Beastieball

Great game with a fun idea at it's heart. It certainly isn't afraid to lean into it's influences, for the better. I see the vision and I like it a lot.

its literally peak

This game is very good. Played it entirely on Steam Deck so far, no crashes. The occasional stutter when I’m mashing through battle animations but that is completely expected. Music is great. The few sprites that weren’t finished yet have really funny/cute placeholder art. There’s accessibility features for if the battle system is too dense, or if you just don’t feel like genuinely grinding the levels out on your creatures. The creatures are cool cute and awesome. The battle mechanics are supremely interesting (despite how salty it makes me when I lose a point to a sideways attack), very good take on the traditional jrpg turn based battle system. The main story is great and I love the progression. Even when I thought to myself wow this got really hard out of nowhere it was all part of the plan and intended. Honestly and truly have nothing bad to say about it. wall of text lol tl;dr it’s aight

This isn't just any creature taming game. This has such a unique feel to play, completely new and refreshing tactics, actually interesting and hilarious story. Ridiculous in the way that it knows exactly what it is, has bonding mechanics between beasties and also friends that are actually engaging. Every single beastie is different in colours, stats, and personality. The visual style is fantastic, the sound design by a shell in the pit really hits the mark. There's nothing bad I have to say about this game. An absolute must play.

HOLY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ THIS GAME ROCKS

I don't really write reviews that often but I love this game so much I needed to do this so the devs know how much I appreciate every little detail. I'd love this to become a whole franchise. Hard to believe it's still early access. One of my favorite features of monster catching games are the monsters, and this game gives SO much detail to them, I adore it. The concept art is SUCH a good touch, I love reading the notes about the personalities of the creatures. They have emotions the entire game, befriend each other, and there's so much detail to every bit of art and animation. Each beastie species has their own unique and charming feel, and on top of that different beasties of the same species can have different personalities PLUS they can be different shades of color so they feel UNIQUE. It's so good for monster lovers who want to feel like these creatures are real and your friends. They go back to their own environments when they aren't on your team, and you can even battle them and get everyone XP! They visit each other! You can have another team doing away games to appear in other real people's games! (Wish I didn't have to put a tag though, be cool if it were like darksouls where any team anywhere can be found, not just who has the same password) The touch of knowing which evolve and which don't helps too for someone who likes trying to get each one, helps to know if you should keep leveling or move on to the next. All your beast friends feel important, they're all so alive to me. While that's my favorite part, all other aspects I can think of is awesome too. Dialogue options that feel like they actually give you opinions and personality, relationship systems, fun combat, a faster mode for if you're doing leveling, funny characters, enjoyable story, multiplayer, awesome art, and more I probably forgot. Yeah I love this game a lot. The people who made it have to also love creature capture games too.

Incredible game. Killer mechanics wedded to a genuinely heartfelt story with stylish art and music to boot. I'll remember my Jamming Jewels forever.

Really fun, It is like pokemone but if pokemon was good tho

Beastieball is an excellent refinement of the Monster Collection genre in every direction. Everything is smooth and snappy, with bountiful options. This game is much more detailed than a lot of "finished' released games. Any fan of Monsgames needs to play this. Did I mention that the music is also amazing?

Been following Wishes Unlimited ever since playing Chicory, and that game became one of my favorite personal games of all time. (no, I don't have a review up for it yet at the time of writing this one. I probably should some day, lol) Now playing this and Wandersong, I have really became a massive fan of this studio for its games with expressive gameplay and, often, subversive storytelling, all while borrowing so many ideas and insights that all feels super grounded in reality, despite the graphics and more cartoony character designs looking anything but "realistic". Beastieball continues to deliver. Compared to the other 2 titles I have played, this one probably has my favorite mechanically in gameplay. The battle system is not only inspired by so many little ideas that feels grounded in reality, like I mentioned earlier, it's also SO WELL DESIGNED as a competitive game that one could argue is greater than Pokémon, and I might have to agree! It's a VERY refreshing spin that still manages to take the best parts of Pokémon's battle system, and add a new layer of expressive strategy and dimension by simply just... giving them a ball! The story, while not my favorite of the three games, still holds up pretty well. The story begins as a great nostalgic homage to Pokémon that, as you begin to learn about and experience the expressive gameplay, it becomes apparent how much care went into the game! And by the third act, you suddenly realize there were details that the game was foreshadowing all along! All of the story... leading to a refueling payoff Haven't even mentioned the music yet. A strong blend between more chill and laid back beats one moment, and the next you're listening to Sports King. (if you know, you know) I went ahead and purchased the album on Bandcamp (especially since right now, the full album isn't even available anywhere else besides Steam). I often find myself jamming to the battle music. It is very energetic and very fun! All while still having little doses of the more softer and "introspective" tracks you might be more familiar with in some of Lena Reine's work (especially if you've played Chicory). I can give ALL of this praise for the game... and it is STILL technically in early access. The only things really missing are a couple of side quests, some finished character animations, and MAYBE one or two tracks that have yet to be released yet. Any criticisms on this game? Hard to think of any that doesn't feel like it's already part of the "early access umbrella". I think it just comes down to personal taste if, whether or not, the things the game "lacks" are only because you noticed it because you expected something else. (but that could be said for anything, lol) For what I have in mind, I guess I do feel like the platform movement in the open world can feel a bit... "off". It's serviceable for getting around quickly and such, but when platforming is expected, it does feel a bit stiff. Maybe it's the jumps feeling like you lose a lot of momentum after you sprint? Or maybe because the Beasties keep falling off the ditch of the mountain? I don't know. It doesn't happen often though at least. There IS online play, but unless it's for a Bigmoon Bash event, publicly, it's not very active. I'm hoping this is more of an issue with having a smaller playerbase though that will improve over time. Overall though, the people working on the game are VERY smart on how they still implemented limited time events to encourage players to go against each other at that time, as well as still providing PLENTY of in game opportunities to fight REAL teams from REAL players (even if it is just a CPU controlling them). Oh yeah, and screenshotting does cause the game to freeze for about 10 seconds for me, just ought to point that out. (replay clips are fine though) Those are all of the critiques I can think of right now. Overall, amazing game that I HIGHLY recommend. If you're interested in playing, DO IT!!!