90%PC

Despite being marred by a few small mechanical problems and a severe grind issue in the lategame, Cassette Beasts does plenty enough to stand out in the crowded field of creature collection games, and its sheer charm more than makes up for its shortcomings.

70%Xbox Series X/S

A very solid Pokémon-like with some interesting twists on the classic formula that keeps things exciting over the other shot-for-shot clones that exist out on the market today.

70%PC

Good monster catching game that builds on the established norms of pokemon. been a while since I got back into it so had to drop it from forgetting everything.
May pick it up and restart later.

95%PC

A really great and well made Monster Trainer genre game.

I really enjoyed this game. They take some elements of pokemon and digimon and make it their own.
-The monster fusion aspect is great and makes for interesting gameplay
-I absolutely love how typings have true effects on each other and can cause status changes and effects as punishments/rewards for type advantage and disadvantage
-I like how certain monsters give your character upgrades for getting around easier
-World exploration was great. the world isn't too big and has just enough mystique and allure to make you want to explore
-The partner system is really great and i love the personal relationships you build with them all throughout the game and it made the end emotional
-The story is kinda weak overall but was enjoyable nonetheless. I like how the archangels were all different art styles
-The music is FANTASTIC. shockingly well done and very good to relax to.

cons:
-some of the items in the game felt useless and some of the currency did as well
-the limits to what you could hold could be a little annoying at times
-the map icons weren't very reliable and i found myself hunting for things in the tile it said they were
-some aspects of the game aren't explained too well

These are nitpics and I think this is one of the best monster trainer games out there and it really puts games like Pokemon and Palworld to shame with how simple yet well made and enjoyable this is.

Highly recommend!

100%Nintendo Switch

Best game ever

80%PC

A very solid Pokemon-like but I grew tired of the gameplay loop and the platforming was just okay

40%Xbox Series X/S

Luckily I tired this game through game pass. Immediately upon booting the game up I was greeted by pronouns. Can’t I just choose between a girl or boy character without selecting my preferred gender? I thought whatever, I am not a snowflake, but not a good first impression.

Cassette Beasts does many things different from Pokémon to set itself apart, and that is not necessarily good. I feel like some of the older Pokémon games have nailed their format and this one lacks in all ways that Pokémon succeeds. The world and environment of Cassette Beasts feels extremely disconnected and disjointed.

You have to catch (record) certain cassette’s to traverse the environment. There are no TM’s here like in Pokémon. However, when you first start the game you have no clue about this, yes they try to hint and demonstrate about it vaguely, but that’s not enough. You have to capture everything you see and pray that it will allow you to traverse the environment, this is not fun. Sure there are clues but then you might have wasted hours running around.

The quest system also just does not work. The dialogue is horrible and some parts have probably been directly translated into Google translate. Some quests are also way too long, like becoming a ranger you have to beat 12 captains?! Really, 12!? The main quest with finding and beating archangels are also way too long, 14… After a certain point I just deleted the game and moved on.

90%PC

Great game with interesting battle mechanics, a touching story, and an absolutely killer soundtrack. Roll over Gamefreak - there’s a new team in town!

100%PC

Masterpiece in my eyes, It's amazing.

95%Nintendo Switch

One of the best games I've played through in a long, long time.

100%Xbox Series X/S

Loved this game, the aesthetic, monster collecting, everything. Basically a good "adult pokemon" game.

Very highly recommend!

90%Nintendo Switch

its not optimized that well so moving around in the world is a bit annoying. plus the swimming is annoying. overall, very good game

75%PC

Pretty cool game. If this was based overall as a game, it deserves a higher rating. But for me, it was a little too basic in the story and a little too complex and strange on the battling side.

100%PC

This is genuinely one of the greatest games ever made. It is so apparent how much love and work went into this. Easy 10/10, just play it.

80%PC

Great monster collecting the game that changes the mold and has a unique story.

60%Nintendo Switch

I love that monster collecting indie games are getting more of a spotlight, especially because Pokemon is dying. I can tell a lot of effort went into this game and I’m glad it’s getting praise. That being said, Cassette Beasts is not for me.

The game uses types like Pokemon, but the type disadvantages and advantages are a bit different. (I’m not explaining it all here) This aspect is cool and a nice shake up. However, the move pool for every type is abysmal. In other monster collecting games different types usually have separate interesting move pools. That isn’t the case in Cassette Beasts. Instead there are very few unique moves meaning most monsters play similarly. Each battle is a double battle, but the gameplay doesn’t feel improved by this due to the lack of interesting moves. In short, the combat feels shallow.

The game is an open world which lead to me being overleveled. I’m a bit burnt out on open world games so I was a little unfairly annoyed at this. Boss battles and ranger battles would’ve felt a bit more impactful if the game were linear. A linearly designed game could’ve implemented a proper level curve.

The story has plenty of heart, but is amateurish which lead to weird dialogue and disjointed world building. Something about it just felt off. An example being that some of the characters would introduce themselves and then immediately describe their life story to the player. A normal person doesn’t do that. It felt like every character was just reading off their own wiki page instead of actually having a conversation. Lots of telling instead of showing.

Side Note: I played the Switch version and it doesn’t run very well on there, but I didn’t let the poor performance interfere with my opinion on the game. Also they’ve been patching the Switch release and it runs much better now than when it first came out.

