Cat Quest 3 Review (PS5)

The Cat Quest games have always been a fun time. The furrtastic indie RPG series has always offered its players a cute experience with satisfying combat, a plethora of content, and a multitude of cat puns for you to roll your eyes at. And for the most part, Cat Quest 3 continues to refine that formula, whilst in other ways it feels a bit barren compared to its previous instalments.

Swashbuckling Fun

Cat Quest 3’s core gameplay still feels relatively untouched. You attack with the square button and roll with the cross button, it worked before in 1 and 2 and it still works here just fine. Features from the previous games such as magical spells, upgradable gear, and of course co-op, also make a return and still retain much of the same mechanics as before. Ranged weapons have also returned and now act as a secondary weapon which you can switch to at any time. This does unfortunately remove some of the strategy that was featured in Cat Quest 2, but despite this omission, the ranged weapons are great and can be even more fun to use than the melee weapons.

The most prominent new feature, however, is the ship combat which plays practically similar to the main combat. Whilst it’s a fun new addition it does feel somewhat underutilised. For example, there are no ship-centric missions in the game, and you’ll just end up using the ship to go from one place to the next and get into the occasional fight or two along the way. It would have been great to have a mission or two where you have to storm a fort and take out the defenses before breaking in and defeating the enemies inside. Whilst it doesn’t feel like an afterthought, there was clearly so much more that the developers could have done with this to make it feel like a worthwhile addition, instead of just a tool to traverse the world.

Barren Waters

And speaking of the world, it’s very hit-and-miss. The cute, vibrant art style has a lot more animations than previous entries making it feel more alive, and the bombastic music is a delight to listen to as you traverse the open seas. However, I can’t help but feel that the world feels a lot more emptier than previous entries. During my time with the game, I couldn’t help but feel that everything had been scaled back and reduced. For example, both dungeons and side quests have seen a massive decrease in quantity with only 13 side quests and 14 dungeons, which is a massive step down from Cat Quest 2’s 67 side quests and 73 dungeons. The map also feels smaller. At first glance, it may look expansive with its big open sea areas, but the islands are too close together and easy to get to making it feel smaller than it should.

However, that isn’t to say that the side content isn’t good. It still has that memorable Cat Quest charm you’d expect and has seen a lot of gameplay and quality-of-life improvements to boot. The best side content feature, however, is the bounties. In Mama Milka’s Tavern, you’ll find a long list of wanted bosses that you can track down and defeat to claim a reward. Each one of these bosses range in difficulty and can become quite a challenge if you’re not prepared right. Much like the rest of the side content I do wish there were more of these in the game, but due to how fun and rewarding they were they stand apart from the rest of the lackluster content.

A Disappointing Sea Tale

Cat Quest’s stories have never really been works of art, but they still have good messages and memorable characters. Cat Quest 3’s story still does have the charm of the previous stories and a great message throughout, but much like the side content it feels like something is missing. The game sees your cat pirate and your sidekick Captain Cappey tracking down the North Star before the evil Pi-Rat King and his minions do.

My biggest complaint with this story is how it didn’t feel complete. I expected there to be a payoff to what happened in the previous games, but besides a few mentions of past events, nothing happened to progress the story. As I got to the end expecting there to be a lot more of the game left I was shocked to be left with a frustrating cliff-hanger that made me feel like I had just played a filler episode rather than a true sequel. If you haven’t played the previous games then this story will be a satisfying thrill ride, but as someone who was looking forward to seeing plot points pay off, I’m a little disappointed with what we got.

Summary

Cat Quest 3 is another solid entry in the adorable, indie RPG series. Its fast-paced land and sea combat, colorful designs, and fun new additions make this a must-play for anyone looking for a short, entertaining experience. However, after over eight hours with the game, I can’t help but feel like this game was only half-cooked. Its lack of content and filler story makes me feel like this was initially a spin-off game and the true sequel fans expected will be coming next. If you’re after a short, cute adventure filled with charm, fun, and can stomach a lot of cat puns then this is a definitely a must play for you. Grab your first mate, raise the sails, and set off on a pawsome sea-faring journey.

Cat Quest III is available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.