I’ve been following the development of Cassette Beasts for a little over two years now, since my interest was first piqued by screenshots the developer posted on Twitter. It was a great concept, a pixel art Pokemon-like with a retro aesthetic. Music plays a big role in the idea, as you record monsters onto cassettes rather than catch them with Poke Balls, with the additional twist that they can fuse together in battle to become more powerful forms in an almost Yu-Gi-Oh fashion.
I was also struck by how many similarities the game had to my own life. I don’t wander around recording animals on cassettes or anything weird, but the game’s region is called New Wirral. I grew up on The Wirral, a peninsula in the north west of England. If that’s not weird enough, the developers are based in Brighton, in the south of England. That’s where I lived when I first heard about the game! Add into the mix that it’s a Pokemon-like with retro tendencies – Pokemon is my favourite game series and, while I prefer vinyl to cassette tapes, I can be a bit of a retro head myself – and you’ve got a game essentially created for me, right?
As much as I liked the concept, and the screenshots and video footage I saw, nothing prepared me for actually playing the game during Steam Next Fest. The short demo walks you through the opening of the game, explaining the basic concepts of battling and catching, as well as introducing you to the region and the story of the game, which are both far more interesting than I’d previously imagined.
You wash up on the shore of New Wirral, an island not exactly on Earth. You’ve heard this one before, but there’s a twist: everyone living here did the same thing before you. Choosing your starter is a little different to Pokemon: your new friend Kayleigh asks if your aesthetic is spooky or sweet, and you receive a monster appropriate to that response. This was perhaps the most surprising thing about playing Cassette Beasts, that the retro aesthetic is perfectly blended with the gameplay, and one affects the other in clever ways.
Take the battle screen, for example. Not only are your options (fight, switch, items, run, etc.) the buttons off a cassette player, your move list is designed just like a handwritten tracklist from your favourite ‘90s mixtape. It’s fun that potions are pencils (most of you will be too young to understand that), but every aspect of the game has been thought through and gels with the theme.
The battles themselves are good fun. I’ve already written about how Temtem’s double battles make it so much more tactical than Pokemon, and Cassette Beasts opts for the same tactic, albeit more on the Sword & Shield end of the difficulty scale rather than Temtem, which edges towards Nuzlocke or even Kaizo hack territory.
The design is great, too. The pixel art is lovely, the changing weather and day/night cycle make exploring feel interesting, and the character creator is jammed full of options that most triple-A games skimp out on. From non-binary pronouns to a variety of Black hairstyles and no options locked depending on what gender your character is, it’s thorough and creative. Your clothes are a bit boring, but I suspect you’ll be able to buy new, more ‘90s garms as the game progresses.
The creatures are equally carefully designed. Traffikrab was an instant hit as soon as it was revealed, and while I’m pretty sure I’d seen all of the critters in the demo before – on Twitter or in blog updates and the like – they were all pretty cool. Something that surprised me, however, was how little I cared about the fusing mechanic in battle. There was only one opportunity to use it in the demo, so there’s plenty of time for it to grow on me, but I think I’ve been disappointed since I learned that most fusion designs will be procedurally generated rather than bespoke designs. Still, it acts as a neat get out of jail free card when you do use it.
I must talk about the sound design in Cassette Beasts. The music that accompanies your journey is proper songs with lyrics and everything, obviously with that retro vibe. It’s sometimes a little jarring when you transition from battle themes to the overworld songs, but mostly it sounds great. There’s a little bit of voice acting, too, emphasising what other characters are saying to you, and even this slight addition makes Pokemon feel 20 years behind the times.
I’m excited to explore more of New Wirral, especially because of the way exploration is presented in the early stages. You accompany Kayleigh on a mission – which has some spooky horror elements that Pokemon wouldn’t dare touch, by the way – and increase your friendship with her. This strengthens your bond, and therefore makes your monsters more powerful when they fuse. She offers another mission to progress, but another character appeared and offered me a different mission in a different area of the map. This one looked like it involved vampires, too, who seem to replace Pokemon’s generic evil team. Count me in.
Cassette Beasts is slick in both presentation and gameplay, and I can’t wait to play more when it releases next year. There are definitely dark secrets hidden in New Wirral, and I’m determined to uncover them all. The prospect of recording monsters on cassette tapes and battling vampires in the meantime only amplifies my excitement. If you like Pokemon, or lament the Good Old Days of Emerald and SoulSilver, then you owe it to yourself to play Cassette Beasts. It’s reminiscent of the best Pokemon titles, and in some places even improves on them – and I don’t say that lightly.