Positives:
- Adorable take on the ARPG genre, making it a very good start for (young) people trying to get into the genre.
- Exploration is highly encouraged, and also very rewarding (as indicated by me accidentally stumbling across the most powerful weapon halfway through the game).
- Good gameplay combining magic and melee, with monsters indicating how they will attack.
Negative:
- Slightly overdoes it with the meta/fourth-wall breaking content, especially to build up a sequel.
- Until learning the ability to fly, getting around takes a bit too long.
- Mew Game, the post-game runs with additional modifiers, could have been made a bit more appealing by removing or allowing the player to skip cutscenes.
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''If someone came up to me and asked to be introduced to the ARPG genre, particularly the ones where looting dungeons for epic gear is involved, Cat Quest would definitely be one of the first games I would recommend, no matter the age of the player. The difficulty and plot are both very appealing for the younger audience, but none the less appealing for veterans like me. Not always the biggest fan of fourth-wall-breaking/meta content though, but it's a nitpick more than anything else. This game does have a big obsession with summoning demons from circles and all that though, not sure what to think of it. Almost feels like I'm playing Fullmetal Catchemist or something.
All joking aside, Cat Quest's more simple approach to the genre works to its advantage. There aren't classes to worry about, no skill trees, and no specific gear attributes aside from their stats--although a shop to randomly gamble for gear is still available. Instead, we're just playing as an adorable cat who has access to a sword and magic, clears every dungeon they can find once for the treasure chest inside, and helps out the inhabitants of this world with quests in each town. All done on a cutesy hand-drawn world that the cat can freely walk around on. It does take slightly long to get around though, specifically until you get an upgrade later on. But it was a really fun- and rewarding world to explore, as indicated by me getting some extremely powerful gear pretty early on that... kind of trivialized a lot of the game but hey, I felt rewarded!
The combat, as mentioned earlier, revolves around a sword and magic. The combat itself is pretty satisfying with the enemies indicating their attack and the cat being able to roll away at all times. While I limited my magic choices to only a few, they made combat a lot more fun as well due to having to balance mana usage. The maximum amount of mana never increases, and you have to physically attack the enemies to get mana back. A pretty good combat system that I feel I had to master for the optional challenge runs, also called Mew Game, where you had to limit yourself by not using gear, permanently being level 1 etcetera. Really enjoyed that mode too, though it would have been even better if it was made a bit more appealing by removing cutscenes and such, because those took up a surprisingly long time of those runs.''
- Adorable take on the ARPG genre, making it a very good start for (young) people trying to get into the genre.
- Exploration is highly encouraged, and also very rewarding (as indicated by me accidentally stumbling across the most powerful weapon halfway through the game).
- Good gameplay combining magic and melee, with monsters indicating how they will attack.
Negative:
- Slightly overdoes it with the meta/fourth-wall breaking content, especially to build up a sequel.
- Until learning the ability to fly, getting around takes a bit too long.
- Mew Game, the post-game runs with additional modifiers, could have been made a bit more appealing by removing or allowing the player to skip cutscenes.
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''If someone came up to me and asked to be introduced to the ARPG genre, particularly the ones where looting dungeons for epic gear is involved, Cat Quest would definitely be one of the first games I would recommend, no matter the age of the player. The difficulty and plot are both very appealing for the younger audience, but none the less appealing for veterans like me. Not always the biggest fan of fourth-wall-breaking/meta content though, but it's a nitpick more than anything else. This game does have a big obsession with summoning demons from circles and all that though, not sure what to think of it. Almost feels like I'm playing Fullmetal Catchemist or something.
All joking aside, Cat Quest's more simple approach to the genre works to its advantage. There aren't classes to worry about, no skill trees, and no specific gear attributes aside from their stats--although a shop to randomly gamble for gear is still available. Instead, we're just playing as an adorable cat who has access to a sword and magic, clears every dungeon they can find once for the treasure chest inside, and helps out the inhabitants of this world with quests in each town. All done on a cutesy hand-drawn world that the cat can freely walk around on. It does take slightly long to get around though, specifically until you get an upgrade later on. But it was a really fun- and rewarding world to explore, as indicated by me getting some extremely powerful gear pretty early on that... kind of trivialized a lot of the game but hey, I felt rewarded!
The combat, as mentioned earlier, revolves around a sword and magic. The combat itself is pretty satisfying with the enemies indicating their attack and the cat being able to roll away at all times. While I limited my magic choices to only a few, they made combat a lot more fun as well due to having to balance mana usage. The maximum amount of mana never increases, and you have to physically attack the enemies to get mana back. A pretty good combat system that I feel I had to master for the optional challenge runs, also called Mew Game, where you had to limit yourself by not using gear, permanently being level 1 etcetera. Really enjoyed that mode too, though it would have been even better if it was made a bit more appealing by removing cutscenes and such, because those took up a surprisingly long time of those runs.''