Batomon Showdown Review – A Must-Play Auto Batt-o-ler

When I heard about a new auto battler coming out, I knew I had to jump in and see what all the talk was about. Batomon Showdown is the game of the hour, and I have been determined to see whether this auto battler is the next best game on the market. And to be completely honest, I am thoroughly surprised.

I found out about Batomon Showdown while it was still in beta, and I knew I wanted to check it out as soon as version 1.0 came out because the gameplay looked fun and enticing. I am happy to say my first assumptions were right, and this game has the potential to make a big splash.

When you first start the game, you are given an extremely brief tutorial on how to play. At first, I was a little put off by its brevity, but honestly, once I started playing, I understood why it was so short. There was not a ton to learn right off the bat, and the auto battler is rather straightforward.

Once you learn what to do, it’s time to start battling people. Batomon Showdown utilizes asynchronous player-versus-player combat. At the beginning of each run, you choose your trainer from three random selections that the game gives you. Each trainer has a special ability, so it’s important to think carefully about how you want to play. Then, you enter the shop and team creation screen. Your shop has five slots at the bottom of the screen. This is either going to be filled with five monsters, or there will be four monsters and an item.

Similar to Teamfight Tactics, you have a certain amount of money to spend on monsters that all cost different prices due to their varying rarities. The rarities are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare, Legendary, and Mythical. Prices for monsters start at a measly $10 for some common monsters, and prices go all the way up to $80 for a mythical batomon. Learning to manage your income is just as important as finding synergies between different batomon monsters.

Three Level One batomon monsters automatically level up to a Level Two monster. Then, three more Level One monsters combine with your other Level Two monster and make a Level Three monster. In some instances, you can reach a Level Four monster; however, this is only for certain batomon and in special situations.

Once you start facing other trainers, the real fun begins. If you win the battle, then you earn a badge. If you lose, though, you lose one to three hearts. You lose one in the early game, two in the mid game, and finally, three in the late game. You have 10 hearts to play with, and once you lose your last heart, you get one last redemption chance. If you win 10 matches, then you win the run.

Trainers must be cautious about where they place their batomon monsters on the board. In addition to on-cast abilities, some monsters have additional abilities that depend on where they are being placed on the board. Some monsters will affect all adjacent batomon, while others may affect the batomon behind, in front, above, or below them. Players have to read each batomon’s description carefully so they’re prepared and can put their best foot forward in battle.

Players must win five runs to unlock the second region, which includes different monsters than the starting region does. The region that all players start in is called Pantra. Then there is Jinto, the second region added later to the game; it includes 50+ new monsters and different mechanics than the typical Pantra region.

The game also has ranked and casual modes. Casual is simply trying to win 10 battles without losing all of your lives. Ranked play is the same, but you gain or lose stars based on how many badges you earn along the way. If you earn five or more, you tend to gain stars. If you earn four or fewer, you end up losing stars.

I really love this game. I think this game could be the next big auto battler. It has a strong, positive reception on Steam, with a “Very Positive” rating, and Batomon Showdown has been sitting in the number one spot in the “Popular New Releases” category. I really only have two issues with the game.

First, you can only view the stats screen immediately after the match, before advancing to the shop. Because you select trinkets, other power-ups, and items in the shop, it would be extremely helpful to see the past round’s stats. I think this would be an easy fix for berrymint, the developer. My second complaint is that ranked play is too long. There are eight levels of each rank, which seems so excessive to me. Yes, you heard that correctly. It goes from Bronze 8 to Bronze 1, with each level having five stars. A win automatically levels you up, but do eight wins to go to the next rank not seem a bit excessive? I would recommend five levels instead of eight, personally.

However, one of my favorite features is that you can play this game anywhere. It’s out on the Google Play store and is currently pending on the App Store. I downloaded it from Google Play, connected it to my Steam account easily, and had all my progress at my fingertips in seconds. The in-game pause and fast-forward buttons are amazing. Players can stop and hover over the enemies to see who is doing well or poorly, and they can speed things up if they’d like. I also love the variety among the batomon monsters, as they all seem very well thought out and planned. You can tell the developer put their heart and soul into this game.

There is not much of a story to Batomon Showdown, but with an auto battler, I wouldn’t really expect much of that anyway. The closest thing to a story are the events that pop up where the player chooses one of three items to take. The gameplay was amazing, and I never stopped being intrigued. I kept wanting to hit the play button over and over again. The graphics are also good for a monster auto battler; nothing spectacular or crazy, but good overall.

The soundtrack is also really fun, the music and sound effects really add to the fights and the overall game. They build tension and make things exciting, which is exactly what I want in an auto battler like this. Lastly, I had no technical issues on either PC or mobile. Everything worked as it should, and it was a very enjoyable experience.

Overall, I really could not recommend Batomon Showdown enough. If you like auto battlers or Pokemon, I definitely encourage you to check this game out. It’s fun, not too expensive, and has so much replayability that I will undoubtedly keep coming back for a long time. I think adding a stats button to the shop screen would be incredibly helpful, and streamlining ranked play would honestly make this game perfect. If you have never played an auto battler, this is a great first game. I highly recommend it, and I’ll see you guys in Pantra!

Angel reviewed Batomon Showdown on PC and mobile with her own bought copies. This review is based on the version of the game that was available at the time of writing, and our score will not be changed.