Cassette Beasts

Genre: Open-World Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local) / 2-8 Co-Op / Competitive (Online)

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Review:

(Note: Included in Explore Another World Bundle, along with Moonstone Island.)

Cassette Beasts is an Open-World Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG released in 2023 on PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game takes a swing at the Pokemon formula of collecting and training caught monsters, but does things a bit differently with its mechanic of using cassette tapes to “record” these monsters, with the player character and their allies transforming into these creatures during combat rather than simply summoning them.

This change in mechanics offers different opportunities, including the ability to share your cassette transformations with your partner character (only one at a time, sadly), and build up relationships with these partners that will eventually allow you to combine with them into a powerful amalgamation monster.

Players have to not only track their monsters’ health, but their human characters’ health as well, and when fighting other human characters they can even exploit this system to deliver an onslaught of attacks that will not only knock out their current beast but can even take out the human before they can replace the beast with another in their team. Of course, enemies are also capable of doing the same to you…

This leads to one of my main complaints about Cassette Beasts – as Monster-Collecting RPGs go, this one is pretty difficult, and I found that early on I had to make trips back to town to heal after just a few battles, something made even more frustrating by the game’s slow walking speed. Even worse, this game doesn’t have any sort of currency, instead forcing players to trade resources to get things they need, and important items like cassette tapes (this game’s version of a Pokeball) requiring a particular resource that takes a while to collect enough of to get just one… which can be easily lost during a failed catching attempt.

It’s particularly disappointing because this game’s open world is varied and interesting with lots of secrets, just begging to be explored, but it feels like making progress is frustratingly difficult. I should note that this game’s open world isn’t quite as vast and open as, say, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and feels a bit closer to something like the 2D Zelda games, but it is still offers enticing options for exploration… if only you could get far enough away from town before you feel like your party’s health is dwindling so much you’re better off turning back.

This game offers a really charming presentation too, with extremely simple 3D visuals mixed with colorful 2D pixel art in a way that feels delightfully retro, and with character designs that are wonderfully unique with punny monster names, like a boxing dog named Puppercut, and a hermit crab wearing a traffic cone named Trafficrab. Of all the Pokemon-alikes I’ve encountered, this is by far the one with the most memorable monsters.

However, as appealing as the visuals are, it’s the soundtrack that absolutely steals the show here, with a great mix of soft pop music and fast-paced synthesized music. For more actiony themes you have songs like the great pop battle theme Cross Your Heart and the very 80s-styled rock song Same Old Story and Shot in the Dark, and on the soft side of things, you have the lovely acoustic guitar solo Main Theme, the chill synth theme New Wirral, and my absolute favorite, Wherever We Are Now, which would have probably been a contender for Best Song during my yearly awards if I played this game in its year of release. Needless to say, this game’s soundtrack is truly outstanding.

I also need to give a shout out to this game’s story, about people torn from different times and worlds to a strange place they can’t escape from, where some of them still dream of returning home, others have grudgingly accepted this as their new life, and yet even others have found new purpose in this strange place. It makes for some interesting stories the likes of which this genre often doesn’t see enough of, as it is usually more focused on catching the critters.

Cassette Beasts has so much in it to love, from its absolutely incredible soundtrack and its surprisingly good story to its unique battle mechanics and delightful open world. It’s just a same that its pacing is dragged down by some gameplay that severely hurts the pacing and a difficulty level that works against some of the game’s better qualities. If these issues weren’t such a drag on the rest of the game, this could have easily been one of my favorites in the genre.

tl;dr – Cassette Beasts is a Open-World Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG where players use cassette tapes to collect and transform into monsters. This game has some fun and unique combat mechanics, an interesting world to explore, a good story, and an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack. Unfortunately, it’s really hurt by multiple gameplay elements that slow the game’s pacing to a crawl and a difficulty level that makes it hard to enjoy all the other great elements this game has. It’s still worth checking out for fans of the genre, but it could have been so much better.

Grade: B-

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