Lenna's Inception
Lenna's Inception is the game Bytten Studio developed before Cassette Beasts. Cassette Beasts has multiple references to characters and events from Lenna's Inception. Lenna's Inception also has several references to aspects of Cassette Beasts.
References in Cassette Beasts
Returning Characters
Lenna appears in Cassette Beasts as a secret optional boss in Brokenhead.
The Traveling Merchant in Cassette Beasts is implied to be the same Traveling Merchant from Lenna's Inception. He mentions having given his shirt to a woman in need, which is a reference to the item trading side-quest in Lenna's Inception.[1][2]
When talking to Lenna in Cassette Beasts, she mentions Paige, though Paige does not directly appear in Cassette Beasts.[3]
Design and Name References
- Cat-5 was initially designed as an homage to the Archangel Catsiel, Cat-5 being a cat with a screen on its head similar to Catsiel being a cat with a CRT on its head.[4]
- Additionally, two of the unused monster designs in the Cassete Beasts: Artbook that appear to be earlier designs for Cat-5 have more clear references to Catsiel. One having a television for a head and a power plug for a tail, the other having a screen for it's head (like the final design) but having two TV component cables for tails.[5]
- Pyromeleon's design was based on the Pyromeleon monsters from Lenna's Inception.[6]
- Jumpkin has some similarities to the partner Gordon in Lenna's Inception. Both are pumpkins that come to life after being sprinkled with a substance (Jumpkin with Skelly Jelly and Gordon with blood). They are both likely inspired in part by Bytten Studio's logo, which features a pumpkin.
- Allseer's design has some similarities with the second phase of Archangel Tentaluchus, both are UFOs with a pyramid on top.
- Scampire's design has some similarities with Archangel Hatasiah, both are flying bats wearing a top hat.
- Archangel Mammon shares its name with the capitalistic-themed character from Lenna's Inception, Chairman Mammon.
Archangels
Others
- The solution to the maze in Aldgrave Tomb Station and the solution to the second phase of the fight with Archangel Catsiel are both based on the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right).
- In Gramophone Café and Falldown Mall, there are pictures showing the cover of Lenna's Inception's soundtrack. Also, several copies of the soundtrack are on the shelves in the record store in Falldown Mall.[16]
- In Falldown Mall there is a clothing store called "Tunley & Potter" which is a reference to the brothers Tunley and Potter from Lenna's Inception who make tunics and potions respectively.
References to Cassette Beasts
Diary
An obtainable book called "Diary" (with corrupted letters) discusses an event that is likely lore of Cassette Beasts.
Author(s): ???
2020-02-15 15:30:41
Welp, it won't be the Alpha Centaurians finding the 17th book. Last month the spacetime capsule stopped beaming signals home from the Oort cloud. No official word from NASA yet, but amateur astronomers are absolutely going nuts over it!
What they're saying is that signals from the capsule red-shifted away out of view, as if it crossed some kind of event horizon. So it didn't just crash into a rock! What's even weirder is that after it vanished, something much larger blue-shifted into the same spot.
There aren't any clear photos of it yet, but the people who have been studying it have been accused of stockpiling cassette tapes. I'm getting worried...
2020-03-07 16:16:21
The first blurry pictures are showing up on social media. There's a lot of disagreement about what it is. I think it looks like... No, that's insane.
I'm keeping my Skullbeak tape close. I know it won't help, but it makes me feel better.
2020-04-20 16:20:52
People are calling it the Object, but it's pretty clear now that it's a train... hurtling through space in a cloud of glass shards.
It's arriving at Earth on May 11th... but there's some uncertainty because its speed isn't constant — it's periodically changing speed and direction by jettisoning reflective objects and wooden doors. Weirdly, the total mass of all the objects it has thrown out is more than the object itself could have carried. So just what are we dealing with? A new archangel?
2020-05-11 20:19:11
It IS a new archangel!
Grab your cassette player, it's time to transform!
