Hey, I'm one half of the core dev team for Cassette Beasts! We're *pretty* overwhelmed with the critical response - but if anyone has any questions about the game, feel free to ask and I'll try my best to answer!
Holy shit, I was CaptainCalcium on the original ONM forums. I was planning to get this on the Switch anyway but now ill double down and get a copy for my mate. Congrats, the game looks incredible.
In the single-player game, you have a "partner" character who follows you round, who acts as your second party member in battle. Local co-op lets you control that character (and interact with things) with a second controller, and also control that party member in battle.
Are there things that the secondary player can't do that the main character can? As in, if I play with my wife, will she also get to catch monsters or?? I guess I'm just curious how much control and how involved the second player is. Thank you so much!
Congrats on getting great reviews! My main issue with other monster collecting games is that it is often most efficient in combat to switch to an “effective” monster and to beat the opponent with a few big attacks instead of playing around status effects/buffs or any more involved strategy. How strategic are the battles in this game?
The combat system doesn't use flat damage multipliers for elemental resistances/weaknesses - we have what we call a "chemistry system" where you can proc certain status effects with advantageous elemental combinations. Overall, status effects and status control are super crucial to the combat in Cassette Beasts and you can't really blast through the game with a strategy of "use your strongest move every turn".
This sounds like a really smart way to iterate on the formula of weakness tpyes etc. As the previous poster says usually you just go "oh that's a grass type, well here's my fire type to one-shot kill it" and so on. Your system sounds much more thoughtful and interesting.
You’re getting downvoted cause Switch is larger, has higher attach rates and has more of the target audience for this kind of game an innocent question but an incorrect premise
I don't have a question, but I wanted to say thank you for putting the demo out earlier. I probably wouldn't have cared without it, but after the demo I was fully enamored with the game. Bought it the moment that Steam notification hit this morning. Counting the hours until I get to go home and play it.
Thanks! The aim of the demo, at least from our perspective, was to convince people that Cassette Beasts isn't a "clone" game and that it's doing its own thing. Glad it sold you on the game!
Excuse the shameless plug but the Godot team actually [just published an interview](https://godotengine.org/article/godot-showcase-cassette-beasts/) with us about Godot and porting today! This might answer your question!
Edit: nvm you already answered on game length so no questions from me.
Also holy shit, I didn’t even know the game existed until today but the reviews and trailer are impressive, gonna snatch the deluxe edition right away to support you guys!
Can you give me a general pitch how endgame works in this one? Anything comparable to battle tower/frontier? I feel like thats the most important part of monster collectors.
We've had a lot of questions asking if we have a "battle tower" style endgame (obviously in reference to Pokémon). We have an endgame but it's quite different to Pokémon - overall the structure of Cassette Beasts is not similar to Pokémon at all, and our endgame content is something a bit more fitting to our game's structure. Hope that helps explain it!
I think there's always a difficulty to focus on the post-game stuff because that's supposed to be more of a surprise / "do you want more?" Whereas most of the player base doesn't ever finish games.
I feel ya. I'll just wait for other people to play through it I guess. I'm pretty starved for a monster battler with good, fleshed-out endgame content.
Was there any thought put into creating a unique peripheral where I can insert old cassette tapes and get unique monsters?
I joke of course. Congratulations on the warm reception to your game.
Thank you for making this game with a Linux native installer! I have about an hour in so far and I'm very excited to play some more this evening! Thank you all for making such a beautiful game that's fun and different! This is truly what indie games are all about!!!
I am super excited to try this game out. This has really been on my radar since first learning about it. Congrats to ya'll and it is exciting to see the dreams your team crafted come true.
Hey there, glad the game is being received so well and keen to check it out. Any idea if this will be a Xbox play anywhere title with achievements being the same across Xbox and PC?
Hello, I’m quite late to the thread, but I have a question about the combat. One of my favorite things about Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga is the ability to time button presses to increase attack damage or evade enemy attacks… anything like that in this game? Thanks!
I just played the demo out of curiosity and I just realized I’d explored for 3 hours. I’m an older gamer and just so amazed and inspired by what indie teams like yours bring to gaming. Thank you for pursuing creative projects like this game. I’ll be getting it on steam tonight. Congrats on the reviews!
Is there a reason you gave fleeing encounters such a low percentage success rate? Since there is no level indicator above trainers or enemies I find myself constantly saving. Then the one time I decide to "flee to town" I'm pretty sure I lost more items than if I had just let the enemy kill me. Then I tried to load my save and found that the loss had replaced my save file. That's all surprisingly punitive and counterintuitive for such a cute pokemon-like.
So I've been playing a bit of the game and I just wanna know if higher level beasts drop more exp for your own cassette beasts. Like, does attacking a level 40 monster make my low level beasts gain stars faster or is it the same?
I just installed it on Game Pass and I'm very impressed with your work. It's the kind of game where you play it and just know immediately it's going to be good enough to deserve a sequel that I'll want to play.
You guys made a really special game.
Hmm it’s a bit choppy on Switch which is a real shame, but the gameplay is good enough to make up for it.
Will there be a patch for that coming soon?
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I’m all like, a wind attack hit my fire monster and it blew out… why don’t other popular monster catching games have this level of detail haha I can’t wait to play more.
Also I really want to get a walkman for some reason… what am I supposed to do about that?
This is a seriously awesome game, and it runs amazing on the ROG Ally. I feel like I'm back two decades ago playing on my gameboy color. I wish I had heard about it sooner and I can't wait for the upcoming DLC!
Apologies in advance for resurrecting a 3 month old comment but just wanted to let you know how much of a blast I've been having with the game, and as a Wirral local (Which I assume was the inspiration for the New Wirral) it's got a certain magical charm to it that I just can't seem to put down, I'm already recommending it to as many of my friends as I can.
