Cassette Beasts

Probably the best pokemon like i've played. Monsters are cool and original, you can do fusions and the musics are really good.

Since i don't currently own any nintendo console, this is the game that quenched my thirst for pokemon-like games. The mechanics are even more intricate then some of the old pokemon games i remembered where i have played when i was young. The ability to fuse, element coating, how any two element combines and create a new element all make sense in context of the world which is impressive. There are even post game contents for you to keep playing and grinding even after finishing the game (storywise) which is a plus for value. The one and only issue i have with the game might be its optimization or performance (might be because of my hardware specs idk) when im running the game, some times it jitters or get chopped off when im only walking around. With that being said it is not a big deal since it doesnt really interfere with my gameplay for the majority of the time.

Enjoyable game. Reminds me of the pokemon games i used to live as a kid but adds enough uniqueness to make it feel special. The fighting is a bit more complex than in Pokemon too.

awesome game, awesome story, awesome monster designs, awesome character writing, extremely good postgame/endgame and extremely in depth and expressive buildcrafting. i found the devs' characters in the game and they said if i left a review there'd be a "special surprise"! i'm sure nothing bad will happen... wait why is this labelled as a boss room?

Honestly was a little worried about getting this, but quickly found it to be very enjoyable! I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy it because I got burned out from Pokemon games due to the format being the exact same in every game, and I was worried that Cassette Beasts would be too similar to enjoy as well. However, the story, the characters, the battles all feel so fresh and it reminds me of the enjoyment I got from my first Pokemon games. Highly recommend.

Great creature collector game. Has a lot of cool features and the story is excellent.

Peak

Fantastic game that I simply cannot get into. The glowing strengths first, followed by my personal issues after. Mechanically, the gameplay is really good. The combat system is interesting and intuitive. You use weaker abilities to save up action points and unleash your big moves. No having to worry about finite MP and such. And the capture mechanic is pretty unique, where your trainer themself is vulnerable to enemy attacks during the capture process. Moreover, the game has its own distinct visuals and theming. Everything from the cassette tape aesthetics (not only the capture devices, but also healing items being a pencil to rewind the tapes, and play/pause/etc icons on the menus, etc) to some of the creature typing, like Plastic type which is both unique and on-brand for this game. Oh, and the music? This game has a banger soundtrack! I haven't gotten very far into it, but the monsters have pretty cool designs so far! There's an interesting story line (again, haven't gotten far, but it is rather intriguing from what I've seen) and I do want to find out what's going on in this world. Maybe I'll watch someone's playthrough, because... I like everything about this game except for actually playing it. I know! That sounds bad, and also contradictory, but hear me out! For one thing, it doesn't handle very well. There are collision issues-- invisible walls that show up here and there that you can't walk through, but you can jump over. (Or maybe it was just the one and I just encountered it twice?) And they're just in the middle of open areas. It's like the ground tiles didn't line up, so you end up colliding with a one-centimeter-tall ledge instead of just stepping over it. And you have a sprint meter for running faster, but if it runs out, your character screeches to a halt and remains frozen in place for a frustratingly long time instead of simply going back to normal walking speed until your stamina refills. Or even a reduced move speed would have been better than this. It just feels kinda clunky. Just little things like that, that make the game feel awkward or frustrating to control. Then there's the starters. In something like pokemon, you get three options to choose from, and you can see them and know their typing before you make your choice. Or for an indie example... in Monster Sanctuary, you get four options, and you can even see their stat layout and everything. In Cassette Beasts, you only get two options, no real info is provided, and you can't really even see them until you've made your choice. Well, the game does show you their faces, but among a bunch of other images, it's not clear at first what is the monster and what isn't. So you get a hint at them, but that's it. And choosing blind isn't even inherently a bad thing. That could work, if it weren't for everything else: What's maybe worse (in my opinion, not objectively) is that the game presents it as a reflection of you: "What's your vibe? Spooky or Sweet?" Not "which monster do you want", but which of these IS YOU. "Are you not spooky or sweet? Too bad. There are only two types of people, and you have to be one or the other." Even just one more option would have made it much more likely to find one that'd fit your aesthetic. Maybe one that's Chill, or Cool, or Peaceful, or Tough or anything. One more option to more likely catch the people who don't fit just one of two very specific categories. The first time I played the game, I went through the beginning, got my starter, didn't like it and started over. I remade my character, did the beginning again, picked the other starter... and liked it even less. Luckily, I hadn't erased my original save file, so I just went back to that one instead of having to do the whole thing for a third time. But you get my point, right? If you DO consider yourself spooky or sweet, then I'm sure you'll love it. But otherwise... you might REALLY not. DON'T GET ME WRONG-- they're good monster designs, but I REALLY didn't vibe with either of them. And since the game makes a point of them being a reflection of your personal style, I didn't click with them at all. So... yeah. This game absolutely RULES! I just wish playing it wasn't weirdly frustrating and off-putting for me-- mostly in just a bunch of very minor ways. But I hear they're making a sequel now. Hopefully that one will fix the weirdly specific issues I've had with it. And if not, I hope everyone else loves it. But I'll probably just watch someone's playthrough of it.

Amazing game, with an interesting combat system & great soundtrack. and great selection of creatures and companions. One of my favorite creature collecter games.

Another in the pile of "Developers with great vision and artistic talent but no game design knowledge" The Good, great music and visual designs. The Mid, the story is alright up to the point I got to though I barely saw any of it, maybe it gets better, maybe it gets worse I do not know. The Bad, the combat & capturing system (called "recording" here). The combat is just not that great, you have a handful of moves that effectively do the same thing, a few Stat-up moves that don't last long enough to be worth it and a the most interesting, a "wall" move that makes you lose some health but blocks attacks, except for those that counter their element or have multi-hits (the wall breaks after being hit a few times so even low damage hits are great against them). I never once did anything other than use basic attacks and won every fight up to that point, its JRPG combat so their is no "encounter design" to allay a weak combat system. As for capturing/recording new monsters, you can carry 6 of the basic tapes with you and I used all 6 with a 48% chance on a mon I needed to progress, and they all failed. Cue spending 10 minutes walking back to town to repeat this process, yea no thanks. The game says low health and status effects make a mon easier to capture but I did this and it does not seem to work. Devs, please, if you are an amazing artist that's great, you will get tons of fans even if your game sucks but please, reach out to those with gameplay design experience. I know its not as glamorous as sound and visual design but it matters a lot.