I’ll be the first one to admit that the auto battler genre isn’t everyone’s jam, but for those who enjoy the blend between econ management, team building and tactical positioning, Batomon Showdown hits hard.
The game came out about two weeks ago and I’ve been completely hooked ever since. It’s available on both mobile ($6 on Android) and PC ($15 on Steam), it’s super affordable and it has that addicting quality you get from great roguelikes: At the end of a run, all you want to do is launch into another.
The gameplay can largely be summed up as Pokémon meets Super Auto Pets. Every day you get a little money that you can spend by buying monsters or items. Individual creatures are spread across a range of rarities (common, uncommon, legendary, etc.) and belong to one or more types — like fire, toxic, flying and rock. If you construct a team with multiple monsters of the same faction, they can synergize with each other to boost their attacks (or defenses in some cases). And if you buy three copies of the same creature, they will merge together, level up and give you a trinket to boost your squad even further.
Meanwhile, items can augment your squad by doing things like reducing cooldowns, giving you trinkets (aka powerups), generating money and more. And if you’re not happy with the current selection in your store, you can spend a bit of cash and re-roll it. For anyone who has played other games in the genre like Teamfight Tactics, Hearthstone Battlegrounds and DOTA Autochess, the general setup of Batomon Showdown will feel immediately familiar.
Where things get really interesting are all the little twists developer Berrymint has thrown into the format. Batomon Showdown features lovely modern pixel graphics with cute sprites for each monster along with a rotating roster of trainers. At the beginning of each run, you can choose from one of three characters, who will then lend a passive trait to your squad.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
However, just like in Pokémon, the real stars of the game are the monsters themselves. Each type has its own playstyle. Toxic creatures rely on poison to do damage, while water types often try to outheal the opposing team’s attacks. But many individual monsters can become win conditions in their own right when supported properly.
Take for example Pipskull. It’s a common low-cost creature that reminds me of a cross between a Rattata and a Cubone. At first it doesn’t do much. But after you knock it out a few times, which is the core mechanic for ghost type creatures, it evolves and gains multicast, which allows it to fire off a barrage of attacks whenever it casts. The best part is that after evolving, every subsequent knockout grants it additional multicast permanently. Even though it may only be doing 25 to 50 damage each hit, when its multicast gets up to 30x, 40x or even 50x, the little ghost rat becomes a veritable machine gun.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Alternatively, another one of my go-to strategies is if I can get an early upgrade for a Bonshell, which reminds me a lot of a Torterra, it gains both damage and shielding every time it casts for the rest of the battle. Then, I just try to survive long enough to pair it with other rock types including a Rhizuka. That monster has a really fun ability that triggers its attack when any of your other monsters applies a shield, and from there I think you can see where things might get a bit crazy, but in a super fun way. Your other rock types apply shields, slowing down or even completely walling out incoming damage, while the Rhizuka sits in the back and rains down mortars behind shields that just get larger and larger. If you can pull it off, it’s like having an immovable object and an unstoppable force on the same team.
Sam Rutherford
I also appreciate that Batomon’s monsters are divided into different regions. Not only does this give the developer the freedom to easily expand the roster later on (and updates will be free), there are also some traits that allow some creatures to visit from other regions, which opens up even more team building strategies when it happens.
So far, I only have a couple minor critiques. At first, monsters from the Jinto region were significantly stronger than the others. But Berrymint is well aware of this and has already instituted a balance patch to address it. My other gripe is that sometimes I feel like a run is over a bit too soon. Even if you survive long enough to earn a full 10 badges (you get one badge for winning each face off against another trainer), I find I run into situations where my team strategy is just beginning to pay off when a run finishes. I’d really love some sort of infinite mode like you get in Balatro or other roguelikes, where you can keep playing after “winning” while the difficulty keeps ramping up until even the most overpowered compositions struggle. But given the pace of Berrymint’s recent updates, I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets added in the not-too-distant future.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
All told, Batomon Showdown might not be completely unending the genre, but it’s a really solid auto battler in its own right. For a game type that’s still growing in popularity, I appreciate any well-made new entries into the format. And for as little as $6 for the mobile version, it delivers a ton of fun for not a lot of money.
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