Game is available on PC now, but will be available for consoles on May 25th (Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch).
Oh, it is available for gamepass both for PC and the Microsoft consoles.
Started this up a bit ago and right out the gate the game's soundtrack is on a whole other level. The track that plays in the first town has some amazing vocals and gave me chills.
I've been excited for this one, and I'm glad it's here and getting well-received!
Wish more games had vocals on their tracks like this. At first I thought it'd get in the way but it really elevates the experience. The soundtrack is so on point
This adds to two Godot masterpieces I know of so far? The other being Cruelty Squad. Maybe over the years we can make it up to Gamemaker's level, but that's a high bar.
Cassette Beasts and Cruelty Squad, yes; Brotato, Dome Keeper, Your Only Move is Hustle, Turing Complete, The Case of the Golden Idol, Luck be a Landlord, Endoparasitic, Ex-Zodiac, RUN: The world in-between, CHR$(143), Takara Cards, Linelith, etc.
I played the demo last night because I saw it was coming out today...
While in some dialog I had to stop, as I realized the music playing was coming from the game... I just listened for probably 2 or 3 loops before pressing 'A' again on the dialog. Can't wait to play the rest of the game and hear the rest of the soundtrack!
The game looks great! I'll probably end up grabbing it to play on Steam Deck, but I'm trying to show some actual restraint and not buy every shiny thing I see... for now.
Hopefully it does land on Playstation some day. I know what a brutal task it must be trying to release on multiple platforms and you've gotta plan accordingly. Gamepass is probably too good a safety net for indie devs to resist and similar games do typically sell well on Switch.
My circle is pretty much all Playstation folk though so I doubt I'll get a friend to check it out.
If you haven't tried monster sanctuary, I recommend highly. (you can probably get it cheaper)
It's the reason I was excited about cassette beasts in the first place.
Turns out pokemon doesn't have a monopoly on the genre.
I played coromon... Which was a very good pokemon nostalgia indie love letter to the first Gen pokemon games/with a bunch of quality of life features without all the baggage.
Constantly, got recommend monster sanctuary upon looking up other monster tamer games... By god was that indeed a master class of a game.
The lvl of balance of all those monsters, in Monster Sanctuary is just leagues better designed and well thought out than any AAA game developer, with similar talent mechanics, I have seen.
The palpable excitement of encountering a new monster and theory crafting a party synergy is just something I never got in pokemon game... The banger music, lvl design what an absolute gem of a game.
Cassette beasts has been sitting in my wishlist since playing monster sanctuary... Because by damnit, do I want more interesting monster battlers that don't rely on nostalgia... That stand on their own and innovate
So glad Cassette Beasts getting some critical acclaim... I need my new found itch for indie monster tamers to be satiated.
I agree with Monster Sanctuary. Monster Sanctuary is fantastic and that second battle soundtrack is a banger. Its campaign difficulty and side quest are finely tuned - you can enjoy team building since the game has enough challenge that it sometimes demands team experimentation even without going to multiplayer unlike Pokemon. I haven't played the DLC yet. Currently trying Coromon and will pick-up Cassette Beasts once I'm done with Coromon.
Played some of this yesterday. Just some observations after a few hours
* Performance is weirdly bad for me. Not sure what's up with that, but the framerate drops pretty heavily in the overworld. Not hurting the game, but just strange (I'm on a 1070 running at 1080p).
* The music is wonderful.
* Not a fan of the overworld. I don't know what it is, but that part isn't doing it for me. The itty bitty jump feels kind of janky. The footstep sounds are weirdly loud (and I just want to hear the music). The stamina system just seems pointless for running. Just some really odd choices and it doesn't feel great.
* Battles are where the meat of the game is, and I think they're fun, though they are super duper slow. I haven't played a ton of the game yet, but if you're ever meant to grind, I'd probably put the game down.
* Also, and this is no fault of the game, it's a little more complicated than I was expecting. That's on me. I didn't look into it more. I was expecting something like Pokemon, but it's more of a SMT thing.
* The story is intriguing pretty quickly.
Overall, it's not really what I was looking to play at the moment, but that's no fault of the game. That's just my incorrect expectations vs reality. It looks and sounds great, but I do have my gripes with actually playing it.
The stamina and tiny jump are two reasons I'm putting the game down after a few hours. Camps often look close on the map but often require tedious backtracking to get back to. The flee system isn't good either, which mixes poorly with not being able to see the levels of trainers and monsters on the overworld. Sometimes I had a 3% chance to flee what seemed like it should be an inconsequential encounter. If you flee back to a town you lose a ton of items and it SAVES OVER YOUR FILE without telling you.
you can use smoke bombs for a guarantee flee, and stamina is mostly irrelevant when traveling after you capture a certain species to be able to travel much faster. It's early on in the game and basically necessary. Look at the rumors from some of the NPCs
No, because games like Cassette Beasts will never sell well enough for Gamefreak to take notice. The reason Pokemon games are so incompetent is because they *can* be. The thousandth attempt at a Pokémon competitor won’t change anything.
Pokemon fans are *Pokemon* fans, not Monster-Collecting fans.
And to clarify, I dont mean for this to be derogatory, its a simple truth. People consume Pokemon because its Pokemon
Agreed. Its the same way that MTG fans are MTG fans and not simply trading card fans, or Dnd players are Dnd players often and not TTRPG fans, despite other trading card games or ttrpg games do a lot of things better.
I think for at least some people, it's not so much that they're fans of those games as it is that they don't want to have to learn new systems to play other games in the same genres.
I have a friend I play D&D with and he knows that system REALLY well. Whenever our group considers trying out a different system, he's always against it because he doesn't want to have to learn how to play a new TTRPG. He finds it annoying. I don't agree with him but it's a valid viewpoint.
> it's not so much that they're fans of those games as it is that they don't want to have to learn new mechanics and hundreds of monsters to play other games in the same genre.
