It is a guarantee that upon reading the headline your mind went immediately to Pokemon clones you have already played/enjoyed. At this point in video games, Pokemon and monster taming might as well be their own genre, as it is such a both broad and very specific identifier.
In this rough year there have been moments of brightness, and anyone still jonesing for more after playing Sword and Shield last year and all of the DLC this year will finally find some solace.
Temtem (PC, PS5)
Temtem is rather unique in that it takes the concept of Pokemon and molds it into an MMO of sorts. As you might expect, it adds a splash of co-op and actual communication with other players. The co-op aspect is a wonderful change as it makes Pokemon the larger community game it deserves to be,
As with classic Pokemon (pre-Sword and Shield) monster’s appear through random battle while walking.
Temtem is more in line with recent 3DS releases and Sword and Shield as the game is in 3D. Temtem are captured through TemCards that the animation appears to show will digitize a monster.
Battles are in 2v2 and Temtem skills are based off of a stamina system rather than a set number of uses per move as with the PP mechanic in Pokemon.
Temtem is still currently considered to be in Early Access and will fully release sometime in 2021. Twinfinite has a whole Guide Wiki for Temtem if you need some help after picking it up.
