Kādomon: Hyper Auto Battlers | PC Early Access Review

I swear if this game was 3-D, had guns, and forced working environments, it too would be on the line for being too close to Pokemon.  Enter the world of Kadomon: Hyper Auto Battlers, brought to you from developers Dino Rocket and publishers Fireshine Games. A fun little auto battler with a knack for cuteness, Kadomon combines aspects from games like Pokemon, Slay The Spire, and Super Autopets that brings you a different type, but familiar game. With 180 creatures and secret combinations to find, this game offers more than just fighting your way to the bosses.

Gotta Catch Most of Them

Kadomon: Hyper Auto Battlers doesn’t have a story, but what it lacks in plot it makes up for in a kind of exploration that can take several playthroughs. You start off by choosing one of three starters and are sent out into the world to catch and battle new and different types of Kadomon. Taking different paths will also put you in certain areas of the region. This allows the capture of different types of Kadomon as well as changing up your team to apply new strategies.

The map allows you to see the Kadomon that are in the next areas so you can make informed decisions on your next move. All the Kadomon have a type such as water, fire, ground, and so on. These types only appear in certain areas of the map, and if you are trying to unlock all the Kadomon, you will be looking to take paths that put those types in front of you more often. As you battle your way through the region you’ll also find new challenges such as bosses and events adding a bit of challenge to the run. 

Prepare For Battle

The core of Kadomon: Hyper Auto Battlers is the battling. They allow you to use four Kadomon at a time with six in a sidebar to swap out, either for different strategies or typing advantages. Each Kadomon can hold an item that adds an effect to either itself or another Kadomon around it. There are also consumable items that might add a buff to its stats or raise its XP. In the battles, the Kadomon have a variety of attacks and skills that drastically change how you place your Kadomon on the field.

The field itself is a rhombus or zigzag pattern. While your Kadomon are still in the order you placed them, the shape of the field allows Kadomon with adjacent abilities to affect your whole team rather than just one or two if placed correctly. Typing plays a role in what Kadomon you bring to battle. While there isn’t a whole lot of time to be picky with the typing of your Kadomon, you can choose paths that your Kadomon would have an advantage in. The typing of your Kadomon can also be changed or added to in certain events to increase their effectiveness.

At the end of battle you earn money, XP, and a Kadomon you fought to add to your team. Selecting a Kadomon for your team that you already have will, instead, add an increased amount of XP to the one you own. The farther you get, the stronger the Kadomon you battle will be. Luckily, as you battle, your Kadomon will also gain XP and evolve into stronger forms upgrading their attack strength and abilities. In later levels it gets less advantageous to swap for new Kadomon since they will be weaker than the team you have been using. By the end, changing anything could mean the end of your run. 

Combo Breaker!

I have a love/hate relationship with games like this. It’s fun, fast, easy, and watching this really cool combination of abilities you set up completely ruin the enemy team is always awesome. On the other hand, RNG has it out for you. You might feel like you can’t set up, and you have to start over. I hate starting over. I know, the game is only about an hour long, but I don’t care. I’ve built a team, it was great, mistakes happened, and now I’m at square one again trying to set up.

Unlike some other games like this, Kadomon: Hyper Auto Battlers breaks up the pace by having you look for new Kadomon, items, and combos. Certain items can be combined to make different items. Some are more useful, some not so much. Kadomon also have hidden combos with items. Level 3 is the highest evolution one can get to, but I added a certain item to it, and at the end of the next battle it became level 4. I had completed a reference to an anime at my child’s request. He thought it was funny to have something like that in game, but was amazed when it actually became what he had hoped. I love when games have references to outside media and rewards players for knowing them. It gives a small insight to the developers and adds reasons to find more. It seems there are plenty of them to find; you just have to keep starting over.

Kadomon: Hyper Auto Battlers Final Verdict

Kadomon: Hyper Auto Battlers is short, but can be thoughtful. Strategies vary from run to run, and you might need to panic build a team or two, but that’s ok. Part of the fun is trying new Kadomon out and trying to put combos together. I think that what partially sold me on the game was that it changed from a battler to a collection game. I wasn’t as worried to get to the end as I was to find the Kadomon I was missing, and I’m still missing a lot.

The game gives you everything you need to succeed and takes anywhere from five minutes to an hour to complete a run depending on how you play. Auto battlers aren’t for everyone, but given the idea that Kadomon: Hyper Auto Battlers got a few different hooks in me for different reasons makes me want to play it more than some others. Who knows, maybe you’ll find something I didn’t in the game and it’ll catch you instead.

To hear me talk more about Kadomon: Hyper Auto Battlers, be sure to listen to the April 3rd, 2024 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:31:50 time stamp.

This review is based on a PC Early Access Review of Kādomon: Hyper Auto Battlers provided by 71 Consulting for coverage purposes. As of the time of this writing, it is exclusive to this platform.