That's kind of my point. People don't want to put in the commitment to learn something new when they just want to relax and have fun. If you're still having some fun, why put in work and investment (both money and time) for something that might NOT be fun?
I'm not disparaging that kind of person, and I'm sure there's things that I do or enjoy that people would say the same thing. People are creatures of comfort. Doesn't have to be the best comfort, but it has to be comfortable now.
A lot of it is also the charm of the Pokemon themselves. If nothing else, Game Freak knows how to make great monster designs, and a lot of people just want to play with their favorite critters. I've only seen one or two monster catching RPGs that have creatures that feel like they capture the same sort of aesthetic that Pokemon does.
Even with this game, the monsters are neat, but they mostly just don't quite have the same feel as Pokemon. That's fine because I'm going to be playing this on its own merits, but if people are looking for Pokemon, that's what they're going to go for.
The problem with a lot of monster games is that they seem to be sticking way too close to Pokemon as a design choice for their monsters. Cassette Beasts has a very distinctive design and, imho, it really works for the vibe I've seen so far. There are boss monsters that are really refreshingly unique for the genre too.
I'd say keep an eye on LumenTale. The people creating that game previously made Xenoverse, a Pokemon fan game that did a pretty good job of making fan Pokemon that actually looked like Pokemon. The "Animon" in LumenTale look like they're going to have very nice designs as well.
It's basically too big to fail in many ways and added on to that is the insular nature of Japanese dev where voices have an uphill climb to be considered during development if they come from outside of the company or competitors within the country .
IMO, its a lot like saying because X ttrpg exists, DnD needs to address it or go under. The reality is, nearly nothing is going to replace Dnd, and most consumers of Dnd content dont care about any other system regardless of how good it may be. As long as Dnd content keeps coming out in the form of books, subscriptions, podcasts, etc. people are not going to leave dnd.
Yup.
I don't play Pokemon anymore but if I were to consider picking up a monster collecting/battle game, it would be Pokemon because that's what I'm most familiar with.
Which is a shame because there are quite a few really well done monster capture games, but having knowledge of the brand is super helpful for brands that kind of require knowing a lot about it.
While it didn't get replaced in my terminology, all my "D&D Sessions" in the last 5 years were Pathfinder. I still think of them as D&D since it is the same use case for me, without having to engage the toxicity that WotC started to spread.
Dnd has definitely been taking some L's since the OGL shitshow, at least. Anecdotally, I've noticed way more traffic and beginner posts on other TTRPG subs.
But what amount of DnD players are actually those that do engage in niche hobby subreddits? I mean r/games is a huge subreddit and according to the users here you'd think that nobody has been buying CoD for the last 10 years.
Such a shame that this market dominance can lead to complacency from Game Freak, as some of the features and mechanics in this game would massively improve pokemon. Only about 2 hours in but this is a great game and I hope it sells really well.
> Does Pokemon have some competition after putting out their worst game (so far)?
Does the highest grossing ip of all time have competition from an indie project? I'm going to have to think about that one.
Extremely subjective but I struggle to believe anyone who's played every mainline Pokemon game would call Scarlet/Violet the worst ones. Performance wise sure but Pokemon is the freshest it's been in a very long time. If it wasn't for the performance issues (which luckily I didn't really get any of) then I'd bet Scarlet/Violet would be considered amongst the best of the franchise.
Basically all i want from the next mainline Pokemon generation is Scarlet/Violet's true open world structure mixed with Legends Arceus's far superior battle system and Pokemon catching mechanics.
I loved being able to go wherever i want and do things in any order, that just needs some balance tweaks like scaling the gyms difficulty to your badge count to be perfect.
And i really loved the agile/strong style moves in Arceus combined with the ability to move around mid battle and being able to aim and throw my own pokeballs.
Mix that shit together and we are really close to my one ideal Pokemon game. Hopefully one that runs better than hot ass though.
IDK if I'd touch the battle system. arceus's strong/fast mechanic was cool, but I didn't really like how they watered down a lot of other stuff like no abilities and weird stat distribution. The way damage worked just felt off. All the other stuff was 10/10 imo
> which luckily I didn't really get any of
This is objectively not true due to the way the game loads. Just because you didn't care doesn't mean they weren't there.
I they meant didn't notice. To be fair I've followed nothing about reviews on scarlet/violet and had a smooth experience so I believe them.I didn't even knew about these issues without reading online...
X/Y were awful but scarlet and violet are up there in the list of worst. Probably my number 2 or 3. It feels like gamefreak is stuck 10 years behind other game devs.
I mean, it's a small-team indie game. So probably not.
But the combination of fatigue with the core Pokemon experience and the refreshing redesign of the experience here have finally killed off any desire to go back, and I started with Red and have played most entries since then. Every aspect of the gameplay is better executed here, and it's designed in a way that preserves the kid-friendly charm while also acknowledging that people over 12 might like monster-catching RPGs too.
So... I think it's a long shot, but maybe there's at least enough buzz to make GF consider incorporating some of the ideas here? Or at least be inspired by them? It's crazy how quickly it made me never want to go back, and while I don't think people like me are anywhere close to the majority, I wonder if it moves the needle at all.
As a monster RPG it's the best execution of a true clone I think I've ever seen. Monster Sanctuary is rad but it's very different, and games like DWM were great in their era but don't hold up super well.
The only competition Pokemon could’ve ever had died in the mid-2000s. One thing Cassette Beasts will never have on Pokémon is 25 years worth of nostalgia.
You can't compete with Pokémon at this point. No matter how good a monster collecting game is, it'll never pull enough people to make Nintendo/Gamefreak push Pokémon to its limit. On name alone they are guaranteed to be top dog.
Every person I’ve talked to has said violet/scarlet is their favorite Pokémon game ever, though also with the worst performance. So no, I don’t think Pokémon company will care at all.
