Week of 18 May 2025
“I exist as a tribute to mankind's consumption.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Cassette Beasts
This week was all about Cassette Beasts, which is leaving Game Pass at the end of the month. I’d had my eye on this for ages, and even installed it and booted it up on my laptop over two years ago, but… well, I was sitting next to my partner in the cancer wing, so I figured I’d play something else (ended up being Floppy Knights) and come back to it when I had the time. Fast forward, life is very different, and I didn’t wanna miss out before it left the service. This is, basically, Pokemon, but has a good fair amount of differences to set it apart. First off, you’re actually transforming into the monsters you’re “recording” (i.e. capturing) on cassette tapes, but this doesn’t change the general idea. But with a constant companion at your side that can also transform, there’s almost never a 1v1 battle. They also took a big swing on the elemental attributes side of things; gone are the simple half-damage/double damage type of elemental interactions. Instead, if you, say, hit a water-type with a fire-type move, they begin to steam, which heals them every turn. Or, if you hit a metal-type with an electric-type move, they conduct the electricity and both take damage each turn while also sharing the damage with any monsters on their team that also conduct energy. It’s a lot to remember at first, though I think the only real interaction you need to watch out for is fire on air. They make a wall and, if it wasn’t a one-hit KO, now you gotta deal with that.
The best part of the game is how you can edit the monster’s moves in such a way that you can finish a match before it even starts with the right set of passive stickers. By the end of the story I had a Khepri with all Random Starter stickers and a single Headshot sticker. With this, once the match starts most of the time the enemies are wiped out, including bosses. And, if that initial volley doesn’t do the job, I’d just switch in and out to trigger the passives again. It’s pretty great and makes the game trivial. On top of that, I kind of just got tired of the game overall. I have all but a handful of monsters in the Poked- er, Beastiary, so I think I’m gonna command console the rest of the game after I’m done with this blog entry and move to something else!
Achievements unlocked: 83 (+83) | Completion: 83%
You’re definitely not wrong.
Rarest Achievement:
Pinnacle of Evolution in Cassette Beasts [4.25]
Most Common Achievement:
Counting Sheep in Cassette Beasts [1.10]
