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0 Cat Quest III, the third instalment in the Cat Quest saga from Singaporean developers The Gentlebros, was released on the 8th of August 2024. It’s available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 4/5. This review is for the PlayStation 5 version of the game.
Having loved the first 2 games in the series, Cat Quest III had been on my wishlist since it was announced. I was very excited to be able to jump back into this world again.
Cat Quest III – What’s New Pussycat?
In Cat Quest III, we take on the role of the last remaining Seeker; a being born to seek out the North Star, a treasure with the power to grant the user their greatest desire. Our tale begins by showing us that as a newborn, the ship we were travelling on was attacked and destroyed by the Pi-rat King and we were seemingly the only survivor. We wash ashore in our Moses basket and are discovered by a magical blue orb Pirate. We then jump forward 15 years and join the Seeker and their companion on their quest to find the North Star.
Gameplay
As we are dropped into the world, we’re quickly introduced to the game’s mechanics in a series of tutorial-like encounters. Cat Quest operates on a large open-world style map populated with NPC’s, enemies, dungeons and treasures. In previous entries, different gates or abilities limited your exploration of the map in the early game. In Cat Quest III, however, you have complete free roam from the start. You’ll need to be wary about where you travel as enemy levels don’t scale down. If you trespass into wilder territories, you might quickly find yourself overwhelmed.
Cat Questing
To help keep you on track, the world is populated with Seeker Towers. These are shining beacons with a wind-vane style compass that will point you in the direction of your next main quest point of interest. There’s also a ‘lightmouse’ in the game’s main hub location, Pawt Purvanna, that may give you a hint at what you should do next. Although, mine seemed to get obsessed with the Infinity Tower towards the backend of the game. As a bit of a magpie-style player, I often wandered off the beaten path to see what I could find or how far I could push my combat skills to beat enemies well above my level. Having the Seeker Towers there when I wanted to remember what I was supposed to be doing was a great addition to the game.
Side quests come in the form of postal deliveries, reuniting lost items with their owners, and taking on dangerous bounties, amongst other things. These activities help to break up the main story and give you a good reason to explore the world of Cat Quest III far and wide. There are also plenty of secrets to uncover, including a meeting with the creators of the game as is tradition in the series. In general, I feel like The Gentlebros have honed their craft in this area and not included generic, repetitive quests.
Magic and Paw-to-Paw Combat
One of the things I love most about the Cat Quest series is its simplicity. This is seen in both its structure, mentioned above, and in its combat. It has a mix of melee and spell combat that’s easy to pick up and master. In Cat Quest III you can equip a melee and ranged weapons and swap between them freely. There’s also a trusty dodge action that can help you get out of harm’s way. Even with such simple components, combat feels punchy and fun. Enemies telegraph attacks fairly clearly, meaning it’s possible to learn attack patterns and adapt your fighting style appropriately.
I appreciated that I could swap equipment and spells at any time. This meant if I found a certain weapon wasn’t working well for an encounter, I could change my approach quickly. All equipment is upgradeable at Kidd Cat’s Smithy in Pawt Purvanna. So if there’s a certain set that you like, you can funnel your hard-earned coin into it and make it even better.
As in previous entries, you can also learn numerous attack or defensive spells. At first, these can be cast once before you need to collect or recharge your mana. As you progress through the game though you will unlock more crystals to allow multiple casts in quick succession. Spells can also be upgraded a couple of times in the Magic Bone, also in Pawt Purvanna.
I enjoy that if you want to, it’s quite easy and fun to create a character build that lets you play out a power fantasy. I found several satisfying and powerful equipment synergies that had me melting enemies with ease. By level 38 I was just about able to tackle level 60 bosses with a good loadout.
New Stuff
There wouldn’t be a whole lot to the pirate theme of a game without a good ship. Well, Cat Quest III has that covered. Even better, it’s unlocked and available from the start of the game. As well as being a tool for exploration and quicker travel, you can also engage in ship-to-ship combat which is a fantastic addition. Some of the big ship bosses were quite a challenge to do at lower levels, but an enjoyable challenge. The responsiveness of steering and being able to speed boost whilst travelling by ship made traversing the open-world map a real pleasure.
Alongside the regular semi-top-down dungeons that are the bread-and-butter of Cat Quest, there are now several side-scrolling locations too. This allows for a different experience in exploration. Especially in combat as you’re now locked into one plane of movement. Some of the fights in the side-scrolling sections were the most formidable in the game. It was satisfying to overcome them by learning the best approach or choosing different equipment for the situation.
Graphics & Audio
Cat Quest’s style has been set and solid since the first game. Here we get that same great work but with upgraded fidelity. I enjoyed the distinctive enemy factions and their colourful designs. From the purple Pi-rat King to the blacks and blues of the Meowtallika group. There’s also plenty of variety seen in the armour sets that you can equip. Allowing you to fashion a range of outfits for your little pirate. My daughter always seemed to enjoy taking the best loot from our collective pool purely based on aesthetics, leaving me to mish-mash something else together for function.
The soundtrack is suitably sea-worthy with several shanty-sounding songs playing as you explore. I mentioned the punchy combat earlier and how good it feels. A lot of that good feeling comes from the audio feedback of fights. Along with the satisfying attack and magic sound effects, followed by a little poof as you defeat an enemy.
Longevity
Cat Quest III clocks in fractionally shorter than the previous game in the series. I think this is somewhat down to The Gentlebros refining the formula and tightening up the side-quests. Leaning away from the repetitive nature of some of the tasks in the predecessors. I made sure to see as much of the game as I could and came away with the Purrlatinum trophy in about 10 hours. The fun doesn’t have to stop there though. There’s also a new game plus system that raises your level cap and the enemy’s levels. From what I’ve seen, NG+ can go for at least 9 increments. There’s also an in-game gauntlet you can take on to see how far you can go through rounds of combat with a limited timer.
You can choose to play the game single player, or 2 player co-op. Because the combat is pretty simple and forgiving – and there’s an easy difficulty option – it’s a good possibility for some fun parent/child co-op gaming. I’ve played a little with my daughter who enjoys the game a lot. Although she’s very quick to abandon me in a fight to hide in a nearby bush!
With plenty of games out there that don’t respect a player’s time or wallet, Cat Quest III strikes a great balance and is purrrfect bang for your buck.
Final Thoughts
What more is there to say? If you’ve played the previous games and enjoyed them, you can expect more of the same great stuff here. If you’ve not played Cat Quest I or II, this can be a great place to jump in. Thanks to how the story has unfolded across the 3 games there’s no set linearity to the events. Therefore they can be played and enjoyed in any order. I can’t wait to see what The Gentlebros cook up next for The Apawcalypse.
Cat Quest III earns its own Purrlatinum Award from Thumb Culture!
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