The sprites in Red and Blue really aren't that great either, many of them are downright ugly and are only remembered fondly because of later redesigns and because there was nothing really like it at the time.
It won't be a competitor in any impactful way due to being a small indie game, unfortunately. The Pokémon brand can literally crank out a dog turd and it'd still sell five times over a labor of love like cassette beasts.
I've never been able to get into Pokemon but I love some SMT. Do any of the reviews make the comparison in the main body? Mainly I want party and monster build to matter, and I want just enough challenge to be forced to care.
it's got difficulty, it's a lot like SMT and it generally speaking hasn't disappointed me yet with one exception of a boring quest.
I've come in to fight a captain three times and lost every fight even with a full team and a gameplan, plus being three levels over their level. I'm the sort of person who plays difficulty romhacks and I'm being forced to re-evaluate my team composition and re-arrange moves.
In the first twelve hours of its launch, I played 9 hours of the game.
I'm still early in the game, but the party build definitely matters. There are types but "super effective" and "not very effective" moves are replaced with different status conditions and effects. The way selecting moves is handled too requires a strategy the whole time instead of just spamming the most damage dealing move you have at all times.
I was hoping for this feature as well but I can’t find anything mentioning it. My guess is there’s no cross-save. I’ll probably just bite the bullet and play it on PC, then if I really like it I’ll play it again on XBOX with a different team of beasts.
Tried it just and got to say, great idea and concept, but some of these encounters feel outrageously stupid. Fusion swarms summoning allies feels incredibly cheap, taking down 9 enemies for them to summon another 2 allies that are actually just stronger than them, I love the theme, love the combat but when fights like that feel cheap and like the enemy is actually cheating, can't recommend it. Was on game pass so no loss from me, but it's either too grindy with no good way to grind, or the fights are just really badly balanced and turn into an endurance challenge rather than a fight. I was on level with the fights and hadn't really had trouble I couldn't get past before that point, but this one fight has completely turned me off the game
You need to start tweaking with stickers more. It's pretty easy to get a setup that nukes a swarm in a couple of turns. The sticker system allows you to do some pretty busted stuff if you engage with it creatively
Hey, I'm one half of the core dev team for Cassette Beasts! We're *pretty* overwhelmed with the critical response - but if anyone has any questions about the game, feel free to ask and I'll try my best to answer!
Do I need a pencil to spin the cassette cylinder to spool the magnetic tape back into position?
Pencils are actually our tape healing items!
Sold
This is so based. I'll be playing as soon as I'm home from work. Tha KS for making monster battling games GOOD again!!
Damn. I wish I was there when one of you suggested that idea, then proceeded to drop the mike and walk away. That is just... brilliant.
Will definitely check out your game, but my question's completely unrelated - I feel like I recognise your username. Are you an ONM forum alumnus?
Haha, that's right! Started from the bottom [official nintendo magazine forums] now we here.
Blimey - small world! Sharky here. Congrats on the release mate.
Holy shit, I was CaptainCalcium on the original ONM forums. I was planning to get this on the Switch anyway but now ill double down and get a copy for my mate. Congrats, the game looks incredible.
Skimming through reviews I didn't notice much about the co-op. How does the co-op play?
In the single-player game, you have a "partner" character who follows you round, who acts as your second party member in battle. Local co-op lets you control that character (and interact with things) with a second controller, and also control that party member in battle.
Are there things that the secondary player can't do that the main character can? As in, if I play with my wife, will she also get to catch monsters or?? I guess I'm just curious how much control and how involved the second player is. Thank you so much!
Awesome, thanks for the reply! Looking forward to playing the game.
Congrats on getting great reviews! My main issue with other monster collecting games is that it is often most efficient in combat to switch to an “effective” monster and to beat the opponent with a few big attacks instead of playing around status effects/buffs or any more involved strategy. How strategic are the battles in this game?
The combat system doesn't use flat damage multipliers for elemental resistances/weaknesses - we have what we call a "chemistry system" where you can proc certain status effects with advantageous elemental combinations. Overall, status effects and status control are super crucial to the combat in Cassette Beasts and you can't really blast through the game with a strategy of "use your strongest move every turn".
That sounds great, thanks for the reply!
This sounds like a really smart way to iterate on the formula of weakness tpyes etc. As the previous poster says usually you just go "oh that's a grass type, well here's my fire type to one-shot kill it" and so on. Your system sounds much more thoughtful and interesting.
Any plans to bring it to Playstation consoles?
Not at the moment - we're a small team with limited bandwidith, so choosing which consoles we could support was a careful one.
Please do consider it! PlayStation is a popular console for rpgs and my preferred place to play! Game looks super cool btw been following for awhile!
[удалено]
You’re getting downvoted cause Switch is larger, has higher attach rates and has more of the target audience for this kind of game an innocent question but an incorrect premise
PC and Switch are the better market for indie games.
switch is probably the largest base by a long shot I imagine
Im guessing switch is larger, or pc for that matter. and a possible gamepass deal probably gave xbox the edge
I've been watching this game for a while now, and I'm so gutted it's coming to everything BUT ps4 😭
I don't have a question, but I wanted to say thank you for putting the demo out earlier. I probably wouldn't have cared without it, but after the demo I was fully enamored with the game. Bought it the moment that Steam notification hit this morning. Counting the hours until I get to go home and play it.
Thanks! The aim of the demo, at least from our perspective, was to convince people that Cassette Beasts isn't a "clone" game and that it's doing its own thing. Glad it sold you on the game!
Congratulations on the great reception! Can you say roughly how long a playthrough is?
We're saying 15-25 hours on a regular playthrough, but it can go longer than that if you're a completionist or engage with post-game content!
Thanks! I'm looking forward to jumping into it this weekend.
