Cat Quest review: A purrfect palette cleanser

Cat Quest combines satisfying but not overly complex combat and a huge amount of charm into one satisfying RPG that plays well on the Nintendo Switch.

Developer: The Gentle Bros
Publisher: The Gentle Bros
Platform: Nintendo Switch (version reviewed), PC and Mobile
Release Date: November 10, 2017 (Nintendo Switch), August 8, 2017 (PC and Mobile)

Sometimes you want an epic, massive open-world adventure that might take dozens, maybe hundreds of hours to complete. That’s great. But after spending all that time on something that massive, do you also need something that’s just a simple, well put-together game that doesn’t demand so much from you? May I offer you Cat Quest; a superbly charmingly simple action/RPG that takes some of the best elements from much bigger games and distills them into a pure form. And also it has cats!

Yes, the puns of a feline nature are extremely strong in Cat Quest; a game with a simple overlaying story of some dude kidnapping your sister and you have to rescue her. You also find out you are of the Dragonblood, a line of mighty warriors who can slay dragons, which is good because those suckers are popping up all over the land of Felingard along with a bunch of other baddies you’ll need quick reflexes and good equipment to defeat.

The story is definitely on the simple side, yet also hints at some much deeper lore at some points throughout the game. It’s one of those stories where you don’t have to follow what’s going on if you don’t want to but gives a little reward to those who do.

The overworld of Felingard is where you’ll be spending the vast majority of your time in Cat Quest and it’s pretty much all there from the start. Not far in you get the ability to travel over water, which opens up virtually all of the map to you, which isn’t that big. There are towns, but they are merely places to get sidequests from a board, recover your hit points and magic points, and save your game.

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This may disappoint some looking for rich characters with stories, but it all helps the game move along at a fast and addictive pace. There are caves to explore, many of them optional, but they are very small and usually take no more than a few minutes to clear it. The map and caves are littered (no pun intended) with various types of monsters you must slash with your choice of weapons ranging from swords to staves, axes, and maces.

Combat seems simple hack n slash, but especially later on enemies can have very powerful attacks and you must learn their, patterns when to defensively roll away and strike or you will die quickly. Defeated enemies drop XP orbs and money in a very satisfying manner that’s honestly just fun to collect afterward. You don’t stand much of a chance taking on particular quests and enemies that are well above your level, and there is some grinding, but this is some of the smoothest grind I’ve had in any RPG period because the gameplay loop is just fun.

It’s not just weapons and raising levels that determine how you’ll fare in battle. Your armor plays a super important role in Cat Quest and can change your strategy quite drastically. Some increase your HP while decreasing your attack power, or your MP for example. One of the most brilliant things it does it with dupes for both your weapons and armor.

Rather than taking up space and having to be sold off, if you find another of the same item, they combine and become stronger. It’s a brilliant take and I wish more games would use this idea. You rarely ever get disappointed with equipment this way. Sure, something might be weak when you first get it, but you know if you can get your hands on a couple more it might become the best piece of equipment you can get.

Granted, the Nintendo Switch is loaded with massive adventures right now that should probably be taking the majority of your time. I’m not saying drop everything and play this instead. However, if you need a simple adventure that will nicely fill the time between your last giant game and your next one, I feel like Cat Quest is a perfect game for that and you should absolutely not pass it up.

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Once I started I was instantly hooked and it was incredibly hard to play much else until I had finished the main quest and a large majority of the side quests. Cat Quest is one of the more pleasant surprises of 2017 and is a great game to play on the platform of your choice, but it seems especially at home on the Nintendo Switch.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.