I’m sailing on the open seas in my pirate ship, my furry hands on the wheel. It’s smooth sailing until I spot something in the distance. An unfamiliar shape appears on the horizon. As it inches closer, I see a splash of bright yellow and a round, hulking ship frame. I gasp as it comes clearly into focus: It’s a giant rubber duck. It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment, as I begin firing my cannons at it and circling it to avoid its fire. I’m no match. It guns me down, my ship going down with a big splash. At that moment, I’m no longer a 35-year-old playing an RPG on my Steam Deck. I’m a kid in a bathtub again. That’s the mindset that players really need to embrace in Cat Quest 3. The RPG threequel is a light-hearted adventure that captures the imaginative spirit of childhood playtime in a swashbuckling adventure. Though its flat story and eye-rolling puns may not cross a generational divide, Cat Quest 3 makes up for those flaws with a concise, but surprisingly deep RPG that let me loose in a pleasant cartoon playground for a while.
Cat Quest 3 continues the story of the quietly popular action-RPG series, a tale that developer The Gentlebros clearly have more plans for. I take on the role of a feline pirate who sets out on a quest across the Purribean to track down a nefarious pirate king and the treasured North Star. Now three games into the saga, The Gentlebros still seems like it’s having fun imagining a world inhabited by warring cats and rats. It’s like watching an episode of a classic cartoon. I can’t say that any of its narrative hooks are terribly engaging, though. Even with plenty of dialogue and a handful of eccentric NPCs, it’s a boilerplate pirate tale that doesn’t do anything particularly special with its animal cast. I’m a pirate. There are other pirates. There’s a treasure. Only one narrative thread teases a more fun mystery that’s more there for sequel-building. Instead, the animal premise gets used for one thing and one thing only: puns. Cat Quest 3 is packed with cat and rat wordplay, so much so that it’s baked into the UI. If there’s any way to squeeze “purr” or “meow” into a word, it takes every single chance it gets, no questions asked. While that’s funny at times (like when I get tickets to see Meowtallika, a rival crew-turned metal band), the joke gets old fast. Puns quickly become a cheap replacement for substance; you could skip most dialogue in the game and have more or less the exact same experience with it.
Of course, no one should expect too much nuance from the Cat Quest series. It’s not meant to be that deep; it’s a game about pirate cats. The general vibe is what’s important here, and The Gentlebros has that on lock. Its colorful visuals give it an infectious sense of whimsy, while its original score goes all-in on fully orchestrated tracks that sound like they were pulled from a kid’s cartoon version of Pirates of the Caribbean. Even if it’s lacking much substance relative to how much forgettable story and world-building there is here, it’s a good-natured jaunt that I was happy to get lost in.
Those familiar with the Cat Quest series won’t be too surprised by the sequel’s formula, which largely remained unchanged. It’s an action-RPG adventure where players run around an overworld, find treasure, and slash through enemies. The big change this time around is that The Gentlebros goes for an even more freeing open-world experience that helps bring an enjoyable concept to the next level. The main attraction is that players immediately get a pirate ship that they can sail across a compact set of islands. That little change ends up having a big impact. The pirate fantasy works for me as I seamlessly summon a boat from a dock, jump into it, and begin sailing around like Link in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. A little side of simple ship combat adds some excitement to the high seas, as I blast boats with my canons and equip blueprints to up my ship’s power. What’s more exciting about that is how it wipes just about any linearity from Cat Quest 3. I get my ship within minutes of starting, but I’m not forced to go anywhere from there. I’m free to start poking around the ocean to my liking in search of small dungeons and secret chests hidden on islands. My main objectives are loose, as I mostly just need to complete a specific few dungeons in any order to eventually get to the final challenge. With no leash around my neck, I found myself nearly getting 100% map completion before taking on the final challenge. The exploration just comes naturally, as there’s a concise number of islands to check out and an achievable set of gear to grab.
Cat Quest 3 launches in the midst of an indie open-world game renaissance that came following 2019’s A Short Hike. Games like Little Kitty, Big City and Lil Gator Game have mastered the art of the bite-sized open world, giving players all the satisfaction of a “map game” without the bloat and repetition. The Cat Quest series predates that trend, but the threequel’s release snugly fits right in and emphasizes the joy of a small world that can be fully conquered in under 10 hours. Every side-quest, environmental puzzle, and optional boss feels distinct and worth doing as a result. There are some moments where that tight scope can feel limiting. Most of the action happens in bite-sized 2D dungeons that never really escalate in size or ideas. Most just have me climbing up some ladders and unlocking doors with only a few gameplay gimmicks breaking that up. I’m excited when I discover a late-game dungeon split between two separate manors on an island locked in rat faction warfare. I’m less enthused when I find that all I have to do to complete it is grab a key in one and run it over to the other a few times. There are some creative ideas here and there, but even Cat Quest 3’s late dungeons are too short to riff on any creative ideas.
Where Cat Quest 3 really makes its mark is in its streamlined but deceptively deep RPG hooks. The more I take down enemies and open chests, the more I level up. That happens at a rapid pace, as I’m catapulted to level 70 within eight hours of play. The breakneck growth ensures that I’m never too underleveled to take on a challenge for very long as I rarely, if ever, need to stop to grind. It’s a natural progression that trims every bit of tedious fat off a traditional RPG. It doesn’t sacrifice depth to do that either. Throughout the adventure, I can grab a chunk of equippable gear that can radically change my stats and playstyle. My own build centered around an eyepatch that buffed my health while giving my ranged “meowchine gun” a faster reload time. My chest piece bolstered my defense, while a set of tri-claws let me tear into enemies with quick slashes. Additional gear added an extra hit for each additional slash and dropped a lightning strike at the end of my combo strings. That strategic character-building makes an otherwise basic hack-and-slash combat system feel much richer, as gear experimentation can make its slash-and-shoot juggling act feel very different.
Cat Quest 3 doesn’t overdo it with loads of options. Instead, each piece of gear feels viable. I could replace my blunderbuss with a fire wand that could burn enemies, equip a shield that granted me coins for each successful block, or throw on a relic that turned my dodge roll into a damaging strike. Switching it up isn’t just encouraged; it’s easy to do thanks to a quick leveling system that lets me power up any piece of gear in exchange for coins. Anytime I wanted to try a new piece of gear out, I found that I always had enough gold on hand to bring it up to speed with the rest of my toolkit. Games like Elden Ring could even learn a thing or two about that low-stakes experimentation.
Though all of that progression happens fast, Cat Quest 3 gives dedicated players enough reasons to keep at it. A co-op mode feels built for families, but its ace in the hole is a unique approach to New Game+. It’s not just that players can start from scratch with all their gear and level preserved; players start with a key quest item already in their inventory, which completely sequence-breaks the game. That allows emboldened players to rush straight for the final boss if they so choose, further building on the winning sense of open-ended freedom here. Cat Quest 3 largely plays the hits, delivering a reliable sequel that’s low on lasting substance, but the little changes stack up to create an endearing little summer vacation. It’s a light and breezy adventure that puts me in touch with my inner child. Whenever I sat down to play it, I was transported back to my days of playing pirates on my childhood playground. I swung around on ropes, scaled jungle gyms, and pretended to be the captain of an enormous ship made of tires that sat at the center of it all. That’s a joyful feeling that’s hard to get back, but Cat Quest 3 successfully invited me to play pretend again.
Cat Quest 3 was tested on PC and Steam Deck OLED.