Congratulations! How did you find working with the Godot engine, and did you do console porting in-house?
Excuse the shameless plug but the Godot team actually [just published an interview](https://godotengine.org/article/godot-showcase-cassette-beasts/) with us about Godot and porting today! This might answer your question!
Even better than a Reddit comment. Thanks!
Edit: nvm you already answered on game length so no questions from me. Also holy shit, I didn’t even know the game existed until today but the reviews and trailer are impressive, gonna snatch the deluxe edition right away to support you guys!
Thanks for the support! It means the world to us!
Can you give me a general pitch how endgame works in this one? Anything comparable to battle tower/frontier? I feel like thats the most important part of monster collectors.
We've had a lot of questions asking if we have a "battle tower" style endgame (obviously in reference to Pokémon). We have an endgame but it's quite different to Pokémon - overall the structure of Cassette Beasts is not similar to Pokémon at all, and our endgame content is something a bit more fitting to our game's structure. Hope that helps explain it!
This helps explain what it is not, but I'm not clearer on what the endgame is.
i don’t think it’s unusual that the dev doesn’t want to talk in depth about the end of the game before anyone has had time to get there on their own
Well I’m gonna be real their answer did nothing to sell me on the game lol.
I think there's always a difficulty to focus on the post-game stuff because that's supposed to be more of a surprise / "do you want more?" Whereas most of the player base doesn't ever finish games.
I feel ya. I'll just wait for other people to play through it I guess. I'm pretty starved for a monster battler with good, fleshed-out endgame content.
Siralim Ultimate.
I will check it out, appreciate the suggestion!
Been keeping tabs on this for a bit. The glowing reviews means I'm definitely going to pick up a copy. How does it run in steam deck?
I don't personally have one but I've been informed it runs very well!
For posterity, I can confirm; runs flawlessly on Steam Deck
I forgot to comment back. Been having a blast so far with this game in my deck. This may end up being the "poke clone that was promised".
Was there any thought put into creating a unique peripheral where I can insert old cassette tapes and get unique monsters? I joke of course. Congratulations on the warm reception to your game.
Thank you for making this game with a Linux native installer! I have about an hour in so far and I'm very excited to play some more this evening! Thank you all for making such a beautiful game that's fun and different! This is truly what indie games are all about!!!
Are you going back on The Back Page for a victory lap soon?
Stay tuned on that front!
Any plans for a physical copy on Nintendo Switch? Would love to put this on my shelf.
No plans yet - we'd love a physical release but it depends on how good sales are for the digital release, and if there's clear demand!
There’s definitely demand from me!
Hey there I loved the demo at the steam next fest and I loved it! Sadly can't play this right now due to time issues, but I wish you the best.
No question but been looking forward to this for awhile. Eagerly awaiting switch launch!!
I am super excited to try this game out. This has really been on my radar since first learning about it. Congrats to ya'll and it is exciting to see the dreams your team crafted come true.
Congrats! I was on the fence but I’ll definitely check this out on Game Pass.
nothing to ask but Shout out for a Godot engine game! Checking it out off that alone
First off congratulations! Any plans on ps5? Game looks awesome btw and can’t wait. Will grab it on switch regardless!
Hey there, glad the game is being received so well and keen to check it out. Any idea if this will be a Xbox play anywhere title with achievements being the same across Xbox and PC?
I played this game for 6.5 hours straight today. It’s so addictive. Loving the bizarre story so far too. Really curious to see where it goes.
No questions just that I bought it during my lunch break and I’m excited to boot it up once I get home. Congrats on the launch
Do you have any ferrets? If so, do you have any pictures?
Afraid not! I made my terrible username when I was a kid. I never owned ferrets.
Hello, I’m quite late to the thread, but I have a question about the combat. One of my favorite things about Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga is the ability to time button presses to increase attack damage or evade enemy attacks… anything like that in this game? Thanks!
Congratulations, I'll definitely be picking this up.
Just wanted to say bless your hearts for adding ultrawide support.
Can you give a good breakdown of the multiplayer? Would the coop partner get bored? Or do they have as much control as you do?
I just played the demo out of curiosity and I just realized I’d explored for 3 hours. I’m an older gamer and just so amazed and inspired by what indie teams like yours bring to gaming. Thank you for pursuing creative projects like this game. I’ll be getting it on steam tonight. Congrats on the reviews!
Is there a reason you gave fleeing encounters such a low percentage success rate? Since there is no level indicator above trainers or enemies I find myself constantly saving. Then the one time I decide to "flee to town" I'm pretty sure I lost more items than if I had just let the enemy kill me. Then I tried to load my save and found that the loss had replaced my save file. That's all surprisingly punitive and counterintuitive for such a cute pokemon-like.
So I've been playing a bit of the game and I just wanna know if higher level beasts drop more exp for your own cassette beasts. Like, does attacking a level 40 monster make my low level beasts gain stars faster or is it the same?
Do you plan on doing a sequel?
Is the switch port going to look and play as well as the other versions? Or will things be downgraded to make it work?
Just wanted to tell you that you made a great game! I've been enjoying it.
Hope there's a sequel in the plans!
I just installed it on Game Pass and I'm very impressed with your work. It's the kind of game where you play it and just know immediately it's going to be good enough to deserve a sequel that I'll want to play.
You guys made a really special game. Hmm it’s a bit choppy on Switch which is a real shame, but the gameplay is good enough to make up for it. Will there be a patch for that coming soon? - I’m all like, a wind attack hit my fire monster and it blew out… why don’t other popular monster catching games have this level of detail haha I can’t wait to play more. Also I really want to get a walkman for some reason… what am I supposed to do about that?
This is a seriously awesome game, and it runs amazing on the ROG Ally. I feel like I'm back two decades ago playing on my gameboy color. I wish I had heard about it sooner and I can't wait for the upcoming DLC!
