With only a week left until we release, we are doing a last roundup blog of all the content we have talked about in the past weeks as well as a short guide to get started on your adventure into New Wirral!
Volume 2: A guide to New Wirral by Professor Percival Hoylake

STRATEGIZE

In combat, elemental advantages dont give bonus damage but do inflict status effects depending on the combination. Status effects in general are very useful - so be sure to use buffs, debuffs and elemental walls to get ahead!

GO OFF PATH

After the prologue, the world of New Wirral will be yours to explore as you please. Whilst some areas will be higher level than others, you arent prevented from exploring areas at your own leisure.

ASK AROUND

If you would like some direction then you can collect Rumours from people in Harbourtown that will give you level-appropriate places to check out.

GET BACK UP

On the island you will encounter various monsters in different areas, not every area might be suitable for you with your current experience. If things are too tough, remember that you can level up, unlock new abilities, and Remaster your monster forms into powerful new versions with a bit of exploring in the world.

GEAR UP

There are several shops in New Wirral, it's always a good idea to visit them to upgrade your gear such as the amount of Rewinds you can carry Or find new Stickers you can attach to your monster tape for new moves and attacks! Lastly, if you ever need a refresher or want to know more about the details of our game you can always check out the wiki: https://wiki.cassettebeasts.com/wiki/Main_Page

Roundup Blog

Open World

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. The people of Harbourtown love to share Rumours and hearsay - there are not many forms of entertainment available to them after all! When youre not sure where to explore or what to attempt next, the rumours you pick up in Harbourtown will always contain good suggestions. Following up on rumours almost always leads directly to progress in your main quests, which dont always on their own tell you where you need to go. Of course if you prefer to stumble blindly around the island without a clue, thats always an option! Collecting rumours is suggested for first-time players, but completely optional.

Archangels?

If youve played the demo to the end, you will have seen the start of the main quest in Cassette Beasts. Skip this section 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 - and they act as bosses. 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 youll need to encounter more Archangels, but well nobody really knows where they are - or how many! Perhaps the rumours in Harbourtown contain some clues.

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. At relationship level 5 you gain the ability to romance your companion. Its completely optional, with no gameplay benefits, but its cute!

Strategic Moves

Suffice to say, there's lots of moves in Cassette Beasts that you can use to get the upper hand in battle, and lots of strategies to try! Different status effects will have positive Buff effct and some will have a negative debuff effect. A Buff effect example is a Wall. This is a type of status effect that can be used in battle and take a certain amount of hits for you, and also can trigger elemental reactions. An example of a move that interacts with a Wall the move ""Throw"". When used with an active wall, it turns that wall into a damaging projectile that inherits the element of the wall thrown! There are a ton of different interacts and strategies to use in Cassette Beasts!

Rogue Fusions & Bootlegs

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! 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.

Upgrade Yourself

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

MODDING!

We actually had this in store as a surprise but we couldnt keep ourselves from letting you all know! Cassette Beasts will be open up for a completely new type of community driven interaction and development as we invite you to be part of creating the best, most unique and fantastic experience there is - together. Cassette Beasts will however not support Workshop at launch (we continuously investigate if we are able to enable this in the future), as we are ironing out a lot of question marks.

Postgame

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

• Optional Bosses: I wont 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 youve 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.