Contemplating how wildly fashionable the Pokémon franchise is, it at all times surprises me that it nonetheless has no actual competitors. Loads of builders have tried to create their very own spin on the monster-catching components, however few have achieved a real mainstream second. It isn’t for lack of making an attempt both. Video games like Temtem labored onerous to place themselves as a viable various 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 achieve 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 all the things a longtime fan may presumably need. All of the mechanical staples are there, it’s difficult, and it even tugs at some Sport Boy Advance nostalgia with its colourful sprites. Regardless of enjoying all the best notes, it nonetheless doesn’t fairly encourage the identical sense of marvel I bought with final 12 months’s sloppy Pokémon Violet and Scarlet. So, what provides?
Cassettes Beasts is a key instance of how troublesome it may be to iterate on a chic and acquainted components. It shines on the subject 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 much more sophisticated within the course of. All of it makes for an additional 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. Gamers are let free in a world filled with monsters that may be caught and used to struggle in turn-based RPG battles. Beasts have completely different elemental sorts that play right into a “rock, papers, scissors” battle system and a few may be advanced. Nearly all the things you anticipate from a Pokémon-style sport is current, although there are key variations to every system that take some getting used to.
A few of these adjustments assist it stand by itself and provides it a definite voice. For example, its total fight system is constructed on cassette tapes. Initially 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 should be “recorded” throughout a struggle to seize them. As soon as that’s carried out, they’ll be dedicated to cassettes and summoned when slotted into the Walkman. It’s a intelligent motif, and developer Bytten Studio has plenty of enjoyable adapting style staples to it. Strikes, as an illustration, are represented as stickers that may be caught to a tape or peeled off.
There’s lots to like on an aesthetic stage. Its unique soundtrack, as an illustration, delivers a powerful assortment of low-key pop songs and ambient overworld themes crammed with slick guitar work. It’s a complete deal with on the visible facet as effectively, hanging a stability between a Sport Boy Advance Pokémon sport and Earthbound. I particularly love plenty of the monster designs right here, which profit from colourful, detailed sprite work. Some private favourite monsters embrace a hermit crab with a visitors cone for a shell and a carousel of rats.
These monsters tie into its ace-in-the-hole system: merging. As soon as a particular bar has stuffed up, gamers can fuse two of their outfitted 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 turbines. There’s at all times a shock in retailer when smashing two creatures collectively and seeing the wild sprite they type into. It makes the gathering of potential beasts really feel limitless (there are a whopping 14,000 or so combos right here), offering plenty of incentive to experiment with completely different creatures, slightly than sticking to 6 favorites.
Its strategy to exploration is a spotlight as effectively. Fairly than following the style’s route-to-city components, 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 leap. 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 Crew 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 vogue.
For those who come at Cassette Beasts as extra of a traditional journey sport, it’s straightforward to vibe with its laid-back fashion and nonlinear questing. It’s the extra specific Pokémon DNA that left me in determined want of an outdated -school technique information.
Iterating on perfection
So a lot of Cassette Beasts’ techniques are so sophisticated 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 might’ve gone to it that flip is delivered to the coach as an alternative. That implies that gamers must keep watch over every creature’s well being and their very own, including a enjoyable, although sophisticated twist to a longtime battle components.
On high 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 a little bit 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 file a monster throughout a flip whereas the opposite weakens it to change its probability of being caught (explicitly proven as a proportion). It’s at all times good to see builders put their very own spin on Pokémon concepts, however the file system winds up feeling like a very complicated approach to get round having a personality merely toss a ball.
That feeling particularly rears its head on the subject of monster sorts, which finds Cassette Beasts at its most overbaked. Like Pokémon, beasts right here have differing types which might be sturdy in opposition to some sorts and weak in opposition to others. Acquainted 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. Taking pictures a hearth assault at a wind creature permits it to summon an updraft that acts as a protect. Hitting a metal monster with a rock assault, alternatively, triggers a resonation standing impact that’ll trigger an on the spot dying after three hits.
Each single sort mixture has an interplay like this and they’re extraordinarily troublesome to maintain straight. I constantly really feel punished for not having the ability to commit every to reminiscence, with incorrect assaults typically giving enemies main buffs that put me at an obstacle for the remainder of battle. That system brings plenty 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 that’ve at all times needed extra complexity from Pokémon’s battle system can have lots 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 marvel if I merely was too snug with a longtime system I’ve been aware of for years. Maybe I wasn’t assembly Cassette Beasts by itself phrases as a completely new spin on the monster-catching components. I do determine there’s some stage of reality to that, however the sophisticated techniques made me recognize how elegantly Pokémon handles a posh thought. It’s no small job. 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 children can decide 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 completely different stage from informal gamers.
A variety of Pokémon riffs appear to function below this concept that they’re going to repair the sequence’ issues or present an expertise that’s extra geared towards the adults who grew up on the sequence. Each are noble causes, however they’re simpler stated than carried out. Temtem, as an illustration, tries to create a “dream” Pokémon MMO, however it struggles on the subject of cluttered design and bland creatures that spotlight how good Sport Freak is at its job. The reality 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. Nonetheless, I’m inspired by what number of of its unique concepts land. Monster fusion is a really spectacular trick, exploration feels traditional and fashionable in the identical breath, and its cassette motif is a intelligent little bit of theming that provides it a definite fashion. Maybe Sport Freak ought 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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