Keep Wishing You Were Me, and I'll Keep Making You Have To. Let's Play Cassette Beasts!

[beatbandito]

I was so sure that the end of the post game would give you a "my life sucked, I've found purpose here" ending. Needless to say "okay thanks, you can leave now" did not go over well for me.

[Silversong]

Isekais, they never learn.

[nosimpleway]

Part 21: The Box Looks Smaller From The Outside


Without much left to do but grind through the last of the postgame, I'm done McFuckin' Around. Khepri has the highest Ranged Attack in the game, so it should be able to sweep encounters pretty quickly with some random number of Headshots. Kayleigh opens with Decibelle for Echolocation and Custom Starter: Raise Arms, then switches to Khepri to wipe stuff out.


While I'm running around I rechallenge the Ranger Captains whenever I pass by. After clearing a board, a random named NPC will find a few bonus Fused Material. If that NPC is a Ranger Captain and you've rechallenged them, they have a chance to find more than one or two.
It is not long before I realize two problems with the things I just said:
1) There are twelve captains, plus Frankie and Vin and Ianthe and whoever else. I'd have to play for a long time for the investment of time and effort to pay off in any meaningful way. In fact, by the end of this update, I'm pretty sure the only Captain to show up with bonus Fused Material is Wallace, who occasionally drops off three instead of one or two. Bleah.
2) Khepri's Headshot is a fire-type move, because Khepri is a fire-type monster. In this screenshot I am re-challenging Captain Heather, who opens with an Aeroboros. Khepri's first Headshot gives Aeroboros a free Air Wall, which absorbs all further Headshots. Eventually I wise up and switch Headshotters with Beast or Astral type by preference, to minimize detrimental type interactions.


Uh, Kuneko? You feeling okay?


I mentioned earlier that monsters with set location spawns -- Kuneko, Averevoir, Umbrahella, and so on -- can appear as their own bootlegs. This is one of those times. Kuneko is a poison-type for this fight. But I run out of Snakeskin Tapes without her cooperating enough to be recorded by one, so this is one bootleg I don't manage to get for myself.



I do pick up a couple Springheels while I'm running around.


I went ahead and looked it up. The shadowy figure is a Black Shuck, and it has a 1% chance to do anything other than disappear. I only saw it once in the hours of running around I did in this episode, so I'm just going to have to omit it from the LP.
From what I've read, Black Shuck has a 1% chance to attack. It uses the player's own party, each enhanced with the Haunt status to make them mostly invincible. If you win -- and I wouldn't, I'm the only chump left on the island who takes damage in human form, and my own Khepri alone could wipe me out with blow-through -- you get a Black Shuck Tape, which automatically turns whatever it records into an Astral-type bootleg. That'd save me some time, but with a base 1% chance of ever happening, so what?


Anyway, after enough grinding out Fused Material -- walking across the map instead of fast-travel to look for bootlegs, refighting Frankie and Vin a couple of times, taking out a bunch of Rogue Fusions and Unstable Fusions, re-fighting Captains, and so on -- I finally level the Noticeboard up again.


In short, Kayleigh goes "Oh yeah I recorded this the other day and it reminded me of when we met, so you can have it". Which is weird because she hasn't had another day to go off and do her own thing instead of follow me around for a couple of ingame weeks. This is like how Eugene went and built a garden without me ever noticing, eh?


The reward is an Ice-type Candevil. This is around the time I start to get tired of not being able to sweep with Khepri anytime an air-type monster shows up, so I swap Candevil in and raise it into an ice-type Miasmodeus to do the job instead.


I'm usually looking for Rogue Fusions rather than Unidentified Signals on my radar, but I happened to run across another Miss Mimic encounter, and re-recorded one to replace the one I gave to Frankie way back when. I never got Miss Mimic to five stars, so I needed to do that...

