The first two Cat Quest games were lighthearted, cat-themed action RPGs with adventure game elements. These colorful and breezy romps featured spells, swords, and the option to bring a friend for the brawl. The open-ended, free-roaming structure allowed players to explore at their own pace. Dungeons, towns, and big bosses awaited, all wrapped up in a fuzzy cute package.
After two adventures in a medieval fantasy setting, the kitties seemingly have done all there is to do with the premise. For the third adventure, kingdoms, and knights are replaced with swashbuckling in the Purribean with the salty breeze blowing in your whiskers and a devil may care cattitude.
Can a third quest set in an archipelago with ship-to-ship battles and gunplay prove that these cats still have more to offer? What is with all these rats and how many puns can a single game have? Find out in our Cat Quest III review!
Cat Quest III
Developer: The Gentlebros
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
Platforms: Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: August 6, 2024
Price: $19.99
Cat Quest III‘s story is very loose and hands-free. The broad strokes are about an orphaned kitten with a mysterious mark on his head and how he gets raised by a floating glowing little guy named Cappy.
The orphan grows up to become an adventurer but discovers he is destined for great things, but our heroes always seem to be one step behind a burly Immortan Joe-looking sea rat who leads the pi-rats.
Cat Quest III wastes no time with elaborate plot details or character motivations. You only need to be concerned with beating the pi-rats to the treasure while adventuring and plundering. Once the game begins, you are set loose in a large open world with a sprawling ocean, festooned with islands and side activities.
Signs point the way to progress the story, but aside from that, there is little to no handholding. Most side quests are available at the start and the hero begins with a ship that can reach any of the four main regions.
However, daring kitties must beware since this is an RPG and that means dangerous, high-level enemies will lurk in the furthest reaches of the starting area. Sometimes rogue high-level ships might wander close to the starting area too.
The world is designed in a nonlinear fashion where it’s possible to dock the ship on one side of an island and to walk and fight your way around a blockade. Cat Quest III relishly encourages players to explore and try different approaches and it makes it easy to track how much treasure is left to find too, never wasting gamers’ time.
Anyone who dares to take a direct approach may find themselves battling a savage wild boar or getting into a ship battle with an armada. Combat is thankfully fluid and punchy. While on foot, the hero can dodge roll, magic, melee attack, or gun attack. Something to consider is that the gear makes the cat.
Each weapon dramatically changes how combat feels and has bespoke mechanics and gimmicks. Equipping the shield weapon allows defensive play where gamers can perfect guard all attacks and negate all damage if their timing is true.
The claws are fast and can attack in a wide radius at the cost of reach. Some weapons have extensive combos and aerial attacks, but no matter what, mixing things up with the other options mid-battle offers diverse combat.
The hero also can get guns and can fire in a 360-degree radius. Just like the melee attack options, every gun feels different and will come with its unique properties and play styles. There are shotguns, handguns, and even machine guns, but no matter what, they all need time to reload after blasting some rats.
The third pillar of on-foot combat is magic and while it has the most limited use in battle, it is the most varied and powerful. The hero can always recharge their magic charges by connecting melee and ranged attacks, but you can carry multiple spells mapped to the triggers.
The magic is usually elemental and can be AOE, missile-like projectile, trap, or self-buff. There is a healing spell that is necessary since the only other way to restore HP is resting at the save parrot.
Fighting is fast and the distant overheard POV makes it easy to see the action in full. When fighting multiple ranged foes, Cat Quest III takes on some bullet-hell-like properties with all the dodging and side-stepping.
Other ways the combat is flexible is the equippable charms which grant passive enhancements that can alter the hero’s combo or add attack properties to dodging. These are just a few examples; there is a vast array of options and potential to build the perfect kitty.
Not everything in Cat Quest III works as intended. Unfortunately, the ship-to-ship combat is not as fine-tuned since it amounts to the player awkwardly circling enemy boats and firing the main and secondary weapons.
Most of the time players will be trying to avoid being the foe’s line-of-sight while trying to get a few shots on them. Regretfully, the gameplay during these moments rarely evolves apart from acquiring more powerful ship weapons and reducing cool-downs.
The ship combat is a means to an end and does not satisfy the dreams of epic sea battles. Some modifications can be added like being able to ram into other ships but it rarely ever feels satisfying. It feels more like an addition included to make this entry unique from the prior games and to justify its existence. It is functional but needs some finesse and refinement.
The art direction is top notch and the characters have fluid animation and charming designs. Impressively, all equippable gear have unique graphical representations that appear on the player character which is an appreciated attention to detail most games fail to offer.
There isn’t much done with the cat theming apart from the anthropomorphic designs. There isn’t a litter box joke or “hang in there, baby” reference anywhere.
The art is legitimately good, but it can come off as a generic pirate theme too. This applies to the writing as well which reads like typical internet writing. Cat Quest III should have been funnier with the dialogue and writing and leaned more into a salty pirate dialect like how Felvidek‘s writing was made more hysterical for its commitment to period speech patterns and slang.
The music is light and airy with classic “yar-har-har”-style musical motifs that you might hear while waiting in line to ride The Pirates of the Caribbean. It doesn’t quite reach the swarthy heights of something like Donkey Kong Country 2, but it gets the job done at transporting you to a pirate adventure state of mind.
By far the most thoughtful inclusion in Cat Quest III is the local two-player cooperative gameplay. The entire game can be enjoyed with a friend or family member, and like most things in life, it’s more fun with a buddy. It’s so effective that it’s surprising Nintendo hasn’t attempted a mainline Zelda game where a second player can join in at any time.
The second player doesn’t need to commit fully and primarily assists with combat and exploration. The puzzles are simple enough to solve alone, and the entire game is designed for single-player, ensuring no pressure to play with others to experience everything Cat Quest III offers. This is ideal for playing with children or less experienced gamers.
Cat Quest III is a very light and fun action-adventure game with pleasing visuals and an open world to explore with a friend. Kids or anyone who enjoys the Lego games will find that there is a lot to enjoy in Cat Quest III. Even with the awkward ship combat, the gameplay is breezy enough that it won’t hinder the experience.
Cat Quest III was reviewed on a PlayStation 5 using a code provided by Kepler Interactive. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Cat Quest III is now available for PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
