Review #045: Cat Quest (Nintendo Switch)
Updated: Oct 8, 2019
Reviewed By: Allan J.
Developed By: The Gentlebros
Published By: PQube
Category: Action RPG, Adventure
Release Date: 11.102017
Download Cat Quest from the Nintendo eShop here.
Who Doesn’t Love an Action RPG?
Action RPGs are part of a tried-and-true genre of gaming that sits close to the hearts of many gamers, hardcore and casual alike. There’s just something nice about running around, killing everything in your way, and opening treasure chests with new skill and weapon upgrades once the dust in the room has settled. From older classics like Crystalis and Faxanadu, to modern open-world iterations of the genre like Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there is no doubt about it—everyone loves a good action RPG! So, when I first laid eyes on Cat Quest, I was excited to pick it up and give it a try.
Do You Like Farming?
Cat Quest, on the surface, seems like one of those games that could be enjoyed just as much by a casual gamer as it could be by a hardcore RPG fan. For the most part, it is just that universal, except for the fact that you have to seriously grind for a bit in the beginning to get enough experience and skills to start clearing the early dungeons and completing missions. Once you hit around level 12 or so though—which really took a lot more repeats of the few lower-level caves available to you in the beginning than I would have liked—the gameplay starts to get a little smoother, your character starts to inflict a little more reasonable amounts of damage to your enemies, you have some more powerful upgrades to your weapons, and you have gained a healing magic spell, which really sets a more forward momentum to the gameplay. If we’re being honest though, had I not needed to keep playing in order to give this review a fair chance, I would likely have stopped playing this game after the first mission.
Once You Get To Know Him…
Once I got past the initial grind and really got into the meat of the game, it started to become a much more enjoyable experience. The premise is pretty simple though: accept mission, follow arrows to find mission item/person, bring it back to start point, rinse and repeat. Along the way, you find weapon and armor upgrades, and can purchase more powerful versions of your magic spells. Once you’ve leveled up enough to even up the playing field a bit, the exploration aspect becomes more fun, as you don’t have to keep running back to a save point—which are people’s front porches where you take a cat nap to recharge health—every time you fight an enemy on the world map.
Audio/Visuals
The graphics are also fairly simple, and are done in a retro-style with a modern facelift. The majority of the game is played on the open-world map, which is designed to look like an actual map, complete with the names of the different areas, most of which are cat-related puns like Puss Plains and Pawcific Ocean. The music is good, but nothing special really. It sounds about how you would expect it to sound, with non-descript The Legend of Zelda-style overworld music for most of the overworld gameplay. The sound effects are done well, and carry some very satisfying combat and magic sounds. Overall, nothing mind-blowing, but it gets the job done well enough.
Wrapping Up
Cat Quest took some time to hook me in, but after some patience and experience-grinding, the pay off was nice. I wouldn’t say that this game is in my top anything, but I wouldn’t say it’s in the bottom of any of my lists either. If you like cutesy cartoon cat characters and themes, and enjoy a good action RPG, then this game would certainly not be a bad addition to your Switch library. Just be prepared to spend a couple of hours in the beginning grinding through to get the the point of it all, and you should be OK.
Final Score: 7/10
Download Cat Quest from the Nintendo eShop here.
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