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I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with a game titled Cat Quest. I had briefly heard about the game through a few gaming podcasts and needed something to fill my time on my Nintendo Switch before I dived headfirst into Xenoblade Chronicles 2. At just $15, I figured why not. To my surprise, Cat Quest is a remarkably charming and engaging mini-RPG that does some impressive things that the rest of the industry should take note of and it's pretty damn fun to play as well.
The story is simple; Your sister is captured in front of you and you must embark on a quest to get her back. It also turns out that you are of the Dragonblood, a line of ancient warriors who have the power to slay dragons. Your quest begins in Felingard and spreads across a fair size map that is more or less fully available to you from the very start. Sure, you'll eventually learn to run across water and even fly, but these mostly just grant access to a few smaller locations than break off massive chunks of the land.
Much of the narrative comes from various conversations with side quest NPC's, the simple townsfolk, mystical stone landmarks, and from your sidekick Spirry, your guardian spirit. This loads the game up with numerous cat-related jokes, puns, and simple words like 'for' and very' being changed to 'fur' and 'furry'. This also translates to the towns and locations on the map having names like Mewtown, The Catpital, and Puss Plains.
Cat Quest is very simple in its design and much of what is present is pretty much shown at face value. You can attack and roll and equip up to four spells at once. While attacking is simply a swipe of a sword, axe, or staff, rolling becomes something that you'll need to master, not that it is that complicated to perform. Several enemies have danger zones that form around them and charge up to then unleash their attack, with only a few other enemies having other forms of visual indicators like spikes or colored arrows. These indicators require you to roll away from them, waiting for the chance to charge back at your foe and get a few good swipes in or fire off one of the many skills you can learn.
Combat and your very survival are affected by the stats of your weapons and armor. Several weapons can boost the amount of health or damage you do but may also decrease your magical ability, limiting the power of your skills. The same goes for armor as well, making the choice of what you wear something more important than just that fashionable look. The variety of the weapons and armor is rather impressive and you'll unlock dozens of different styles through chests or via the shops. One element that Cat Quest does incredibly well is duplicates are simply absorbed into the same item to increase its base stats, thus eliminating the need to sell items or flood your inventory with the same items over and over again. It's a smart move that puts the focus on playing the game more so than fumbling around with item organization.
The skills you gain access to are simply versions of attacks that the enemies around you will use. You can shoot fire with flamepurr, unleash lightning attacks with lightnyan, or go purrserk on enemies as you grow twice the size and increase your attack power. There are 7 skills available currently, but there are plans to release new content as the steam version has already seen the release of mew game plus where players can add meow-difications to their game to make it just a bit more difficult.
As it is, Cat Quest is a relatively short experience that is packed full of charm and solid combat mechanics. Its fun, almost storybook visuals allow it to shine even with how repetitive the gameplay loop can be. I mentioned at the start of this review that it's unclear what to expect from a game titled Cat Quest, as it could easily come off as a title you wouldn't expect for it to be as entertaining as it is. Games like this have somewhat of an uphill battle as word of mouth is generally the only real marketing something like this has. So if you are looking for a fun little game where you play as a tiny little cat swinging swords and wearing all sorts of armor, then Cat Quest is a game you need to buy right meow.
