There’s no shortage of monster-collecting RPGs inspired by Pokemon, to the point that with a lot of them, you have to wonder what sets them apart from the rest to warrant my attention. In the case of Beastieball, the new game from developer Wishes Unlimited and publisher Klei Publishing, that answer is clear. Because technically, according to their own Steam page, Beastieball isn’t even a monster-collecting RPG but rather a turn-based volleyball RPG. I’m a few hours into Beastieball, and here are my thoughts so far.
In Beastieball, you’re not fighting each other; instead, you’re playing a game called Beastieball. It’s functionally the same as volleyball, except that it’s played by Beasties instead of humans. And just in case it’s somehow not obvious, Beasties are, of course, this game’s version of cute little Pokemon-like creatures. Now in reality, playing beastieball is still just turn-based combat, but with some changes in structure. Fortunately, those changes are more than enough to make Beastieball’s “combat” feel fresh.
The field is split up into two sides with a 2×2 grid, respectively. Both sides also have two Beasties on them, with up to three more on the sidelines to be swapped in at any moment. But what that means is that your two Beasties can naturally only ever cover two of the four squares on your side of the field, and so the positioning of your Beasties becomes an important aspect of combat. But I’m getting ahead of myself a little. If you’re not attacking, what are you doing every turn?
Most of your moves can be categorized as either volleys or attacks. A game starts with one team serving and hitting the ball to the other side of the field, at which point that player’s turn begins. Every turn consists of three actions, meaning that just like in volleyball you’re allowed to pass between your Beasties two times before hitting the ball to the other side with your third move. Every attack usually either hits two squares horizontally or vertically, and if a Beastie is on one of the attacked squares, it will block the ball, taking a hit to their stamina in doing so, and then their turn begins doing the same thing. You hit the ball back and forth until one of two things happens. 1) The stamina of the blocking Beastie hits 0, and it is therefore too weak to take the ball, resulting in it hitting the ground and giving up a point. 2) Both of the attacked fields are empty, and the ball directly hits the ground, also giving up a point.
It’s a pretty straightforward combat system, but one that’s much more involved than the average turn-based creature fighter and one that allows for strategy that goes beyond just damaging the opponent until they’re at 0 HP. Which allows you to even defeat enemies that are way higher level than you through strategy (though it certainly doesn’t make it easy).
So don’t be scared, Beastieball isn’t a sports game exactly, but it does put a sports skin over the classic monster-collecting experience (and yes, I’m aware that in-universe Pokemon battles are technically also a competitive sport of sorts, but let’s be real for a second), and in doing so creates a new and exciting battle system and feel to the formula.
Nairon is playing Beastieball on PC with a review code.
