Cassette Beasts review – A surprisingly modern answer to an aging genre

Nintendo currently has a lock on the creature-collecting genre, with others trying unsuccessfully to enter the market that sees a new Pokémon game every year. When a franchise has been going as long as that one, players will begin to dissect the game’s core mechanics, with some seeing capturing magical animals from their habitats and forcing them to fight until they pass out as unethical.

These questions have persisted among fans who grew up with the games and now realize the dark connotations that these creature-capture titles have. Each new game seeks to try to improve this somehow, but no one has answered this quite like Cassette Beasts. In fact, it seems Bytten Studio took notice of a lot of the features that no one has really improved in a while and got to work.

What it has managed to create in Cassette Beasts could be enough to launch a new franchise if the world wasn’t so used to what Pokémon and imitation games have been complacently doing for years. It’s not perfect, but it manages to come closer than any game I’ve played since my first Pokémon in the sheer awe I was of the creatures, the battle system, and the unique world where it all takes place.

Wherever we are now is somewhere special

The game starts with the character teleporting from somewhere into a mysterious body of water, mirroring the player who’s encountering this unique world full of magical creatures for the first time. From the beginning, you’re pulled in by the game’s charming art style, which seems to rely on pixel art and 3D models. It suits the world of New Wirral, giving a cute exterior to a world that’s hiding more under the surface than it seems.

The soundtrack also deserves special notice for the way it is able to engage the player at all the right moments, seemingly knowing when to swell for an actual emotional moment. There seem to be two versions of every track, a lighter version without vocals, and a more intense version that actually has lyrics. The game alternates between these versions depending on whether you’re in an intense battle or you have done something as simple as walking into certain buildings.

The world is very open and can be explored by players at their own leisure, which is really refreshing to not be capped by story requirements. You’ll unlock new rumors about things you can explore around the world by listening to the different villagers all across the central hub city, Harbourtown. Many of these things can be found on your own, but their tips are incredibly helpful in completing quests where you need to find specific objects.

The monsters can be found in habitats and unique spawn areas, just like in most other creature-collecting games, and players will record their form using a cassette tape and a player. However, unlike most games in this genre, players will become that creature themselves by playing the recorded tape, leaving the creature to get defeated or go on its way. This removes the core issue many have taken with Pokémon, which is that it’s magical dogfighting, as the player is the creature.

Players who enjoy hunting for creatures to fill a log or collect special variations are in luck, as there are 125 that you can see in the world, with 120 of those being recordable. In addition to that, almost all of the creatures have 14 alternate versions that spawn as flickering glitches in the world, each one is a different creature type with the opportunity to get rare and powerful abilities. The player and tapes will each have their own levels, with tapes that reach level five being able to evolve, or Remaster.

This is not even counting the various Archangels that players will encounter, which are referred to as demons and angels by the people over the years. They’re incredibly powerful amalgams of negative energy, clearly not meshing with the world in art style or themes. In these moments, the game isn’t afraid to get dark and it works as an eerie alternative to the otherwise cheery atmosphere.

Players will need to record certain creatures in order to unlock all areas of the map, but these aren’t locked by anything other than being a higher level. There are abilities like floating, swimming, and dashing through boulders, with the player able to use them all in their human form. You don’t even need to keep them in your active party, which gives you an extra slot to optimize your loadout.

There are occasional performance bugs like the need for a very short loading screen when traveling into certain areas, which sometimes seemed to make my PC crash. This happened maybe twice in the twenty-plus-hour playthrough after long periods. Fortunately, the game seems to have a pretty robust autosave system, so I never lost much, if any, progress.

Face down the threats of New Wirral

The battle system is uniquely complex through a range of intersecting buffs and debuffs that will likely require some studying before players become knowledgeable. It’s actually very impressive, with their being entries for melting Plastic-type monsters, fueling a flame as an Air-type, or igniting poison, which happens to be flammable in New Wirral thanks to its unique physics.

This will create a meta inside the game that is more complicated than anything that Pokémon has ever even thought of creating. It’s a brilliance that borders on obsession but in the best way possible. Tens of hours into the game and you’ll still be learning and applying new ways to take advantage of your enemies’ types using your own best moves.

Another interesting part of battling in this game is the Fusion mechanic, which allows the player and their always-present dueling partner to combine their two monsters. This has to be unlocked by doing that character’s side quest, but once it is you can combine any two monsters for a unique and more powerful creature.

It’s basically exactly like the Pokémon Fusion minigame that has seen waves of popularity over the years, but the developers made it official. It’s as if Cryptozoo wasn’t a complete failure and was made by people who actually cared about the gameplay. It’s just simply so impressive the extra work it must’ve taken to implement it. These Fusions can also be found and defeated in the world in a variety of ways, with there being a specific section the monster-tracking Bestiary.

This complicated meta and the Fusion system ensure that exploring the world at the same level is more of a suggestion than a hard rule. You may find yourself just doing quests sporadically as you explore the world, not even noticing the level gap until you get destroyed after wandering into an area that you weren’t prepared for. That being said, the most dedicated players will likely be able to figure it out.

The only negative about the battling is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to battle other players in multiplayer, allowing you to put your monsters to the test. This would also be a great place to show off any Bootleg tapes while also dealing damage to your friends. There is a co-op mode where the player takes on the partner character, but this is far from a multiplayer battling mode.

Poké-who?

Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Cassette Beasts is available on Steam and PC Gamepass, and will be available on consoles in late spring 2023.