Game Review - Cat Quest

Game Review: Cat Quest by GentleBros
Score: +4/-3

Leap into a grand adventure in purrsuit of the evil Drakoth and your catnapped sister! Explore Felingard's huge overworld map, risk life and limb delving into dungeons for epic loot, and lend a paw to a furry cast of characters in a flurry of side quests.

Overall a fun-enough short game. Cat Quest is unlikely to entertain you for hundreds of hours but it still offers a good time -- and that's vital, at a time when games are dime-a-dozen and even AAA titles can be deeply unsatisfying.

+1 Snappy fast quest steps with a fun vibe and sense of humour.

• Simple and to-the-point dialog and quest setup.
• This can actually encourage you to spend a lot of time on the game since you know the next quest won't take long. So "just one more quest" can lead to a couple hours whizzing by.

+1 Frequent plot twists to keep many quests interesting.

+1 Open world with no enemy scaling

• So you can feel you are getting stronger and can grind out a few levels and magic upgrades if you are having trouble.
• Even after the main quest, there are high level dungeons and quests, as well as a new game mode where you can carry over some progress (New Game Plus mode) and/or choose handicaps in exchange for starting advantages.

Simple combat system that revolves around dodging out of trouble

• +1 Skill counts more than stats.
• You can complete quests many levels above your own if you are good at moving and dodging. Since this is a core and necessary mechanic, it feels satisfying rather than cheesy.
• In fact there is a New Game Plus mode where you are fixed at level 1 so you will need to grind out gear upgrades to make up for the level disparity.
• -1 Too-simple combat and enemies.
• The combat system is fast, simple, and feels fun but also has drawbacks in that all enemies  (and your own spells) pull from the same handful of moves. This quickly makes the game feel monotonous despite being presented with new "enemy varieties". Cat Quest is really carried by the storytelling.

Gearing is too random and very unsatisfying

• -1 Many of the unique armors you get from questing turn out to not be upgrades at all.
• -1 5000 coin random rolls on gold gear chests result in random results that might not be upgrades and cannot be reliably improved until they are worth wearing.