Pokemon Fans Should Circle December 3 On Their Calendars

2024 has been an oddly quiet year for the Pokemon franchise. While there have been some exciting announcements here and there, like the reveal of Pokemon Legends Z-A and the unveiling of Pokemon Horizons: The Series‘ second season, there hasn’t really been any new content for console gamers to enjoy. Indeed, 2024 is the first year in almost a decade in which The Pokemon Company hasn’t released a new Pokemon game, remake, or expansion for a Nintendo platform. The wildly successful Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket was launched earlier this year on iOS and Android, but that’s pretty much it.

While fans wait for Nintendo to release the next big entry in the Pokemo n series, they can give some alternatives a shot in the meantime. One such Pokemon-style game, in fact, is heading to PlayStation Plus very soon. Earlier this week, Sony announced that the creature-collecting RPG Temtem was coming to PS Plus as part of the Monthly Games Catalog for December. The game, which is going to be added to the service alongside It Takes Two and Aliens: Dark Descent, will be available to all PlayStation Plus members (e.g. Essential, Extra, and Premium subscribers) from December 3 to January 6.

Temtem Will Be Part of PlayStation Plus’s Monthly Games Lineup For December

Temtem Shares a Lot in Common With Pokemon, But It’s Still Unique in a Lot of Ways

A lot of video games have tried to emulate Pokemon‘s monster-catching formula over the years, but the majority of them have either been unsuccessful or have not gained much attention from mainstream audiences. Temtem, however, is probably one of the most well-known of these Pokemon-style games. Developed by the independent Spanish studio Crema and published by Humble Bundle, Temtem was originally announced on Kickstarter in 2018. Once it raised enough funds from fans, it was released for PC through Steam’s Early Access program in January 2020. The game was ported to PlayStation 5 later that year, and was subsequently brought to Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch in 2022.

Temtem‘s basic premise is very similar to Pokemon‘s. Players are placed in the shoes of rookie Temtem tamers who, in order to become the very best, must travel across the six islands of the Airborne Archipelago to defeat eight different Dojo Leaders, all while battling evil Clan Belsoto grunts along the way. The game also features turn-based combat, much like in Pokemon. Where Temtem does distinguish itself from Nintendo’s hit franchise, however, is in its genre. Unlike the mainline Pokemon installments, this game is an online-only MMORPG. Players can play by themselves and fight in competitive PvP battles, or they can team up with friends. In addition, they can create houses, customize their in-game avatars, and trade Temtems with other players, as well.

The Developers Behind Temtem Confirmed that It Won’t Receive Big Updates Anymore

Although Temtem has largely been a critical and commercial success, it is no longer receiving new content updates. Crema announced back in March 2024 that support for the MMO would come to an end later this year. While it’s unfortunate that gamers who try the game out on PS Plus won’t have any future content to look forward to, it will at least remain playable for the foreseeable future. On the bright side, all the microtransactions that were once present in Temtem have recently been removed, so players don’t have to worry about spending bucketloads of cash on in-game purchases.

Temtem is the Closest Thing to Pokemon on PS5

Unless something drastically changes with Nintendo’s business strategy in the next few years, the Pokemon games will almost certainly never come to PlayStation consoles. As such, for PS5 owners, Temtem is probably the next best thing. When the creature-collecting MMORPG hits PS Plus on December 3, PlayStation fans should make sure to add it to their libraries. If they enjoy it, they may want to check out Crema’s most recent game, Temtem: Swarm. Although this Vampire Survivors-style action RPG is only available on PC and doesn’t share a lot in common with Pokemon, it may be worth giving a look.

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Pokemon

Pokemon is a franchise that needs no introduction. One of the most successful media empires in history, Pokemon spans games, television, films, manga, merchandise, music, and more.
 

Created by

Satoshi Tajiri

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