bad reviews en masse.
  • Crystal Skates Crystal Skates Crystal Skates ^ExplanationAs of the early access release, players lose the Crystal Skates item that leads to several useful areas and items as part of the story, and then the available story content ends before you get them back. The amount of players asking for it eventually led to the devs telling players that a Tateru dies each time they ask. Cue players spamming it repeatedly.
  • An edit of Surprised Pikachu◊ (now as a Tateru) is popular with the community.
• Narm Charm: The song (especially the full version) from the trailer has the cheese and fun of a 4Kids-dubbed opening title. The actually great animation from the trailer doesn't hurt, either.
• Nintendo Hard: The Dojo Masters are said to be the strongest tamers of their respective island. The initial fight against each of them in the story is already quite challenging, but the rematches push it even further, making use of the competitive-styled pick & ban format.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Breeding is a mess. If you want a temtem with the exact traits and abilities you want, be prepared to do a huge amount of grinding and money spending, since nearly everything about what a new temtem inherits is completely random. Also, a temtem can only be bred a fixed number of times, with offspring inheriting their parents' fertility value (meaning that the offspring of a parent that becomes sterile upon breeding will be sterile itself), and the various "Telomere Hack" items that can be used to adjust a temtem's stats also lower fertility.
• Surprise Difficulty: In spite of how cutesy it looks and how casual most other creature-collecting games are, Temtem pulls absolutely no punches. Enemy Tamers are consistently at or above your level, and provide a serious challenge right from the start. The Final Boss being a Time-Limit Boss does not help.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The melody of the song in the trailer on Steam for the game is somewhere between 'The Day' from My Hero Academia and the theme song for Super Dragon Ball Heroes.
• Tear Jerker: Now has its own page.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Being heavily inspired by Pokémon, players either think Temtem is a polished game that is what Pokémon should be, or a straight rip-off that doesn't do anything better than Pokémon.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: After Max, who had spent the whole game up to that point working with the Belsotos and even got the player falsely imprisoned, "dies" at the end of the Kisiwa storyline, everyone suddenly starts feeling sorry for them. Many players found this tonal shift jarring.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Despite the stylized look, temtem has enough occasional bits of swearing, references to alcohol, and other, more mature topics to make it clear the game is targeting an older audience. Much of the dialogue also touches on some more adult subject matter that would go over a younger player's head, like Professor Konstantinos being a college professor rather than a labcoat-wearing scientist. Admittedly, this is mostly a case of Values Dissonance, since in its native Spain, most of these elements don't raise an eyebrow in kids' media.

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