It's so refreshing to see a monster collecting game that understands the thing that makes Pokemon good is its strategic depth, which Gamefreak have left massively underutilized, partly because Pokemon is a franchise aimed at children and partly because it's Gamefreak.

In this vein Cassette Beasts centers itself around a lot of very good ideas. Double battles are the standard which automatically makes fights more complex and interesting. Type interactions are based on unique buffs/debuffs/status changes rather than blunt damage increases and decreases. With just these two as a foundation the engagement of your typical fight is raised significantly.

The Captains, CB's gym leader equivalent, are also based around a particular strategy rather than just typing, something Pokemon should have adopted generations ago. Admittedly some of these themes work better than others in practice.

The open world structure is maybe the weakest aspect. I ended up overlevelling for a lot of stuff and the world itself is just not that interesting to explore. In particular the lack of unique geographic features means it ends up feeling a lot smaller than it is.

Now, the characters that live in that world are a lot of fun and I liked the whole cast, from your party members to the Ranger Captains to the villains. They do a couple of neat things with the "every inhabitant was isekai'd here from an alternate earth" aspect and the light cosmic horror stuff was fun.

Oh, and the soundtrack is a bop, particularly the vocal stuff.