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StarTopic Cassette Beasts |ST| It slaps and it bops. (but it doesn't rip)

Irene

Irene

Soar long!
Pronouns
She/Her
Cassette-12.jpg


Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Steam, Xbox (One, Series and GamePass)
Release Date: April 26th, 2023
Genre: Monster Collection RPG
Price: $19.99
Developer: Bytten Studios
Publisher: Raw Fury
Made with: Godot

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Welcome to New Wirral

In Cassette Beasts, an open-world-ish RPG, you will discover and explore the charming Harbourtown and its surrounding landscape, New Wirral. This monster-collecting game has you battle monsters using... cassette tapes? It's cooler than it sounds like! Simply record monsters using your cassette tapes, and use the tapes to turn into them, in order to use their attacks against other monsters. The recorded monsters are all yours to use, and in time, you will grow to learn more about them. And your monster collecting and battling can even be taken to the next level with a fusion system, which will allow you to fuse two beasts into one, allowing for further flexibility and adaptation in battles.

Aside from the monster collection, Cassette Beasts is also a game where you also get to explore and traverse New Wirral by means of light environmental puzzle solving, as well as meet the happy-go-lucky Kayleigh and other characters on your journey. It's not always a fun and lighthearted adventure though - menacing forces are lurking in the shadows, and are bound to make your journey challenging in more ways than one.

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Creatures and battles

Battles in Cassette Beasts are your usual turn-based endeavour, where you interact with the battles using your cassette tape, where your standard moveset is limited to fight, switch, item, flee and record. Fighting beasts is key to victory, but if there's a certain beast that catches your eye, make it your own by recording it, and add it to your collection. Recording requires you to carefully pay attention to the enemy's health bar, which will let you know the likelihood of whether or not your opponent is able to be recorded successfully.

Battles can be won by various methods. The aforementioned fusion system is a great way to go, but battles can also be won by utilizing buffs and debuffs - the game sports monsters with 14 different elemental properties, and strategically utilizing and managing strengths and weaknesses can give you a major advantage in battle.

The creatures you meet comes in all types and sizes. From sentient traffic cones (?) to mysterious bag-carrying centipedes (?!) to bats ,dogs, serpents and hungry fluff-lions, (?!?) Cassette Beasts has got you covered.

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Characters

The characters you meet during your journey will all grow to become a significant part of the experience. Early on, you will meet your partner-in-crime Kayleigh, a person that is half disguised tutorial and half charming Irish woman. Further down the road, you will be acquainted with the antisocial Meredith, the enigmatic Eugene, as well as the one and only Barkley.

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The game features a friendship system where you can form bonds with the partner characters you meet. The stronger the bonds, the better your ability to fuse with certain monsters will become, so make sure to take the time to hang out!

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Soundtrack

Cassette Beasts has you tag along with a sountrack that absolutely slaps and bops in all ways possible. The game even has a toggle for the vocals, in case you prefer your monster collecting in a more instrumental fashion.









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My wife has played through the entire game and I watched them play a bunch of it. It honestly looks great, and they really liked it! I'm planning on grabbing the Switch version eventually and playing through it there.
 
It's been on my list for a long time, but I haven't had time to play it yet because of everything else coming out right now.
 
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I've been passively hearing about this game for a while but never really gave it serious attention until recently, when I discovered it had platforming elements (which, somewhat oddly enough since I'm not a huge platformer fan, is a pretty quick way to sell me on an RPG). Looked into it more and the game seems pretty compelling and got great reviews

Of course it literally could not have released at a worse time
 
This is something I want to play, but I'm going to struggle to find the time for it. One day though.
 
It’s definitely been in my list after all the good things I’ve heard about it. Ideally I’d play it after I finish Zelda, but with how slow I’m going it’ll probably be after Pikmin.
 
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Still waiting to get the Switch version because I heard the performance is absolutely horrendous. Shame the release week sale is ending before the serious issues are fixed. I was really looking forward to it too with all the praise I saw.
 
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I've heard the Switch version performance is a mess and I'm not sure why they have this same girl who can't sing on every song of the OST
 
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I've always been a big fan of certain "cassette beasts"

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This game looks really fun though, and I'm curious to try it out!
 
