‘Cat Quest 3’ review: A paw-some adventure

Disclosure: The publisher provided a PS5 code for this review.

I started playing Cat Quest 3 late in the afternoon on a Saturday. After exploring various locales and completing several side quests, I realized that it was already Sunday morning. Needless to say, Cat Quest 3 made me lose track of time owing to a vibrant world that’s filled with many discoveries, as well as the combat system that’s easy enough to get used to.

Cat Quest 3, from Singapore-based developer The Gentlebros, continues the adventure RPG series by taking players to the Caribbean–or the Purr-ibbean in-game. The region consists of multiple archipelagos that follow a certain theme or layout, each with a treasure chest tally so you’ll know if you missed out on a reward.

The design of the 2.5D overworld map is vibrant and colorful, drawing me in for many hours with its visual flair. Similarly, I chuckled at some of the location names, forced and repetitive as they might seem–my wife and I own eight cats, many of which are rescues, and we love coming up with silly terms whenever we talk about furry felines.

As someone who reviewed and guided Cat Quest 2 back in 2019 for PC Invasion, the biggest change in Cat Quest 3, apart from the setting, is how solo play is handled. In the previous game, playing solo meant babysitting an AI-controlled companion, one that cast magic spells at empty locations or rushed toward enemies only to get badly mauled.

In Cat Quest 3, however, you’re all by your lonesome, placed in the paws of a swashbuckler feline known as the Seeker. You no longer have to worry about an AI companion making mistakes ever so often. Similarly, couch co-op multiplayer is still possible. Since I reviewed the PlayStation 5 version of  the game, all I had to do was interact with a rest stop and connect a second gamepad to let my wife join.

From there, I began my journey, one that had me searching for the fabled Treasure of the North Star. The trek took me to several islands, completing mini-dungeons with some rather simple puzzles and eliminating minions of the Pi-Rat King. Combat is a lot more involved compared to the previous title, since I’m now able to swap between melee and ranged weapons on the fly, apart from casting up to four different types of spells via the shoulder buttons on the gamepad.

At times, the action turned out to be effortless, since I normally just spammed normal attacks with claws, swords, and even electric guitars, interspersed with elemental magic blasts. Moreover, certain enemies had predictable and repetitive patterns, like how larger foes had jump-and-pounce abilities that were easily avoided.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy sailing the high seas aboard my ship. Compared to the previous game, Cat Quest 3 has almost no restrictions when it comes to exploration (i.e. the requirement to get the Water-Walking perk just to reach new areas).

This time, I could simply interact with an anchor on the overworld map to spawn my ship, which can  also be equipped with different kinds of special ammo and power-ups to take out hostile vessels. Furthermore, my character can disembark and swim across great distances, albeit slowly, as they clung onto a lifebuoy.

Perhaps my only gripe here is that you don’t get to recruit animal companions that would serve as ship officers. I’m reminded of Sid Meier’s Pirates!, my favorite swashbuckling adventure game of all time, and how it splendidly captured the feeling of going on a voyage as a ship captain. This feature is missing in Cat Quest 3, which was a bit disappointing.

Discovery is a key factor that makes Cat Quest 3 a rewarding romp. You’re not just limited to the main campaign goal of finding the North Star Treasure, but you’re also able to tackle several side quests, some of which lead to even more surprising secrets.

For instance, a location called Lovepurr Castle requires you to find three missing chapters of a book. Once you’ve acquired these in mine-filled dungeons, you’re taken to a gamebook-esque section where you have to choose the correct responses to make it to the final room. The Golden Tower, meanwhile, has you searching for Golden Keys scattered all over the world so you can unlock chests. Another example is the Infinity Tower, which has a “time attack mode” where you have to defeat multiple waves of enemies.

Likewise, there’s a bounty board with several pirate ships that you can destroy to earn coins used for upgrades. Some of these targets might seem unassuming at a glance but they’d turn out to be extremely dangerous opponents, such as a rubber ducky ship that fires explosive beams from orbit. I genuinely enjoyed tackling these activities and they served as a delightful break from following the main quest objectives.

Review score/summary: 8/10

Cat Quest 3 offers a paw-some experience, one that can be completed in roughly 15 hours. While it does have a few shortcomings, namely the low degree of difficulty and relatively simple combat mechanics, it nonetheless presents meow-riffic exploration, especially if you’re playing couch co-op with a family member or friend. – Rappler.com

Cat Quest 3 releases on August 8 for the PC, PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5, Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch platforms.