Cat Quest 3

(available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Nintendo Switch version used for this review.)

Cat Quest 3 is the latest entry in the indie-action RPG series made by The Gentlebros. The big difference this time is that we’ve moved to a pirate setting! If you’ve played any of these games before, the gameplay is pretty similar. You explore dungeons with a ranged weapon, a melee weapon, and spells- this time they’re mostly pirate themed like cutlasses and revolvers. We also now have pirate ship battles, to add a bit of extra flair to the game.

So, Cat Quest 3 is trying to be a bit more ambitious by the fact it has a bigger world, and it has added a few extra elements that weren’t there previously. You don’t need to have played Cat Quest 1 or 2 to understand this story- there’s a few hints and callbacks to the other games, but for the most part, it’s its own story and you can jump into it without any knowledge of the previous games.

The game revolves around a pirate cat and his ghostly companion who travel the Purribian (yes, there’s a lot of cat puns in this) to find the treasure known as The Northern Star, a mythical treasure said to grant wishes, whilst they also deal with the villainous Pi-rat King and his band of Pi-rats (yes, pirate rats) and of course, he has a bunch of extra pirates that are trying to impede your paths via the boss fights. My personal favourite was the leader of the metalhead pirates, Captain Meow-tallica.

Nothing grandiose in this one, but it did remind me of the old school Super Nintendo RPGs, particularly Secret of Mana.

You’re free to explore the world at your own leisure, but the game does send you down certain paths at certain times if you’re just following the main story. I think this game has achieved a small but well-designed open world. I’m not sure that it will appease everyone, however, especially considering that outside of some of the optional side quests, the game is lacking in a few areas.

PROS

• Graphics

Cat Quest 3 is a beautiful looking game; I won’t deny that. Everything is very well designed, and I think it even looks better than the previous two entries.

While I’m talking about graphics, I also want to mention the soundtrack, which is an excellent swashbuckling affair and matches the environment brilliantly.

Everything feels very well put together, and almost has a hand-drawn quality to it, particularly the character outlines. There are some really brilliant character designs, too.

• Combat

The combat is really fluid and smooth, it can be quite challenging at times since you often have to shift between it being a more directional movement in the overworld and in some dungeons it almost becomes a side-scroller. But overall, it’s really good once you get the hang of it. The spell and weapon variety are matched well. You will often get duplicates of weapons and spells, but what this game does brilliantly is every time you get a duplicate it levels up the current weapon- so your inventory won’t fill up and you won’t have to keep selling weapons you already have.

You also level up pretty quickly, so you’re going to gain rewards to help you experiment with different combinations- of which there are a lot to work with. I mostly worked with the lightning spell since they worked with my combat style and matched with my character, but for the most part I did feel like there were ways to change up if you wanted to.

I will stress, however, some people have commented that the game has balancing issues, but if that is the case, it’s not something I experienced- but it’s probably correct, since that’s not a field that I’m an expert in.

MIXED

• Map Size

While this is a relatively small open world, it also feels pretty condensed. It’s pretty good for the size of game we’re after, and there is a good deal of exploration, but you’re not going to be looking for map fragments, it’s pretty much filled out when you start the game. It’s not as if you’re looking for loads of different settlements either, there’s one town in the entire map, so you’re mostly looking for dungeons and optional boss fights- which you should definitely aim to do, since it will get you the best gear and spells.

Here’s the problem I found since the map is small, it’s very easy to wander into areas where you’re under-levelled. I did it on several occasions, but sometimes I was able to persevere and beat the boss, but I ran into a few areas where I had to go away and level up so I could fire more spells.

I’d also like to stress that I think that this isn’t too big of an issue. If anything, it should teach you to play the game more conservatively and to grind a bit before you head out into the wider world.

The side quest variety is alright in the game, but I found that they would ask you to go to a location that you really aren’t ready for at that point in the story.

CONS

• Main Story Game Length

If you’re doing a bunch of side quests and optional bosses, this game will run about 10-15 hours, which I think is a pretty good length for the game. It does risk overstaying its welcome, but I think it works for the most part.

If you’re just going for the main story, this game is woeful! You’re looking at around 5 hours. If you’re doing that, however, you’re probably playing on the easiest difficulty, because otherwise you’d have no chance of beating the final area, since you will be ridiculously under powered.

I’d like to add that I didn’t really feel up for doing much of the post-game content. I also think that the game doesn’t have a story that motivates you to keep going. There isn’t much happening in the story other than the pirate’s ghostly companion is hiding some of his true motives for why he wants to reach the Northern Star.

By the end of it, I thought I got the basic ending for my efforts and hadn’t really done enough to gain the True Good ending- turns out, there’s only two endings and I had in fact got the Good ending. Basically, the main story isn’t where most of the fun lies in this game, since the story is not really anything to write home about, but it’s pretty good for the job it wants to do.

• Healing is Locked Behind a Spell

This one was a weird one, the game doesn’t give you healing straight up, and you have to acquire it. I assumed the game would give you a healing item or do something similar to Hollow Knight, where it is limited, but you can refill it by doing continuous attacks. It’s instead, locked behind a spell and I think that that is a real mistake, because in my experience it came about halfway through my gameplay.

I would stress that it might not be a con for some people, but it’s a major one for me, since I think the game is built around the possibility of being able to heal, and some of the bosses hit like trucks! If you want to have a good time with this game, I would recommend going out of your way to get that spell.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Cat Quest 3 is a good game, and I enjoyed my time with it. I wouldn’t say it’s a great game. It’s not up there with the greatest indie titles out there, but it’s a fun, enjoyable experience and I had a fun time playing it, and I do think it was one of the best indie titles that I’ve played this year, but I think that’s down to the fact that I haven’t played many indie games this year.

It’s a fine experience, but I think the storyline needed a bit more work and I think it’s a little too easy to wander into areas where you’re over-levelled. Overall, it’s pretty good and I would recommend trying this one out.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10