Recent reviews by Robotie773

It never ends in everhood

Compared to everhood 1, the gameplay has been massively upgraded, and while the story isn't as good as the first game, I still really like the story. But the battles are JUST SO GOOD! They were already great in the first game but the overhaul makes it SO MUCH BETTER! I love being able to continue collecting notes for super strong attacks, I love having 4 weapons to swap between on the fly, I love how all 4 store all their notes separately from each other so I can change between storing different colors of notes without losing all of them, every change to the combat makes it feel so much better and it's honestly outstanding.

Also, I love how much better mods are in this game. In the first game, the only way to get custom battles was to download the files from the discord server, but now we have steam workshop! And it's not just for single battles either, it's for entire levels! At the time of writing the game just came out a week or so ago so there aren't really many mods out but the two I checked out were great and I can't wait to see more!

If you loved the first game, definitely pick up this one.

I don't have it in me to write a full review for this game, nor do I think I have the expertise to do it accurately.

But I do have a guess as to why the game failed so badly.
It's a team game with no in-game method of communication.

Yes, you can say "You have 3rd party software like Discord to talk to your teammate in, so isn't ingame comms uneccessary?" And you would be right, except for the fact that you aren't always playing with your friends, sometimes you have to play with randoms.
And when playing with randoms you have no way to talk to each other, so if you ever run into a team of 2 people that ARE using discord then you're at a huge disadvantage, so it feels like the only way to really play is when you have a friend with you, which isn't possible for everyone.
Sometimes your friends aren't interested in the game, sometimes they're busy, sometimes you just don't have any, so you have to play alone. But playing alone isn't fun.

I think Foddian games are poorly designed.
This is not to say "the game sucks because it's too hard", I love challenging games and actively seek out extra challenges in my favorites, but I just hate Foddian games.

But I know everyone who complains/criticizes about games like this is always flooded with "skill issue lmao get good", so I feel like I need to defend myself here.
I've gotten every achievement in games like Celeste, Cuphead, even Pizza Tower's P Ranks, but there's one very important difference between game these and Foddian games.
These games are actually trying to be fun.

Most games try to make the controls feel as good as possible, even sometimes weighing them in the player's favor with mechanics like coyote time, but part of the Foddian genre is to make the controls deliberately difficult so the game is harder. Another part is to make mistakes frequently send you back a long distance. Both of the genre defining traits are to make the game frustrating.

I think losing progress in particular is why it's so unfun for me. I don't like having to do everything I already know I can do all over again because I messed something up after it. You could say "you play roguelikes, isn't that the same thing?" but that's different because in roguelikes it's different from run to run. Sometimes the enemies are different, or I have different weapons and items, it's never the exact same run twice, but Foddian games are the exact same every time, I'm just doing the exact same thing I've already proven I can do already.

And sometimes it does feel fun to beat a very difficult challenge, knowing you've overcome it. But this game doesn't feel that way, it makes me feel like there is no winning, since playing the game feels like losing. It feels like it's designed to waste my time, and that the only way to win is to stop playing, to GET OVER IT and move on.

And yes, you could say the game has value as art because this could be what it's trying to achieve. The point may be for you to give up, to make you think about "what things am I continuing to struggle through that I should give up on?" Which would be a completely fair argument. I don't really have an argument for that being untrue.

But the steam achievements call to me like the green goblin mask.

Really good game to just chill for a while.
The only issue I've had with the game is that I lag kinda bad in a full 12 player lobby, but my CPU usage also goes up by 10% by moving my mouse in a circle on my desktop so take that with a grain of salt.

Really fun casual game to play with friends! Works in both local play and online.

My only complaint is that if you want to play online with random players it's a little bit janky since there is no communication at all, so sometimes you end up in a 2v2 even if you wanted to play free for all (or vice versa), but honestly other than that this game's just REALLY good.

I cannot get myself to play through a Pokemon game, I've tried a few of them and I can never even get halfway through them.
That being said, Cassette Beasts immediately became the new hyperfixation for like 1-2 weeks and even after I still think it's one of my favorite games of all time.
I can't really think of a single thing Pokemon does wrong that Cassette Beasts didn't do right. Here's a few examples:

If you want to swap out your cassettes (this game's equivalent of Pokemon) you don't ever have to worry about leveling the new guy up, because your level is tied to your character. The only time you might have to worry about leveling is if you swap out which partner you bring along, since all 6 of them have their own levels, but if you overlevel someone by enough they'll train on their own to catch up so they're not behind enough to cause any major problems and they'll be on par with you pretty quickly. You'll probably settle into a favorite partner around by the end anyways so it's really a non-issue.

