Cassette Beasts

Cassette Beasts received positive reviews from critics, who commented positively on its complexity in comparison to Pokémon. Cassette Beasts is a monster-taming game that bears a number of similarities to the Pokémon video game series. The game is played in a third-person view, overhead perspective and consist of three basic screens: an overworld on the island of New Wirral, where the player was transported to; a side-view battle screen; and a menu interface in the form of a cassette player, where the player can configure their beasts, items, and settings. The player can use their beasts to battle other beasts. The game initially offers the choice between "spooky or sweet" for their first beast choice, and unlike in Pokémon, the main character is able to transform into the beasts in order to battle. The game eschews the random encounter format of early Pokémon games, and all beasts are visible in the overworld. The game includes a permadeath mode , where beasts that are defeated permanently die in the playthrough, and a map randomizer, to increase replayability. The plot of the game follows the player's character as they wake up on the beach of New Wirral, which they were transported to from Earth. The player meets a number of companions during the game, and can strengthen their relationship with them by battling alongside them, completing their quests, and talking to them at a campfire while resting. Quests in the game include defeating all of the Ranger Captains, which are similar to Pokémon gym leaders, and a personal quest for the companion Kayleigh which involves facing down a cult which she had previously been a part of. The game includes a friendship ranking system that is similar than the one employed in the Persona video game series, and the player is able to engage in a simple romance with companions. Cassette Beasts was developed by UK-based Bytten Studio, a company of two full-time staff, Jay Baylis and Tom Coxon. Baylis and Coxon designed the game to be targeted at adults who had grown up with Pokémon and may be looking for a deeper story and more complex gameplay mechanics. In order to create the 14,000 possible fusions in the game, the developers made the monsters modular, allowing for parts to be combined automatically by the game.