Long ago, two warring nations fought over the power of the legendary Kingsblade and their respective leaders fell to an ominous evil power, these leaders have been resurrected and team up to rid their empires of evil and corruption in Cat Quest II.
Following on the success of the original Cat Quest from The GentleBros, Cat Quest II ups the ante with both solo and local couch co-op action RPG adventuring of the cutest kind. Players take up a variety of arms as they quest across the two nations in question working together to progress through the ranks of the evil Lioner and Wolfen, usurpers of cat and dog kingdoms.
As an aRPG, battle takes place in real time on the maps upon which the players traverse to their quest or story destinations. Defeating enemies yields both gold, which can be utilised to upgrade your wares at the blacksmith, or blue experience orbs which is used to level up your heroic duo. Levelling rewards base health and damage capability at set intervals and is awarded in higher quantities from story and side quests rather than the grind of monster slaying.
Players have multiple damage types available to them through either physical based weaponry such as swords and axes, or arcane type damage via magic staves. With some enemies resistant to certain damage types you can mix and match at any time via the menu or tool up one character to specialise in one damage type whilst the other specialises in the other. The challenge here in practice is the active swapping between types and gear sets, there’s no fast swap feature so it can feel a little cumbersome in later dungeons, especially when you need to change out both characters playing co-op quite frequently.
In addition to offensive options, players are also rewarded with a selection of armour types with differing buffs to assist on their playstyle, mage robes buff magic or spell power whilst iron armour increases base armour. Some however off higher buffs with a secondary stat dealing penalty as a double edged sword. It’s great getting 100+ armour but you are going to pay for that with a decrease in health by 50%
The main story is fairly linear and tells the tale of the prophesied return of the kings who fell warring over the kingsblade and their battle against that corruption whilst side quests revolve around periphery of that conflict and the people, towns and factions involved with it. Story quests and side quests alike follow the same simplistic mechanics though of go to point A, fight monster B and then potentially repeat a few times.
Quest length is around 5-10 minutes for the longer story sections whist most side quests can be completed in 3-5 minutes making Cat Quest II an ideal time killer or pick up and play game when you have a spare 20 minutes. Very few places are locked off from you from the get go although enemies are much higher level in maps or locales with more lucrative loot or treasure with most high level areas hitting level 99.
Maps and dungeons are completed once all enemies and defeated and once all the loot has been gathered from boxes or chests and some have some fairly sneaky hidden paths hiding some interesting upgrades for those with the patience to navigate them.
Although getting hit by high level enemies can be deadly to low level enemies, players who master the timing of evasive maneuvers can dodge all the clearly telegraphed attacks to the point where you can be pretty safe kiting and drawing single enemies away from a group. The replay option here is purely for co-op enjoyment or speedrunning enthusiasts since the path to higher damage loot is consistent every time.
Presentation wise, Cat Quest II is an entirely 2D affair with some beautifully illustrated and animated character models. It’s clean, sharp, colourful and ultimately has an extremely charming feel to it. With fluid movement and responsive combat, Cat Quest II finds a happy middle ground between being too simple to hold players attention and too complex and overloaded with mechanics to interest the masses.
Great for players of all ages and a welcome change from over complicated, ultra difficult, gore soaked realism, instead offering a charming, well illustrated and relaxing jaunt through a story laced with canine and feline based puns and wordplay.
Purchase Cat Quest II on Humble Bundle.
Cat Quest II is available now on PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
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