Beastie Bay DX

Genre: Management Simulation / Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Without a doubt the most prolific developer and publisher of Management Simulation games on Nintendo Switch is Kairosoft, who specializes in games with a retro-style isometric pixel art style, often with the word “Story” in the title. As of this writing, Kairosoft has released 56 games on Nintendo Switch, most of them Management Simulations.

After their earlier games, Kairosoft had established a few templates for their Simulation games that later games would largely follow. Game Dev Story established a Simulation-style game more focused on managing employee time and focus, Hot Springs Story established a Simulation style in line with Theme Park Simulators where you try to cater to guests’ tastes to maximize attendance and income, and Epic Astro Story established a Simulation style akin to games like Sim City, where you’re building out a town or settlement.

Beastie Bay originally released on mobile devices in 2012, before adding a DX to its title and releasing on Nintendo Switch in 2021, PC and PlayStation 4 in 2022, and Xbox One in 2024, and it follows in the footsteps of Epic Astro Story in a way that is both closer than any other game Kairosoft had released thus far, but also one that strikes out in interesting new directions.

To be more specific, Beastie Bay starts with the foundation of building and gathering resources on an island, but expands to have players collecting and utilizing the help of various creatures and monsters, both to better gather those resources, and to explore outward and take on the threats posed by other creatures.

As I mentioned above, this game makes use of Kairosoft’s signature presentation style using simple retro-styled pixel art visuals presented in an isometric view, paired with repetitive chiptune music and sound effects. Apart from the forgettable music, everything about this presentation is really endearing, though by this point we’ve seen more or less the same thing in numerous other Kairosoft games.

When it comes to the gameplay, this game shifts the focus a bit away from the Management Simulation elements, although they are still present. In their place is this new Monster-Collecting JRPG content, where you have your monsters exploring adjacent regions and later sailing to other islands, fighting enemies, sometimes capturing them, and making use of them by either adding them to your party or putting them to work harvesting materials back on the island (Perhaps you might even see this as an early take on the Palworld formula).

Unfortunately, this time the game falls apart in the details. The reduced focus on the Management Simulation elements leaves you with fewer options to build up your territory, and as a result you’ll have fewer ways to do so. You’re just placing homes for your human and animal population, and ensuring those homes are nearby to fields and logging areas to gather food and wood you’ll need.

Unfortunately, the monster-collecting elements don’t make up the difference here. unlike something such as a typical Pokemon game, the mechanics for these critters are fairly simple, and the game doesn’t make it easy to train them up and level them, especially early on. The Turn-Based RPG combat also uses clunky menus, and isn’t anywhere near as engaging as pretty much any mainline Pokemon game.

Don’t get me wrong, Beastie Bay DX is still an enjoyable game, and I would even say it’s one of the better games we’ve gotten from Kairosoft, but it suffers from the fact that both of its two halves are under-developed. If this game actually fully developed either the Management Simulation or Monster-Collecting Turn-Based JRPG halves of the game, this would have been an excellent spin on that genre. If it managed to build up both, this could have been incredible. As-is, it is an enjoyable but somewhat lacking game that feels like a big missed opportunity.

tl;dr – Beastie Bay DX is a Management Simulation with Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG elements, which is a really inspired mix of genres that ultimately doesn’t live up to its potential because both of those two halves are under-developed. This is still an enjoyable game, but it could have been so much better.

Grade: C+

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