Cat Quest (Nintendo Switch) Review

By Az Elias 07.12.2017

Review for Cat Quest on Nintendo Switch

It takes the darkest of hearts to not love cats. Unlike dogs, these highly intelligent creatures know exactly how to look after themselves. Sure, they might crave a bit of attention and head scratching during those few hours they aren't lazing around and sleeping inside your knicker drawers, but left to their own accord, cats require little human intervention in order to get by. Predators underneath their cute and fluffy veneers, these beautiful animals are more than capable of travelling miles from home, hunting prey, washing their bodies, and… going on epic quests to save their kin!

Take The Legend of Zelda, add a gloss of cartoony visual splendour, drop a few kitties in there, and top off with an extra helping of cat puns, and you've got the basis for one heck of a feline-based adventure. Released earlier in the year on PC, Cat Quest sees the silent protagonist set off on a mission to save his catnapped sister, plonked onto an overworld, and almost given free rein on where to go next, much like the NES adventure it is so reminiscent of.

Screenshot for Cat Quest on Nintendo Switch

Mini towns litter the map, each with message boards featuring a handful of quests to complete that will help level up the hero kitty and move the story forward. What is a side quest and what is a main mission isn't always clear, but with multiple parts to get through in order to finish a quest line, the jumps in difficulty usually give a good indication of when to move onto another area and look for something more manageable.

Multiple caves dot the land, also, and it is in these where enemies must be cleared out and loot picked up - usually coins and gear. Weapon shops can be the place to buy and upgrade gear, but it employs a strange loot box-style method of paying a large amount of acquired gold to the shopkeeper and then being awarded a random weapon or armour that you may already have. Whilst a duplicate item will actually increase the stats of the original one, which is, of course, great, there is a chance it will be a weapon or armour that isn't preferred, since many feature positives and negatives for various counts, such as attack, defence and magic.

Screenshot for Cat Quest on Nintendo Switch

The preferred method is to simply loot as many caves as is physically possible within the range of your capabilities and level, and then hope you get good gear inside the chests within. This way, you not only save your coins, but keep on adding to your wallet, which can then be spent on the more important magic spells that can be found by visiting each major area of the overworld.

Whilst a very simple hack and slash combat system is used, magic is arguably much more beneficial to Mr. Hero Cat in his adventure. Many produce different area of effect spells that may hit horizontally or vertically, whilst others recover health or turn the hero large and more powerful. Despite its cartoony graphics, this can be a pretty tough little quest, so for anyone seeking an easier time through the game, make sure to put coins into (and therefore upgrade) the ice and spikes spells for a sweet combo that slows the enemy whilst inflicting tons of damage over time. This should help in the inevitable grind that many will need in order to level up high enough to tackle the tougher sections.

Screenshot for Cat Quest on Nintendo Switch

Once all quests are completed, the story seems to come to a sudden standstill, which can be a little confusing once brought back to the world map. Are there more quests to be found? Is there a hint at some sort of future expansion? It's a bit strange, but it's likely just that the developers went for something a bit different in how they ended the storyline compared to the majority of RPGs out there. There isn't much to do on the empty overworld at that point, though, so wandering the plains after the fact is rather pointless.

At time of writing, there is also a severe bug with regards to the Pro Controller. Pressing the directional buttons in the menus results in incorrect inputs, such as the cursor moving down when pressing to move right. The control stick works fine, as does the Joy-Con, so they may be the preferred method until it is patched up.

Screenshot for Cat Quest on Nintendo Switch

Cubed3 Rating

7/10
Rated 7 out of 10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Rated 7 out of 10

Cat Quest is an ideal little RPG to introduce to youngsters, especially given the charming pun-filled script and plentiful kitties, but those jumps in difficulty can mean a helping hand may be required on more than a few occasions. Despite its looks, though, the older generation with a love for all things feline will find a lovely, if short, Zelda-like adventure worth giving a go.

Developer

The Gentlebros

Publisher

PQube

Genre

Real Time RPG

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  7/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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