Cassette Beasts is a turn-based collecting and battling game where you use retro cassette tapes to transform your character into different creatures. It's similar to Pokemon. You explore the dense island and solve environmental puzzles, win turn-based fights, and form relationships with the islanders. It stands out for the intricate, nuanced battle system and how you can combine two monsters to form a new one with unique powers and abilities.

You find yourself on a mysterious island with no idea of how to get home. Setting out to find where you are, you soon encounter a group of adventurers with similar stories to yours. However, they use magical cassette tapes to transform into the island's monster inhabitants. You decide to join their community, using your transformations to fight and protect yourselves as you explore every inch of the island in search to find a way home.

Play involves interacting with the diverse characters you meet, exploring the island, moving from place to place by yourself or with a friend, and completing small puzzles to reach new areas. When you encounter a monster, you record it on your cassette tape and can then transform it into it during turn-based battles with other monsters. Each monster has specific attacks that work with particular types of adversaries.

On top of this, you can combine two recorded monsters into a single, unique monster that possesses special moves, statistics, and attacks. In addition to individual monster attacks, this opens the door to more strategies as you try out different combinations and the moves they possess.

The result is a novel game that combines a dense and richly detailed world brimming with puzzles and secrets with a deep and involved combat system where experimentation and ambition are key to success. Cataloguing new monster species and then experimenting with new moves and fusions is both fun and a unique way to engage with the world.