Nyanko Daisensou

is a free-to-play tower defense video game developed and published by PONOS Corporation for iOS and Android, which was originally released in Japan under the name ''にゃんこ大戦争'' (Nyanko Great War). ''The Battle Cats'' debuted on the Japanese iOS App Store in November 2011 under the name of ''Battle Nekos'', with Android support following in December of that same year. It received immense popularity in Japan and Korea. It later was deleted in both the US Google Play stores and App Store, with an improved version of the game released on September 17, 2014. A Microsoft Windows port release was released in August 2017, and was available for download until late 2018, when PONOS Corporation cut support for it. It was ported to the Nintendo 3DS in 2016 and Nintendo Switch in Japan in 2018 and Southeast Asia in 2021.

Plot

The plot in the game is taught through screens of scrolling text, usually appearing at the beginning and end of each "Chapter".

Empire of Cats

The story of Empire of Cats (commonly shortened to EoC) consists of an army of "Battle Cats" appearing amidst the world's varying crises. The identity of the creator of these Battle Cats is the fictional deity The Cat God, which can be unlocked as a power up early into the story, and beating chapter two of Cats Of The Cosmos unlocks it as a unit. The cats then proceed to take over the world, to harness the world's power.

Into the Future

The second main story chapter of the game, Into the Future (shortened to ItF)'s story revolves around a time machine the cats obtained in the beginning of Stories of Legend. Using this, they travelled to the future, and find that Aliens have taken over Earth. Battles for the world then commence between the 2 forces.

Cats of the Cosmos

The current final main chapter of the game, Cats of the Cosmos (often shortened to CotC) begins when interplanetary travel becomes possible. Utilizing this technology, the cats begin to invade outer space, attacking a variety of places in the Cosmos.

Gameplay

The Battle Cats is a tower defense game where the player selects a team of in-game unlockable "cats" with different stat amounts to defeat enemies in order to protect their base (called "Cat Base"). The gameplay involves sending a wide roster of cats out onto a 2D battlefield to defend the Cat Base. The enemies may have in-game traits such as "Red", "Floating", "Black", "Metal", "Alien", "Starred Aliens" (which fall under the Alien category), "Angel", "Zombie", "Aku", "Relic", and "Behemoth". Enemies without a trait are considered "Traitless" enemies.

The Battle Cats contains 3 main story chapters: Empire of Cats (EoC), Into the Future (ItF) and Cats of the Cosmos (CotC). Each main story contains 3 chapters. Additionally, it contains two extra chapters: The Legend Stages and the Catclaw Dojo. The Legend Stages contain multiple stages filled with new enemies and some event stages (including collaborated stages). The Catclaw Dojo contains a stage to test how many enemies you can defeat within a given period of time, with an addition of some collaborated stages of the same premise, except with collaborated enemies.

The Legend Stages are further divided into two categories: Stories of Legend (SoL) and Uncanny Legends (UL), with the latter being unlocked after completing the former. There is also an additional category for scheduled and general event stages, and another category for Collaboration stages. The Stories of Legends take place within the same dimension of the three previous Stories, except it was back in time; before the Legends/Legend Cats were sealed. Uncanny Legends takes place even before Stories of Legend timeline wise, with some of the Legend cats you get from this chapter being indicated to be the ancestors of some Stories of Legend cats.

The cats are the protagonists that the player deploys throughout the game. The cats are all unique in their own sense, design, and ability. Many cats may not look like or be a typical cat (and are sometimes equipped with external objects such as weapons or machines) or are characters earned in collaboration with other games. Almost all units in the game have a distinctive cat face, cat or cat shaped object/being somewhere on their sprite. Cats have level caps, and reaching one of these means one will not be able to upgrade that cat further. The level caps differ from rarity to rarity and unit to unit. All cats can be upgraded to a maximum level of lv50, with the exception of the "Legend cats" obtained from Stories of legends stages and Uncanny Legends stages, which can only be upgraded to lv40 at maximum. Double-ups obtained in Gacha can be used to add additional "plus levels" to a cat unit."Catseyes" can also be used to increase the level cap of some units. The cats are divided into six categories: Basic, Special, Rare, Super Rare, Uber Super Rare (commonly shortened to Uber Rare or just Uber), and Legend Rare (??? Rare before you unlock one). The Battle Cats frequently has collaboration events (colloquialised as collabs) where players can earn cats called collaboration units. The nine basic cats are the first cats available and are the easiest to upgrade. They have a max upgrade level of 20 but can be increased with Cat Capsule duplicates. After upgrading to level 30 with "Plus levels", the player can evolve the cat into what is called its True Form. Later on in the game, a 10th Basic cat is unlocked, titled "Superfeline". It can be unlocked via the "Cat Capsule+" after beating the 3rd story chapter of "Cats of the Cosmos". True Forms for other units are obtained by having the required "Catfruit/behemoth stones" from 11.5 and XP and having them on a certain level. The Special Cats are the second type of cat unlocked. They can be unlocked by drop rewards of certain stages, be bought by cat food (the premium currency of the game), or just by simply collecting the unit by opening the game at certain times. The Rare, Super Rare, Uber Super Rare and ?? Rare (Legend Rare) cats can be unlocked with a rare cat capsule, which requires golden or platinum tickets to operate or to be unlocked in special stages. They are more expensive to upgrade than basic cats and most special cats, but are usually stronger than the basic cats (not to mention "crazed" cats and "manic" cats, the latter being the true forms of the crazed cats), which are buffed versions of the basic cats in the Super Rare Tier, which can be unlocked in special levels in the Legend stages chapter category.

