So I Tried… Cassette Beasts

 Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never played before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour to see if this is the game for me, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do. This time, I decided to go and playCassette Beasts. After getting sick of Pokémon, I wanted something familiar yet new, and I have been wanting to get this game for a while. So, during the Steam Spring Sale, I finally decided to bite the bullet and get it.

Cassette Beasts, developed by Bytten Studio and published by Raw Fury, an open-world monster-battling RPG, starts with you washing up on shore with no clue how you managed to get to this mysterious island. So… let’s check it out.

What I thought it was

Well… just another Pokémon-like, admittedly. After playing way too many Pokémon ROM hacks and trying out games like Temtem andNexomon, I wasn’t expecting all that much aside from what I feel when starting a new adventure.

I’ll probably go through my standard routine of focusing on collecting all the various creatures I come across with some occasional battles. It doesn’t seem all that different, right?

What it actually is

Holy crap, it is very much different. The first thirty minutes was the tutorial, introducing you to everything you needed to know about the world you’re in, and it was a great way to start. First off, I was immediately surprised by the battle system. It has a focus on status effects, buffs, and debuffs rather than just lowering your opponent’s HP to zero.

Using attacks that the enemy is strong or weak against does more than affect how much damage they take; they also inflict special effects. For example, hitting a plastic monster with a fire move melts them, turning the attacked creature into a poison type… which makes them vulnerable to being burned. Since most battles will be 2-on-2, this really makes you think twice about what your moves are, especially since you can customise what your monsters can do with stickers. Even getting new creatures will need to layer on debuffs as well as lowering their HP. And that’s not getting into overworld abilities, the relationship system, and even fusion. 

Cassette Beasts includes systems I really liked from other games while also improving on them. It’s really great.

Will I keep playing

What do you think? I will keep freaking playing. I’m only in the early parts of the game, still getting a grasp on the systems on display here. I don’t quite get everything yet, and I’m still experimenting with my team setups, but I really want to get into more depth here. I really wished I could’ve gotten Cassette Beasts sooner.

What I experienced so far is great, and I can’t wait to get into it more.