Cassette Beasts

[h1][i]Cassette Beasts[/i] is the best Pokemon-like currently on the market.[/h1] What makes Cassette Beasts stick out from all its peers is its understanding of the "Creature Collector" genre. Most games will try to ape Pokemon as close as possible, down to the catching mechanics, only to throw a few tricks here and there, but ultimately just being a watered-down Pokemon. Cassette Beasts gets that the appeal of the Creature Collector is getting little guys, getting new moves for those guys, evolving those guys, seeing which guy fits into your playstyle, or tweeking those guys into your playstyle. Everything about the game blossoms from that core idea. The general gist of the game is a 2v2 Creature Collector with turn-based "momentum" combat. You control two characters, each with a set of five critters that can have up to eight moves, usually fighting two other critters. Moves cost energy, but you build energy every turn. The final twist is that you or the enemy can fuse beasts mid-combat into one beefy monster. It sounds simple. However, the complexity comes from the sheer amount of customization you can do. Every beast has unique types, stats, and movepool. Types and stats are immutable, but the movepool is truly where the teambuilding shines. This is because the movepool also includes passives, such as immunities or extra energy generation. This allows you to create some game-breaking interactions as you slap a ton of passives on one beast. It's similar to how creatures functioned in Persona, except instead of trying to fuse the perfect Persona you can unequip moves and passives at any time and stick them on another monster. The part I'm most impressed with is type advantages. In CB, types isn't just pure rock-paper-scissors, where rock just does more damage to scissors. Instead, type matchups inflict status effects or field conditions. For example, a Plastic-type monster being attacked with a Fire-type move move will "melt" into a Poison-type, or a Grass-type monster being attacked with a Water-type move will make it "Sprout". This makes combat more strategic where you're trying to find holes in the enemy's defense to press an advantage, rather than just clicking the strongest move with the strongest type to do the most damage. Fusion takes this a step further by allowing you to combine beasts to make one monster with dual-types. CB did a splendid job at making sure each Type comes with setbacks, avoiding a scenario where one type is the best. For example, Glass-type is rare, and hits almost everything for neutral damage, but it's weak to the most numerous type in the game: Beast. These small additions force you to be constantly changing up your team, especially in the late-game where the game is much more difficult. Which brings me to the stars: the little guys. CB has 130 different monsters and 14 different types. While not all of them are winners, each does feel unique thanks to a variety of passives, moves, and stats. Some are glass cannons that hit hard and fast, others are bunkers that whittle down your opponent. There is a creature for every playstyle. The game overall is brimming with creativity. While I might not care for the design of the human characters, I do enjoy the designs for most of the beasts and the Archangels. The critters all have simplistic designs that help accentuate their features. You can tell what kind of type and stats a creature might have just by looking at it. This clear visual design is usually missing in most Creature Collectors. On top of that, the Archangels, the bosses of the game, all have beautiful designs that play with different mixed media. It helps make these bosses feel tough and scary to fight. Even the sprite work, which I'm not normally a fan of, keep designs simple to really make designs clear and colors pop. And most of the music is wonderful... except the battle theme which you will be hearing most of the time. There are a few negatives, however. Early game monsters tend to repeat themselves over and over. There also isn't much variety in the typing, leading you to fighting Beast-type monsters for like the first 5 hours of the game. However, after you finish your second dungeon, the game really starts to open up in wonderful ways as you gain traversal mechanics. There are also some partners that feel utterly useless. Felix and Viola feel like after-thoughts, with Felix having particularly clunky gimmicks. All in all, CB is absolutely a great game. It is worth paying for if you love collecting little guys.