[nosimpleway]

A couple hours of grinding later.
Each monster entry in the bestiary has two descriptions. The first, entered when the monster is caught, is the one I've been copying into the writeups for each beast as I catch them. The second discusses the monster's inspiration, so I've omitted that one since I talk about it during the writeup anyway. That one unlocks when the monster reaches five stars of experience.
The entire postgame I've had Decibelle and usually Khepri to sweep encounters. Triphinx is there for Wonderful 7 and Mardiusa is there because it was voted in. That leaves two party slots for me to rotate in whatever monster hasn't reached a full five stars yet. Eventually I made it three, by choosing whichever monster I hadn't five-starred yet that would be the best Headshot sweeper in lieu of Khepri or Miasmodeus.
So, end result, I get the cheevo for getting the five-star bestiary entries for every monster in the game.


Without needing to use my extra party slots on leveling monsters up, I swap in those two bootleg Springheels I got earlier. I wanna see exactly how bootlegs hand out better stickers than usual, so having two of the same species and documenting what changes as they level up should give some insight.

Both Springheels start with Smack and Peekaboo, like usual.
At one star, they each learn Jump Scare. Astral lands a Rare, but Plant only gets Uncommon.
At two stars, Astral learns uncommon Shooting Star (with auto-crit on type advantage, for an astral-type move? Nice.) and Plant gets the far less interesting or useful rare Splinter (also auto-crit on type advantage, and +75% damage on any crit... but it's still just power 15, so what?). A not-bootleg Springheel would have learned Bite.
At three stars, both learn an uncommon Trick.
At four stars, both learn Clobber. Plant-type gets a Rare, Astral gets an Uncommon.
At five stars, both learn an uncommon Taunt. This last star came from beating up an Unstable Fusion, which completed a quest to do that, which gave them both another level-up. This means they get more or less random stickers for free, and in this case Astral gets a rare Delegate (transfers status effects to allies, plus bonuses for being rare). Plant gets uncommon Revenge Strike (with a +8% damage boost per empty sticker slot). Sheesh, man, if you wanted to be a Twirligig you could have just said so.

Both Springheels then remaster into Snoopin.


This allows me to bring my other two Snoopin bootlegs, Glitter and Air, into the study. I'd already used Air a little bit, so it has two stars already. It doesn't look like it learned anything different from AP Steal and Energy Shot, same as a non-bootleg.
Glitter has Glitter Bomb right around the space in its moveset where a non-bootleg Springheel would have learned Bite at two stars. Air has Throw instead of Bite, and does not seem to have noticed that it doesn't have a wall of any sort to set up so that Throw can be used.

Sure enough, Astral, Plant, and Glitter all learn uncommon AP Steal at one star (all of which give a small EXP bonus, what an odd coincidence), and Energy Shot at two. Astral lands a Rare Energy Shot with +25% splash damage (meaning: to the other monster Energy Shot wasn't aimed at) and the ability to instantly destroy walls.
At three stars, all four learn Energy Wave, of various rarities and added effects. Plant gets a rare that refunds an AP on use, which is the best of the lot.
At four stars, all of them learn Raise Arms.
At five stars, all of them learn Quick Smack. So apparently a bootleg that changes a monster into a different type will teach them a move appropriate to their new type, but only if their normal moveset has a move of whatever type they were. So Springheel's beast-type Bite got replaced, but all of the typeless moves on Snoopin's moveset were not.


This study postpones leveling up the Noticeboard for a little while. I'm not going to go up against Frankie and Vin with a party of four Snoopins. I'm still fighting Rogue Fusions to star everyone up, so it's not like my accumulation of Fused Material has completely stalled out.

All four Snoopins get Scampired at the same time, so the two-star lead that Air had is gone. Scampire's normal moveset is the beast-type Vampire, an Air Wall, and the astral-type AP Drain, Hypnotise, and Vengeful Curse.
Instead of Vampire: Plant gets Plant Wall, Astral gets Ritual, Air gets Air Resistance, and Glitter gets Prismatic. Of course it does.
Everyone gets AP Drain on schedule. Air Wall comes next, so that Plant now has two wall moves and Air finally has something to throw at someone. Then comes Hypnotise at various levels and perks, and then everyone gets Vengeful Curse with +1 Duration on whatever three statuses it inflicts when it goes off.