This has been vaguely on my radar but I have too much else backlogged right now, but I'm definitely adding it to my "list of games I'd like to try out eventually". I love monster collecting RPGs for the most part (Pokemon, SMT, Monster Sanctuary) and this seems really fun and has a great vibe to it
 
Not a huge fan of the monster designs. But between Zelda and the Switch release having issues, I was never getting this before a sale, anyway.
 
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Pierceyonder said:
My wife has played through the entire game and I watched them play a bunch of it. It honestly looks great, and they really liked it! I'm planning on grabbing the Switch version eventually and playing through it there.
Click to expand...

I would perhaps recommend, if possible, to get it on a different platform, unless you are like me and just really value the conveniences of Switch as a system that much. Because I feel the need to reiterate - the stuttering issues are very, very prevalent.
 
I intend to play it at some point, but it's pretty low on my priorities right now between TotK and the Pokémon Home update.
 
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It's on my wishlist but I'll be waiting to see if they fix the performance issues. I saw reviews when it hit PC and it sounds excellent.
 
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It runs bad even on Xbox Series X when tried it with game pass. Sticking to Steam version on Deck for now. Hope they can fix it for a physical release on Switch later.
 
Irene said:
I would perhaps recommend, if possible, to get it on a different platform, unless you are like me and just really value the conveniences of Switch as a system that much. Because I feel the need to reiterate - the stuttering issues are very, very prevalent.
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I actually didn't know about this until this thread, so I'll definitely just grab it on PC now. Thanks for the heads-up!
 
So since the recent Palworld discourse has caused more people to turn their eyes to Cassette Beasts, I've decided to bump this thread and revamp it into an ST, because this is really and truly a game that is worth playing for any monster-catching enthusiast out there.

Seriously, give it a shot!
 
I've got this sitting in my backlog, maybe it's time to take it for a spin since I'm between games right now.

Or Chained Echoes...or Sea of Stars...or This Way Madness Lies...I still need to finish TemTem too...
 
Irene said:
So since the recent Palworld discourse has caused more people to turn their eyes to Cassette Beasts, I've decided to bump this thread and revamp it into an ST, because this is really and truly a game that is worth playing for any monster-catching enthusiast out there.

Seriously, give it a shot!
Click to expand...

Thanks for this bump Irene. This will be another one I'll look into later on as well. Still in backlog mode so can't guarantee a play right now haha but I've wishlisted it!
 
wrowa said:
Did they fix the performance issues on Switch?
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EvilChameleon said:
I'd also like to know the answer to this before I buy the game.
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It got a Switch patch by the end of June that people said were much better.

nintendoeverything.com

Cassette Beasts "Catacombs" update out now (version 1.2.0)

Starting today, Cassette Beasts players can access a brand new “Catacombs” update, which is marked as version 1.2.0. This update includes a new hidden location, with players tasked with finding the Abandoned Mine. Also available are eight extra monsters – three are alternate remastered forms of...
nintendoeverything.com nintendoeverything.com



It got a later hotfix (ver 1.3) but that was on Steam only IIRC.

I'm gonna jump back into the Switch version tomorrow to try out 1.2, if it is indeed much better, then I'm probably gonna continue my Switch file instead of starting afresh on GP.

Sunshinemario said:
Those are some great character designs
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Kayleigh is best girl 2023.
 
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wrowa said:
Did they fix the performance issues on Switch?
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It's more or less fine, now. The performance certainly isn't perfect, but it's definitely playable after all the updates.

Btw, it's now up to version 1.5 (version synchronized across platforms now) with the release of a small DLC expansion this past October.
 
Started this up on Game Pass a while back, but didn't get super far. Feels like the perfect kind of game for portable play, so I'll probably grab it on Steam. Thanks for the bump, because I'd kind of forgotten about it!
 
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Pokemaniac said:
It's more or less fine, now. The performance certainly isn't perfect, but it's definitely playable after all the updates.

Btw, it's now up to version 1.5 (version synchronized across platforms now) with the release of a small DLC expansion this past October.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how much worse Cassette Beasts runs on Switch than XS/PS5, but I'd also note that there are noticable performance hiccups on all platforms even now.
 
Played through the first boss, it's a fun little game so far.

I'm not a huge fan of how the movement feels, but beyond that the performance seems fine enough on Switch.

The soundtrack is nice, I like the vocal track for Harbourtown.

Also the mailbox code system is a bit odd, I found two codes that work currently: Barkley and Holidays. I guess they turn the codes off seasonally?
 
