February 2023

Hey folks! This time we’re taking a look at the various human characters you can befriend and battle alongside…

It’s dangerous to go alone in New Wirral, so Rangers encourage prospective adventurers to travel alongside a partner. In Cassette Beasts there are 6 partner characters to find and unlock. Once unlocked, they will happily travel and battle alongside you whenever you want.

If you need to swap who you’re travelling with, just pop back to Harbourtown’s Gramophone Cafe, where everybody meets up.

During local co-op multiplayer, the second player takes control of the active partner character. In battle, each player has exclusive control over a single character and gets to decide what move they use.

If you’re playing alone, you’ll have control over both characters during battle, of course!

Let’s meet some of these partners!

Kayleigh
If you played our Steam Next Fest demo, you’ll have met Kayleigh. She gives the player their first tape and explains some of the basics of life in New Wirral.

Hailing from Ireland, Kayleigh is a kind and friendly ranger who wants the best for her friends and community. Her preferred monster form is the Air-type monster Sirenade.

Meredith
Meredith is a sarcastic and antisocial Londoner who occupies herself repairing Harbourtown’s electronics. She likes dumb action movies and bands with tragic backstories.

Eugene
Eugene, the self-proclaimed “Protector of Harbourtown”, also appeared in our Steam Next Fest Demo. When and where he’s from isn’t clear, other than his quest is to rid New Wirral of the undead… but something doesn’t quite seem right. Why are these vampires wearing suits?

As for the other partner characters, you’ll have to wait and see!

When you have a rest at a campsite (or in the cafe) your friend will usually have something to say. Every once in a while this triggers a social event that will progress your relationship with them to the next level. These social events increase the strength and abilities of your fusions by increasing the strength of your bond.

Choosing certain dialogue options can also lead to something more than friendship…

That’s it for today! Who is your favourite partner shown so far? Who will you romance? Come tell us on our official Discord! You can always follow us on Twitter, too!

Until next time!

Hey folks! Have you ever wondered what the Rangers of Harbourtown do? Well, it’s time for us to go into more detail…

If you played our Steam Next Fest demo, you’ll already know the basics. At the beginning of Cassette Beasts, you wash up on the shore of New Wirral, an island on what seems to be another world. There you meet Kayleigh, a kind and friendly ranger, who takes you to Harbourtown and shows you the ropes.

Along the way, you and Kayleigh encounter a strange and otherworldly creature known to the residents of New Wirral only as an ‘Archangel’.

Finding more of these Archangels is the key to finding the way off New Wirral and back to your home world. But to survive them you’ll need to get stronger–and that’s where the Rangers come in…

Rangers

Harbourtown’s Rangers exist to support the community. They maintain the town, manage supply lines and deliveries, and keep important routes safe for travel. Occasionally, more dangerous situations pop up, and these fall on the Ranger Captains–the highest ranking rangers–to resolve.

The Captains are also responsible for training new recruits, and in your case that means battling! Each of the 12 Captains has tapes based around a particular strategy they favour in battle. If you’re not prepared with a strategy of your own it can be a difficult fight.

Stationed in New Wirral Park, Captain Wallace is most likely the first Captain you’ll face. We first showed him on our stream in December. His preferred strategy uses walls to block incoming attacks, so consider setting up your tapes with moves that will let you take them down quickly, otherwise you’ll get nowhere!

Ranger Wilma is an essential part of the Ranger’s organisation. Certain scarce items and upgrades–invaluable in the pursuit of Archangels–are stored and distributed by Wilma from the Ranger’s HQ in Harbourtown. The more your training under the Captains progresses, the more she’ll be able to provide you with.

Postgame

While I won’t spoil how the story ends, I will say there is a lot more to do in Cassette Beasts after it!

People don’t stop arriving on New Wirral after your appearance, of course. Just as you received help from the Rangers early on, after you’ve completed your training and become a Ranger, you’ll be helping orient some of the new arrivals yourself!

If you’ve seen these bad boys in screenshots and videos before and wondered what they are, they’re what the Rangers call ‘Rogue Fusions’. Rogue Fusions are unnaturally strong monsters that have fused in the wild. Some Rogue Fusions surround themselves with a swarm of other monsters, and others seem to increase in power in other ways… As a Ranger and a recognised combat pro it’ll be your job to keep them under control. But why do they form, and why are they becoming more frequent and dangerous…?

In the postgame, there are new monsters to encounter and record, and new bosses to fight. Each Ranger Captain can be rematched. This time they won’t hold back, and will unleash their perfected strategies on you!

And of course if that’s not enough for you, beating the game unlocks additional game modes, including permadeath, and various kinds of randomisation.

That’s all for now. Let us know what you think in our Discord! And of course you can also find us on Twitter.

Until next time!