The Gentlebros have created a unique and playful RPG that will steal the heart of any gamer. Whether a casual gamer or someone who is a little more intense with their love for games, Cat Quest will capture your interest with its fantastic adventure that runs through a colorful and cartoonish world. For those of you who played The Gentlebros’ first game, Slashy Hero, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect coming into Cat Quest. Both feature an overtly cute artistic style with a bubbly, light color palette and chibi-like character designs. They also keep you addicted with a ton of unlockable character customizations.

When going into Cat Quest, one should expect an enjoyable and addicting romp through a vibrant world. Every aspect of the game, from the character and monster designs to the inside of the dungeons, has a playful quality. This is in a large part due to most objects having an extremely round design. Nothing seems too sharp in the game, which tends to have the effect of making gamers think that the enemies will be easy to kill. Don’t be deceived. That furry ball is a furry ball of death that might be able to 1-hit KO you. Admittedly, that is rare, unless you are exploring into territory that is beyond your level.

On Steam, the game has six particular achievements. You’ll receive one for each of the following: completing the game, learning all seven magic skills, reaching level 99, clearing all 52 dungeons, completing all 62 side quests, and unlocking all the 65 armors and weapons (to achieve all of these, it will likely take around 13 hours of gameplay, 20 at max). Despite there only being six actual achievements, the sense of achieving something is quite constant throughout the entirety of the game. You definitely feel a sense of pride every time you level up, clear a dungeon, or beat a boss dragon. In essence, the game makes you feel like you are always progressing and earning something, which is part of the reason why it is so addicting.

The story of Cat Quest starts out with the MC and his sister on a boat. Suddenly, a white cat in black armor attacks the boat, kidnaps our sister, and leaves us to die in the shipwreck. Lucky us, our genes come to save us as our impending doom awakens the ‘blood’ blood in us. We survive to the astonishment of the white cat in black armor, who refers to himself as Drakoth. He then proceeds to dangle our sister before us, encouraging us to get stronger if we ever want to save her. So we begin our adventure accompanied by a little cat sprite, who is essentially Navi (the fairy in Legend of Zelda), but a humorous and less annoying version.

Through both the story and exploring the world we learn more about the legacy of the blood, who the Old Masters were, and why the world is what it is. The narrative, overall, is done in quite a cunning fashion with a few solid twists to keep you hooked on the main quest.

The combat is quite simple. There is one button to attack the enemy with your weapon, one button to roll away, and then four buttons for different magic attacks. If you are not big on magic, then you rarely have to worry about not hitting the right button. As mentioned above, this game caters to casual gamers, and a big part of that is due to the relative ease of the gameplay.

More proof to this fact is that the enemy’s attack range and speed are displayed in red. In other words, it is pretty easy to dodge attacks. In fact, this aspect, combined with a healing spell (in case a mistake is ever made), will allow most people to take on areas that are 5 or so levels above their characters.

However, this does not mean you can just run through everything without a worry. Getting greedy and trying to go in for an extra hit can lead to a quick death against enemies of a higher level. Oh, and generally, you will find yourself against more than one enemy, which makes accurately timing their attacks quite a bit more difficult.

This goes double when you’re taking on a group of enemies that have both physical and magical abilities that have different loading times. This is a situation you will find yourself in quite consistently inside dungeons and against bosses, after a couple hours of play. It’s this aspect, which forces to you to properly time out everyone’s moves so you can get in X number of strikes before rolling away, that makes the game enjoyable for those who can’t stand ‘casual’ games.

Another factor that will bring in basically any type of gamer is the level of customization in the game. There is a total of 65 armors and weapons and they look absolutely stunning, especially when it is a boss item, such as the Flametongue or Frostwing. This is one of those games where you can actually make your character look ridiculously badass. By all means, you should strive to have your character in a complete armor set, which always looks good, or at least choose your armor and weapon so that your character features color coordination.

It must be admitted that achieving an awesome armor set can be slightly difficult at times. One of the only flaws of the game is that you do not get to select the armor or weapon you are buying. You can buy either a common chest or a rare chest from Kit, the greatest blacksmith in the land, and the chest gives you a randomly selected item. If you already have the item, then that particular armor or weapon gets leveled up. This can be extremely frustrating, but having started new games a few times, this aspect does not cause any real issue with the gameplay.

This is because the overall progression of the story is perfectly balanced. There is rarely a point when your character won’t be able to continue on the main quest. When such a time does arise though, the side quests will level you up quickly, as each takes somewhere between 1-5 minutes and grants you a pretty large experience boost. This is not a game that is trying to waste your time and make things overtly difficult. It wants you constantly moving and constantly earning something for every moment you spend. In other words, it's a compact world and the more you play the smaller it gets. This becomes all too real once you learn the ability to fly and can literally zip across the continent in a quarter of the time it takes to run it.

All the other qualities of the game lead to a fun and light-hearted experience. As mentioned above the game has an extremely cartoonish vibe. Even the edge of your sword or the horns of a seem to have pretty soft edges. That’s not to say that the style is sloppy or ill fitting. The enemies, especially the bosses, have a lot of detail inputted into their designs. You can make out their scales, the cuts in their wings, and a ton of other little intricacies. Though such nuances are noticeable on the bosses, you will see a similar attention to detail in all aspects, as you can watch the shadows of clouds pass you by, as well as see the rustling of a bush.

The sound, side characters, and overall dialogue continue this trend of skilled craftsmanship that is done in the name of fun. For example, some of the main quests involve hunting down packages for our blacksmith, and these packages are actually DVD sets that spoof the titles of well-known TV shows. To be honest, puns in general make up a huge part of the character interactions, which keeps everything pretty light. Nonetheless, the story is strong and has its moments of impact.

Everything about Cat Quest is smooth and enjoyable. It is constructed extremely well and will most likely make you have a cuteness overload at some point, if not several points. Despite being relatively easy enough for just about anyone to beat, its gameplay does require some coordination and proper timing. All in all, it is an extremely addictive game that is hard to put down. There is never a moment when a mission or side quest feels pointless. Everything ties together beautifully and it creates a worthwhile escape from the drudgery of life. You’re jumping into a world full of cats for crying out loud. Who is so coldhearted that they can’t enjoy an experience like that?

Cat Quest is a game that just about anyone can enjoy. It’s simple, easy and most importantly fun. Its cuteness and level of customization will appeal to a wide audience. Though it would be nice to have a few more hours of gameplay, many casual gamers will appreciate the fact that they will be able to beat the game within a few sittings. The only type of gamers who should stay away from Cat Quest are those who need a game that challenges them more than anything else.