Cassette Beasts is more than just Pokémon

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Cassette Beasts (Reviewed)

Developer: Bytten Studio

Publisher: Raw Fury

Released: Apr 26, 2023

Price: $20 USD

Cassette Beasts is what I would call an excellent attempt at resurrecting a monotonous and linear game like the Pokémon series, combined with an absolute banger soundtrack and reminiscent elements of relationship and bonding amongst the friends you meet, comparable to the Persona series.

The game features a wonderful pixel graphic aesthetic that will be familiar to anyone who has played any Pokémon game in recent years. While it is similar, it is sufficiently distinct in its own style and charm to avoid being a "knockoff."

In this game, you will journey across the mysterious continent of New Wirral, an island in what looks to be an infinite ocean somewhere other than Earth.

The residents of this land get here by unknown means, washing up on the beach or sometimes falling from the sky, distant from home and with a diverse cast from many centuries. The present, the 1980s, and even the future.

Story

Lost

You have no idea where you are but soon find out. You've been swept up on the beach of New Wirral, trapped on an island with no memory of how you got there.

You regain your footing and travel to a nearby town, where you are met by a girl named Kayleigh while engaged in a turn-based combat with a traffic cone(Krab).

With the usage of Cassette Tapes, that allow you to morph into various beasts captured during your adventures, you'll be fighting to find a way off this island!

Relationships

While this isn't required to complete the game, each character can be developed through interaction and discussion as you fight and battle your way around.

If you make it to the a high relation, you might find some secret exchanges where you can declare your feelings for the characters. This is when Persona analogy comes into play. I really like this, because it feels like you're making friends, rather than walking around a linear and dead world with no personality at all.

When battling together, the greater your relationship, the greater your damage.

Gameplay

Extremely fun

What sells this game is the notion that you can play it in almost any way you desire in multiple areas. If you don't like what you have now, you can easily change all of your Cassette stickers, also known as abilities, to fit your playstyle.

I've played the entire game in the same manner since it's so gratifying. That is, despite the fact that my astral Bansheep has a considerably higher damage output with magic, I am forcing her to use melee. The difficulty is that she frequently goes berserk when hit with melee, limiting her to melee attacks.

I've subsequently trained my character at the gym and focused all of my skill points on melee, so while I'm a lot more squishy, I can easily one-shot any beast that isn't metal or has a physical strike resistance. That's where Decibelle comes in, applying a random status impact many times every second.

If I can get a Sleep or a Statue effect, or perhaps a triple resonance. For the opponent, it's all over. If they manage to kill Bansheep, she will immediately apply three more curses (effects) that, if we're lucky, will be the ones we need to impede their ability to attack us each round, especially if Decibelle can maintain landing more duration increases. It may be RNG, but it's a lot of fun.

I've found the highest melee damage talents I could find, as well as as much AP sustain and hopefully a free Last Rites at the start, to take out their first forms.

Play your way

To cut a long story short, this is actually an "Adventure" game.

You can play however you choose. The physics in this game are quite goofy, and you can do things like shoot yourself into the sky, soar around on metal boxes, and even jump up ledges that you would typically be unable to achieve if you held onto a box or rock. Allowing you to travel to locations before earning the necessary beast power. While some may say this is stupid, it's definitely non-linear if you really want it to be.

Presentation

Feels great

The images don't feel out of place, and even though they use a few distinct art styles, they complement each other effectively. Combine that with the music for which you have the choice to turn off the vocals and you'll realize why it's such a banger. Despite the fact that you will eventually understand that the music list is limited, you will hum to yourself for hours, if not days, after playing the game.

It does a great job being unique with everything including it's world physics.

Conclusion

It's an absolute gem

The soundtrack. The graphics. The Narrative. The entire world. The hundreds if not thousands of different fusion combinations and bootleg variants as well.

Everything about this game, which was created by two independent devs, outperforms the mega-franchise that is Pokémon . That series to me died with the originals, only to be dragged on for so long with nary a good game since the recent Legends of Arceus for the Nintendo switch.

If you're unsure about this game, don't be. Seriously, it's fantastic. I haven't had as much fun with a Pokémon-themed game done uniquely in a very long time.

The game hosts over 25 hours of content if you take your time and don't rush yourself with a lot of characters to meet, befriend and build relationships with.

This concludes my views of this game; while my opinions may be met with criticism, that is what distinguishes gamers; you don't have to like the same things as others, nor do you have to agree with them.

If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.

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- Pawkt