The study is over. You bunch of Scamps can go home, or whatever it is Tape Storage is. What's funny is that it's kind of disappointing what payoff I got so far, but if I were to keep them around, every star-up from here would give me a random sticker, as previously described... at the inflated chance for Uncommon or Rare boost effects on it. They're all more useful now at five stars than they've been up to this point, but I'm done with 'em. Go figure.

[nosimpleway]

when your friend Ana realizes she doesn't feel sexual attraction to anyone regardless of any romantic feelings she may have


There's not a lot left to do now, and having given up on Black Shuck, I guess now's as good a time as any to talk about one of the game aspects I haven't explored yet. I keep talking about how few monsters I have left, or that I've caught 'em all. I even got the achievement for five-starring all of them! But there's one more. It's showed up several times in this LP already! Can you guess what it is? I'm gonna go get it.
First step, turn off autosave.


Second step, go record another Djinn Entonic. I want an astral-type for this, Djinn Entonic and Stardigrade are the only astral-types that appear in the wild, and D.E. is easier to find in random encounters than Stardigrade.


Next step: light the Ritual Candle. I got this for free when I filled the first-entry of the Bestiary for Hoylake, though Wanda sells more for fifty Fused Material each.


Next next step: go into Tape Storage and Recycle the Djinn Entonic I just caught. Recycling destroys the tape and gives up the recorded monster, returns all its equipped stickers to inventory, and gives me a few extra stickers and materials for my trouble. The Ritual Candle is now in effect, as well: the next Rogue Fusion I battle in the wild will include either a Djinn Entonic bootlegged into some other type, or some other monster species bootlegged into D.E's native astral-type.
Needless to say I am looking for the astral-type of a different monster. If I had a Black Shuck Tape I could skip this part.


With a Ritual Candle active, the preview is a little cagier about what a given Rogue Fusion encounter might be. Normally just looking at this would cause the game to autosave, locking in whatever effect the Ritual Tape had. This Masquetess, where the Masquerattle is astral-type, is not what I'm looking for. I quit the game, reload from save, and try a different Rogue Fusion.


Nope, that's something mixed with a Djinn Entonic. I'm looking for an astral-type bootleg of a different species.


Nope.


Nope.


Look, I'll save us some time. Assume I posted twenty-seven staticky silhouettes each followed by "Nope". Then I fatfingered the controls and hit "save" instead of "quit" one time, so I had to go buy another Ritual Candle from Wilma, catch a fresh Djinn Entonic, and start over.


But this time it takes only two Rogue Fusion checks before I find one that looks like it has potential.


A Traffikrab/Carniviper combo. And judging from its types, the Carniviper is its usual poison-type and the Traffikrab is astral-type. Perfect.


Carefully, carefully...


For all this trouble the thing I've been looking for is still a Traffikrab, and so I could probably record it onto a Basic Tape if I needed to. I don't take the chance, I've got an Ethereal Tape right here, with a 65% chance to record even if I did nothing else.


There we go. Astral bootleg Traffikrab. It starts with Smack, and... still a plastic-type Traffic Jam. So all that I figured out by studying my Springheel bootlegs is thrown out the window by the next bootleg I get keeping its signature move regardless of the sticker's type matching what the bootleg originally was.

Being the lowest step of a three-step remaster, Traffikrab gets its stars pretty quickly and is ready to remaster after only a handful of fights. (I used all my Up-Grapes on filling out the rest of the bestiary.) And when a specifically astral-type bootleg of Traffikrab remasters, it doesn't turn into Lobstacle or Weevilite. It becomes:


#000 Magikrab, the "crab with a wizard hat"
"Magikrabs were the first monster to be brought to New Wirral in the ancient past. They are almost all extinct now, with one solitary Magikrab now residing on the island as its eternal and diligent station attendant."
The little Easter Egg of finding a copy of an established character and putting it into the party aside, Magikrab isn't very good. I guess they couldn't intentionally make it a game-breaker since it's possible to find an astral bootleg Magikrab on the beach right outside Harbourtown, or to get one for free from the person in West Harbourtown who hands over a free bootleg early on. It's fine, I guess. It picks up Shooting Star, Multi Shot, and Galactic Beatdown by itself, and Mediate and Ritual on support.
Notably, Magikrab is always astral-type, and loses its status as a bootleg when it's remastered. The stickers it earns are not given the extra chance for uncommon or rare perks that come from bootleg tapes.