CASSETTEBEASTS.com
Others
- A non-moving train can appear in a random area of the world map.
- In caves there are rooms containing miniboss battles against 2 monsters that have fused together into a more powerful monster. After being defeated, the fusion unfuses back into the two original monsters.
References
- ↑ "Don't let my lack of a shirt discomfort you — I traded it to a young woman who gave it to a bear a while back. Let no one tell you I ain't dedicated to the cause of distribution!" - Traveling Merchant (Cassette Beasts)
- ↑ "Oh that briefcase would be very useful for carrying my goods... You want something in return? Hmm... How about my shirt?" - Traveling Merchant (Lenna's Inception)
- ↑ "Well, I should go now. Ms. Amber promised me a ride home once I was done here, and I told Paige I wouldn't be gone too long." - Lenna (Cassette Beasts)
- ↑ "Cat-5 was designed very early on as a sort of homage to a boss monster from Bytten Studio’s previous game, Lenna's Inception. The game featured a cat with a television for a head, and Cat-5 is kind of carrying on that tradition!" - Cassette Beasts: Artbook, page 8.
- ↑ Bytten Studio (2023). "Cassette Beasts: Artbook". Page 30.
- ↑ "Pyromeleon was designed first - and is once again heavily based on a monster from Lenna's Inception - with Salamagus coming after." - Cassette Beasts: Artbook, page 13.
- ↑ "MY OLD CREW AND I HAD SOMETHING OF AN ARRANGEMENT WITH YOUR LOT. A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP. EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT. I HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR YOU HUMANS! WITHOUT YOU WE WOULDN'T EXIST! YOU HUMANS LIVE ON YOUR LITTLE WORLDS AND YOU INVENT ALL THESE CUTE IDEAS. LOVE, DEATH, WHATEVER... YOUR MOST POWERFUL THOUGHTS WOULD BRING US TO LIFE, AND IN RETURN WE'D TRAVEL TO YOUR WORLDS TO ACT OUT WHATEVER FANTASIES YOU CONCOCTED FOR US! ADVENTURES... WARS... EXTINCTION EVENTS... YOU PEOPLE LOVE THAT STUFF THE MOST, AND SO DO I!" - Aleph (Cassette Beasts)
- ↑ "Archangels... Supposedly, when the first unlucky sods washed up on the shores of New Wirral, they thought the monsters here were angels. And, and some of them wrote of other entities too, greater than the others... Creatures that look and feel "wrong". Logically, they called these other creatures "Archangels" - the highest ranking among the order of angels." - Kayleigh (Cassette Beasts)
- ↑ "There's no way you could have known. I've never seen archangels so vicious! I think they were protecting something..." - Claymore (Lenna's Inception)
- ↑ In Lenna's Inception, in Level 9 there is a room containing the skeleton of a large creature, skull of another large creature, a human skull, a broken sword, and several large cracked eggs. When in this room, Lenna continuously cries.
- ↑ "THOSE PESKY HUMAN SHOULD HAVE KILLED ME IN MY PUPA FORM!" - Archangel Lenna (Lenna's Inception)
- ↑ "I grew up in these corridors, preying on the smaller monsters that humans left behind. I was hungry a lot of the time." - Lenna (Lenna's Inception)
- ↑ "WITH THIS POWER I'VE STOLEN, I WILL CREATE MY NEW DISCIPLES! I WILL NEVER BE ALONE AGAIN!" - Archangel Lenna (Lenna's Inception)
- ↑ Paige: Did you have family here? Or friends?
Lenna: Not for a long time... Until I stole the Power of Truth and created the archangels.
(Lenna's Inception) - ↑ "WE MONSTERS SOLELY POSSESS THE ABILITY TO CREATE NEW COINS. I HAVE HARNESSED THIS POWER." - Archangel Lenna (Lenna's Inception)
- ↑ "It's some sort of soundtrack." - Text when interacting with the Lenna's Inception soundtrack in the record store in Falldown Mall.