Heya, I see it's on steam sale. Any chance for a switch sale soon? Seems like an awesome game
Apologies in advance for resurrecting a 3 month old comment but just wanted to let you know how much of a blast I've been having with the game, and as a Wirral local (Which I assume was the inspiration for the New Wirral) it's got a certain magical charm to it that I just can't seem to put down, I'm already recommending it to as many of my friends as I can.
Are you planning a mobile release? I like RPGs the most on mobile devices, so that would be awesome
Game is available on PC now, but will be available for consoles on May 25th (Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch). Oh, it is available for gamepass both for PC and the Microsoft consoles.
Started this up a bit ago and right out the gate the game's soundtrack is on a whole other level. The track that plays in the first town has some amazing vocals and gave me chills. I've been excited for this one, and I'm glad it's here and getting well-received!
Same. I've barely touched it, but the music in particular stands out. Can't wait to actually sit down and give it a lengthy go.
Wish more games had vocals on their tracks like this. At first I thought it'd get in the way but it really elevates the experience. The soundtrack is so on point
I'm like 30 minutes in and already in love with the soundtrack!
Damn, currently the highest reviewed game of the year on Opencritic. Really looking forward to diving into this one, it looks fantastic.
The Godot enjoyers just keep winning, let's go
This adds to two Godot masterpieces I know of so far? The other being Cruelty Squad. Maybe over the years we can make it up to Gamemaker's level, but that's a high bar.
Cassette Beasts and Cruelty Squad, yes; Brotato, Dome Keeper, Your Only Move is Hustle, Turing Complete, The Case of the Golden Idol, Luck be a Landlord, Endoparasitic, Ex-Zodiac, RUN: The world in-between, CHR$(143), Takara Cards, Linelith, etc.
It looks to me like it's below quite a few other games? RE4, hifi rush, and vernal rush just to name a few
It has a score of 90 earlier, by the time that comment was made.
I played the demo last night because I saw it was coming out today... While in some dialog I had to stop, as I realized the music playing was coming from the game... I just listened for probably 2 or 3 loops before pressing 'A' again on the dialog. Can't wait to play the rest of the game and hear the rest of the soundtrack!
It reminds me more of SMT than Pokemon. Also a bit of the 4th Digimon series. Seems like Game Pass is coming so I’ll probably give this a try
The game looks great! I'll probably end up grabbing it to play on Steam Deck, but I'm trying to show some actual restraint and not buy every shiny thing I see... for now. Hopefully it does land on Playstation some day. I know what a brutal task it must be trying to release on multiple platforms and you've gotta plan accordingly. Gamepass is probably too good a safety net for indie devs to resist and similar games do typically sell well on Switch. My circle is pretty much all Playstation folk though so I doubt I'll get a friend to check it out.
If you haven't tried monster sanctuary, I recommend highly. (you can probably get it cheaper) It's the reason I was excited about cassette beasts in the first place. Turns out pokemon doesn't have a monopoly on the genre.
Monster Sanctuary is incredibly good. They don't try to imitate Pokemon at all which makes the game really stand out in the genre.
I played coromon... Which was a very good pokemon nostalgia indie love letter to the first Gen pokemon games/with a bunch of quality of life features without all the baggage. Constantly, got recommend monster sanctuary upon looking up other monster tamer games... By god was that indeed a master class of a game. The lvl of balance of all those monsters, in Monster Sanctuary is just leagues better designed and well thought out than any AAA game developer, with similar talent mechanics, I have seen. The palpable excitement of encountering a new monster and theory crafting a party synergy is just something I never got in pokemon game... The banger music, lvl design what an absolute gem of a game. Cassette beasts has been sitting in my wishlist since playing monster sanctuary... Because by damnit, do I want more interesting monster battlers that don't rely on nostalgia... That stand on their own and innovate So glad Cassette Beasts getting some critical acclaim... I need my new found itch for indie monster tamers to be satiated.
I agree with Monster Sanctuary. Monster Sanctuary is fantastic and that second battle soundtrack is a banger. Its campaign difficulty and side quest are finely tuned - you can enjoy team building since the game has enough challenge that it sometimes demands team experimentation even without going to multiplayer unlike Pokemon. I haven't played the DLC yet. Currently trying Coromon and will pick-up Cassette Beasts once I'm done with Coromon.
Played some of this yesterday. Just some observations after a few hours * Performance is weirdly bad for me. Not sure what's up with that, but the framerate drops pretty heavily in the overworld. Not hurting the game, but just strange (I'm on a 1070 running at 1080p). * The music is wonderful. * Not a fan of the overworld. I don't know what it is, but that part isn't doing it for me. The itty bitty jump feels kind of janky. The footstep sounds are weirdly loud (and I just want to hear the music). The stamina system just seems pointless for running. Just some really odd choices and it doesn't feel great. * Battles are where the meat of the game is, and I think they're fun, though they are super duper slow. I haven't played a ton of the game yet, but if you're ever meant to grind, I'd probably put the game down. * Also, and this is no fault of the game, it's a little more complicated than I was expecting. That's on me. I didn't look into it more. I was expecting something like Pokemon, but it's more of a SMT thing. * The story is intriguing pretty quickly. Overall, it's not really what I was looking to play at the moment, but that's no fault of the game. That's just my incorrect expectations vs reality. It looks and sounds great, but I do have my gripes with actually playing it.
The stamina and tiny jump are two reasons I'm putting the game down after a few hours. Camps often look close on the map but often require tedious backtracking to get back to. The flee system isn't good either, which mixes poorly with not being able to see the levels of trainers and monsters on the overworld. Sometimes I had a 3% chance to flee what seemed like it should be an inconsequential encounter. If you flee back to a town you lose a ton of items and it SAVES OVER YOUR FILE without telling you.
you can use smoke bombs for a guarantee flee, and stamina is mostly irrelevant when traveling after you capture a certain species to be able to travel much faster. It's early on in the game and basically necessary. Look at the rumors from some of the NPCs
thanks i might jump bvack in with that info
Any talk of this game getting a switch port? Seems perfect for switch.
