Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 4, PC, iOS, Android

Publisher

PQube Limited

Developer

The Gentlebros

Genre

Action, Adventure, RPG

Release Date (NA)

Nov 10, 2017

Purchase From

Amazon

eShop

PSN Store

Steam

Android

iOS

A world filled with cats, dragons, and cat puns everywhere, Cat Quest is a purrtastic adventure game that utilizes RPG elements with real-time combat but with some flaws.

While Cat with Monocle and Cat Quest are both named after felines, this fact does not influence our view of the game; we would treat it the same, even if it were called Puppy Quest, Bird Quest, or Rodent Quest.

Cat Quest originally came out for smartphones and Steam before it came to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Catastic Adventure

The indie game’s storyline is straightforward and simple. The silent hero’s sister has been catnapped by the evil Drakoth. You, as the hero, find out that you are not an ordinary cat but a Dragonblood, a special breed that once helped fight off the dragons in the Dragon War long, long ago.

Further into the game, the story starts to drift into the secretive and confusing history of the Dragon War and the mystery around Drakoth. After finishing the story, the Gentlebros (the developers of the game) left the game with open doors in many directions in terms of the story, making it feel incomplete. However, you can continue playing the game and take on additional quests across the world.

The Cat World

You set out on an adventure with your sidekick, Spirry, to save your sister. Spirry is similar to Navi, a fairy that followed Link around from the Legend of Zelda series. In Cat Quest, Spirry provides constant tutorials and gives obvious hints, telling you everything–where to go and what to do. While Spirry can be a bit annoying, he’s not as annoying as Navi. He also makes most of the cat puns in the game, and a few of them had me laughing out loud.

The game’s world is simple but clean, playing mostly on a single continent with a few islands on the side. While playing, it feels as if you are on a board game but with an interactive board. The majority of the action takes place here, and the only time the screen changes is when you enter a cave or dungeon.

Each cave and dungeon has a level requirement, some of them being hilariously low (0) or high (200). The layouts are simple mazes and have one goal–defeat all enemies–though some maps have hidden areas where you can pick up special, golden chests which can only be opened with a special key. Once you obtain the key, you’ll be revisiting dungeons to grab some good weapons and armor.

The armor and weapons you find on your journey can only be leveled up by obtaining the same item, be it by going on quests and unlocking chests or by upgrading them at Kit Cat’s blacksmith shop. However, upgrading there is based on paying either to open the regular chest (50 coins) or the gold chest (5,000 coins), and you don’t get to choose the item you want to upgrade as you are paying to gamble for an upgrade. The only moments Kit Cat’s shop was useful was in the quests she offered, gaining one of the game’s best swords and powering it up. Otherwise, save your coins for upgrading your magic.

To obtain the magic, you have to purchase it from each mage’s house. There are seven spells to purchase, so you’ll need to travel to seven mage houses in order to obtain and upgrade them. Each upgrade increases the amount of coins needed to increase the spell’s level, though some cost more than others. For example, the healing spell costs at least double the amount compared to the fire spell would need to upgrade. Honestly, the magic upgrades are what I initially thought the weapon and armor upgrades would have been, and I would’ve preferred to have the same system for both.

Further into the game, you gain a couple abilities that will let you adventure into areas you couldn’t before: walking on water and flying. Both are acquired as you play the story and are needed to finish it. The flying ability is one of the best things to have in the game as it helps speed up travelling across the world and allows you to ignore enemies. However, you are limited with it since it only lets you go across thorny bushes and trees. You still have to go around mountains.

Prepaw for Battle!

Battling is simple and easy to pick up. In battle, enemies will attack based on the red targeted area. The targeted area will fill up, and once it fills 100%, it’ll attack. While it sounds simple enough, you can’t run straight into battle without a strategy. Timing your attacks and switching between your weapons and magic spells is the key, especially when multiple enemies are on the screen. Be prepared to die constantly in the beginning of the game until you level up your hero. Once you leveled up enough and have the right equipment equipped, enemies will be like annoying house flies.

Leveling up is based on collecting blue orbs from completed quests and destroyed enemies. The game strongly tells you to complete quests to beef up your character, and they’re right. Over 75% of the game is doing quests. Some quests become repetitive, but the dialogue associated with them make it fun.

Inventory – So Much Cat Toys

As you play, you’ll be picking up many types of items, though you shouldn’t have to worry about space as the game’s inventory setup was built to handle the large number of items. However, some of those items are for show and gags, but some felt useless. Playing the game, I changed my hero’s attire very little as I only paid attention to my defense, attack, and health numbers. Magic was of least importance during my playthrough, but it was not entirely forgotten; I made sure my equipment didn’t reduce my magic too much. Still, you could challenge yourself in the game and try the different attire for the fun of it. How far can you go with a “crappy sword”, “crappy helmet” and a “crappy armor”?

Save My Spot!

One of the best things in the game is the save points. There are many places in the world where you can save and take “cat naps”, a place in each town that will heal your wounds automatically. Leveling up will also replenish your health and magic.

If you die in battle and you just gained a level, the game will keep your level and start back at the last save point. It’s a nice gesture on the Gentlebros’s part.

Did You Know?

Cat Quest was originally going to be a sexy dancing game of cats. Who knew it would turn out to be a real-time combat game that would be similar style of Zelda and Skyrim? You can read our interview with the Gentlebros about Cat Quest here on Cat with Monocle.

Overall

The Gentlebros left a lot of doors open for downloadable content (DLC) and a potential sequel. The game hints at many possibilities involving dogs, mice, and secrets between the Dragonblood and dragons, but that’ll be up to the Gentlebros on how big they want to make this. I, for one, would like to see expansions made to the game and continue the story of the silent hero.

Cat Quest is a purrtastic game that deserves your attention and belongs in your gaming library, especially if you enjoy pawesome indie games.

A Nintendo Switch review code was provided by PQcube Games for this review.