[nosimpleway]

Next item on the checklist: this cloaked figure up on Brokenhead I'm pretty sure I skipped mentioning the couple times I've been up here.

Cloaked Figure: You - do you call yourself a hero? That role is a heavy crown to wear. Are you truly ready for it?

This is the question they always ask. Up until Aleph Null is defeated, they then shrug and decide no, no way this loser is a hero. After Aleph Null is destroyed, a partner will chime in:

Kayleigh: Uh, are you speaking to snalligator? I'd say they're pretty heroic!
Cloaked Figure: Let us test your mettle and your metal!



D R A M A T I C R E V E A L
...
uh, who is that?


Music: Your Inception
whoa dang get incepted


Lenna's a proper Archangel, with Neutralise, Status Resistance, and Eldritch to make sure she can't just be statused into submission. That sword and shield aren't just for show, Lenna's got pretty darn high attack and defense, too. She's fond of Heroic Blade as her standard damage-dealing move, though she has Inflame too.


Her damage output isn't the difficult part, though. Lenna's gimmick is a combination of Hot Potato and Parry Stance. Hot Potato will blow someone up unless they can land a melee hit against a target, which transfers the status onto that target. Parry Stance means anyone who tries to land a melee hit on Lenna only hits themselves, which does nothing to get rid of the explosive charge.
Despite this strategy only holding any water if Lenna is the only target around, she can't help but make a few references to her game of origin. She can Whistle for Help, which has a chance to summon a Cluckabilly, a Jumpkin, or a Scampire. Since none of those get Parry Stance, they make for a convenient target to offload any bombs.


Parry Stance gave Ramtasm a little bit of trouble, but despite being a postgame boss Lenna is not insurmountably difficult.


Kayleigh: Please don't take this the wrong way, but you seemed pretty tough for a human. You're not an... Archangel, are you?
Prompt: "Are you an Archangel, Lenna?" / "Um, you're an Archangel, right?"
Lenna: I am. Well, I used to be. I guess I still am. It's a long story.

"...available on Steam for the low price of $9.99."
Notably, the Archangels in Lenna's Inception understood themselves as such. They weren't "egregores", so Lenna knows what we're talking about when we ask her about them.

Lenna: I'm living as a human now, though.
Prompt: "You can do that?" / "Is that possible?"
Lenna: Why not? We're not bound by our origins - it doesn't matter who we used to be, it only matters who we choose to be in the present.
Kayleigh: Right! I'm totally with you on that!
Lenna: You wouldn't believe it, but I'm actually a school teacher. My assignment here was to test you, and you just passed your examination with flying colours! Oh, I forgot to ask your name...
Prompt: "I'm snalligator!" / "There are some who call me snalligator."
Lenna: It was a pleasure sparring with you, snalligator! You certainly are "hero" material. Well, I should go now. Ms. Amber promised me a ride home once I was done here, and I told Paige I wouldn't be gone too long.

The Cluckabilly asisst is a reference to Henrietta, a homicidal chicken available to follow Lenna around on her quest. The Jumpkin is a throwback to Gourdon, a blood-soaked pumpkin who did the same. The Scampire is Bruce the bat. And Paige, namedropped here, is Paige Turner -- the only human asisst, the only assist capable of ranged attacks and keeping herself out of trouble, librarian, and love interest. Are we done winking across the fourth wall yet?


Lenna simply walks offscreen. She won't be back.

[nosimpleway]

I am happy to report that this is the last noticeboard level up that adds anything to the game.


Leader Ianthe: Thanks for the efforts on the tasks I sent you, snalligator!
By the way, have you seen any... giant floating orbs recently?
Prompt: "What?" / "Like... the sun?"
Leader Ianthe: It was a strange report from one of our new trainees. He did have a head injury though, so maybe it's nothing. Keep an eye on your fusion radar, just in case.