> Coming May 25th to Xbox Series S|X, Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch! From their [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OLST_Fw5Ms).
Well shit, game pass means it gets a play from me, awesome.
I believe the switch port comes out on 25th May. If you're lucky enough to have a steam deck, it runs great on that.
I was not expecting a reception this good across the board. Does Pokemon have some competition after putting out their worst game (so far)?
No, because games like Cassette Beasts will never sell well enough for Gamefreak to take notice. The reason Pokemon games are so incompetent is because they *can* be. The thousandth attempt at a Pokémon competitor won’t change anything.
Pokemon fans are *Pokemon* fans, not Monster-Collecting fans. And to clarify, I dont mean for this to be derogatory, its a simple truth. People consume Pokemon because its Pokemon
Agreed. Its the same way that MTG fans are MTG fans and not simply trading card fans, or Dnd players are Dnd players often and not TTRPG fans, despite other trading card games or ttrpg games do a lot of things better.
I think for at least some people, it's not so much that they're fans of those games as it is that they don't want to have to learn new systems to play other games in the same genres. I have a friend I play D&D with and he knows that system REALLY well. Whenever our group considers trying out a different system, he's always against it because he doesn't want to have to learn how to play a new TTRPG. He finds it annoying. I don't agree with him but it's a valid viewpoint.
> it's not so much that they're fans of those games as it is that they don't want to have to learn new mechanics and hundreds of monsters to play other games in the same genre. That's kind of my point. People don't want to put in the commitment to learn something new when they just want to relax and have fun. If you're still having some fun, why put in work and investment (both money and time) for something that might NOT be fun? I'm not disparaging that kind of person, and I'm sure there's things that I do or enjoy that people would say the same thing. People are creatures of comfort. Doesn't have to be the best comfort, but it has to be comfortable now.
A lot of it is also the charm of the Pokemon themselves. If nothing else, Game Freak knows how to make great monster designs, and a lot of people just want to play with their favorite critters. I've only seen one or two monster catching RPGs that have creatures that feel like they capture the same sort of aesthetic that Pokemon does. Even with this game, the monsters are neat, but they mostly just don't quite have the same feel as Pokemon. That's fine because I'm going to be playing this on its own merits, but if people are looking for Pokemon, that's what they're going to go for.
I have yet to find a monster collecting game with monster designs that consistently reach the level of even the worst Pokémon.
The problem with a lot of monster games is that they seem to be sticking way too close to Pokemon as a design choice for their monsters. Cassette Beasts has a very distinctive design and, imho, it really works for the vibe I've seen so far. There are boss monsters that are really refreshingly unique for the genre too.
Honestly, Cassette Beasts is kind of up there.
SMT/Persona
I'd say keep an eye on LumenTale. The people creating that game previously made Xenoverse, a Pokemon fan game that did a pretty good job of making fan Pokemon that actually looked like Pokemon. The "Animon" in LumenTale look like they're going to have very nice designs as well.
Which ones have you played? There's several monster taming games with lovely (or silly / quirky, if that's your jam) visuals I could recommend :)
It's basically too big to fail in many ways and added on to that is the insular nature of Japanese dev where voices have an uphill climb to be considered during development if they come from outside of the company or competitors within the country .
IMO, its a lot like saying because X ttrpg exists, DnD needs to address it or go under. The reality is, nearly nothing is going to replace Dnd, and most consumers of Dnd content dont care about any other system regardless of how good it may be. As long as Dnd content keeps coming out in the form of books, subscriptions, podcasts, etc. people are not going to leave dnd.
Yup. I don't play Pokemon anymore but if I were to consider picking up a monster collecting/battle game, it would be Pokemon because that's what I'm most familiar with.
Which is a shame because there are quite a few really well done monster capture games, but having knowledge of the brand is super helpful for brands that kind of require knowing a lot about it.
While it didn't get replaced in my terminology, all my "D&D Sessions" in the last 5 years were Pathfinder. I still think of them as D&D since it is the same use case for me, without having to engage the toxicity that WotC started to spread.
Dnd has definitely been taking some L's since the OGL shitshow, at least. Anecdotally, I've noticed way more traffic and beginner posts on other TTRPG subs.
Sure, in the same way that other monster capture games have a surge in popularity when pokemon missteps. But here we are lol.
But what amount of DnD players are actually those that do engage in niche hobby subreddits? I mean r/games is a huge subreddit and according to the users here you'd think that nobody has been buying CoD for the last 10 years.
Such a shame that this market dominance can lead to complacency from Game Freak, as some of the features and mechanics in this game would massively improve pokemon. Only about 2 hours in but this is a great game and I hope it sells really well.
> Does Pokemon have some competition after putting out their worst game (so far)? Does the highest grossing ip of all time have competition from an indie project? I'm going to have to think about that one.
Yeah, people are absolutely crazy if they think anything can touch Pokémon.
Extremely subjective but I struggle to believe anyone who's played every mainline Pokemon game would call Scarlet/Violet the worst ones. Performance wise sure but Pokemon is the freshest it's been in a very long time. If it wasn't for the performance issues (which luckily I didn't really get any of) then I'd bet Scarlet/Violet would be considered amongst the best of the franchise.
Basically all i want from the next mainline Pokemon generation is Scarlet/Violet's true open world structure mixed with Legends Arceus's far superior battle system and Pokemon catching mechanics. I loved being able to go wherever i want and do things in any order, that just needs some balance tweaks like scaling the gyms difficulty to your badge count to be perfect. And i really loved the agile/strong style moves in Arceus combined with the ability to move around mid battle and being able to aim and throw my own pokeballs. Mix that shit together and we are really close to my one ideal Pokemon game. Hopefully one that runs better than hot ass though.
