In a nice bit of serendipity, I heard about this game from the podcast Castle Super Beast! And boy am I glad that I did! I'm a long time pokemon fan and like a lot of long time pokey man fans I'm left wanting with their latest games. Cassette Beasts not only feels like an answer to such feelings but it goes beyond them with an incredible amount of creativity and heart! The world of Cassette Beasts is so fun and well thought out! The central hub/community you get involved with feels like a real community, lore fiends would eat this game up I'm sure!
The combat is also super inventive! It takes the typical type matchups of pokemon and other rpgs and makes it a lot more... involved, for lack of a better word. You don't just have reduced and increased damage. For example, if a Plastic monster gets hit with a Fire attack, the plastic melts and the Plastic Monster turns into a Poison Monster. Or, depending on the type, if a monster is hit by something they're weak against they'll receive an additional debuff as well. Such as if a Water Monster is hit with a Lightning move they get a "conductive" status that makes them receive additional damage when their team is hit with any lightning move. Which reminds me, I should also mention that battles involve teams of 2 creatures fighting one another which really helps things from getting stale.
Music's great! Has a great indie rock vibe with battle themes having both instrumental and lyric versions.
I just wanna see this game available in more places. I think this is a special indie game that needs more eyes on it!
And two more things to conclude: 1, this game has a meaty options menu that has a "nuzlocke" mode for those who want that hardcore pokemon experience!
And 2, you get an adorable dog as a party member. What more do ya need?
EDIT: And a 3rd thing that's worth mentioning: The "catching monsters" process is much better here than any pokemon game. Less reliant on RNG and with enough persistance you're guaranteed a capture!