There's nothing else to unlock. If I grind out 150 more Fused Material, the reward is a stack of items and materials. So I'm not gonna be challlenging Frankie and Vin, or hunting any more Khepris (in the power station, I tried hunting for them in Mt. Wirral, go heck yourself).


Of course the rumor about there being gigantic floating orbs is 100% true. According to my Fusion Radar, the first one is up on Brokenhead.


"Proto-Archangel". The cryptids born of human imagination are taking on the core concepts of existence and turning into egregores by themselves.


It's the same old story.


The O R B is an additional step to defeating a Rogue Fusion. An Orb Fusion behaves like an Archangel does, needing no AP to use its own moves, gradually building its own AP up to ten, and unleashing a powerful attack for all ten AP when it gets enough. They don't have individual Angelic Attacks, though, they just use whatever Fusion Power a combination of those two monsters would have. In the case of Elfless and Pombomb, an Elfbomb would have Burning Fist, a melee attack against both of my monsters for fire-type damage and the Accuracy Down debuff.


Bust up the orb and the usual Rogue Fusion pops out.


Bust up the Rogue Fusion and the usual monsters come out.


Bust up the monsters and five Fused Materials come out. So if I wanted to level up the Noticeboard some more, it would at least be faster than the one-Fused-Material-per-fight rate I'd been handcuffed by up until now.

[nosimpleway]

One more thing left to do, a rumour to investigate that's been on my list for a while.


Hey, Morgante.


Morgante's body being the same color as the white-and-black text might make it hard to read in the screenshot, so:

AH, SNALLIGATOR AND KAYLEIGH.
HOW FORTUNATE YOU SHOULD APPEAR JUST AS I HAVE NEED OF A SACRIFICE.
TRULY THE MER-LINE SMILES ON US TODAY.
DON'T LOOK SO SURPRISED.
IT IS ONLY NATURAL THAT I, THE SPIRIT OF REBELLION, SHOULD TURN AGAINST THE ONES WHO INVOKED ME.


She's got me there.


First Archangel fight in the game was Morgante, broken. Stands to reason that the last one should be against Morgante, restored.


Her basic attack is no longer Discordant Thrash, but Unstoppable Conviction. Which seems familiar, somehow...


And Bottomless Courage? Didn't you pick that up from Eugene?
Yeah. Morgante retains the moveset she had as Morgante Gestalt. $playername's Conviction is Unstoppable Conviction. Eugene's Courage is Bottomless. Barkley's Energy is now Boundless, Viola's Determination is now Cunning, Meredith's Wit is now Lightning, and Felix's Creativity is now Creative Endeavor. They're all damage plus some kind of self-buff, such as Eugene's/Bottomless Courage granting Morgante a buff to her defenses.
They don't appear to retain the types they had as Morgante Gestalt. Each $charname move was typed to match that character's default monster form -- water for Viola, lightning for Meredith, plant for Felix, ice for Barkley, and plastic for Eugene. But in this case, Bottomless Courage doesn't proc the AP Drain status on Ramtasm, like a plastic move on an astral target would.


And needless to say, she's still got Coda Morgana. I saw it do eight-digit damage to Aleph Null, and have no desire to have it do eight-digit damage to me. I do not fuck around with Morgante, Spirit of Rebellion.


And good thing, too. Kayleigh's Melody, that redundant insurance policy against Aleph Null, is also still available for Morgante to use. It's a little more Heartfelt, but the result is the same. At 0 HP, it triggers to restore Morgante to life, and grants a status that prevents it from working again.


It takes a few more Headshots, and Morgante gets dangerously close to building up her 10 AP...


But no Coda Morgana today.


Stamina has not been an issue for a very long time, but sure, whatever.


...and that's it, that's the "reward". I can go back and fight the other Archangels again if I want to. They're not changed at all in battle and they don't give any new rewards, so I'm not gonna. But I could.


And unless I'm forgetting something, that's all there is to do. Here Comes The Sun, level up the noticeboard to unlock Orb Fusions, fill out all five stars for as many species as I can, get a Magikrab, refight Morgante, and skip Black Shuck. I think that's everything.