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em said:
I'm not sure how much worse Cassette Beasts runs on Switch than XS/PS5, but I'd also note that there are noticable performance hiccups on all platforms even now.
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At launch, there was some pretty severe hitching, but the patches broadly cleaned that up.
 
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Could play on Gamepass but this feels more like a portable game so will probably grab on Steam for the Deck at some point. Maybe soon.
 
you have one of the best thread titles I've ever seen on Fami and you deserve to be praised for it!

BRAVO 👏
 
@Irene @Pokemaniac

I've never been able to get into this type of game since playing Pokemon Red and Yellow when they came out. Something about recruiting the creatures to battle each other kind of puts me off (though I love the creature designs).

This one caught my eye because of the reviews, I like the sound of it being slightly Zelda-esque in the overworld and the idea that you're capturing a recording of the creatures and not recruiting them to fight other creatures for you. I'm intrigued and want to understand better if this is a game I'd enjoy. What's the reason given in the game for fighting the creatures to begin with? Am I on the right track thinking the conceit is different enough from Pokemon?

Also, I read something about one of the Barkly creatures' original owners
being eaten or killed and left to be bones. Is the explanation that Barkly ate its owner or was the owner killed by one of the Eldritch evil type creatures?

You can tell I'm super sensitive to violence towards/involving animals 😅
 
Nabbit said:
@Irene @Pokemaniac

I've never been able to get into this type of game since playing Pokemon Red and Yellow when they came out. Something about recruiting the creatures to battle each other kind of puts me off (though I love the creature designs).

This one caught my eye because of the reviews, I like the sound of it being slightly Zelda-esque in the overworld and the idea that you're capturing a recording of the creatures and not recruiting them to fight other creatures for you. I'm intrigued and want to understand better if this is a game I'd enjoy. What's the reason given in the game for fighting the creatures to begin with? Am I on the right track thinking the conceit is different enough from Pokemon?

Also, I read something about one of the Barkly creatures' original owners
being eaten or killed and left to be bones. Is the explanation that Barkly ate its owner or was the owner killed by one of the Eldritch evil type creatures?

You can tell I'm super sensitive to violence towards/involving animals 😅
Click to expand...
The normal wild encounters are not dissimilar from other games of this nature. The game takes place on a mysterious, inescapable island (the main thrust of the plot is finding a way off of it) populated by monsters, and they can be aggressive at times. That said, the wild monsters are never killed or even knocked out, they merely run away when their HP reaches 0. You don't capture them, but instead record their "essence" to cassettes which allows you to transform into them.

Some of the bosses are also monsters, but they're also intelligent Eldritch beings with dialog, if that matters at all.
You do also sort of kill one, but the nature of these beings means that there are several asterisks on that.

As for Barkley, it's worth pointing out that he's just a normal dog that can operate a cassette recorder, not a monster.
There's no dialog, because he's a dog, but it's implied that Barkley's owner was killed by one of the legendary-class monsters (which are a step below the bosses. Bosses can't be recorded, while the "legendaries" can.), and the quest involves defeating it so that Barkley can bury the remains of his old owner.
 
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Thank you for the info @Pokemaniac! I really appreciate you answering all of my questions. The fact the monsters run away does make at least a small difference in my mind.

I wonder what it is about this type of game that gives me pause when I have no trepidation about fighting wild creatures with other creatures in Pikmin and probably in other games I'm not thinking of. Since you explicitly end the lives of the Pikmin enemy flora you would think that might bother me more. 🤔

Is the game strictly turn based, or are there some action commands like in your Mario type RPGs?
 
Nabbit said:
Thank you for the info @Pokemaniac! I really appreciate you answering all of my questions. The fact the monsters run away does make at least a small difference in my mind.

I wonder what it is about this type of game that gives me pause when I have no trepidation about fighting wild creatures with other creatures in Pikmin and probably in other games I'm not thinking of. Since you explicitly end the lives of the Pikmin enemy flora you would think that might bother me more. 🤔

Is the game strictly turn based, or are there some action commands like in your Mario type RPGs?
Click to expand...
Battles are entirely turn based, but overworld mechanics play out in a marginally more action-y way than Pokémon. The only semi-action based element in battles is a "first strike" system where you can use the field abilities to land an attack as you enter the battle.
 
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