As a reviewer, occasionally you will run across a piece of media you might have assumed the worst about, but then it turned out quite the opposite. This happened to me with the movie Paddington 2, a film that Warner Bros. sent us for review years ago and which I put off until the day before release to review. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it usually is a profound and satisfying experience.
Now, the reason for that introduction, for the last week, I have been playing the absolute hell out of Cat Quest III from developer The Gentlebros. In my review snobbery, I scoffed at the idea that such a game with such a title could be such a masterpiece. Guess what it was? It was my year’s Paddington 2.
Cat Quest III brought humor, heart, cats, and a very replayable RPG adventure that housed a secret or two to keep you playing. It brought about 20 hours of initial gameplay in total with about 3-4 hours of New Game + gameplay to boot. Right now, I’m standing at 30 hours of gameplay with it and I’m on my fourth New Game + hoping that there will be a surprise ending at some point. I’m hoping and counting on it, people.
Anyway, the game has little to no flaws. It’s mindless and yet, meaningful fun. It’s very Paddington 2.
So, let’s talk about this game and see why it is the cat’s meow.
Essence of a good pirate story
You play as a pirate cat that is searching through a vast, ever-spanning land/oceanscape of the Purribean. Your quest is to locate the mythical and magical Northern Star treasure. Everyone and their mother stands in your way at each dungeon in hopes of preventing you from finding it. There is also a possibility that it may not actually exist. Regardless, your cat is deadset on finding out one way or another and going through whoever to get to the end result of this quest.
If you want a dumb fun pirate plot, well you got one with Cat Quest III. It’s set up as a larger RPG that sends your cat pirate through all sorts of different lands with this one simple driving McGuffin. It’s what you would expect from an adventure movie and this is what you get from CQIII. The story is adorable, easy to get into, and most of all just plain fun to experience. The cast of characters in the game ranges from ravenous ghost rats to a hopelessly love-torn spirit and even a mop-headed puny rat that continuously pops up throughout the experience. There are far more bosses and mini-bosses to experience within the story and enough variety to keep the entire experience engaging from beginning to end.
Will the story win awards for its depth and complication? Lord, no. Will it be fun from beginning to end? Lord, yes. If the variety of characters doesn’t hook you, then the humorous dialogue filled full of feline puns will certainly claw at your inner cat.
The story is just good fun.
Buffet of Gameplay
The gameplay structure of this game is divided into a trio of categories – ship play, dungeon play, and exploration. Each of the three has its distinct flavor of fun attached to it, and each helps to hold the other up from being repetitive. This game was built to keep you engaged and your attention locked into the gameplay, and it does a superb job with these three elements in tandem doing just that.
Good Ship
Starting with the ship play, you get to build up and drive around a nice little pirate ship around the many islands of the Purribean. The ship has its own set of enemies, other ships, and even its own set of high-seas bosses (the rubber duck is precious and vicious). Armed with a cannon and some ship speed, you can quickly go in and out of battles and make easily maneuverable naval escapes (that sounds weird, but I’m going to keep it), which makes the process of ship movement easy to grasp.
To access the ship, you take off from a dock, which seems to be located all over the place, and quickly get to whatever island you want. I found this mode of transportation between goals and new lands to be easy to pick up and understand. The fact that you can upgrade your ship with the booty of your enemy’s bounties made the process even better. This could have been a separate game of its own.
Driving and moving the ship was akin to ice skating, where if you know what you’re doing, then it’s going to be an entertaining experience. The instructions and know-how for this part of the gameplay are simple to understand and use. The proximity between explorable lands also helps to keep this an easy-breezy gameplay element.
Fun Dungeons
The second element of gameplay is dungeon play. Throughout the game, there are dungeons placed on most of the islands. When you enter these dungeons, your gameplay mostly shifts from a 3D map to a 2D adventure, where you’re taking down enemies and figuring out puzzles to uncover treasure chests. Each dungeon is a short stint and they come in a variety of colors and shapes, from caves to towers. Each dungeon holds secrets, hidden items, and a personality that fits into the greater scheme of the story structure.
What’s fun about these is that the dungeons are not the same. Sure, on paper, they look like they can have the same structure, but their design is run on story and each one contains its own narrative. For example, there is a tower that has five locked levels that you have to acquire a set of keys to access. These keys are scattered throughout the Purribean, and when you finally obtain them all, the experience leads you to a unique boss who is driven by gold. This dungeon’s structure is not the same as the others and offers a unique experience that is specific to the narrative it presents. Again, each dungeon is like this, and each has its own unique rewards that make them all fun to explore.
