Game: Beastie Bay DX
Genre: Simulation, Role-Playing, Adventure, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on iOS & Android)
Developers | Publishers: Kairosoft
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $14.99 | UK £11.69 | EU $ 14,99
Release Date: December 23rd, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Kairosoft.
Kairosoft are back again with another simulation game released on the Nintendo Switch. Beastie Bay DX joins a catalogue of some 30 odd games already on the Switch from the company.
Beastie Bay DX
Beastie Bay DX was originally released on mobile with IAP’s; this is the full game on Switch without the need for IAP’s. The game is a simulation RPG, and the premise is pretty straightforward. You play the role of Robin, who washes up on the deserted Sunny Isle with his assistant and his pet duck, dog or cat, depending on what starting animal you pick.
Your task as Robin is to build a resort and attract visitors. To expand your boundaries, you’ll need to explore dungeons and battle monsters living on the island and harvest their natural resources with a team of your own. So it’s basically a Pokémon game and island management game mushed together to make Beastie Bay DX.
A game of Two Halves
The game is split into two parts, exploring the dungeons on the map and building up your resort. Robin explores blue areas on the map, and when he goes off exploring, it’s displayed at the bottom of the screen in a little graphic of Robin walking along.
In addition, a percentage is shown on the right, which measures Robin progress in the dungeon. During the journey, various events will occur, ranging from finding items to obstacles that require specialized survival gear to overcome. As Robin explores, some monsters will pop up, attacking and engaging the party in combat.
Combat
Combat is turned based; you have three allies in your party, with Fight, Switch or Use Item as the options during battle. Like other monster hunting games, you must weaken the opponent by inflicting damage on them. Once their health bar is depleted, you can entice a monster by throwing the appropriate bait at it. If the monster approves of the bait, it will leave the fight and join your resort on Sunny Island.
You can see the influence that similar well-known franchises such as Pokemon have on the game in the monster battles. The standard components such as basic attacks, special skills, and items are all there but in a slimmed-down rudimentary version.
The Resort
Any monsters you befriend or anyone you rescue while in a dungeon will show up at the resort asking to stay. You’ll invest your hard-earned lumber, cash and medals in buildings on Sunny Island to attract tourists and items to make your dungeon exploring go a little more smoothly.
Of course, building structure requires wood, which I found I was always running out of at the beginning of the game. However, once you are further into the game and have researched more storage space and lumber sheds, the lack of wood is no longer a problem.
Both areas of the gameplay, exploring dungeons and building a resort, combine to make a nice little feedback loop. While exploring, you’ll tame more allies, who will in turn help harvest your resources, which allow you to expand your island and strengthen your equipment.
Visual and Controls
Graphically Bestie Bay DX has brightly coloured pixelated sprites, the standard look for all of Kairosoft games. There is nothing wrong with repeating the same look for the games; why fix something that isn’t broken. Controls are via the joy-cons and touch screen controls. Both perform well and work as they should.
Conclusion
Beastie Bay DX is a typical Kariosoft simulation game that opens up the more you play. The game feeds the player little titbits of different gameplay mechanics the longer you play. There is nothing new in the gameplay that we haven’t seen before, but it is a formula that has served Kairosoft pretty well so far, and it works again here.
Final Verdict: I Like It a Lot 