Cats often get a bad rap when compared to dogs; yet furry felines continue to reign supreme thanks to the internet’s love of cat memes and viral videos. If you do worship your cat like a God and also happen to enjoy role-playing games, Cat Quest – published by PQube and developed by The Gentlebros – could be for you.
Previously released on Steam, iOS and Google Play devices, Cat Quest is about a young cat that embarks on a grand adventure to rescue his sister. It seems simple enough until you’re informed dragons have also been causing trouble within the lands of Felingard.
A lot of the action – including the combat – plays out on a large open world map in real time. When you're not fighting enemies or searching dungeons for loot, you'll spend your time interacting with the world’s citizens whilst taking on side quests, occasionally resting at town inns to replenish your health and save game progress.
Cat Quest is a very user-friendly role-playing game. There are no overly complicated levelling, loot or progression systems – making it a great entry point for anyone who is new to this genre. Despite the simplistic design, it still offers potentially hours of entertainment.
The combat in Cat Quest may lack depth, but is polished enough to remain satisfying for a prolonged period of time. In a battle, the silent protagonist will be required to roll about to avoid attacks while executing the occasional elemental spell and engaging enemies in a more physical manner. You’ll need to maintain focus during a fight or else it’ll take multiple attempts to clear an area. Wearing different types of clothing - like chainmail - will increase the hero’s armour, whereas donning robes improves mana. Taking on hoards of enemies within dungeons and around the world quickly becomes the norm; to mix it up you’ll also spend plenty of time slashing away at larger boss enemies. After each fight the hero is awarded with XP and plenty of coin to upgrade abilities or buy new items.
The side quest element of Cat Quest is perhaps one of the more appealing aspects of the game. Throughout the world citizens will ask you for assistance. Sometimes it’ll be a fetch quest, and other times you’ll need to clear a dungeon of enemies. Across the world of Felingard are a variety of locations, from dangerous forests to an entire town that has been possessed. As diverse as this may sound, it all feels relatively similar from start to finish.
To add a bit more character to Cat Quest, the developer makes reference to legendary titles such as Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda. You’re continually reminded of this in between all the cat puns as you are a dragon slayer wearing outfits similar to Link’s, and even have a helpful fairy-like companion to guide you.
The overall level of polish is Cat Quest’s definitive trait. The game looks great – sporting fantastic artwork – and it runs incredibly well on the big screen and also in handheld mode. The in-game menus are easy to navigate and combat is flawless courtesy of the responsive controls. The soundtrack isn’t the most inspiring, but definitely does the job given the type of game this is. The sound itself definitely adds to the satisfaction of combat.
Conclusion
As polished as Cat Quest may be, it does have a few downsides. The strong focus on cats and endless supply of cat puns is obviously not a world everyone will want to immerse themselves in – especially if you are a dog lover. However, if you are willing to overlook this and the basic design, what is on offer is a functional role-playing game that can be played for short or longer periods of time by players of all ages and cat lovers alike.
Comments 17
Spent the good part of a day playing through it when it came out. It's fairly simple and not the longest game in the world but it's pretty enjoyable while it lasts. Well worth the asking price.
Think I'll pass, I've got meatier games to sink my teeth into.
I'm a cat lover but found this game dull and uninspired. 2-3 hours then deleted, sadley!
Meaou (or Neaou as cats are supposed to do in my country)
Looking at the tagline
I see what you did there. Purrfect!
I love this game, totally recommend it.
@BenAV my feelings exactly.
This game is well worth the price and full of charming fun. There are a lot of fetch quests but they don't get too repetitive. Much like Kamiko early on, this is a Switch gem I'm happy to have played.
I knew the game was charming, but I wanted in depth review of the Switch release before digging my claws into the game.
Now, I'm all over it like catnip.
I'm having a Meowy Christmas.
Fun while it lasted, but (even as a cat lover ) it's utterly repetitive and ultimately very shallow once you have the "stun with magic then whack away" approach down to a rhythem. Based on my personal experience, I disagree that it's worth the price: I bought it the Friday it came out, played a couple hours each night, and was done by Sunday evening with no desire to 100% it. It just doesn't have enough meat to be worthwhile.
I really enjoyed this game a lot. Until there was just nothing left to do. I do hope they make a bigger game of similar style or sequel. It felt great to play and was enjoyed from start to finish.
I love this game! I disagree with the statement that the combat is shallow. The interplay of spells with other spells and physical attacks allow for interesting strategies, especially in boss fights. You can literally cast a spell, start a physical combat while the spell is starting up, which builds mana points to cast another spell. It's awesome.
@Morgan19 I kinda feared what you mentioned so I stayed back, and will wait for a sale.
Also, the constant cat puns and such sound more fatiguing than funny, not happy to hear that, even being a cat owner. Bad writing, is bad writing.
The reviewer marked it down because it has cats and not everyone likes cats?
That's ridiculous.
If you don't like cats you wouldn't be playing this in the first place.
Go Team Cat!
The slew of cat puns was one of my biggest fears for this game. Good to know this game is still decent enough as I was interested in it anyway. You could even say this game could be the "cats meow" for kitty worshipers like myself
I game like this really belongs on a mobile phone and not boxed, over priced and on the store shelves.
We were told when the Switch came out that the game cards were more expensive to produce, add the boxing and packing and the retailers cut and a moderately priced game becomes poor value for money.
Value for money should be part of a review and the score should reflect this. The 7 score should be a 5 for the retail version.
This on the 2ds as a download for a couple of quid, fair enough. But in store along side proper AAA Switch games, which we are extremely short of will ultimately be the Switches downfall.
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