izigame.me

Recapturing the Lost Spirit of Monster Taming

I beat the basegame at about 26 hours in, and am currently working towards 100% completion in postgame as of writing this review.
TL;DR: This is for those sick of typical Pokemon-likes. The love and care put into this world is absolutely mindblowing for the pricetag, and even if you start waning interest by postgame, that's still a solid 24 hour or more adventure awaiting you, complete with old-school game completion unlocks!
Cassette Beasts brings something so sorely needed to the monster taming genre that has been overlooked in favour of sheer quantity: innovation. The pair of developers (and I can't believe this was made by two people!) clearly have a deep understanding of the genre, and have deliberately and directly crafted something to re-spark that passion of exploration, learning, and the fulfilment of progression in a new system.
Features: what makes this so different?

Chemistry! Rather than the stock Elements system for damage, the game relies on chemical reactions for not only general damage calculation, but also the surprisingly deep buff and debuff system. With classic types mixed in with brand new ones (like Astral, Plastic, and Glass), it's a simple joy to unwravel its intricacies for yourself. (Read the Ranger's Handbook to get a Type Chart for an easy in-game refresher!)
Fusion! Atop the 120 cassettes to be found, there is a list of literally 14,440 Fusions to discover; when any two Tapes combine! It helps with visual and combat variety; always feeling like your "super form" and the "super enemies" you encounter are always a little different from one another, as Fusions take the Type and Stickers (moves) of their combined Tapes.
No missables! Cassettes will always have some other method of obtaining them, including the starters for the sake of completion, so don't fret too much if your first encounter doesn't go well. This goes for Bootlegs (shiny variants) too; postgame offers a lot in the way of upping your chances.
Customization without consequence! Don't like the moveset a particular cassette has? Love its look but hate that it focuses on support over damage? You can freely Replace and Peel off their stickers (TMs in a way) without any kind of cost involved. This is further expanded when you consider Recycling cassettes can give you new stickers, that you can find quality variants with additional effects, and you can even buy various booster packs that guarantee variants with metal!
Metroidvania-esque world exploration! Very early into the game you'll learn that certain cassettes give you special abilities that are used outside of combat, this plays into two major aspects of progression: 1) it's a genuine incentive to catch 'em all, just to see if they give a power, and 2) more organically lock level progression so you don't accidentally stumble into a high-level area. The world itself is sizeable, and full of all kinds of secrets and mini-puzzles to do.
Comfy soundtrack! While the overall OST is a little small, each track feels snappy, and fairly unintrusive. You may notice repeated tracks, but they never really become annoying. In the Cafe and during Fusions, vocals will play! These can be toggled in Settings if you like.
Persona-lite partners! You can pick and swap between 6 available partners, who all have quite a significant amount of dialogue, their own side-quest, and bonuses in relation to their Hearts (which are increased by spending time and Resting with them). Yes, there's Romancing, but no additional stat benefits, only adorable extra dialogue.
Adjustable settings at any time! Difficulty settings are available in the Settings menu at any time. If a particular boss is absolutely thrashing you, you can tweak things down a lil' for that extra leg-up, or you can jack up the difficulty for a bigger thrashing!
Nuzlocke mode? Yes! The devs heavily encourage you to beat the game at least once first (and I will too), but there is a menu cheat code you can use to get access to it early.. for now it's fairly rudimentary compared to other tamers like Nexomon (and currently doesn't feature a 1-per-zone-only rule), but it's something they're looking to expand on rather quickly with feedback from the community. The randomization features are an absolute shoe-in for a chaotic second playthrough though, I'm looking forward to that!

How about the Negative Reviews?

"The constant throwing of rocks onto switches is dumb, they never land!" Laughably false. This is a critical skill issue, and you'll likely have a chuckle about it yourself when you chuck any object for the first time. Objects will land on a switch from pretty much any cardinal position (even if you're just about standing on them!), so you're never there for more than a few seconds on any switch-based puzzle.
"It's too heavy on cultural references!" This is valid! Just like folk are gonna be tired of the usual monster taming tricks, you might be sick of writing that's full of referential humour or straight-up using the reference itself. Personally? It's more a deal of letting it affect you, a little like embracing your cringe past self (which funnily enough is a plot tie for a character). Let yourself enjoy silly things.
"It's disjointed and random! Too many mechanics at once!" There is a very clearly marked Quest system, and you're meant to learn as you go along, not be an expert from opening the game. Like I mentioned above, the Metroidvania-style of power/traversal unlocks means that it's pretty dang hard to actually find yourself in a corner that you're not meant to be in. Besides that? There's always Flee/Smoke Bombs. In respect to learning the damage system, not only can you organically find a Type Chart within the first five minutes (read the Ranger's Handbook!), but the game expects you to be smart for yourself and recognize that X has done Y (and will even pop up with toggleable tutorials on that specific type>type chemical reaction).
"It crashes! It lags!" Not worthy of a negative review when it's your hardware, my dude. My genuine advice to you is hopping to the Discussions thread, or even hooking up with their Discord for tech support. It's about as worthy of a review as "didn't like it".
"The puzzles are tedious!" See, that's a valid point! The puzzles are very much simplistic distractions from the main game. I'd liken them to pokeballs you can find randomly scattered about the world; a neat little treat, but not a significant prize. The main difference is that the puzzles take one extra step of engagement, and offer just a little bit more in reward. They weren't stand-out for me.
"It's woke-fantasy! I hate all these identity politics being slapped in my face!" Dogwhistling that you can freely ignore. It's literal screeching about the fact you can choose - CHOOSE - a They/Them pronoun for your character. These are the same reviewers you'll find consistently complaining that they have to deal with a black or trans character existing in their video games. Here's a secret: there's one obviously trans character that I actually missed the first time because they don't shove it in your face. It's a case of not being able handle reminders of their own intolerances, and thinly veiling it under criticism of the game.