Fighting in battle requires "energy", which slowly regenerates over time. Every one minute, one energy is recovered (the energy recovery rate can be sped up with treasures, up to 1 energy every 30 seconds). The app requires an internet connection in order for energy to update, but if the app has already been opened, the energy amount increases without internet. Max energy can be raised with upgrades and treasures. The player can bring items into the battle that assist such as "Sniper the Cat," a tool that pushes enemies back from the base and deals small damage, and "Cat CPU," a tool that automatically deploys specific cats as soon as money is available, and so on. Some of the stages have special restrictions such as "Special and Rare Cats only."(That mostly applying to "4 crown" stages, formerly known as "4 star stages") The battle takes place on a 2D plane with the player's base on the right, and the enemy base on the left. The player gains a continuous stream of money, which can be spent to either deploy cats or to upgrade the money production speed along with the maximum amount of money you can receive in a game. Deploying cats requires a cooldown, which can be reduced by upgrades and treasures, and "Cat Combos". The battle ends when one of the bases is destroyed. Winning the battle in the main story chapters (1-9) gives the player a chance to get a treasure. Collecting all of them can buff cats' abilities and can also enhance other game mechanics, such as decreased energy recharge time. There are three levels of treasure: Inferior, Normal, and Superior, with an Inferior treasure being the weakest and Superior treasure being the strongest. Players can replay stages to get all the treasures. Players can also use a Treasure Radar powerup to have a 100% chance to get a superior treasure if they complete the battle. The treasure radar can also be used to get a reward in certain stages such as a true form or new unit.

There is a huge roster of enemies all of different stats and types, with more being added with each new update.

Gamatoto Expedition

Gamatoto is an expedition minigame where the player sends out servant cats to search for different resources such as XP, Cat Food and various boost items (speed-up, rich cat, cat cpu, etc) which can be used in the battle for various purposes, like the Cat jobs, which increases the amount of XP you receive in a stage by 1.5 times. There are 5 levels of Gamatoto helpers that each give a boost to item drop rates, and can be identified by the color of their hats, with white being the lowest and the color of the legend rare crystals being the best (although you do have to obtain 10 golden helpers to get one).

Cat Capsule

''Cat Capsule,'' often referred to as Gacha, is an area where the player can spend Cat Tickets, Rare Cat Tickets, Lucky Tickets and Cat Food to obtain Cat Units and Ability Capsules. The rewards earned are then either immediately used, immediately exchanged for XP/NP, saved in the Cat Storage to be used later, or exchanged to get a Rare Ticket.

Console ports

''The Battle Cats POP!''

''The Battle Cats POP!'' (often abbreviated to BCP) was released for the Nintendo 3DS worldwide on June 27, 2016. The game featured mechanics similar to ''The Battle Cats'', but also introduced a 2 player VS mode and made use of the 3DS 3D capabilities.

Reception

''The Battle Cats POP!'' received average reviews. CJ Andriessen of '' Destructoid'' gave the game a 7 out of 10 and wrote that "The Battle Cats POP! is a game that's as fun as it is weird. When it's not putting you in time out with the energy meter, it can be addictive like Pokémon. Too much of its free-to-play roots are still present, but even with these elements, it's still a worthwhile time killer." Matt S. of ''Digitally Downloaded'' gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and noted "what sets Battle Cats apart from the many similar games of similar depth and strategy is that hugely creative edge. This game is the distinctive and memorable example of the genre, because the artists had the sense to do something that makes no sense, but we end up looking forward to each new level just to see the insanity that it brings." However, the stamina system was criticized by reviewers, as Louisa Bhairam with '' Nintendo Life'' stated "It's a bit of an odd system for a game which requires no micro-transactions, ..It's a feature which should have been removed entirely for the 3DS version.

''The Battle Cats Unite!''

''The Battle Cats Unite!'' was released for the Nintendo Switch by Bandai Namco Entertainment in Japan and Southeast Asia on December 9, 2021. The game is a revamped port of The Battle Cats, with a new 2-player co-op mode and four different minigames being exclusive to this version.

Spinoffs

''Battle Cats Rangers''

''Battle Cats Rangers,'' an idle/clicker game published by MEMORY Inc and developed with YD Online Corp, was released for Android and iOS devices on April 27, 2017. In ''Battle Cats Rangers,'' players tap the screen as quick as possible to attack incoming enemies and bosses that swarm their team of cats. 2 weeks prior to the release, a pre-registration campaign was announced which encouraged users to sign up for in-game currency. By using coins and cat food, the in-game currency, players can level up their cats to deal more damage and progress through the game. Overtime, players can add more cats to their team and encounter stronger enemies they have to defeat. After 2 years, the game shut down its online servers and the game was no longer playable after March 29, 2019.

''Go! Go! Pogo Cat''

5 years after the release of The Battle Cats, PONOS Corp released ''Go! Go! Pogo Cat'', a simple infinite platformer similar to Flappy Bird. The player directs a cat riding a pogo stick to gain as much distance as possible, collecting items like gems. For players that have The Battle Cats downloaded, they can complete certain missions in-game for rewards redeemable in The Battle Cats''.''

''Battle Cats Quest''

On November 14, 2021, PONOS Corp released ''Battle Cats Quest.'' In this game, players roll a spherical cat on land to knock off enemies from various stages and earn coins. Similarly to ''Go! Go! Pogo Cat'', players can complete in-game missions for rewards redeemable in The Battle Cats.

Notes

References

External links

The Battle Cats (Android)(iOS)

PONOS website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Cats, The
2014 video games
IOS games
Free-to-play video games
Mobile games
Indie video games
Strategy video games
Android (operating system) games
Tower defense video games
Nintendo 3DS games
Puzzle video games
Video games developed in Japan