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INTRO:

One of the first series that ever got me into gaming was Pokemon. I mention this here because Cassette Beasts is so inspired by the groundwork Pokemon set up in games that it’s impossible not to mention it at least once in this review. Cassette Beasts rings more similar to early game Pokemon than the recent fare. This is a positive, because newer generation Pokemon has proven disappointing in a number of ways to myself and other fans alike.
If you’re looking for a great monster-capturing game with a fantastical story, you’re in the right place.


Pros
Cons



- Type matchups in this game are fun to learn. Even if it’s temporary, swapping types mid-fight adds more strategy to moves and actions.
- The NPC’s available are incredible, especially the party members. One of them has one of the best side stories ever, and I love him dearly.
- The narrative beats in this game are great. Arch-angels are beyond cool, and I wish more games in this genre would embrace the eldritch whole-heartedly.
- Mobility skills to unlock that allow further traversal in the over world
- Easy to read map

- Later fights and rogue fusions can be sincerely tough. Most rogue fusions are hard when they pop out and catch you unprepared.
- Some of the platforming sections were difficult for me in the 3D space.









Story
If you’re familiar with the isekai genre, you’ve got a good place to start with the base story in Cassette Beasts. After you make a player character, the protagonist finds themselves within the world of New Wirral. Falling into an alternate universe is strange enough, but things get weirder. There are monsters in New Wirral, and the residents need to protect themselves. To fight back, they use cassette tapes to transfer into the same beasts after them, using various elemental attacks to force their foes to retreat.
That’s right, in Cassette Beasts you turn into the monsters.
The first companion you’ll meet, Kayleigh, is a bright face that acts as a guiding hand to the way things work. She helps lead the way to the main city, where multiple rumours and paths forward can be found. That’s right, despite all the side quests, main quests, and errands available in the game, your main goal is to get back to your own reality.
For the most part, the main story quests are split into three categories: companion quests, archangel quests, and captain quests. These can be tackled in basically any order that you want, though the game does make it decently clear what areas might be too difficult for your current level. Level scaling can also be adjusted in the game’s settings, making things harder or easier depending on what you’d like.
My favourite part of the game has to be the Archangels. These fights are great, the “dungeons” and puzzles to get to them are fun, and they act as boss fights within Cassette Beasts. Pursuing them is a requirement to “finish” the game, though there are hours and hours of game play to get there.
I’ll admit a close second are the companion quests. Felix and Kayleigh have the best companion quests of all time, and they both genuinely make me feel warm and fuzzy once I completed them. Don’t sleep on the companions either, you’ll find more throughout the world and by following rumours in Harbourtown. Each companion has their own personality, their own quests, their own Cassette Beast, and their own scenes to unlock by resting at the campfires or cafe. While I typically avoid spoilers in my reviews I’ll say this: you can benefit from keeping companions leveled up, even if they’ll train on their own some without you.
Catch as many beasts as you’d like, pursue friendships with all six companions, become a ranger, and enjoy potentially getting back to your own world.

Graphics
Love pixel graphics? Me too. Cassette Beasts has a wealth of pixel sprites for each beast available, with each one varied and easy to tell apart. Even the remasters of certain beast lines change things up enough to be different while also being clearly related. What really astonishes with the graphics are the varying sprites for every single fusion in the game. Each one is a little bit different, and discovering what two beasts look like fused was sincerely part of the fun of gameplay for me.
Character sprites are colourful- except when they’re not supposed to be- and most of them are unique. Archangels are incredible to see, and seem to break all graphical rules within the confines of the game, appearing in true unpixelated 3D, 2D, static images, and more.
The world is also bright, three-dimensional, and loads of fun to explore. There are multiple regions to traverse, with plenty of unique obstacles and terrain.
Gameplay
Yes, you turn into a beast, but each Cassette Beast takes the main player's level and stats and combines it with the stats from each cassette. The cassettes don’t have their own level, every beast you equip will scale to the level that your player is. Stats can be adjusted once players pursue the captain/ranger quest further, allowing players to train at a gym to raise or lower particular stats for their player.
There are 14 types of beasts in the game, and every single Cassette Beast is a monotype until fusions get involved. Certain types impact other types differently, and there’s plenty of moves to also swap yours or an opponent's type in battle. For example: a plastic type beast will turn into a poison type temporarily when hit with a fire type move. The game is chock full of instances like this, which keep combat fun and reactive.
The game also hands players a number of ways to interact with the environment and get from place to place. First will be gliding, eventually you’ll be able to swim, and more. This also allows the ability to double-back and grab things missed at first, so you can really round stock up on items and stickers.
Moves in this game are dictated by stickers stuck to a beasts cassette, which can be swapped out and learned by compatible beasts. Each move can be used based on the amount of AP (action points) the player gets per turn, though more AP can be generated with certain stickers. AP also builds faster when players fuse with their partners, and this is also the only way to get dual type beasts that have access to both beasts moves. The fusion meter builds naturally in battle, though there are also items that can be used to fill the bar. Certain enemies can also fuse, and rogue fusions can be found throughout the world as well. These monsters are harder challenges to tackle, though there are potentially rarer stickers and even a higher chance for bootleg (or shiny) beasts to be found.
Did I mention there’s romance? That’s right, you can romance companions as well, if that’s the sort of thing you enjoy. They’re not exactly deep romances, of course, but they’re there!
Verdict
There’s boundless amounts of passion present in the small team that created Cassette Beasts, and you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not checking it out if turn-based monster-collecting RPG’s are a genre you enjoy. I played this game for many hours back-to-back, and aside from a few issues that are beyond easy to overlook compared to some recent similar releases in the genre, I thoroughly enjoyed my time. This game is great, and one I’ll be recommending to most of my friends.
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