If you want to get serious about teambuilding, you don't have to worry about training in a super meticulous way to get the right EVs, or catch 50 of something for the right IVs, you don't even have to worry about being super careful about not accidentally deleting that move you really want.
All tapes have fixed stats, so you could catch and endless amount of Traffikrab tapes and they will always be the exact same every time (barring bootlegs, but that's for later).
EVs don't exist at all, you only have to worry about your character's level. If you liked being able to customize your stats though, after beating half of the ranger captains you can buy the gym pass, which allows you to essentially change the IVs of your base character, which will affect all cassettes that you use. All 6 partners also have slightly different stats, each one being stronger in 1 specific stat than the others.
As for the moves, stickers can be removed, applied, and swapped with no penalty, as long as you have all the stickers you want to use in your inventory, but stickers can be endlessly reused and I almost never found myself missing a move I wanted as long as I checked with the daily merchants in Harbortown when I was passing through.

This game actually has strategy involved. Every time I try Pokemon the game devolves into I have one guy that uses one powerful move and I never have to do anything else because the game never challenges me, but this game actually makes you think in a couple different ways.
Type interactions are not a simple more damage/less damage system, different matchups apply different status effects. Hit a water type with a plant type attack, it applies leech seed. Hit an ice type with a fire move, they melt into a water type. Hit a metal type with a poison move, they'll use the poison to tip their weapon for extra poison-type contact damage.
Attacks don't feel bottomless, since instead of PP that's refilled every time you heal (which is frequent enough to basically never run out) you get 2 AP per turn which you can spend on your attacks, meaning that you can't just use your most powerful move every turn, you have to actually manage your resources in battle and use weaker moves to save AP for stronger moves.
Attacks are more interesting and thoughtful, and there are even a few passives that provide interesting effects, and having 8 slots instead of 4 provides more room to make interesting synergies. If you used Charge last turn, Battery will always crit. If you use Gambit, all of your stats double but you'll die in 3 turns if the fight isn't over. If you use Hot Potato, the opponent gets a bomb that they need to pass away by landing a melee attack, only detonating if the holder attacks without passing it on. Having Jagged Edge means if the opponent misses you, they take damage for it. Bring along Custom Starter, and the next move in the move list has a chance to activate for free when they're summoned (based off the AP cost). Use Undertow, it'll hit whoever attacked before you, regardless of if they're on your side. Cassettes typically have a good natural moveset, but if you start customizing your tapes you can get some really fun combos to play with.
Every fight is a double battle. I have heard that in Pokemon, double battles are more fun than normal battles. I cannot verify if this is true, but I do know that I really like it being double battles, since it's nice to not feel like I have to attack every turn or I'm wasting the turn, since I can attack with one and do something else with the other.
Status effects are character-bound instead of cassette bound. Swapping your tape will keep all of your previous status effects, good or bad. You can use Echolocation to get Multitarget and then swap out to someone else who may have better moves to capitalize on the effect. You can't just swap out whenever you get a debuff and completely invalidate it. You also can have multiple statuses at a time, unlike Pokemon which usually limits you to 1 at a time.
THE RANGER CAPTIONS HAVE ACTUAL STRATEGY. Every Pokemon gym leader is just "I have 4 electric types" and there's almost never any thought put behind how they use them and you can counter them completely by bringing 1 ground type they literally can't damage. The ranger captains however, are all built around a strategy instead of a type. Clee-0 made a team that uses Gambit to it's full potential. Judas is a persistence hunter who uses damage over time and self healing to outlast you. Gladiola uses evasion and accuracy to hurt you with her Jagged Edge passives. Codey uses exclusively bootlegs for a super cool strategy that would be a shame to spoil. You also aren't told their plan going in, but you can sometimes make inferences based on some clues, like Heather the weather reporter who uses weather based moves, Penny Dreadful's title is literally "Death Cheater", the construction worker named Wallace has walls. Yeah that last one is obvious but he's the first captain, give him a break. You can also optionally refight all the captains after you beat all of them, and they come back with an improved team that still can give you a tough time even if you already know their strategy this time.

Shiny beasts have an actual gameplay effect, but by proxy are more common. Still rare, but you'll only find them every once in a while. In this game they're called Bootlegs, and instead of just being a recolor they're the wrong type too. This can change how you use a cassette drastically, because while it does still have access to most of its original moves, some type specific moves are swapped out for the new types moves. This can give you access to new moves that drastically affect how you use the tape, or allow you to use a certain statline with a type that may have better moves/type matchups. Tired of insulating Unitarget (anti-multitarget) applied to your electric type? Try fire type, it doesn't have that kind of interaction! Want to use Shield Bash to turn your high Melee Defense into high Melee Damage? Try metal type to unlock the move! You get a ton more options to make a really unique team if you find some bootlegs you like, so it never feels like you're doing the same boring thing as everyone else.

To conclude, Cassette Beasts is everything that Pokemon SHOULD be. It encourages and enables experimentation, it gets you thinking, it challenges you, it gives you ways to make your team feel truly unique, and I didn't encounter a single glitch.
Oh yeah and after you beat the game for the first time you unlock bonus options for new save files, from inbuilt randomiser options to enforced nuzlocke rules if you enjoy either of those which is pretty nice.

This game is riddled with too many problems to be worth the cost.