[Silversong]

Thanks for playing so I don't have to!

[nosimpleway]

Part 22: I Hope You Had The Time Of Your Life


Matthew Broderick pokes his head around into the hallway. "You're still here? It's over! Go home. Go."




Talking to Ms. Amber has her ask if you're really sure you want to start the end sequence. Say yes and the game autosaves, just in case you feel like coming back later.


Music: Goodbyes
Everyone lines up in front of the portal on the wall.

Ms. Amber: With a stable world gate like this, the rules are mighty simple. Beyond it lies the space beyond all things. If you don't use it right, you'll end up goin' nowhere. It ain't about "science", it's about intent. You gotta picture the world you want to go to in your mind's eye and step forward, without any lingering ties holdin' you back here.
So I advise y'all start sayin' your goodbyes, because it's a one-way trip.
Kayleigh: Wh-what?!
Ms. Amber: Them's the breaks, red. New Wirral is an anomoly, and nothin' more. You folks are only here by chance - gettin' back here ain't on the cards.

Unless ya reload that there autosave that just happened, but that's more movin' through time than it is movin' through space, sugar.


The portal opens up to the space between universes, as we've seen it before.

Viola: It pains me to end our tales here, but I so greatly wish to see my brother again. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Farewell, friends.


I wonder how close a person gets to their home universe before the fantasy physics give out and the Dominoth Wings stop working.

Who's next?

Eugene: We've taken on godlike beings and won... Man, I'm so pumped to go back home and kick some ass! There's always communities of people who're gonna need a helping hand, no matter when and where you are. There's so much I'm gonna do. It's been a blast, guys.


Good luck effecting meaningful societal change without turning into a Gundam.

Felix: Man... This has been a real trip, hasn't it? I think I've had enough creative inspiration to last me ten lifetimes. Not to mention getting to meet one of my old characters. I'm gonna miss these good times, folks.


Not that Kuneko acted any differently whether Felix was around, but I wonder how she'd feel that he's gone.

Meredith: I'm not... I'm not ready for this to be over. I'm... I'm gonna go back stronger. Live life to its fullest. Don't you... forget about me, OK?


All of the last lines from each partner, "Farewell friends" and "It's been a blast, guys" and "I'm gonna miss these good times, folks" so far, have been voiced. Props to Meredith's VA here, her last line before she wings off into the space between dimensions sounds like she's really trying not to completely break down emotionally.

Kayleigh: This is really it, isn't it? I hope it isn't like waking up from a dream. I want to remember you, snalligator. I want to remember everyone. I want to remember Harbourtown... Even the bits that weren't good. Because they're all a part of me.

Kayleigh you realize you don't have to leave, right

Kayleigh: Manifesting our will to change the world... I suppose we don't need cassette tapes to do that really, do we? The future has always been ours for the taking.



And finally...



Ms. Amber: Oh! I think that one wants to go back with you. Ain't that sweet!
I think it's your turn now, sugar. Are you ready?
Prompt: "I'm ready!" / "It's time!"





And that's the end. Reprise the theme song and roll the credits.

I mentioned it in my little writeup in Whatcha Playin and it's been mentioned in thread, but the ending... is not very good. Everyone splits up, even if you developed a romantic relationship with them. And you the player character just... go home. The only way to not go back to your previous life is to keep playing, doing repetitive tasks for Ianthe for now-redundant rewards. So much is left for the viewer to decide that it feels lacking in closure. The only canonical change or growth the main character experienced is that they now own a dog.

It's kind of a shame Cassette Beasts goes downhill after the fight with Aleph Null and ends on such a wet fart, but there you have it. The gameplay is compelling, and I'm pretty sure no one's done a Pokemon-ish game like this before or since. The battle system is a lot more interesting than just dealing extra damage, with type interactions helping keep the player on their toes. And as demonstrated, the monster design is A+ WDBA. Lotta good stuff in here, marred somewhat in that by the time you see the ending you've been in the postgame for so long, you might just remember it as a tedious grind.

[Niku]

Ending gracefully is hard to do, that's for damn sure. Still pretty damn cool game overall!