Overview – developed by The Gentlebros and published by PQube, Cat Quest II is the sequel to their successful action RPG title, Cat Quest, featuring the same colorful and vibrant design, intuitive gameplay and animal puns, this time with the inclusion of Co-op gameplay. Cat Quest II is available for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Steam Service, links to purchase the game will be available at the bottom of this review.
Disclaimer: before if get into the review I would like to thank PQube for providing me with the copy of Cat Quest II used for this review, that being said, the provision of this title has not influenced the contents of this article, all thoughts and opinions expressed within are mine and mine alone.
Writer’s Note – this review was written in November 2019 and originally published at Queue Times, there is also a review of the first Cat Quest game which will be re-written to match the other content on this site.
So with that out of the way, let’s get into it, starting with the story.
Story – the story of Cat Quest II is a stark contrast from the first title, instead of the player being a legendary hero tasked with bringing down a big bad guy, the story this time revolves around a Cat and Dog who are the reincarnation of fallen kings of legend. Now these two brought together by fate, must work together to end the war between the cats of Felingard and the dogs of the Lupus Empire.
Gameplay – the gameplay of Cat Quest II is almost identical to the first entry with some new twists, I have discussed the details of the gameplay in the first title in my review of Cat Quest which can be viewed (Link Coming Soon), for those who don’t wish to read my previous coverage I will provide a brief summary then talk about the new features.
Starting out the gameplay is made up of roaming sword and sorcery style combat with the player having access to a range of weapons, armour and spells, taking place on a large overworld map, the player travels from region to region battling enemies, , visiting towns to find quests, upgrade gear at the blacksmith, finding treasure and magic spells during the various dungeon delves throughout the world.
Now with the basic summary covered, it’s time to cover the biggest addition to Cat Quest II, the inclusion of a second playable character, with a focus on multiplayer, however if playing solo the player can use both characters by switching between the two as and when needed, this allows the player to mix up play styles, for example, the player can maximize the effective use of melee and spells by having one character set to offense and the other to defense.
This leads straight into the biggest strength of this game, two player co-op, giving this action RPG more of a beat ‘em up vibe in my opinion, but the multiplayer is a wonderful addition as players can take roles that fit their style of play. When playing with another person one can take the role of a close up melee tank and the other a ranged healer, this is made possible by having the ability to assign the different spells and gear between the two characters with little difficulty.
The combat and controls are very intuitive, with the reaction times between attacking and dodging having minimal lag, with the second character being controlled by an A.I. when playing alone, if a character does fall in battle, the second character can revive them by standing over them, adding tension to the larger battles. During the large scale boss and wave battles, the ability to time dodges and spell attacks can be crucial to keeping yourself alive.
Now with the gameplay elements covered I’m going to discuss the other parts of the game and its presentation, covering the difficulty, visuals and sound.
Difficulty – the difficulty of Cat Quest II has a rather free form nature to it, with the level of challenge for each area being marked by the level attached to the dungeon and enemies, this allows the player to control the difficulty. The player can grind early dungeons to gain experience to level up, there is also the capability to go into the higher level areas, but the risk is much higher as enemies will annihilate the player.
Visuals and Sound – graphically, Cat Quest II is the same as the first game, with cute animal heroes, imposing boss battles and wonderfully atmospheric dungeons levels, although little has changed visually, it still looks beautiful and is a joy to play. The soundtrack again is virtually identical, with similar compositions that have a sense of grandeur in the overworld and atmospheric soundscapes in dungeons, again the fact that little has changed with the sound doesn’t impact the fun to be had.
Final thoughts – after playing this game both alone and with a friend, I can say I recommend this to those who played the first title, it improves on the previous game and the addition of multiplayer is an excellent choice. Although it may look as though this sequel is a simple upgrade of its predecessor, this is a whole new experience with the co-op gameplay, oh and animal puns, lots and lots of animal puns.
In the end, I give Cat Quest II a score of 5/5, there are no issues with gameplay, multiplayer is a treat to play and it performed perfectly on the switch in all 3 play styles. If you want to pick up this title, links to purchase will be below.
Link to Nintendo Switch version (HERE)
Link to PlayStation 4 version (HERE)
Link to Xbox One version (HERE)
Link to Steam Version (HERE)
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