The game is frustrating to play and countless times I found myself genuinely angry after I lost a run to something that felt completely out of my control. Sure a lot of deaths are my fault, but plenty of them I honestly believe I had no blame whatsoever for what happened.

As an aspiring game designer, I've been trying to 100% this game and I've taken to writing down every problem I can find that I believe to be an objective game design flaw (since you learn a lot more from studying what doesn't work compared to what does work) and the list grows surprisingly quickly. I find something new every other session.


Just to give a few examples of the biggest problems:

Many hazards have no telegraph to alert the player that something will happen. Mainly applies to Flame Spewers, which unlike most games, do not have a tell before activating. Other games usually either make it flash or shoot a small puff to alert the player beforehand.
This also extends to enemies falling on top of you from offscreen. It's less frequent, but still happens plenty.

The 2 choices for what level to go to next are often forced, as sometimes you only have 1 option or there is no difference between the options. For example, sometimes they will have a sign at each path saying "this enemy will appear here", which implies it won't appear on the other path, but despite that it is very common for the enemy to be in both paths, meaning your choice had no effect on the outcome.
It is also quite common at the end of a world for the game to only give you 1 of the 2 possible world options. Since you only go through 4 of the 6 worlds in a run, the other world won't show up later. If you wanted to go there (like if you want to unlock the armor blueprint there) you're outta luck.

There is a spike variant that just instantly kills you. Drill Spikes only do a bit of damage, but Spike Spikes just instakill you. I believe that instakill mechanics in a roguelike must be very carefully used, like the Omega Saw which needs it to be effective as a "HURRY UP" mechanic. The existence of effective non-instakill spikes prove that instakill spikes are unnecessary and were probably just included because most platforms have them, and it's fine in those games. But with platformers, you get back up at a checkpoint and continue onwards. In a roguelike, you might be set back up to an hour and lose all your progress.
This says to me that they didn't think about what mechanics make sense for a roguelike, but instead thought of what mechanics make sense for a platformer. This makes me wonder if it wasn't always supposed to be a roguelike, but that's just speculation.

On the topic of the Omega Saw, the levels often do not feel designed around it's existence. Many level pieces force you to wait, like moving platforms, tanky/hard to hit enemies blocking the way, swarms of enemies, and that one time I fell into a hole you couldn't jump out of and got softlocked. I'm not even sure how that last one cleared QA testing.
Y'know, maybe that platformer turned roguelike theory has more to it than I thought, the Saw does feel like a bit like it was placed in after the levels were made...

Managing Follow Items (Keys and Eggs) can be a major pain. Taking damage drops the item in the back, and you cannot pick it up while in I-Frames. This often leads to dropping an item in a bad position which makes you take a ton of damage trying to get it back, usually leading in the death of the run. I've even had keys fall through the floor before on moving platforms. This becomes especially frustrating with the Relic Keys.
Relic Keys must be purchased at the START of a run and brought to a random point in the well to open a Relic Challenge (if one even spawns, it's not guaranteed) that will unlock a relic for your future runs. This becomes frustrating quickly as it becomes increasingly difficult to find a gate as you unlock them, and as you quickly run out of funds to buy keys with.

The "Email Us" button in the settings for providing feedback & bug reports doesn't work properly. I tried to use it and while I was typing my fourth word it reset back to my inventory. I think while I was typing I hit a back button but I'm not sure. Regardless, this is still a developer issue.


I'm genuinely disappointed at the devs for releasing this game. There are so many flaws that I think the only way to fix the game is to rebuild it from the ground up. That's probably why the promised QoL patch and 2nd free DLC seem to have been abandoned completely. It's almost been a year and they've been radio silent for all I can find. Maybe they actually are making big changes to fix the game and it's just taking a long time, but I wouldn't bet on it.
This game has definitely severely hurt my perception of both Yacht Club and Nitrome's competency as game developers and deeply confused me.
Nitrome was a legendary flash game studio, and S.K. Treasure Trove was one of the most popular indie tiles of recent memory, how did they mess up this badly?

At least the soundtrack is really good. Unfortunately that's all this game really has going for it.

#FixTF2
The game as of the moment is playable! The bots are mostly gone, though if VALVe doesn't keep the pace going they'll fall behind.

Here's to hoping they keep it rolling!

The grind was NOT worth it.

This game is not Singleplayer-Friendly and is frustrating without a party of at minimum 2 people, preferably 3 or 4. However, the game is pretty much dead as of writing this review so good luck finding a party of random people. Bring some friends.

I only got 100% of the achievements out of anxiety and fear that the game's servers could shut down at any moment and permanently lower my Steam Achievement Completion % by making the game impossible to play (and earn the achievements). Finishing it felt so relieving.

I regret wasting so much time on this game, and all I got out of it was a TF2 hat and +1 Perfect Game Completion for my profile's achievement display.
It's not worth the stress. Please find a different game for your sake.

PRESERVE LEGACY
WITH
ELEPHANT COLLECTION

These games were my childhood, and I'm glad I got the chance to play them all over again.
Thank you jmtb02.