The first Cat Quest was a game that took me by surprise. I picked it up on sale after chuckling at the premise of an action RPG focused on cats, but what I didn’t expect was a genuinely fun experience and a decent action RPG all bundled up in a funny, pun-laden story. Cat Quest II is essentially more of the same, but there’s a much bigger focus on cooperative play and a deeper magic & combat system.
Cat Quest 2 centres around two kings, one a cat and the other a dog, who must reluctantly work together to save the world of Felingard. Fighting side by side instead of, you know, each other, the unlikely duo traverses the world battling evil and finding new power ups.
One of the aspects of the original Cat Quest that I most enjoyed was the simplistic combat, but I’m happy to say the sequel manages to develop that initial formula without overly complicating it. You have a basic attack and dodge alongside two mappable offensive and defensive magic abilities, but having two characters brings more customisation to the table. Now you can build these two characters to get the best of both worlds with one leaning toward magic and the other toward sword-based attacks.
In single player you can swap between the two characters with a simple press of a button. Having played the majority of the game in single player, I built each one of the characters around a different build giving me lots of options in fights.
The world of Felingard is much more varied compared to the first game. There are more environment types, more interesting dungeon designs and an even bigger host of enemy types to find throughout the world. This increase in variety is a welcome addition as the first title started to feel a little stale the further you delved into it.
Outside of the games narrative, there are lots of additional enemies and dungeons to find that reward players with new armour, weapons and magic spells. There’s a simple loot system here to rewards players, but it also streamlines the process compared to other RPGs or looter shooters. If you find an item you’ve picked up before, the game will automatically level up the item in your inventory instead of cluttering things up with duplicates. You can also upgrade items and armour using money found throughout the world.
Cat Quest II can probably be finished in a sitting or two. This isn’t really a problem though. It’s a game that’s supposed to be experienced with friends and family in co-op so some it’s short length makes a lot of sense.
Unfortunately, there are some problems with the game’s check pointing. If you happen to die during a quest, you have to begin the entire quest again. This is mostly okay, but it was a bit frustrating on some of the longer levels. Being forced to sit through dialogue over and over again is annoying, although it was one of the few negative aspects of my time in the game.