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Bytten Studio recently hosted another Reddit AMA session on 20 November 2024, the day Cassette Beasts' Version 1.7 Gauntlet Update was released, this time on the official Cassette Beasts subreddit.

I took the opportunity to ask Bytten Studio if they had any thoughts on the players' reception to the game's story ending:

Do you have any thoughts about the players' reception to the game's story ending? I actually like the ending, but there are players who dislike the ending and are rather vocal about it, so I wrote a post on Tumblr to defend it (spoilers in the link obviously for those who haven't beaten the game).

Jay Baylis, the writer and lead artist of Cassette Beasts, responded:

I think it's always tricky to conclude a story - we had a particular idea of how the game would end from the start and the kind of story we wanted to tell, and I can see that it might not work for some players. I think that's OK - I'd rather that then write something that is safer or more crowd-pleasing that doesn't have as much of an impact, if that makes sense?

I was, and still am, very pleased to learn that they already had an idea for what kind of story they wanted to tell and how they wanted to end the game, because as I said in my follow-up response to Jay's reply:

Totally makes sense. I would much prefer creators to have a clear vision for what kind of story they wanted to tell as well as how they wanted to conclude the story, and stick to their creative vision, instead of just trying to play safe and please the crowd. The more I played and explored Cassette Beasts, the more amazed I was by how much thought was put into making the game.

Not to mention, the story is one of the most underrated aspects of Cassette Beasts. Now that I got confirmation that Bytten Studio had a vision for how they want the game to end from the beginning, I will continue to defend the ending of Cassette Beasts to the grave.

In fact, I just did that in the Reddit AMA thread itself, when someone else asked about the ending in a separate comment that happened after my comments:

I was genuinely surprised at the end when everyone did decide to go their separate ways and return home, instead of staying together after bonding all game. Was the ending ever different?

Bytten Studio did not respond to this question, but I did my duty as one of the staunchest defenders of Cassette Beasts' ending by replying to the comment myself:

I'm not one of the developers, but when I asked earlier did they have any thoughts on the players' reception to the ending, Jay stated that:

" …we had a particular idea of how the game would end from the start and the kind of story we wanted to tell"

So I'm guessing no, they had always intended the story to end that way.

To be honest, I was never surprised that the party decided to go back to their own worlds. In fact, I find it to make perfect sense. After all, the game has set up from the very beginning that the player's goal is to find a way to leave New Wirral, people do not end up in New Wirral by choice, and people ended up staying on New Wirral only because they could not find a way to leave before the player came along.

The partner characters are in the same situation — they have made it clear in their dialogue and personal quests that they all came from different worlds, and they had their own lives, friends or families before being transported to New Wirral and separated from their former lives against their will, so it makes total sense that they would choose to return home if there is an actual opportunity to leave. In fact, Viola, who still hasn't found her brother even in her personal quest, points out in the ending that wanting to see her brother again as why she still chooses to leave. Even if you romance any of the partners, they would also make it clear in dialogue that you may have to separate when you find a way to leave New Wirral.

It also makes sense that Barkley is the only partner who follows the player back home, since he is a dog who lost his owner, and thus has no one else to go back to.