Cassette Beasts

It really scratches the itch which modern pokemon games cannot anymore. It has many fresh (to me at least) ideas and i got into the flow very quickly.

pokemon (but better) for burnt out adults

Though Pokemon is obviously a big inspiration, this game brings more than enough to the table to stand all on it's own merit. The battle system, worldbuilding, and themes were my favorite elements and all came together to create a thoroughly addictive and enjoyable adventure. I beat the main story in 24 hours, but there's plenty more content I have yet to explore. I definitely recommend this game to fans of RPGS, whether they're looking for a relatively quick 20-hour story experience, an easy to learn but hard to master battle system, or a long-term completionist commitment.

It's a good game, as far as games go. Let's get the boring bits out of the way. The atmosphere is fun and chill, it does the open world thing quite well by tying main story progression to sidequests and exploration, and also by making the main story mostly non-urgent. Very cool. There's not that much content to the characters here; what is there is very, very good, but there just isn't much of it; the game doesn't really have any great ways to "vector" the character stuff at you, so it's limited to approximately five support conversations and whatever dialogue you get from resting while they're attached to you. It's fine, it doesn't detract from the experience and honestly I don't think it needs more here. Now that that's done... This is a creature collector and has all the DNA of a creature collector. Yes, lorewise you record the creature and use the recording to transform into it, so you're not building a team of fuzzy pets. But if it looks like a creature collector, plays like a creature collector, is tagged "Creature Collector"... Notably, because the creature is "you" and not "your dog", it shares your level. No more "Well, I need a water-type, but I didn't train the one I got twenty levels ago and there aren't any right now" - grab that water type out of your box and it's good to go. (Mostly.) Uh, the creatures are fun. I like them. Where this title really shines the most is the battling and creature customization. First of all, it's forced 2v2 for most of the game, and immediately that opens up a lot more interesting things to do than clicking the biggest move available in the direction of the foe. Not that you can't get most of the way there by doing that, but battles get impressively deep between forced doubles and the extra customization you get from the variety of existing moves, particularly the buffs and debuffs available to you, not to mention start-of-battle shenanigans. Even getting stuck on using relatively optimal builds rather than troll/funny ones, there are so many interesting things to do, and even more "just decent" sets when playing normally. Actually playing the game is so, so fun.

[b]TLDR:[/b] Cassette beasts is one of the best monster collecting games you will ever play. Although it is very derived from pokemon, it has unique mechanics that makes it interesting and distinct enough to give you a complete new experience. If you are a completionist… run. [h2]Story[/h2] In short, you are tped for a new world full of creatures that you can record and use for battle using a cassette tape. Your main goal is to leave that world. The main story is kinda sentimentalist, and tackles issues like human will to destroy, create, imagine, etc. A bit heavy that contrasts with the overall look. During the journey, you have companions where you learn a bit about their origin, but they are overall very short. [h2]World[/h2] The [b]world[/b] is completely [b]open world[/b], and you can [b]explore everything[/b] since day one, only having some natural roadblocks, where you need specific abilities to access certain areas and progress. [b]You are incentivized to explore[/b], since the main quest requires you to find specific temples, which aren’t marked on the map. The world is also filled with puzzles, chests, special encounters and mini bosses, so you are never bored. Also, the monsters are visible and walking on the world, which makes it feel alive. The game also features a rumour system, where occasionally NPC’s will tell you that something is happening in X, so it never feels like you get stucked. [h2]Combat[/h2] This is the bread and butter of this game. It’s important to mention that you always fight with a companion. First of, following the above, the fusion system. This system makes it so both monsters from you and your companion fuse in an ultimate form, getting both types and sharing moves from both characters. Second, the type advantage chart. Instead of just doing 2x or 4x more damage, this game substitutes that by buffs/debuffs on type advantage. [b]The fusion system + advantage chart revamp mentioned above make the combat MUCH MORE DYNAMIC AND STRATEGIC.[/b] The only issue is that there are certain mechanics that are much more PvP oriented, and you will see no use on PvE. You have [b]alot of places to test and play around with the combat[b]. Besides random wild encounters, you have mini-bosses (which are fused wild monsters), random NPC fights (acts like players), bosses (from campaign, with exclusive mechanics) and ranger trainers (equivalent to gym leaders, that specialize on certain game mechanics). This game also revamps the shiny system. Shinies now don’t just “change color”, they are also functionally different from the originals, since the shinies also have their types changed. This, added to the fact that you can FREELY CHANGE ALL MOVES, make unit and team building much more interesting, since shinies get access to the specific/specialized type stickers, allowing it to cover for some weaknesses that the original monster could have. Also, in addition, shinies also have much better odds (like 90%) of giving stickers with passive. This make [b]shinies worth it and rewarding to actually hunt for.[/b] [h2]Graphics + Performance[/h2] All the characters are 2D and pixelated, placed in a 3D world. You have some decent customization for your MC, especially if you include the cosmetic DLC’s. The monsters are also very unique and distinct between each other, and different from other monster tamer games. ALL THE FUSIONS HAVE UNIQUE FORMS, having more than 1000 combinations! I encountered absolutely no issues or performance dips with this game. Although the open world is seamless, sometimes the game stops you if you move too fast to load the world, which kinda breaks some of the immersion. [h2]Post game + DLC + Completionist[/h2] The [b]DLC[/b] adds a new main boss and a new area, with exclusive monsters to that zone. [b]The good[/b]: the boss is one of the most difficult imo; the new area is very unique in comparison with the rest of the world, with unique puzzles to solve. [b]The bad[/b]: you only get access to this area at around 80% of the campaign, which doesn’t give you much room to experiment and use the exclusive monster on the new area; it’s extremely short, like 1-2 hours long; it’s in its own “zone”, separated from the main map, which makes it a pain to travel between them. [b]You actually have some decent content post game[/b]. You can re-battle every ranger trainer and main boss, and unlock a new tower ascendant type mode, where you have to fight several times in a row with 1 team. However, you also unlock a thing called “notice boards”, which are a set of 3 mini quests, repeatable after completion. This is where the pain begins. You go from killing gods, to the quests, which are basically go deliver this thing or kill x amount of Y monster. This makes for the most mind numbing experience ever. And you have to do it 100x times. Not only that, but the game requires to, not only catch every monster, but also to [b]level them all up[/b]. In short, if you are a [b]completionist, prepare for some serious mind numbing grind[/b].

Well, with Cassette Beasts 2002 coming in march i decided to 100% this, and i can whole heartedly say that i enjoyed ever bit of it (except Judas spamming pre-emptive strike that guy can suqq it) and my excitement for the next game only grew.