March 2023

Hey folks! Everyone knows that an open world is only as good as the things that you can do in that open world… So this week we’re giving you a peek at some of the things you can do in Cassette Beasts!

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Collect Monster Forms

This kinda goes without saying! In Cassette Beasts you record monsters’ forms onto cassette tapes, which you can then use in battle to transform yourself into that monster. There are 120 monster forms to collect.

‘Professor’ Hoylake, who you might have already heard in our Friendship Games Week trailer, has taken on the task of categorising the monster species of New Wirral. However he seems reluctant to do the footwork himself, and leaves it all to you!

Rumours

The people of Harbourtown love to share rumours and hearsay – there are not many forms of entertainment available to them after all!

When you’re not sure where to explore or what to attempt next, the rumours you pick up in Harbourtown will always contain good suggestions. Every rumour you hear is tracked in a tab in your quest log until you’ve investigated it (or it has become irrelevant some other way).

Following up on rumours almost always leads directly to progress in your main quests, which don’t always on their own tell you where you need to go.

Rumours are our answer to the problems of open world maps littered with icons. As well as the issues of visual overcrowding and choice paralysis, some open world RPGs show icons that aren’t actionable, i.e. icons for activities that the player isn’t high enough level to take on yet, or doesn’t have the necessary movement abilities to even reach. Whereas in Cassette Beasts every rumour you hear is tailored towards your level and ability.

Of course if you prefer to stumble blindly around the island without a clue, that’s always an option! Collecting rumours is suggested for first-time players, but completely optional.

Archangels

If you’ve played the demo to the end, you will have seen the start of the main quest in Cassette Beasts. Skip to the section on Friendships and Romance if you prefer to avoid spoilers for the demo!

At the end of the demo Kayleigh and the player battle a strange otherworldly creature called Morgante, who is known as an Archangel to the people of New Wirral. With the last of her energy, Morgante gives the player a song, whose lyrics promise to show the way to leave New Wirral. However, most of the song is too quiet to make out!

To complete the song and find your way home you’ll need to encounter more Archangels, but well… nobody really knows where they are – or how many! Perhaps the rumours in Harbourtown contain some clues.

These can be truly difficult battles if you’re not prepared. Often it’s not enough to simply be a higher level. You’ll need to know your foe, and prepare a strategy in advance. If you’re smart enough to figure out the clues in the song you might not have to fight them all though…

Each Archangel has a dungeon of its own that becomes a new fast travel point after you discover it. Dungeons vary quite a lot in terms of size, puzzle, theme, and mechanics. We’re looking forward to seeing which dungeons and which Archangels players like the most!

Vampires…?

Again, if you’ve played to the end of the demo, you’ll have been introduced to these pale-faced fiends.

Are they really vampires like Eugene implies, or are they something much more nefarious? Helping Eugene clear out their ‘strongholds’ spread across New Wirral should reveal the truth… and help you get closer to Eugene!

Friendships and Romance

Kayleigh and Eugene are introduced as unlockable partner characters early in the game, but there are also four others you can find around New Wirral!

If the first step towards building a friendship with someone is finding them and unlocking them as a companion, the second is completing a quest with them! Completing their quest bumps you up to relationship level 1, which unlocks your ability to fuse with them in battle.

After that, battling alongside them and periodically camping or going to the cafe with them, can get you to higher relationship levels. This makes your fusions even stronger, and unlocks the powerful Fusion Power move in battle!

At relationship level 5 you gain the ability to romance your companion. It’s completely optional, with no gameplay benefits, but it’s cute!

We wrote a bit more about this in a previous blog post!

Join the Rangers

We also wrote about this back in January.

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 – stationed at different points around New Wirral – have tapes based around particular strategies they favour in battle. Like with Archangels, 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!

Rogue Fusions & Bootlegs

Rogue Fusions – unnaturally strong monsters that have fused – spawn randomly around New Wirral. Battling them is optional (until the postgame) but they yield certain valuable resources, and have a higher than normal chance of containing bootlegs.

Bootlegs are rare type and colour-swapped variants of ordinary monsters. Bootlegs’ movepools are modified to match their new type, and they have a higher than normal chance of spawning uncommon and rare variants of moves.

When you battle a Rogue Fusion you first have to get its HP to 0 to split it apart into the two monsters that make it up. Then you can record them if you want, or otherwise just defeat them!

There are several different kinds of Rogue Fusions besides the basic ones. Some of them surround themselves with a swarm of other monsters, while others seem to become more powerful in other ways…

If you’re hunting bootlegs, you’ll definitely want to keep an eye out for these!

Upgrade Yourself

Ranger Wilma runs a little shop in the Town Hall that provides backpack and cassette player upgrades, as well as certain other items you can use to improve your character’s strength. This is the perfect place to spend the Fused Material that Rogue Fusions drop!

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.

Abilities

You’ll know this if you’ve played our demo, but recording certain monster forms also upgrades your human form with new abilities. In the demo, recording Dominoth gives you the ability to glide on butterfly wings.

There are six abilities to find in total. It may not be obvious which monsters give new abilities, or where to find them. But if you keep an ear out for rumours I’m sure you’ll be zipping about like a bullet and climbing sheer cliff walls in no time!

While you’re not technically required to have the abilities to complete the main story (besides Mothwing Glide), there are plenty of locations you won’t be able to visit without them.

Unique & Roaming Monsters

While we haven’t shown any of these to avoid spoiling the surprises, there are a number of unique monsters to find and record in Cassette Beasts. Each one has a special mechanic or gimmick all to itself, making them quite fun to face for the first time, or have in your party.

You don’t need to worry about accidentally defeating them the first time you encounter them. After a unique monster is defeated, it becomes a roaming monster. Roaming monsters spawn at different locations on different in-game days, and have a chance of spawning as a bootleg. Rumours may hint at their locations!

Postgame

The postgame in Cassette Beasts is surprisingly big! To give you a taste, here’s a quick rundown:

Optional Bosses: I won’t say too much, but there are a number of hidden bosses on New Wirral that can be battled when certain conditions are met.

Rematches: The Ranger Captains were holding back the first time you battled them. In the post-game you can rematch them at full strength. Expect surprises!

Ranger Noticeboard: If you’ve completed your training with the Ranger Captains and become a full-time ranger yourself, you get access to a new series of quests on this noticeboard. These quests progress a new story exploring the cause and origin of Rogue Fusions, as well as introduce new unique monsters, and brand new characters who have arrived on the island! The bulk of the postgame content is accessed through the noticeboard.

Of course anything you didn’t finish off during the course of the main story is also still there for you to find and take on!

Randomisation & Speedrunning

We wrote about this in more detail here.

Completing the game unlocks new custom game modes. This adds options like monster habitat randomisation, type randomisation, move randomisation, as well as permadeath.

Cassette Beasts has a built-in timer showing how long you’ve been playing your file on the screen – perfect for dipping your toes into speedrunning. For more advanced speedrunning players, the game also features LiveSplit integration (via the LiveSplit Server component), meaning the game can automatically send split commands when certain programmable conditions are met.

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Whew, there sure is a lot to do in Cassette Beasts! Let us know what you’re most looking forward to in the comments. Or if you want to know more, why not swing by the official Discord! And of course, you can always follow us on Twitter for future updates!

Until next time!