The protagonists of Pokémon games become the new Champion of their region by defeating Gym Leaders or Trial Captains, then the Elite Four and the current standing Champion. In Cassette Beasts, the closest thing to an equivalent to Gym Leaders is the Ranger Captains, and one of the main quests involves defeating all the Captains across the map, but even then, you do not beat the Ranger Captains and become a Captain yourself for the glory of becoming the best monster battler, but to prove your ability to help the Rangers Guild to protect New Wirral.
Cassette Beasts also has a more mature and adult story than Pokémon. As a franchise primarily targetted at children, the main human characters in Pokémon are children, so the stories of Pokémon games are mainly about children's fantasy adventures to be the best Pokémon Trainer. On the other hand, the main characters in Cassette Beasts, including your human companions, are adults, and the game is not afraid to discuss topics and issues relevant to adulthood, particularly through the stories of your companion characters. The story of Cassette Beasts is also unabashedly left-wing with anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist messages, which I frankly doubt will get explored with such authenticity in a corporate-owned mega franchise like Pokémon.
+ +In addition, Cassette Beasts' story can get surprisingly dark at times, most notably in the cosmic horror presented by the Archangels, the eldritch entities that you need to defeat in boss battles to gather clues about a way out of New Wirral and return home.
+ +Towards the end of the main quest, it is revealed that Archangels are egregores created from humanity's desires and ideas. The main antagonist and final boss of the main story is an Archangel that is an incarnation of conquest, and his goal is to leave New Wirral and cause chaos across reality.
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