Considering how wildly widespread the Pokémon franchise is, it at all times surprises me that it nonetheless has no actual competitors. Plenty of builders have tried to create their very own spin on the monster-catching system, however few have achieved a real mainstream second. It isn’t for lack of making an attempt both. Games like Temtem labored laborious to place themselves as a viable different to Nintendo’s juggernaut, however it’s by no means been sufficient to work them out of a distinct segment. Anytime a launch like that fails to realize large-scale consideration, I’m left to ask simply what Pokémon has that its friends lack.
It’s a query I’m asking myself as soon as once more with the arrival of Cassette Beasts, a brand new indie monster-catching sport that takes direct inspiration from traditional Pokémon video games. On paper, it has the whole lot a longtime fan may probably need. All the mechanical staples are there, it’s difficult, and it even tugs at some Game Boy Advance nostalgia with its colourful sprites. Despite enjoying all the best notes, it nonetheless doesn’t fairly encourage the identical sense of surprise I received with final 12 months’s sloppy Pokémon Violet and Scarlet. So, what offers?
Cassettes Beasts is a key instance of how tough it may be to iterate on a chic and acquainted system. It shines in the case of its unique concepts, together with its musical aesthetic, a inventive monster-fusion hook, and exploration that invokes the very first Legend of Zelda sport. It struggles a bit extra when making an attempt to remix established Pokémon techniques, making every way more difficult within the course of. It all makes for one more monster-catcher that gives loads of nostalgic enjoyable, however nonetheless emphasizes why Pokémon perseveres even when it’s within the crimson.
Tapes and tapes
On its floor, Cassettes Beasts doesn’t seem to be it wants a lot explaining. Players are let unfastened in a world stuffed with monsters that may be caught and used to struggle in turn-based RPG battles. Beasts have totally different elemental sorts that play right into a “rock, papers, scissors” battle system and a few might be developed. Just about the whole lot you anticipate from a Pokémon-style sport is current, although there are key variations to every system that take some getting used to.
Some of these modifications assist it stand by itself and provides it a definite voice. For occasion, its total fight system is constructed on cassette tapes. At the beginning of the sport, gamers get a Walkman that holds their monsters and acts as a intelligent little bit of UI throughout battles. Pokéballs are tapes right here and beasts must be “recorded” throughout a struggle to seize them. Once that’s executed, they’ll be dedicated to cassettes and summoned when slotted into the Walkman. It’s a intelligent motif, and developer Bytten Studio has lots of enjoyable adapting style staples to it. Moves, as an illustration, are represented as stickers that may be caught to a tape or peeled off.
There’s rather a lot to like on an aesthetic stage. Its unique soundtrack, as an illustration, delivers a robust assortment of low-key pop songs and ambient overworld themes stuffed with slick guitar work. It’s a complete deal with on the visible facet as effectively, placing a stability between a Game Boy Advance Pokémon sport and Earthbound. I particularly love lots of the monster designs right here, which profit from colourful, detailed sprite work. Some private favourite monsters embrace a hermit crab with a site visitors cone for a shell and a carousel of rats.
Those monsters tie into its ace-in-the-hole system: merging. Once a particular bar has crammed up, gamers can fuse two of their geared up monsters collectively throughout a battle to create a mash-up monster. It’s a pleasant magic trick that performs on the viral nature of Pokémon fusion mills. There’s at all times a shock in retailer when smashing two creatures collectively and seeing the wild sprite they kind into. It makes the gathering of doable beasts really feel limitless (there are a whopping 14,000 or so combos right here), offering lots of incentive to experiment with totally different creatures, moderately than sticking to 6 favorites.
Its method to exploration is a spotlight as effectively. Rather than following the style’s route-to-city system, Cassette Beasts is a extra open-ended sport that feels spiritually aligned with The Legend of Zelda. It’s a secret-filled overworld, with tons of hidden caves and environmental puzzles that may be found from the bounce. Some mainline quests immediate gamers to trace down musical devices, beat fitness center leader-like rangers, and beat up some landlords (who hilariously stand in as the sport’s model of Team Rocket), however there’s no established order or steering past that. It’s the one space the place it actually has a bonus over Pokémon, getting at Violet and Scarlet’s open-world thought in a a lot cleaner, rewarding style.
