Cat Quest (PlayStation 4) Review

Who does not love cats on the Internet? The punch-line of many jokes and the subject of many adorable pictures since the dawn of the Internet, this mysterious animal has become a sort of spirit animal of the entire Internet culture, and for a large part of humanity in general, and who can blame people? Cats are very fun creatures to observe and live with; their often self-centred nature mixed with a sometimes obsessive need for attention creates wonderful, memorable, adorable, and fun side-tracks in everyday life. Cats are, to many, the perfect companions in life, as they want their owners, but can be independent of them, as many cat owners with more outside living cats can attest to.

Therefore, it is only logical to take a simple game, and add cats to it for instant attention, and it is a formula that works surprisingly well, as seen across multiple forms of media, from those funny cat movies to board games. These cat-related forms of media are often characterised by being simplistic with a focus on the adorable and addictive nature of cats. Cat Quest being an RPG has a very easy time doing this as the genre both opens up to addictive gameplay mechanics, keeping the player from straying, and allows the writer a lot of time to concoct hilarious puns. It is great fun for the time it lasts, which can be however long the player wants it to be.

At first glance, Cat Quest looks like nothing spectacular, but it is actually the very opposite of that. Almost the entire game takes place on the overworld map with some sections taking place in very simple dungeons that are often just one large room. There are few-to-no puzzles involved, the upgrade system is highly built upon a very transparent loot-box like system, and the post-game is based on farming loot with low drop rates from rare loot-boxes/treasure chests.

However, right here and in this context it work wonders for the adventure. It adds to the feeling of being a love project made for teh lulz, which is the exact feeling a game built upon cat puns wants to give to the player. It also highlights the key upon which Cat Quest and games like it have to reach to find success; the self irony, and to never lose track of what you actually are.

Not to say there are not problems with Cat Quest, as there are. First of all, the game is in all honesty way too short for a JRPG. For a player aiming at only the main story, it will not take longer than a handful of hours to finish it, and for those looking to finish more quests it might take 10 or so hours. The side-quest system, as well, is terrible. Instead of having a traditional quest log, the player is forced to go and revisit the cities all over the map – over and over again – to find the quests as they can only have one side quest at a time. This, sadly, forces a lot of running all around the map far more than needed as some quests only unlock after passing a certain point in the main story.

The adventure has a lot of small little annoyances like this; things that could simply have been improved by slight changes to the system, but while those things always nag on the mind, they never really ruin the experience. Also, while they are annoying, the next cat pun always puts a smile right back on people’s faces. Just like a disobedient cat, it is impossible to stay mad at Cat Quest for long, and at the end of the day it is a fun little game to observe and play through from time to time. The replay value New Game+ adds, by restocking loot boxes found throughout the map, makes each playthrough feels fun and rewarding, which is great in a game so obviously meant to be played over and over again whenever those in control feel like it.

In the end, Cat Quest succeeds in doing what it has to – being a fun, pun-filled romp and not having too much to detract the mind from this aspect. At the end of the day, that is all it needs to be to make players stay in love with it, despite its quirks and flaws, and that is all people can ask of it. Cat Quest truly shows that sometimes less is more and that some minor flaws can, indeed, add to the character. It is cute, it is messy, it is cuddly, it is self-centred, it is a cat… it is Cat Quest!