Yay! I unlocked Barkley the goodest boy as a partner at last!

The idea of a Pomeranian dog partner by itself already reminds me of Missile the Pomeranian from Ghost Trick, who, like Barkley, also has orange and white coat.

As a dog lover, I can never resist dog companion characters in video games.

Cassette Beasts Felix's story is great because it is both relatable and a wish fulfilment at the same time.

An artist who goes independent after being burned out by corporate jobs, and learns to embrace his "cringe" childhood OC for getting him to where he is today in his creative journey is relatable, while witnessing his own OC comes to live in an alternate universe is a wish fulfilment.

I have finished the main story of Cassette Beasts.

It is now among my top 5 favourite video games, right up there with A Summer's End — Hong Kong 1986, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Disco Elysium, which says a lot.

Cassette Beasts is a masterpiece of a monster collector game, rivalling if not even surpassing Pokémon at its best, because while it is obvious that Cassette Beasts is inspired by Pokémon, it utilises various aspects of Pokémon games with its own unique takes that are sometimes even better than Pokémon, from monster collecting mechanic, battle system, elemental type match ups, story, characters, lore, world building, map design, etc, with an amazing soundtrack that goes along with the game. As a result, Cassette Beasts is perfectly capable of standing on its own.

I cannot recommend Cassette Beasts enough if you like monster-collecting games, including, if not especially, if you like Pokémon but want an indie alternative, or something different after finding Pokémon games getting stale or becoming jaded by the direction of the Pokémon games.

I've been loving Cassette Beasts for its own take on monster collecting and battling mechanics, even though it is obvious that the game takes inspiration from Pokémon. However, the biggest thing that Cassette Beasts has, but Pokémon lacks, is a partner system with human characters and partner relationship mechanic. In the main series Pokémon games, you occasionally team up with NPC Trainers in Pokémon battles, but there is no relationship mechanic with other Trainers.

In the Pokémon games, I'm interested in the human characters just as much as the creatures themselves, and I often felt that the human characters is an aspect of the Pokémon games that tends to get underappreciated by the Western Pokémon fandom since they usually focus more on the creatures. Therefore, I'm very pleasantly surprised by the existence of human partner system in Cassette Beasts.

I forgot how awesome Leader Ianthe's introduction is until I began to replay Cassette Beasts.

When the player character is approaching the ranger outpost, you are greeted with a cutscene of an old lady, literally being referred to as "Confident Woman" in the game, asking a Rogue Fusion to stay away from the ranger outpost. When that does not work, said old lady effortlessly kicks the Rogue Fusion's ass by transforming into a level 60 Gearyu and then take out the Rogue Fusion in one hit. This followed up by impressed Kayleigh remarking that she is in charge for a reason.

What a great introduction to the leader of Ranger's Guild and discoverer of cassette monster battling.

In this house, we stan Leader Ianthe, the cool old lesbian monster battler.

Obtained my first bootleg monster encountered in the wild: an Air-type bootleg Weevillite!

I encountered this bootleg through a Rogue Fusion inside the chest in the water pipe just outside of Harbourtown.

Replaying Cassette Beasts has reminded me of how much I love the scene where you discover the Habourtown Station and Archangel Morgante for the first time. When I played Cassette Beasts for the first time, the Morgante encounter was the moment that made me hyped for seeing through the rest of the game.

Archangels and the mystery surrounding them are among the most fascinating things about Cassette Beasts, both in gameplay and in the story and lore, and the Morgante encounter did a great job in setting up the Archangels, making an excellent conclusion to the game's opening sequence.

Archangels' nature as eldritch beings is highlighted by them having different art styles to contrast the pixel art style of the other characters and the world, as well as the screen's glitch effects when you are near an Archangel. When you meet Morgante for the first time, she was greatly wounded with an already low health at the start of the battle. However, the fact that she is also level 100 at the same time, along with unleashing a powerful attack when her Action Points are full, still establishes her as a powerful being. The awesome and memorable battle music is the icing on the cake.

Furthermore, this battle against Morgante is also where you fuse with your party member for the first time, setting up the significance of fusion both in game mechanics and lore of the game.

The player's meeting with Morgante also establishes that the game's main plot is as much about the mystery of the Archangels as the player's goal of finding a way to leave New Wirral and return home, since Morgante's song adds more clues to the path to leave New Wirral after the player finds more Archangels.

I have been replaying Cassette Beasts and recording my current playthrough, so I can share more videos about specific in-game moments and content for reference and archival purposes.

You can check out the playlists of my Cassette Beasts video on my YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr78DF60PrBsgh8rQnzBWg/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=5

What's even better than fighting alongside your girlfriend? Fighting alongside your girlfriend while you both transform into the same monster species!

This Beast-type bootleg Cat-5 Kristine transforms into was remastered from a Beast-type bootleg Kittelly I recently obtained during an Orb Fusion encounter. Naturally, since Kristine romances Meredith, whose signature tape is the Kittelly line, Kristine follows in their girlfriend's footstep in using a Cat-5 tape too, albeit a bootleg.

I went out of my way to upgrade the bootleg Kittelly tape to remaster it, so Kristine could use the bootleg Cat-6 the moment Pier of the Unknown DLC was released.

YAYYYYY! I finally obtained an Astral type bootleg Traffikrab, and then my own Magikrab tape by remastering the Astral-type Traffikrab tape!

In order to increase my chance for encountering an Atral-type Traffikrab, I purchased and used a Ritual Candle, then sacrificed a Traffikrab tape.

I referred to this Ritual Candle bootleg hunting guide on the Cassette Beasts subreddit, so I could use the Ritual Candle efficiently, given how expensive Ritual Candles are. Thankfully, it did not take me long to encounter a Rogue Fusion that contains an Atral-type Traffikrab after sacrificing a Traffikrab tape with a Ritual Candle.

Magikrab my beloved 💜🦀

According to my Steam Year In Review 2023, 50% of my playtime on Steam in 2023 was spent on Cassette Beasts.

Steam is also totally correct on my Cassette Beasts fixation: "picked up this game for the first time and were immediately hooked".

I have no regrets.

Pictured above: two sapphic couples having an epic fusion showdown.

In addition to the fact that you can romance the human companions regardless of the player character's gender, Cassette Beasts also has Leader Ianthe and Ranger Wilma as a canon married sapphic couple, with Ianthe casually refers to Wilma as her wife.

And it is only appropriate that Ranger Kristine also brings their own girlfriend Meredith to this battle.

Hello there, Count Draculeaf. 🎃🧛‍♂️🍂

When I played Cassette Beasts for the first time, I already loved Jumpkin because I love its design and the idea of a jumping pumpkin. I was especially delighted to learn that Jumpkin's remaster form in the night is a vampire pumpkin that is literally named after Dracula, since I had been following Dracula through Dracula Daily and Re: Dracula when I started playing Cassette Beasts.

LOL, yesterday I encountered two fusions of Flapwoods and Khufo, and I managed to record a bootleg Flapwoods and a bootleg Khufo from each fusion.

This was my first time encountering an Orb Fusion that contains an Anathema. While you can guess what species an Orb Fusion contains based on its name and types at the start of the battle, I still find it funny that by using Fission Power, it already spoiled itself before the orb broke, LOL

At long last, my grind for the Cassette Beasts Master achievement is over. This means I have finally unlocked all 123 Cassette Beasts achievements on Steam!

Very few RPGs make me want to unlock all achievements, so it is telling how much I love Cassette Beasts that I am willing to grind for all achievements.