The follow-up to one of 2023's best-reviewed indie RPGs now has a window and a cast. Cassette Beasts 2002 arrives in March 2027, Raw Fury and Bytten confirmed with a new trailer shown during the Xbox showcase at gamescom 2026 - and the headline name attached to it is one most creature-collector fans will recognise from somewhere else entirely.
Neil Newbon, best known as Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3, voices Westerley, the enigmatic occultist whose plans for two colliding worlds drive the story.
The announced cast
Seven roles were named in the trailer, covering the antagonist and six of the twelve companions you can befriend, recruit and romance:
- Neil Newbon as Westerley
- Colin Ryan as Oliver
- Samantha Béart as Prue
- Savy Des-Etages as Nell
- Nhi Do as Eden
- Rebecca Hanssen as Bella
- River Medway as L
Two of those names are worth sitting with. Newbon and Samantha Béart - who played Karlach - both came out of Baldur's Gate 3, which means Bytten has quietly recruited two of the most recognisable companion performances in recent RPG history for a game where the companions are the entire emotional engine. River Medway, meanwhile, comes from Drag Race UK rather than a career voice-over background, which is a bolder piece of casting and fits a series that has always worn its identity openly.
Nodnol, and the year 2002
The sequel moves the action to London in 2002. Arriving in a quiet neighbourhood, you fall down a rabbit hole into Nodnol - a land of beasts and high strangeness that exists in the shadow of our own world. The 2002 setting is not just a nostalgia sticker: the first game's whole conceit was cassette tapes as a recording medium, and pushing the timeline forward into the era of the last gasp of tape culture gives that mechanic somewhere to go.
The core loop is intact. You record beasts onto cassettes, play them back to transform into them in turn-based combat, and fuse with a companion to combine any two beasts into what Bytten counts as over 57,000 distinct fully-animated fusion forms. Alchemy returns as a battle layer for applying buffs, debuffs and elemental type changes mid-fight.
What is actually new
Two additions stand out. The first is online multiplayer - you can explore Nodnol alongside other players, trade tapes, record beasts together and fight side by side in any encounter, including story battles. That is a significantly more open implementation than most creature-collectors attempt; the genre standard is to wall multiplayer off into trading and duelling.
The second is rogue beasts. Beasts you encounter now have a chance to break out of their assigned roles, rebel, learn from your battle techniques and come back to challenge you with what they picked up. In a genre where wild encounters are usually static furniture, a monster that studies your habits and returns is a genuinely novel pressure.
The soundtrack, and a save file that carries over
Composer Joel Baylis returns, with vocals from Shelby Harvey - who sang on the first game - alongside Johnny Gioeli of Crush 40, the voice behind a good chunk of the Sonic Adventure era. A new track, "Get Loud," featuring Nat James and Shelby Harvey, debuted alongside the cast announcement. The original Cassette Beasts soundtrack was one of the reasons the game stuck; this is Bytten signalling it knows that.
There is also a returning-player hook that more sequels should copy: you can import your character from the first Cassette Beasts and continue that journey, or start fresh as a newcomer.
Platforms and timing
March 2027 covers PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version confirmed for a later date. The original launched into Game Pass and found a large audience there, and the Xbox showcase slot for this reveal suggests that relationship is continuing.
Steam, Microsoft Store and PlayStation Store pages are live now for wishlisting.