The rewards part is important because you want to keep the gameplay worthwhile for the player. Slowly but surely upgrading our cat pirate with new equipment as they complete each dungeon makes any monotony quite null. You’ll actively seek out dungeons just to see what unique loot you can acquire.
Are the dungeons difficult? Not at all, but their design keeps them meaningful and fun. Some of them are complicated, some of them are dangerous dives of enemies, and others are unique love stories that require a different method of gameplay to conquer. Branching narratives are fun. I’ll leave you with that hint.
Exploration
I didn’t think I would be sucked into this as much as I was, but exploration in this game is a huge component of the gameplay. You will find things easily labeled on the map, and you’ll also find landmarks that aren’t a dungeon, nor are they just throwaways. They will have a purpose and give you rewards for figuring out their use.
Sometimes, you’ll find very hidden items in the game that were hiding in plain sight but couldn’t be found without exploring the land. One such hidden gem is located in a place that you really need to keep an eye out for in the game. One that you will certainly miss if you’re not keen on it. One that might be ‘foggy’ but also right there in focus. I don’t want to tell you more but it’s a cool find and one that I’m sure the developers enjoyed making.
Regardless of hidden goodies and secrets, exploration is a major component of the gameplay flow. The game was built for you to travel and look around for goodies, new quests, and a small piece of the bigger puzzle. The game encourages you to do so with the promise, and delivery, of rewards for your effort. This isn’t just a gameplay element I’m mentioning because I need to fill space for the review. It’s a major piece of the overall pie that helps the whole work beautifully.
The above trio was perfectly planned and executed to create the entire gameplay design of Cat Quest III. Without these three elements working together, none of this game works.
Complicated backend
The backend of this game is perfectly put together as well. As you go through the game and progress, you gain new weapons and gear. With each new weapon or gear, you upgrade your cat pirate to help push through to tougher, more meaningful enemies. It’s a steady progression between game difficulty and upgradeable gear.
Now, the game just isn’t built on finding goods and then putting them on, then finding more and doing the same. Cat Quest III allows you to refine and upgrade gear through a blacksmith and wizard cat. Each helps to add more levels of power to gear and spells, which makes disposing of enemies much easier.
For the blacksmith, you present him with coins that you get from taking down enemies and plundering their treasure chests. Every bit of gear, from defense to offense, can be upgraded through this method and cat. That helps push the player back to exploring, looking for goods, completing dungeons, and repeating the process. It’s a small amount of grind and one that you won’t feel because there is so much to do and explore in the game. It’s always nice to see your progression as you explore.
On the wizard cat side, you gather gems from magic-driven enemies and can use those to upgrade your cat pirate’s magical spell side. The spell side cannot be ignored during gameplay, as it is vital for your success in the game, especially if you repeat it in New Game +. In between swinging a sword and being careful on defense, the magic side of fighting unleashes a barrage of magic toward an enemy usually doing massive amounts of damage. This is important later on down the line. Use it and know it well. Visiting the wizard cat often helps to make your cat pirate more powerful and can get you to a new level of danger as you spiral toward the end.
Combined, the weapon/armor/spell is an easy-to-understand and use trio that makes the action in the gameplay thoughtless fun. The backend upgrades help to keep the game always interesting without a bit of dull creeping into the picture. It’s ridiculous how well all the combined elements work, and it’s also ridiculous the number of weapons/gear you can acquire with unique attributes. The Gentlebros must have spent a large amount of time perfecting this portion of the game to make it directly affect the gameplay enjoyment. Believe me, that time was well spent.
Replay, replay, replay
I usually humor games with a New Game + feature with an additional run-through. I did it with Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, and some other big ones out there. I never imagined that I would do it with Cat Quest III.
I never imagined I would do it four times with Cat Quest III.
There is a great chance of a fifth time.
Once you get over the initial hump of the gameplay, getting through the first 20 hours, going back and replaying it is a no-brainer. If you’re a completionist, you’re going to want to do this, specifically for one tower/dungeon, which almost requires you to do it. This particular tower is difficult with the initial character max level and is truly built for a return visit once you get bigger and better. It’s the only tower that doesn’t change its difficulty with every New Game + revisit. And it’s clever that way because it makes the next go around with the game feel like it was worthwhile.
Anyway, the game is good and it gets easier with every replay. I’m one achievement short of perfection with the game, so I’ll definitely return to finish it once I clear out some reviews.
Speaking of which, let’s wrap this one up.
Conclusion
Cat Quest III from developer The Gentlebros is perfection. It’s a fun and fast game that has a complicated backend to keep the gameplay interesting. Its mixture of gameplay elements, from ships to dungeons, keeps it engaging and fun throughout the entire experience.
