Cat Quest - Switch Review
Cat Quest is an open world action adventure game that takes place in a land populated by cats known as Felingard. Ready your weapon and set out to save your sister after she is catnapped by the evil Drakoth and in between your rescue missions, you can always help out your fellow catizens in plenty of side quests.
Gameplay
For the most part, the gameplay in Cat Quest shines in its simplicity. It doesn’t try to overcomplicate itself; simple melee attacks, dodge rolling and magic spells. For the latter manoeuvre, you have an MP gauge that gets refilled every time you strike with a melee attack. This system perfectly balances your combat styles, requiring you to take all things into consideration and avoiding bland and repetitive gameplay.
Unfortunately, much of the questing can feel a bit repetitive. These side quests are almost compulsory in order to be at a high enough level to finish the game, so about 80% of Cat Quest is in its side quests. That being said, despite the repetition in gameplay, the charm that comes from each scenario is clever and colorful.
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World Design
Cat Quest’s simplistic overworld is such a treat… to begin with. You feel like a giant at first, roaming around the expansive world like a chess piece on a board, however it grows tiresome as you consistently travel back and forth. However as you progress, you obtain the abilities to walk on water and fly, making traversing the overworld a less menial task.
I found it quite difficult to track down specific landmarks and simply proceeded by following the marker. In order to view more of the overworld, the right analogue stick allows you to zoom out. However, it doesn’t allow you to see the entire map, which narrows your scope and limits your view of what’s available.
Story
The story in Cat Quest isn’t amazing, but it does everything that it intends to do whilst putting a smile on your face. It does what it sets out to do, and that is to create motivation for you to continue on your (cat) quest.
The plot becomes quite deep at the end, with a few twists and turns that won’t really come as a massive surprise, but it’s certainly enough to carry on the story when the sequel rolls around later this year.
As expected, the dialogue is filled with many cat puns that I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It certainly doesn’t have the greatest dramatic effect, but it will give you quite a few chuckles throughout this 6-8 hour game.
Graphics / Art Design
The Paper Mario-esque 2D models with a 3D environment pops in such an amazing way. It almost feels like your are traversing an SNES Final Fantasy overworld map with so much more manoeuvrability. All of this coupled with Cat Quest’s bright and colorful art style makes it a pure joy to traverse.
The caves and dungeons however don’t appear to have that same charm. I’m not sure whether it’s the darker tone (for obvious reasons) or the fact that it’s not as vast as the overworld (again, for obvious reasons), but they come across as barebones and repetitive.
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Music / Sound Design
The soundtrack is mischievously clever, often giving off a Grant Kirhope vibe. It’s very bubbly and jolly in many ways, but can also turn around and provide a sense of epic mischievousness.
Final Score: 77%
Cat Quest is a whimsically charming action game that doesn’t take itself too seriously but has tense moments when the appropriate time calls for it. The action is surprisingly intuitive and being able to upgrade your spells and level up your equipment makes the adventure that much more engaging. Cat Quest is certainly a game to consider… unless you’re a dog person.