A furrociously enjoyable pirate story.
In latest reminiscence, cats have been the key sauce slathered on prime of a juicy indie sport burger. I had heard good issues concerning the Cat Quest sequence, however didn’t really feel compelled to provide the sequence a strive till Cat Quest III was introduced and a companion demo was launched alongside it. That demo was like catnip for me, and put the swashbuckling journey on my must-play listing with the promise of a vivid, cheerful, and breezy motion RPG with a foolish, pun-filled humorousness all through. Fortunately, it saved that promise
Cat Quest III follows the journey of a tabby cat protagonist who’s been ordained as one in a line of beings referred to as Seekers – those that are predestined to seek out an artifact referred to as the North Star, with a legend that whoever reaches it will probably have any want of theirs granted. With an unnamed ghost companion whose origin is veiled in thriller, the duo embarks on an epic quest to discover the world and get their paws on the North Star earlier than different factions of pirates can (and dig up some treasure alongside the way in which). The forged of characters are all kinds of species starting from cats, rats, boars, and birds, every with their very own leaders who’re brimming with colourful personalities and submerged in foolish wordplay. Quite a lot of consideration was put into the script – regardless of the hilarity, storytelling feels honest and I discovered myself laughing, caring for the characters’ story arc, and even experiencing some sentimental moments. This story doesn’t have a profound presence, however its gentle contact is ideal for the lighthearted tone the sport is searching for.
The meat and potatoes of Cat Quest III is its dungeon crawling. Littered throughout the map are caves and towers to discover which have anyplace from 2 to five or extra chests to open, bookmarked by an enormous treasure (and often a boss battle) on the finish. Dungeons are linear – there’s a transparent main path and sections are blocked off by doorways which can be opened both by switches or defeating a room of enemies. Your fight toolkit features a melee, ranged, and magic assaults. Melee weapons embrace normal swords, Wolverine-like claw gloves that slice briskly, and shields which inflict harm when completely blocking enemy assaults. From a distance you should use varied weapons and magic wands with elemental assaults like ice and hearth. Magic spells equally have completely different elemental attributes and might have standing results like beautiful enemies or pushing them backward. It didn’t take lengthy to get in a rhythm of slashing a mouse with a sword, pushing them again with a fireplace blast, then unloading all my gun ammo on them for the kill. At instances I might select to drag out the claws, feverishly slicing up a boar and peppering them with blasts of fireside from my wand. The sport encourages you to tailor the expertise your approach by mixing and matching these instruments.
The way you equip your self is vital to fight success, and likewise contains wearable gear. Like several good RPG, your look adjustments with the pinnacle, torso, and leg clothes chosen. There are clothes units that may be discovered in several dungeons, every with their very own taste textual content and attributes. For instance, some enhance general well being, some improve mana restoration, and others have elemental resistances. Gear might be leveled up at a blacksmith on the town in trade for gold cash that improve these stats. It didn’t take lengthy earlier than I picked a number of units to give attention to leveling up. A minor grievance I’ve is that it does stymie the mix-and-match feeling that the weapons present. I additionally want the sport had an choice to dump undesirable gear. By finish sport your stock is crammed with undesirable objects that I might have beloved to scrap for coin to gasoline additional stage will increase. As a substitute it simply sits there, forcing me to sift by them whereas determining what to equip. In that very same city, there’s additionally a fortune teller who can stage up spells for the value of a magic foreign money that’s extra uncommon to seek out. In the event you’ve had your fill of these areas, you’ll be able to make a journey to the native milk bar the place a super-buff cat bartender will reward you with expertise factors and gold for bounties on the heads of story vital and facet mission bosses. Don’t overlook to test in on them occasionally.
Exploring the world by foot and ship is a good way to combine journey and preserve it from feeling stale. The cat is fast on its toes making working from level a to b seamless. On every island there are mini facet missions to select away at, in addition to hidden treasure chests and dungeons. There may be additionally a tally of what number of chests there are on land as properly so it’s simple to maintain monitor of how a lot of an space you’ve accomplished. When you’re bored with that island, discover a dock to summon your vessel and zoom throughout the ocean to seek out different patches of land to discover or interact in sea fight with different pirate ships. The ship can zoom throughout the small map with relative ease and in fast time, which is useful for a sport which inspires numerous back-and-forth with the mission construction. Sea battles are an ideal mixture of swerving round cannonballs, firing your individual, hitting them with particular bomb assaults, and outmaneuvering them with slick twists and turns. The ships don’t activate a time, so I needed to circle round ships, careen throughout islands to create distance, and typically bullied them by pushing them together with a direct motion towards them. Just like the storytelling, none of those techniques have depth, however encounters are all the time quick lived sufficient to the place they by no means put on skinny.
I don’t have a reference level of the prior Cat Quest video games because of having by no means performed them, however Cat Quest III has been a pleasant, if transient journey full of caprice, thrilling (if easy) fight, enjoyable character interactions, and the enjoyment of crusing the seas. As soon as it sunk its enamel in me, I couldn’t detach myself from the change and beat it in just a few sittings. That’s the facility of Cat Quest III, a sport that is aware of when to maneuver on from any fight state of affairs or story beat earlier than getting outdated and a universe the place a kitten can spend hours combing each grain of litter to seek out new surprises or rewards every time. Cat Quest III belongs in your Change library, and you should have a unbelievable time.