If you come at Cassette Beasts as extra of a traditional journey sport, it’s straightforward to vibe with its laid-back type and nonlinear questing. It’s the extra express Pokémon DNA that left me in determined want of an previous -school technique information.
Iterating on perfection
So lots of Cassette Beasts’ techniques are so difficult that I’m having bother breaking them down succinctly right here. For starters, the coach has a well being bar similar to monsters do. Any time a beast is knocked out, any harm that will’ve gone to it that flip is delivered to the coach as an alternative. That signifies that gamers have to control every creature’s well being and their very own, including a enjoyable, although difficult twist to a longtime battle system.
On prime of that, the entire fight system is constructed round double battles, as gamers at all times have a companion at their facet, along with six beasts. Even the shortest coach battles really feel slightly lengthy consequently, with gamers having to attend via three or 4 monster assault animations as an alternative of two each battle. The duo system performs into its considerably complicated catching system too, the place one character must report a monster throughout a flip whereas the opposite weakens it to change its probability of being caught (explicitly proven as a share). It’s at all times good to see builders put their very own spin on Pokémon concepts, however the report system winds up feeling like a very advanced approach to get round having a personality merely toss a ball.
That feeling particularly rears its head in the case of monster sorts, which finds Cassette Beasts at its most overbaked. Like Pokémon, beasts right here have differing kinds which might be robust towards some sorts and weak towards others. Familiar sorts like hearth and ice seem alongside ones like plastic and wind. The fight system goes one step farther although, as sorts have a way more tangible impact on each other. Shooting a fireplace assault at a wind creature permits it to summon an updraft that acts as a protect. Hitting a metal monster with a rock assault, then again, triggers a resonation standing impact that’ll trigger an immediate dying after three hits.
Every single kind mixture has an interplay like this and they’re extraordinarily tough to maintain straight. I repeatedly really feel punished for not having the ability to commit every to reminiscence, with incorrect assaults usually giving enemies main buffs that put me at a drawback for the remainder of battle. That system brings lots of visible litter to battles too, with tons of tiny standing icons dotting the screens and waves of additional textual content extending already lengthy battles. Those who’ve at all times needed extra complexity from Pokémon’s battle system may have rather a lot to dig into, however it makes for a steep studying curve that I nonetheless have but to nail down.
As I struggled to adapt to techniques like this, I started to surprise if I merely was too comfy with a longtime system I’ve been accustomed to for years. Perhaps I wasn’t assembly Cassette Beasts by itself phrases as a very new spin on the monster-catching system. I do determine there’s some stage of fact to that, however the difficult techniques made me admire how elegantly Pokémon handles a posh thought. It’s no small process. We’re speaking about an RPG with tons of of distinct monsters to stability, 18 sorts to work round, and a myriad of under-the-hood techniques like effort values and natures that make all of it tick. And but, it really works. Pokémon video games are extremely straightforward to know, to the purpose the place younger youngsters can choose it up and determine it out with no information. It nonetheless maintains a ridiculous quantity of depth, although, fueling a hardcore aggressive scene that operates on a wholly totally different stage from informal gamers.
A whole lot of Pokémon riffs appear to function below this concept that they’re going to repair the collection’ issues or present an expertise that’s extra geared towards the adults who grew up on the collection. Both are noble causes, however they’re simpler stated than executed. Temtem, as an illustration, tries to create a “dream” Pokémon MMO, however it struggles in the case of cluttered design and bland creatures that spotlight how good Game Freak is at its job. The fact is that Pokémon nonetheless thrives as a result of its builders have it all the way down to a science at this level, streamlining potential ache factors with every sport and delivering a regularly creative forged of monsters.
Cassette Beasts does fall into some acquainted pitfalls, making for a hit-and-miss journey. Some would possibly discover its complexity interesting, however that comes on the expense of informal attraction and legibility. Still, I’m inspired by what number of of its unique concepts land. Monster fusion is a very spectacular trick, exploration feels traditional and trendy in the identical breath, and its cassette motif is a intelligent little bit of theming that provides it a definite type. Perhaps Game Freak needs to be the one taking notes this time.
Cassette Beasts is out now on PC and is coming to consoles later this spring.
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