Pokemon is one of the most loved franchises in gaming due to its fascinating creatures and gameplay that can get anyone glued to their device for a long time. Pokemon is still thriving in the ever-growing gaming market and with this growth comes a lot of clones trying to take a piece of the pie it has in the industry. The game we’re looking at today, found in the Binance Smart Chain, Kryptomon may be one of the most promising clones in the play-to-earn space.

Graphics/ Art style

Although it sounds almost like Pokemon, it doesn’t look that close. You can see that the designers of the game had a specific style in mind but still borrowed some of the elements you see in the older pokemon games. I would dare say that the monsters in the game called Kryptomons look closer to the game Dragon City which looks more cartoony than the animation we often associate with Japanese anime. This makes the experience sort of new since the gameplay also has shades of Tamagotchi in it. 

The game designers did a good job in representing the elements each Kryptomon has and their abilities also reflect the element they possess which include the usual fire, water, earth, air, nature, electric, ice, and ghost. Although I believe more work can be done with the effects of these abilities in battle 

Gameplay

The developers were clearly inspired by earlier Japanese game consoles; Including elements of Pokemon with Tamagotchi gameplay for taking care of your Kryptomon while it is still young and not on the battlefield squaring off with other monsters. This makes for a pretty enjoyable experience while playing since you get to see the Kryptomon you own grow until they are ready for battle. 

Right now, there are only 2 modes in the game; training mode, which is what you have on default when you are not engaged in the 2nd mode; combat mode, which you play either against a computer or other players. Although some may just want to focus on combat, taking care of the Kryptomon is important since they can die and become unusable if their health parameters go 0.**
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There are also regular events that the team sets up every month like monthly treasure hunts which are similar to Pokemon Go! Players are encouraged to go outside of their homes and visit marked spots on their maps to get a chance to receive items from chests scattered around their area. 

Tokenomics/ Earning Mechanics

Kryptomon uses KMON as its native token. This is used to buy loot boxes, items and other NFT Kryptomons. There are daily and weekly missions that refresh often to help with the earning mechanics of the players as well as give them varying objectives in the game to not make the game experience repetitive. 

KMON can also be earned by staking and opening loot boxes which are given daily to players for free to help keep their Kryptomons in shape. KMON is used for most of the activities you do in the game like breeding and buying items to help keep your Kryptomon in its best form. Soon it can be used to increase the stakes by staking KMON in a competitive battle versus other Kryptomon trainers. As of writing, KMON is valued at $0.011 with a market cap of $ 2, 048, 756

Final Thoughts

As a fan of the Pokemon franchise, I find Kryptomon enjoyable enough. Although it is not equal to the beloved Nintendo project, I think it packs enough activities to keep players checking the game daily. I also really liked the Tamagotchi mechanic they added since in the original Pokemon game you couldn’t feed your Pikachu or play with your Charmander which this game implemented quite well. 

My recommendation would be to improve the graphics a little bit more because even though I personally like them, I am sure that the cartoony style is not for everyone and if they really want to establish a larger player base they should create a more mass-appealing aesthetic to the game. I also suggest improving on the battle system since the user interface is a bit too plain in my opinion. I guess adding a bit of flair and style wouldn’t hurt as long as it remains easy to navigate. I’m looking forward to what new things the Kryptomon team will do to make this pokemon-inspired game in a league of its own.