Cassette Beasts would be nigh-impossible if you were fighting without a partner. Not only would you be deprived of a secondary beast in every battle, you would lose out on the ability to Fuse beasts into a single, much-more-powerful form. Your many partners are vital to successfully exploring New Wirral, and the game rewards you for getting close to them by introducing a relationship mechanic.
This guide will cover the ins and outs of relationships in Cassette Beasts. Spend enough time with a character and you can even romance them, a staple mechanic in just about every open-world, dialogue-driven game these days.
Building Relationships
Whenever you create a campfire or sit down for coffee at the Gramophone Café your character will converse with their current partner, assuming you choose to Rest. When this happens there's a chance that you'll watch an extended dialogue with the character, and once you progress to a certain point in the game you can develop your relationship with the character via these dialogues.
Each character in your party is, to an extent, 'locked away' when you first meet them. You'll need to complete a quest with that character to unlock the ability to Fuse before you can build the relationship. The quests you need to complete are as follows:
- Kayleigh - This Is The World We Live In / I Ran So Far Away
- Eugene - Acting On Your Best Behaviour
- Meredith - All I Ever Needed
- Felix - Don't You Want Me
- Viola - Everybody's Looking For Something
- Barkley - Come Back And Stay
The one exception to the general pattern listed above is Kayleigh. You'll receive the ability to Fuse with Kayleigh during the first quest of the game, but you can't build your relationship until you complete I Ran So Far Away, her personal quest.
Once you've unlocked a relationship with a character you'll see a meter with five hearts. Each time you successfully 'encounter' a dialogue that builds a relationship one of the hearts will fill up. Increasing your relationship level with characters grants you bonuses whenever you use Fusion with that character. You can check your relationship with each character by choosing Party in the menu and looking under their HP.
The bonuses you unlock with each level are as follows:
- One heart - Can use Fusion
- Two hearts - Can use Fusion Power, +10% strength when Fused
- Three hearts - +15% strength when Fused
- Four hearts - +20% strength when Fused
- Five hearts - +25% strength when Fused
Building relationships is not as simple as Resting over and over and hoping for a cut scene. You'll need to keep the character in your party and fight alongside them to build relationships.
Romance
If you stick with one character long enough and build your relationship value with them up to five hearts you'll receive a cut scene where you can choose to woo them. This will put you into a more casual romance with the character. You can do this with your entire party. (Barkley is the exception. Don't romance the dog.)
Continue to travel with a character at five hearts and you'll eventually receive another cut scene where you can deepen the romance beyond mere dating. When this happens the option to fully romance a character appears as pink. You can only do this for one character - everyone else will turn you down if you try to romance additional characters - so choose wisely. You'll receive some different dialogue with your chosen partner during cut scenes, and the ending will change a bit depending on your partner.
An Ending Note
The final battle of Cassette Beasts brings your whole party together for a confrontation against the end boss. That said, it appears that characters won't show up unless you complete their personal quest. In my case I failed to complete Eugene's quest before fighting the final boss, and he wasn't there to help. He also didn't appear during the ending. When I triggered the ending after completing his quest, however, Eugene was in the lineup during the cut scene.