Cassette Beasts

Fantastic game that I simply cannot get into. The glowing strengths first, followed by my personal issues after. Mechanically, the gameplay is really good. The combat system is interesting and intuitive. You use weaker abilities to save up action points and unleash your big moves. No having to worry about finite MP and such. And the capture mechanic is pretty unique, where your trainer themself is vulnerable to enemy attacks during the capture process. Moreover, the game has its own distinct visuals and theming. Everything from the cassette tape aesthetics (not only the capture devices, but also healing items being a pencil to rewind the tapes, and play/pause/etc icons on the menus, etc) to some of the creature typing, like Plastic type which is both unique and on-brand for this game. Oh, and the music? This game has a banger soundtrack! I haven't gotten very far into it, but the monsters have pretty cool designs so far! There's an interesting story line (again, haven't gotten far, but it is rather intriguing from what I've seen) and I do want to find out what's going on in this world. Maybe I'll watch someone's playthrough, because... I like everything about this game except for actually playing it. I know! That sounds bad, and also contradictory, but hear me out! For one thing, it doesn't handle very well. There are collision issues-- invisible walls that show up here and there that you can't walk through, but you can jump over. (Or maybe it was just the one and I just encountered it twice?) And they're just in the middle of open areas. It's like the ground tiles didn't line up, so you end up colliding with a one-centimeter-tall ledge instead of just stepping over it. And you have a sprint meter for running faster, but if it runs out, your character screeches to a halt and remains frozen in place for a frustratingly long time instead of simply going back to normal walking speed until your stamina refills. Or even a reduced move speed would have been better than this. It just feels kinda clunky. Just little things like that, that make the game feel awkward or frustrating to control. Then there's the starters. In something like pokemon, you get three options to choose from, and you can see them and know their typing before you make your choice. Or for an indie example... in Monster Sanctuary, you get four options, and you can even see their stat layout and everything. In Cassette Beasts, you only get two options, no real info is provided, and you can't really even see them until you've made your choice. Well, the game does show you their faces, but among a bunch of other images, it's not clear at first what is the monster and what isn't. So you get a hint at them, but that's it. And choosing blind isn't even inherently a bad thing. That could work, if it weren't for everything else: What's maybe worse (in my opinion, not objectively) is that the game presents it as a reflection of you: "What's your vibe? Spooky or Sweet?" Not "which monster do you want", but which of these IS YOU. "Are you not spooky or sweet? Too bad. There are only two types of people, and you have to be one or the other." Even just one more option would have made it much more likely to find one that'd fit your aesthetic. Maybe one that's Chill, or Cool, or Peaceful, or Tough or anything. One more option to more likely catch the people who don't fit just one of two very specific categories. The first time I played the game, I went through the beginning, got my starter, didn't like it and started over. I remade my character, did the beginning again, picked the other starter... and liked it even less. Luckily, I hadn't erased my original save file, so I just went back to that one instead of having to do the whole thing for a third time. But you get my point, right? If you DO consider yourself spooky or sweet, then I'm sure you'll love it. But otherwise... you might REALLY not. DON'T GET ME WRONG-- they're good monster designs, but I REALLY didn't vibe with either of them. And since the game makes a point of them being a reflection of your personal style, I didn't click with them at all. So... yeah. This game absolutely RULES! I just wish playing it wasn't weirdly frustrating and off-putting for me-- mostly in just a bunch of very minor ways. But I hear they're making a sequel now. Hopefully that one will fix the weirdly specific issues I've had with it. And if not, I hope everyone else loves it. But I'll probably just watch someone's playthrough of it.