85%Xbox Series X/S

Ottimo monster collector.
Prende spunto da Pokemon e ne migliora molte meccaniche, come le fusioni, gli adesivi, spostamenti più veloci, i companion e la trama più profonda.
Punti dolenti i caricamenti e forse il design di qualche mostro

70%PC

A different take on the monster catching game "pokemon".. I prefer this over pokemon but I couldn't finish it.. everything was solid so far though

90%PC

Pokemon, but 1000% better

85%PC

Good game, had a bit more challenege than a traditional pokemon game, monsters are neat, moves are cool. Worth a play 100%

70%Xbox Series X/S

Excellent take on the Pocket Monsters genre. Really creative ability list and combat. Awesome art. Yay.

40%PC

Did not enjoy. I think this is the final clue that I am not a fan of the Pokémon type games. Same old moves in every battle. Gets so so boring quickly. Wasted 10 plus hours to realize this unfortunately

95%PC

Amazing game. Loved the music, story, and gameplay loop that it held. I recommend this to anyone who wants a good monster catcher. I personally believe this is the best on the market. It is very cozy as well, with a beautiful OST backing it up. Overall, a near perfect game.

100%PC

Excepcional em todos os aspectos.
No nível de qualidade é comparável ao Monster Sanctuary.

10%PC

did not like it, very progressive game, i had a lot of expectatives about this one but now... i just want to get a refund.

Never gonna be better than Pokemon.

85%Linux

This is a fun, wacky fusion of Pokemon with Legend of Zelda and Persona undertones. The premise of the game is that you're
stuck in the 1980s with cassette players and you are playing the music to become this fusion "beast", to defend yourself. In addition
your not-Walkman as a mic so you can record enemies to "capture" them. It's a cute idea but it works well as many of the pokemon concepts are defined in terms
of cassette tapes that you play.

Overall it's a great pokemon esque game that adds other flares in a very clean way.

GAMEPLAY

As mentioned before you are doing a two person pokemon esque turn based battle system. Unlike the other games you have two HP bars, once being the tape and one with the person themselves. Any extra damage you take over critical for the tape transferred to the user. When trying to record you have to disable your current tape (monster/transformation) and load a blank to record. This brings an interesting dynamic since there's no healing items for the person but there is for the tape. This makes capturing more interesting with the risk you have. The converse is that when capturing you can do fatal damage to the enemy but they can't die and you increase your odds of capturing. This is a nice twist on the formula and adds more options with a default combat of two participants rather than one. There are 12 rangers (gym leaders from pokemon) and I believe 8 dunegons from zelda to boot so it has a lot of goals and world to explore.

On top of that, you also have fusions where you can combine together with your ally to make a stronger monster. I find it a weakness honestly since you lose one action. Enemies can also come in that form as a rogue fusion. Overall though the combat mirrors pokemon in a smaller package which isn't a bad thing. The main issue I have is lack of skip for animations.

Outside of combat, the overworld movement mirrors Legend of Zelda with "HM" adding additional options. Once you capture a monster with the move, the special action is unlocked and tied to a key on the gamepad so no need to shuffle through a menu to get what you need. The overworld mirrors Link's Awakening with flat 2d spites in a 3d world but with the ability to jump. Exploration in general works this way until you run into an enemy to initiate combat above.

It should noted that this game is meant to be non-competitive, which means that it is ok to have unique moves that drastically change the field like preventing melee attacks. This would break Pokemon but it's good to see it in games that aren't versus other players to try new things when they are strictly against the game. In addition the stats are a lot easier to manage since they are very straightforward.

The monsters you have, like all RPGs allow you to level up and remaster (evolve) into better forms much like pokemon. Unlike pokemon though all moves can be shuffled so it's cool to take what you have and combine them without any issues on the fly. In addition there is loosely a gacha element where skills can come in normal, uncommon and rare events that add additional modifiers. Some of these are very crazy and some aren't. It's great to see since unlike pokemon they can be moved as needed.

One very pertinent issue of this game is sticker management. There's no easy way to move a group of stickers around different monsters so you may spend quite a bit of time doing management. With fixed animations, I feel I've wasted a few hours doing nothing. If these are fixed, I'd give it a solid 10.

9/10

GRAPHICS

The pixel art is very strong with a wide cast of monster from bugs to chunky bois. The overworld is simple modern 3D platforming. What is unique for this game is the bootlegs (which are shiny alternative-element) monsters. The alternatives have different colors and they are very consistent about it in their normal form as well as their fusions. Even the bosses have unique but cool art so overall a strong showing for this game.

I also love the locations where the "dungeons" are modern places like a mall. Whereas the boss fights are in subway stations which are a subtle way to link into the story.

10/10

MUSIC

The music is serviceable but nothing to right home about. The cafe music is amazing to hear and stood out with the lyrics. The rest is good enough to fit the theme but from what I remember there's only one battle music, one, maybe two fusion and a few boss themes. The game has I feel more tracks which is great but most of the time you're exploring or in combat. It is cool to hear lyrics on the combat theme when you are fused but it would be nice to have more variety.

7/10

STORY

The story fits the gameplay very well. We are a lost soul in this wacky world. Our goal is to explore and find a way to return back home. The twists are interesting, especially the final boss fight and I enjoyed how the song you are a building turns into a tool to find the final dungeon. That said the game feels targeted for kids like Pokemo