Cassette Beasts Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

by Jim Smale · Published May 30, 2023 · Updated May 30, 2023

For this Cassette Beasts Review, where we collect awesome monsters to use during turn-based battles in this open-world RPG. Combine any two monster forms using Cassette Beasts’ Fusion System to create unique and powerful new ones!

Cassette Beasts Review Pros:

Beautiful graphics.
999MB download size.
Graphics settings – glitch effects on/off.
Gameplay settings – autosave, speed run timer, HUD quest tracker, status effect tutorials, screen shake, vibration, Ai smartness, and level scaling sliders.
3 save slots with cool cassette tape icons.
Character creator – name, pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them), favorite color, skin color, hairstyle, hair color, hair accessory color, face, eye color, and face accessory color. Clothes color and style round it off.
Action RPG gameplay.
Full 3D game world and you and the enemies are 2D sprites.
Your first combat experience has you choosing your aesthetic – Spooky or sweet.
The creatures that you can capture are stored in cassette tapes.
The creature moves in combat are displayed on a cassette box inlay.
All combat actions are presented on a tape play so play attacks, stop is flee, etc.
Obtaining a new creature will display their attacks, power level, accuracy, and any other miscellaneous info.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play and tutorial scenarios.
Multiple choice encounters.
Each character does have some voice work.
You can fast-forward interactions.
The map fills in as you explore and advance the story.
Bestiary populates with encountered and captured creatures and characters.
Save when you want.
Inventory management with tabs for – consumables, blank tapes, stickers, resources, and miscellaneous.
Your wardrobe in your house lets you rename and edit your character.
The map is split into squares which makes navigation easier.
Simple easy-to-learn controls.
Handy dash button.
Uses the Pokemon formula of capturing creatures and being able to turn them into them.
Turn-based combat.
What you can do in combat is all governed by action points and each action has a points value to use them.
All the combat is done via a 2.5D view.
Awesome-looking creatures complex with brilliant animations.
In combat you have two health bars – free is your cassette creature and red is your characters.
When a cassette creature loses all health the tape becomes damaged and needs to be repaired.
Each cassette creature involved in the combat will receive EXP and level up to increase stats and learn new actions.
The camera angle changes as you turn corners or find caves and hiding spots.
Fire pits can be turned into a camping spot and here you can – rest, party management, tape storage, and deal with inventory.
Camping has its own cool little presentation.
You see the creatures walking around the game world and can be triggered or avoided.
Nails the aesthetic they are going for like the healing items for cassette creatures is a pencil!
Combat has all your party members in it at once and you can face off against multiple creatures at one time.
Resources are needed to make camp and you can recycle items, find them in the world, and as rewards.
Tapes are needed and when you get a creature’s health down you can try and record (capture/copy them)
When recording a creature you are your character and can only take damage as you try and record.
What makes this different is recording a creature lets you instantly change into that creature and you essentially copy the creature rather than capture them.
Creatures have passive abilities so that when you are using them you get new powers or abilities within the game world. An example is one creature that can give you the ability to fly around the game world.
You can rename captured creatures.
Stickers go on the creature’s tape and are used to add new abilities or buffs to a creature.
Full ailment system from frozen to sleepy to poisoned.
The recording is really clever as you do nothing but try and record with each attempt giving a percentage. The dilemma is that both you and the creature can take damage and even die.
The combination method is the real game changer here for you can combine ANY two creatures together to create a new creature, The possibilities are nigh on endless and it really mixes it all up.
The game world looks but also plays like Link To The Past.
Day and night cycle.

Cassette Beasts Review Cons:

Cannot rebind controls.
Doesn’t have camera control and when it does change it’s quite jarring.
A lot to take in.
If you haven’t played Pokemon it can be a bit overwhelming.
Performance hitches in places.
When the game wants you to go somewhere in particular it will not allow you to freely walk around and sets up roadblocks as it were.
You don’t get an advantage when attacking first in the game world.
Creatures respawn quickly and you can get stuck in a combat loop.
You can fall off the side of a platform or a cliff really easily which means a lot of extra backtracking.
Doesn’t explain everything and sometimes doesn’t go into detail enough.
The combat is slow with no way to speed it up.
Not always clear why recordings can fail.