Published by Kepler Interactive, Cat Quest III puts you once again into the boots of an anthropomorphic feline protagonist. While you remain nameless, it’s not all that important because your actions are what matter in Cat Quest III. Attacked by pirates and lost at sea, you end up being raised by Captain Cappy, a floating blue cat-like ghost that helps you along the way once you’re ready.
This time around, you’re looking for something called the North Star, an unimaginable treasure that grants wishes. The whole of the Purribean is after the North Star though, so you’ll have to swashbuckle down and put an end to the other pirates in the local seas in order to fulfill your dreams of obtaining the North Star. That is easier said than done however, since there are plenty of enemies out there to defeat, including the Pi-rate King, Captain Meowtallika, and even the whis-purr-ed scourge of the Seven Seas, the terrifying Duck of Doom!
It’s hard to stay away from cat and pirate puns in Cat Quest III because the game is absolutely chock full of them. Right from the get go, you’ll be chuckling and rolling your eyes regularly at the ridiculous but endearing dialogue that infects every aspect of this outrageously cute game. Thankfully the role of dogs has been minimized in this third installment though, as the forced dog interaction in Cat Quest II was clearly not as popular as the first dog-free game.
Once you get down to business though, Cat Quest III is an evolution of the previous two entries. Combat is much the same as it has been in previous games with enemies choreographing their attacks and the never-ending dance of dodge, attack, dodge. This is a very interactive combat system so if you’re expecting to get away with just overpowering your enemies, it mostly won’t work and you’ll need to be patient to defeat stronger foes, especially in the early game.
There are several new mechanics in Cat Quest III however. First and foremost is the fact that you get a pirate ship, complete with cannons and all! Hopping in your ship and sailing about is a key component of gameplay here and learning how to use your ship’s cannons, boosts, and special weaponry is absolutely integral to your eventual success. Your ship, like your cat, starts out relatively weak so you’ll need to get the hang of circling enemies and dodging their return fire fairly quickly. You can also attack shorebound enemies if they’re in range, giving you a tactical advantage and what amounts to an extra life bar in a fair number of combats.
Your ship isn’t all powerful though. It can be destroyed by enemies with enough hits and you’ll either have to remain in the circle around it to repair it while under enemy fire or move to one of the many docks around the Purribean in order to summon your craft and fix it there. Eventually, you’ll obtain a number of upgrades and special weapons and become a force to be reckoned with on the open seas however and that’s when things get interesting as there are a number of water-only opponents you’ll need to face to progress in the game. Ship combat is smooth and balanced overall so things get pretty fun with stronger opponents and a lot of dodging and weaving as you launch volley after volley at larger, stronger ships.
But land-based gameplay is equally as important here as the ship combat and Cat Quest III doesn’t skimp on that either. You’ll have to travel across the islands, defeating pi-rats and pirate cats left and right on your quest to obtain the North Star. Along the way you’ll meet blacksmiths, postal delivery dogs (yes, there are a few dogs…) and even Mama Milka, the owner of the local milk bar who has a series of bounties for you to claim as you work your way through the criminal underworld of the Purribean. There’s a lot going on in Cat Quest III, much like the other games in the series and finding your rhythm to get things rolling is important. Neglecting upgrades and side quests will make the game a lot tougher so make sure you talk to everyone you can!
One of the new features in Cat Quest III is the addition of firearms. You have access to a variety of weapons as you play through the game including swords, claws, hooks, and an array of firearms which allow you to vary your attacks between ranged and melee effectively. If you run out of ammo, reloading can take some time but if you’re firing carefully, you can keep the barrage going almost indefinitely as long as your timing is good. Some of the guns are particularly powerful so don’t ignore them!
Magic is back too of course, but it takes a back seat to guns and swords this time around, with limited spells that take a long time to boost to their maximum level and a limited focus. You won’t want to fully ignore them though as healing spells and a couple of others will absolutely save you in some of the more challenging combat situations. In fact, as you play further, magic plays an important part in the gameplay. Rather than a primary weapon though, it is relegated to secondary status, allowing you to stun and damage enemies while you dodge and attack with firearms and hand weapons. Choose the right combination of magic, guns, and weapons and you’ll end up absolutely decimating the enemies much faster than you might expect.
That goes double for weapons and armor. Within Cat Quest III, there are a number of combinations of weapons and armor that work together to create combined effects such as turning your dodges into dash damage and healing damage while damaging with healing. Experimenting with different weapon and armor combinations can create ultra-paw-erful combos that will lay waste to your foes. You definitely don’t want to look at the weapon and armor stats alone this time around because they only tell part of the story. Even with blacksmith upgrades, your weapons and armor will only protect you so much. The rest of the story is choosing the right accompanying equipment to really overpower enemies and even bosses.
This type of planning applies to your ship as well as your cat. As you gain levels, you unlock more equipment slots on both your character and ship and mixing and matching ship upgrades results in similar combinations which work together to make you an unstoppable cute killing machine. Electric shots are particularly nasty with their homing abilities and upping the frequency of your special ship weapons with upgrades makes things downright deadly for example.
When it comes to looks, Cat Quest III preserves the style of the previous games, opting to add new sprites and pirate themes rather than a fundamental shift in design. Everything feels similar to previous games and that continuity is reassuring as the design work across the board is top-notch. There are no issues with visuals at all and if you’re familiar with the other games, you wouldn’t expect there to be as the series has always been very stable. The music is similarly good with all the purrs and meows you could want, along with plenty of jaunty pirate-style tunes to capture the mood of the game. It’s all a fun, lighthearted adventure with plenty of flair.
There are really only a couple of issues with Cat Quest III that mar the overall experience. Previous entries in the series were long and complex with huge story segments and tons of side quests that took ages to complete. By giving players a ship right off the bat and free range travel, you can quickly hit the limits of the game’s map, leaving little to explore and making the world feel smaller this time around. While there are plenty of hidden secrets, that feeling of expansiveness is missing, which is a bit of a shame. It doesn’t take away from the game itself per se but there’s just a bit less adventure when you’ve seen everything on the overworld so much faster than before.
The other issue is the difficulty. Again comparing to previous entries, combat difficulty is similar in Cat Quest III in the early game but the exponential growth curve in power for this sequel is much, much faster and you quickly find that leveling up is rapid, overpowering you against enemies you definitely haven’t put enough time in to beat. Shooting up in levels is so fast that you start to ignore level up notifications by the mid-game and just focus on progress. Fans familiar with the series will likely blow through the main game and much of the side content within a few days; possibly even less if they have a lot of free time. That’s a much shorter experience than other Cat Quest games and even with the clear lack of dogs, it’s still a smidge disappointing.
Cat Quest III is a fantastic game with so many puns it’s hard to believe The Gentlebros managed to get them all into one game. With that much comedy and more than a few surprises, this is a worthy entry into the franchise and a blast to play from start to finish. While the main game might only take you 6-8 hours or so depending on how tenacious you are, the $20 price tag makes the game more than worth the time you’ll spend and finding the more secret secrets will definitely add some extra time on the clock. Regardless of whether you spend a short time or a long time, Cat Quest III is a must-have addition to your game library and one game you definitely won’t want to miss me-out on!
This review is based on a digital copy of Cat Quest III provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. Cat Quest III is also available for PS4/PS5, Xbox, and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.