Cat Quest 3 Review – A Swashbuckling Good Time

Cat Quest 3 has just about everything I want out of an indie RPG. Gorgeously vibrant visuals and a whimsical atmosphere to lose myself in? Check. A unique premise and satisfying progression? Check. Meaningful exploration that encourages me to complete as much as I possibly can? Check, check, and double-check.

The icing on this bright and colorful pirate-themed cake is its relentless and unwavering commitment to the feline species. With seven years of catspertise under their belt, The Gentlebros have created a brilliant pirate-themed setting that serves as a brilliant set dressing for a world inhabited by cat heroes and rat foes. The tone is as bright and whimsical as its gorgeous visuals. If you’re as enthralled by cats as I am, you’ll be easily won over by Cat Quest 3. If not, there’s still an incredibly rewarding action RPG to get stuck into.

Similar to previous entries in the series, Cat Quest 3 wears its Torchlight and Zelda inspirations on its sleeve but adds a piratey twist for some extra flavor. As an honest-to-goodness swashbuckling purrivateer, you get to hop into your very own pirate ship for the first time in the series. It helps to sell the pirate fantasy reasonably well as you sail across the open seas in search of treasure across the Purribbean’s many Pi-Rat-infested islands.

The game’s premise is as simple as you’d expect from a Cat Quest game – don’t expect a deeply complicated tale of branching storylines, meaningful relationships, or political intrigue here. You are a washed-up cat, trained by your little feline ghost pal to be the best pirate around. You’re ultimately looking to get your paws on the famed North Star treasure in the hopes of granting your deepest wishes. Hopefully, you’ll also get the chance for a spot of satisfying payback against the villainous Pi-Rat King while you’re at it.

It’s a simple tale that won’t win any awards, but does a decent job of providing enough setup to get you from point A to B. Some of the game’s most memorable aspects are the various adorable characters you’ll meet along the way, such as a no-nonsense milk tavern owner and a kitty blacksmith that references past Cat Quest games. If you follow the side stories and quests of these adorable NPCs, you are rewarded with surprisingly heartwarming and touching interactions that will put a smile on your face. It’s a sweet game, not just in looks but also in its tone.

It’s also pretty funny if you can stomach the downright absurd amount of cat puns The Gentlebros have stuffed in here. As a self-confessed lover of dad jokes and puns, I must admit that it grew a tad tiresome near the end of the game’s 10-15-hour runtime. However, whether you’re a fan of the overuse of cat puns or not, the game is a joyous experience that evokes childlike wonder.

Nothing encapsulates Cat Quest 3’s delightfully whimsical tone more than its gorgeously realized colorful 2.5D visuals. Like a mix between Paper Mario, Cult of the Lamb, and Zelda, Cat Quest 3 is an absolute delight to explore. From the get-go, you hunker down on a humble little island, with the entire world tantalizingly tempting you to set sail off into the distance.

It helps that the impressive draw distance allows you to see faraway islands, dungeons, and towns. It gives a decent sense of scale that has you excited to explore as soon as you hop in. I was particularly impressed with the striking sea blue hue of the water and the gorgeous sunset effect of the northern part of the map. Thankfully you get a ship to sail through these beautiful open seas on your search for treasure and pirate glory.

Hopping into your ship is the speediest way to get about in Cat Quest 3. With the press of a button, you can boost and zoom your way through open water in no time at all. It’s a satisfying way to get around, but ship combat can leave a little to be desired. While it can feel good to blast your way through enemy ships with your basic and special cannons, I often found myself fighting to control it.

As the ship has such a wide turning distance, it can be difficult to steer it exactly where you want it to go, often leading you straight into the receiving end of an enemy cannonball. It’s not so much of a problem early on, but can become very frustrating when facing much tougher enemy ships later. Thankfully, you have the option to upgrade your ship’s health and firepower to negate this control issue, but it’s still disappointing nonetheless.

Your ship is most likely going to explode from enemy fire if you stray too far from the beaten path in the game’s early stages. While sailing merrily away and happily bopping my head to some great pirate-inspired romps, I strolled right into an area I clearly wasn’t supposed to. I was aghast to see several terrifying enemy ships that were 20 levels above me. When I managed to disembark on a nearby island, I was also greeted by several over-leveled enemies on foot and was quickly and easily dispatched.

The Gentlebros have level-gated content until you level up your character, upgrade gear, and complete quests. While understandable, I did find this a little frustrating, as I simply wanted to explore as much of this gorgeous map as I could. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself.

Other than the frustrating level-gating in the earlier portions of the game, Cat Quest 3’s open world is an absolute joy to explore. The sun-kissed Purribbean has a ton of content to discover, including countless chests to loot, secrets to find, and dungeons to delve into. With so much to explore, my inner completionist was thankful for the map’s helpful green check marks that denote when you have fully cleared an island.

There are plenty of secrets to uncover in Cat Quest 3 which encourages you to dutifully turn over every stone and check behind every bush in case you miss something. Sometimes you will stumble upon a side quest that leads you down an intriguing rabbit hole that will take you on a mini adventure. The dungeons feel different from the open world, sometimes giving a more 2D perspective compared to other 2.5D you find outside. They often contain high-level enemies that reward you with gear and loot for completing them.

That brings me to one of the main things you’ll be doing in Cat Quest 3: combat. At first, the combat system presents itself as fairly basic, with only one button for melee, ranged, and spell attacks, and another for dodge rolls. There isn’t an option to parry enemy attacks (Dark Souls, this is not), which means you need to pay attention to enemy attack animations and dodge out of harm’s way.

The minute-to-minute feel of the combat is pretty simple and standard indie fare, but it’s your character’s level, weapons, and gear that you need to pay attention to. These add significant complexity and variety to your builds with plenty of options for melee, ranged, and magic play styles.

You can increase the stats of weapons, armor, and spells at certain Vendors in the main hub area. You’ll want to do this earlier rather than later, as you’ll later find duplicates of these items that will increase their level each time you stumble across them, making it cheaper in the long run. Upgrading gear is particularly important in Cat Quest 3 as combat can get pretty difficult fairly quickly.

In addition to spells and melee and ranged weapons, you also get to equip Trinkets. These each increase specific stats and add a unique passive ability that changes up gameplay in a significant way. These are where you can truly experiment and specialize your build in Cat Quest 3. Whether you want to be a swashbuckling melee pirate or a damage-dealing mage, there is a nice amount of freedom on offer to allow you to choose how you want to play.

Despite appearing simple on the surface, difficulty will ramp up quickly. You’ll need to use a variety of tactics and make sure your stats are at a decent level. Early on, I had my butt handed to me and saw the game over screen more than I’d care to admit. Thankfully, the potential for build diversity and strategy had me beating enemies back with ease in no time.

More than 10 hours in, combat became a cakewalk with my overpowered lightning-focussed build that had me stun-locking foes and defeating them before they could get a chance to retaliate. It saw me through most of the game’s content and made boss fights an absolute breeze. Despite the initial basic feel of the combat, what you can do with your builds and how you can vary your strategy is what’s most interesting here.

Though the game isn’t purrfect (puns are back on the menu) by any means, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Cat Quest 3. It doesn’t have the most sophisticated story or combat system, but its fantastic potential for exploration and build diversity results in an experience that is hard to peel away from. The feline-inspired whimsical charm and gorgeous sun-kissed visuals make it a world I want to be in far beyond the 10-hour runtime. Whether you’re a cat lover or not, Cat Quest 3 is an all-around good time and is an undeniably charming and wonderful pirate adventure.