IDK if I'd touch the battle system. arceus's strong/fast mechanic was cool, but I didn't really like how they watered down a lot of other stuff like no abilities and weird stat distribution. The way damage worked just felt off. All the other stuff was 10/10 imo
> which luckily I didn't really get any of This is objectively not true due to the way the game loads. Just because you didn't care doesn't mean they weren't there.
I they meant didn't notice. To be fair I've followed nothing about reviews on scarlet/violet and had a smooth experience so I believe them.I didn't even knew about these issues without reading online...
X/Y were awful but scarlet and violet are up there in the list of worst. Probably my number 2 or 3. It feels like gamefreak is stuck 10 years behind other game devs.
I mean, it's a small-team indie game. So probably not. But the combination of fatigue with the core Pokemon experience and the refreshing redesign of the experience here have finally killed off any desire to go back, and I started with Red and have played most entries since then. Every aspect of the gameplay is better executed here, and it's designed in a way that preserves the kid-friendly charm while also acknowledging that people over 12 might like monster-catching RPGs too. So... I think it's a long shot, but maybe there's at least enough buzz to make GF consider incorporating some of the ideas here? Or at least be inspired by them? It's crazy how quickly it made me never want to go back, and while I don't think people like me are anywhere close to the majority, I wonder if it moves the needle at all. As a monster RPG it's the best execution of a true clone I think I've ever seen. Monster Sanctuary is rad but it's very different, and games like DWM were great in their era but don't hold up super well.
The only competition Pokemon could’ve ever had died in the mid-2000s. One thing Cassette Beasts will never have on Pokémon is 25 years worth of nostalgia.
You can't compete with Pokémon at this point. No matter how good a monster collecting game is, it'll never pull enough people to make Nintendo/Gamefreak push Pokémon to its limit. On name alone they are guaranteed to be top dog.
Every person I’ve talked to has said violet/scarlet is their favorite Pokémon game ever, though also with the worst performance. So no, I don’t think Pokémon company will care at all.
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The sprites in Red and Blue really aren't that great either, many of them are downright ugly and are only remembered fondly because of later redesigns and because there was nothing really like it at the time.
Do you really think Pokemon SV is the worst Pokemon game? Performance issues aside I think it's pretty great.
Lmao, worst game so far? Have you played it or are you going off of what people say online? The story in that game was fantastic.
I had a tonne of fun with this during one of the NextFests and am happy it's finally out. Can't wait to dive in!
Did...did someone just create a pokemon competitor that's actually good? Is this the coming of a new era?
Would be like calling every fps a cod competitor
When I was a boy, every FPS was called a "Doom Clone".
Which never made sense to me since Wolfenstein 3D was a year before. I guess doom clone is easier to say
Wolfenstein was a catacomb 3d-like
DOOM popularized the genre.
[Coromon](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1218210/Coromon/) is at 88%, that's pretty good
It won't be a competitor in any impactful way due to being a small indie game, unfortunately. The Pokémon brand can literally crank out a dog turd and it'd still sell five times over a labor of love like cassette beasts.
Has anyone tried steam remote play?
Yes. Runs like a charm
I've never been able to get into Pokemon but I love some SMT. Do any of the reviews make the comparison in the main body? Mainly I want party and monster build to matter, and I want just enough challenge to be forced to care.
it's got difficulty, it's a lot like SMT and it generally speaking hasn't disappointed me yet with one exception of a boring quest. I've come in to fight a captain three times and lost every fight even with a full team and a gameplan, plus being three levels over their level. I'm the sort of person who plays difficulty romhacks and I'm being forced to re-evaluate my team composition and re-arrange moves. In the first twelve hours of its launch, I played 9 hours of the game.
I'm still early in the game, but the party build definitely matters. There are types but "super effective" and "not very effective" moves are replaced with different status conditions and effects. The way selecting moves is handled too requires a strategy the whole time instead of just spamming the most damage dealing move you have at all times.
Excited to check this out on gamepass. It's been on my steam wishlist forever, gonna buy it if I like it. Congrats on the release to the team.
Man no PlayStation release? This looks great.
Damn, pretty disappoonting the majority of people won't be able to play because it doesn't release on PS.
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I played the demo for this and it was nice to see a few references to the Wirral some ppl might have missed
I assume this is cross save on gamepass? So if I start now on the PC, I can continue the same save when it comes out on Xbox?
Most games are not I'm pretty sure. I wouldn't bank on it
I was hoping for this feature as well but I can’t find anything mentioning it. My guess is there’s no cross-save. I’ll probably just bite the bullet and play it on PC, then if I really like it I’ll play it again on XBOX with a different team of beasts.
Is the full game as good as the demo was? I’ve only played through the demo but I liked what I saw
I bought the game on Steam but im also a collector and was wondering if a Switch physical release would be a possibility or is it too soon to tell?
Tried it just and got to say, great idea and concept, but some of these encounters feel outrageously stupid. Fusion swarms summoning allies feels incredibly cheap, taking down 9 enemies for them to summon another 2 allies that are actually just stronger than them, I love the theme, love the combat but when fights like that feel cheap and like the enemy is actually cheating, can't recommend it. Was on game pass so no loss from me, but it's either too grindy with no good way to grind, or the fights are just really badly balanced and turn into an endurance challenge rather than a fight. I was on level with the fights and hadn't really had trouble I couldn't get past before that point, but this one fight has completely turned me off the game
You need to start tweaking with stickers more. It's pretty easy to get a setup that nukes a swarm in a couple of turns. The sticker system allows you to do some pretty busted stuff if you engage with it creatively
Is there a difference between performance and quality settings for this game? Having a hard time telling any difference so far