izigame.me

This playtime is not a joke. Neither is this review.
I work two jobs and don't always have time during the week for a lot of video gaming, so I tend to pick up one or two "main" things at a time to slowly chew through. I recently picked up the excellent Tears of The Kingdom and have been loving it, when this little indie monster tamer popped up on my radar, and after a couple recommendations I decided to try it out a little bit.
I now have well over 100 hours within the two weeks I've owned this game, to the point where I still haven't beaten Tears because I'd rather be playing Cassette Beasts. I don't mean to imply that one game is better than the other... rather that this game scratches a LOT of specific itches for me personally, and it will only continue to get better as it receives both free and paid updates from an attentive and caring dev team.
tl;dr - Game's good, highly recommend. Probably a Top 10 of all time for me personally.
Feel free to scroll past, or keep reading for some more in-depth thoughts.


This game is its own beast.

I feel like this is probably the most important thing to mention: Cassette Beasts is NOT a clone of a certain multimedia monster catching franchise, nor is it even trying to be. This is something that personally bugs me about a lot of other monster tamers on the market (such as Temtem) - they have unique spins on game mechanics, or changes to certain systems, but at the end of the day it feels like they really want to be Pikachu, ooooh they wanna be Pikachu so bad, but they never will be. Somewhat open map with settlements and routes in-between, elemental weaknesses and resistances, a professor-like mentor figure who hands you one of several elemental animals... you know the routine, right?
Cassette Beasts, on the other hand, immediately says loud and proud that it is very much so its own thing, that it has its own unique colorful identity. The player transforms directly into the monster forms; monsters themselves are never "captured" or "tamed", but rather a copy of their abilities is recorded onto a cassette tape. The type system is much more interesting than "effectiveness means big damage"; using an effective type will instead apply unique debuffs to an opponent, such as inflicting damage over time or reducing their attack stats. Boss fights range from silly and whimsical, to (at times) mildly disturbing, and the game isn't afraid to touch on more serious themes in-between lighthearted jabs. Mild spoilers for some character arcs: one partner character used to be part of a religious cult. Another constantly busies themselves with work, in order to feel as if they have purpose in life. The monster designs themselves are also fairly varied, with intimidating beasts and unusual cryptids populating the world of New Wirrel right next to Christmas elves and crabs with traffic cones for shells.

Remixed to your liking.

Despite all the appeal of New Wirrel, I'd easily say half of why I adore Cassette Beasts so much is because it's really really approachable. Not that great at devising attack sets for your monsters? Having trouble with a specific boss? Open the Options menu at any time, even while a save is loaded, and tone down the AI difficulty or the overall level scaling. If the game starts to feel too easy, you can also greatly increase these settings to your liking. Are all the interactions between types too much to keep track of? There's an in-game type chart accessible even during combat, conveniently tucked inside of your Items, and most elemental moves will show preview icons to remind you of any possible reactions. Accidentally defeat a rare monster that spawned in a specific area? That species will begin to randomly spawn across the overworld after you first battle it, regardless of whether you recorded it or not. Late-game even introduces an item that makes it much easier to obtain "bootleg" monsters, which are variants that have a different type than normal (and a different coloration to match).
If that weren't somehow enough, you can also unlock "custom modes" after reaching the credits once (or inputting a command code on the title menu), enabling things like randomized encounters, changing the types of every monster in the game, setting a specific RNG seed for speedruns, or a mode where defeated monsters are permanently removed from your collection. Factor in the upcoming addition of online multiplayer, and you have a game that both has plenty of replay value, and one where you can spend dozens of hours within a single save file.
Oh yeah, the PC version also supports a good variety of user-made mods, with more being developed over time thanks to the increasingly comprehensive official wiki. That's right, the official wiki has modding advice, as well as details on every monster and ability in the game - most details filled in by the developers themselves. It's honestly incredible to see so much support for Cassette Beasts, both with the devs interacting with the community and with the players contributing and giving back to everyone else.

... Okay, so nothing can actually be perfect. Don't get me wrong, these are fairly minor gripes, and I still believe Cassette Beasts is easily the best monster-tamer I've played in the last decade, but I still feel I should go over them in the spirit of full honesty and transparency.
The main issue I have is with the relationship system. I honestly really like the concept on paper; after meeting a partner character, they assign you a personal quest tying directly into their own storyline, and completing said quest will unlock the ability to build bond levels with them. Simply defeating enemies and completing sidequests will strengthen your bond over time, and once you get to the fifth bond level, you can enter a relationship or choose to remain as just friends. The problem I have is that this is a permanent one-time decision that cannot be reverted in any way, as of this review's writing. Wanted to date Kayleigh, but didn't click the romantic option during the one bond event? Sucks to suck, you are now PERMANENTLY friend-zoned! What's even weirder is that if you pick the romantic option, you are not locked into committing to that relationship, and can totally sweet-talk a different partner until you eventually romance them instead! With how easy it is to retry boss battles, encounter "unique" species repeatedly, or even hunt for the rare bootleg variants of monsters, I'm honestly baffled at how easy it is to completely lock yourself out of romancing a partner character. "Oh, but romance is optional," you might cry out... except it's actually not if you care about 100% completion, because there's an achievement directly tied to forming an intimate bond. Yeah.
The only other "major" gripe I have is kind of a huge spoiler? It's mostly feedback for the dev team, so come back once you've played a good majority of the main game. Also I kind of hit the maximum review length typing this all up, so I'll append it as a post below. Don't say I didn't warn you if you decide to look!
Aside from those two complaints though, I honestly and wholeheartedly believe Cassette Beasts is a fantastic adventure, especially for the modest asking price of $20. I've already bought at least four other copies for friends, not even sure they'll totally enjoy it, just because I had that much fun - and am continuing to have a grand time. Especially looking forward to the upcoming DLC!