Published , by Lucas White
Published , by Lucas White
Cat Quest was a fun, little action RPG with lots of silly visuals and cat puns. I missed the sequel unfortunately, but had enough fun the first time I was happy to check out number three. This time, the setting has shifted big time, from fantasy-style swords and sorcery to a pirate adventure. Much of the gameplay is going to be familiar to anyone who has played a previous Cat Quest, but the new aesthetic flavor helps keep things fresh, alongside a greater focus on exploration and treasure hunting.
I got to play a demo build that offered just a taste of what Cat Quest has to offer. It’s an interesting demo because it has a defined win condition, but the road between the start and that end is as wide open as you can get without accidentally offering the whole game. That’s a big part of what Cat Quest 3 is, an open world that lets you wander into areas that can challenge you, but not outright kick you out. It’s a neat approach, since many open world RPGs opt for level scaling to more cleanly encourage wandering about. Here, you can be outmatched in terms of stats but can still eke out a win if you’re scrappy enough.
The story is simple, but the creators of Cat Quest 3 have a lot of fun with the idea of animal pirates. That’s especially true in character design, which can get pretty wild on either side of the good/bad alignment. For example, the main bad guy Pi-Rat King looks like an absurd hybrid of Darth Vader and Immortan Joe. Anyway, there’s a fantastical treasure out there in the world, and you as the hero have a special birthmark that grants the powers of a “Seeker.” An orphaned kitty, you’re adventuring with your found family, a pirate captain who is also a star-shaped, spirit-like creature.
From this simple premise, the world is opened up for you almost entirely. You’ll have to follow a somewhat linear path to unlock things like a ship, but the more tools you get the more you can explore well beyond the obvious path. Each section of the map tells you how many treasures are hidden, and you can stumble across overworld maps, dungeons, and other little story events. You’ll find new equipment that has new stats or bespoke abilities, hidden boss fights, and new magical abilities. And as you amass a fortune you can spend that money back in the main town on upgrades, making your skills and weapons more and more powerful.
Towards the end of the demo, the main challenge was to fight a powerful boar. This guy kicked my butt at first, but after playing around some more and not just leveling up but getting better, I was able to take it down quite easily. Despite being outmatched in raw stats, being able to grok the boss’ attack patterns and understanding my own limitations helped me come out on top. Then the demo cut me off, despite how much of the area I had access to remained unexplored. I would’ve gone back, but why stripmine the demo when I can leave all that unexplored area for the full game? I figured I would like Cat Quest 3 going in since I already enjoyed the first game, but with co-op and much more exploration and discovery to dive into, there’s no way I won’t have a great time. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of twists and turns the story takes, and how over the top the different weapons and magic grow by the end.
Cat Quest 3 is coming to Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One and Series X|S. and PlayStation 4 and 5 on August 8, 2024. A PC demo code was provided by the publisher for this preview.