Cat Quest II (2019)

Playtime: 2 hours (level 25, reached dogland)

For comparison, my review for Cat Quest 1.

Intro

Cat Quest 2 is an isometric action game. You walk around a map, try to find an enemy/place that isn't 2+ levels higher and fight it with melee/ranged attacks, spells and dodges. Along the way the numbers go up (your level, item/spell levels, enemy levels) and you can fight new things.

The Good

• Death seems mostly inconsequential.
• Easy difficulty mode.
• AI-controlled companion character.
• You can freely switch between both.
• You only lose if both die.

The Bad

• Mostly the same game as the first.
• Tedious puns.
• AI companion is kinda dumb.
• No variation in melee/ranged attacks or alternate modes for spells.
• Really bland gear without interesting traits.
• There is gear that gives bonus XP (you feel like you're getting punished if you don't use it).
• Default fire spell requires you to get really close to enemies.

The Ugly

• The healing spell lasts several seconds and puts a big circle around you that obscures enemy attack zones. That is just legit an insane design choice.
• Enemies that are only a few levels higher are generally much stronger, severely limiting what content you can do.
• Combat feels fuzzy with randomish targetting of ranged weapons, semi-random dodge directions and ranged weapons moving you closer as you attack (wtf).

Conclusion

Cat Quest 2 has a restrictive open world, chaotic combat that doesn't feel good and incredibly simplistic itemisation and attacks. I actually completed the original Cat Quest but that was new and only took 8 hours. I cannot imagine playing through another 8+ hours of almost the same basic gameplay.

• Year played: 2019
• Playtime: 5-10 hours
• Completion level: about half of main story, sidetracked a lot on sidequests

Having played the original Cat Quest, I was hoping this would be more of the same, and I wasn't disappointed. The Cat Quest games are full of cat puns, cheesy pop culture references, and fun casual action gameplay. The main difference between the first and second entry in the series is an addition of a second playable character (a dog!) that you can either swap between as a single player (with the computer controlling the character you aren't playing), or add a second player to join and play the game as couch co-op. So far I played entirely single player and didn't try out co-op.

The core gameplay loop focuses around combat, with your character having access to a main weapon (usually a sword or a projectile-shooting wand) and various equippable spells, along with a dodge roll ability. The enemies are similar, with all of their spells and attacks being telegraphed by a brief shadow of the shape of the spell appearing on the ground before it executes. This makes for quick action gameplay that's easy to jump into. Most combat encounters are either found in dungeons, where you'll find gear upgrades and coins, or as part of quests, which are packed full of the aforementioned cat puns and pop culture references.

One semi-unique aspect of Cat Quest that I would love to see implemented in more games is the way loot and upgrades are handled: often when you find a chest in a dungeon, you'll get a piece of loot that you already own (say, a ninja cat headband). Rather than having a duplicate of the item that you then need to haul back to town to sell, the new item will just merge with your existing copy and boost its base stat bonuses. This makes looting dungeons feel consistently rewarding - even revisiting lower level areas can get you small upgrades to your existing gear.

Overall it's not a groundbreaking game, but just simple straightforward fun, and I would definitely recommend it. Great one to pick up on the switch since it's easy to jump in and out of.