Cat Quest

Visually, Cat Quest is beautiful. The game features 2.5-D rendered graphics, as it has a cartoon-like style but with an angled perspective that gives it plenty of depth. All of your traveling is done on the overworld map, which is gorgeous with lush grass, forests, villages, mountains, caves, and seas. It's easy to interact with buildings and dungeons, and there's even more sprawling areas to explore. Cat Quest has a rich color palette with bright and vibrant hues that shift to darker and more muted tones depending on the area. Character sprites are all unique and easily identifiable, from NPCs to enemies. Animations are buttery smooth and fluid, so I had no issues with lag on my iPhone 7. Cat Quest also has a mystical, adventurous soundtrack that fits your journey perfectly, and the sound effects are top notch. Needless to say, Cat Quest is worth getting just for the graphics and music alone.

Since Cat Quest is an adventure game at heart, players discover and unravel the story of a cat hero who carries the mark of the "Dragonblood" on his head. Once the premise of the plot is revealed, you'll embark on a journey of getting strong enough to defeat the dragons. All of your traveling is done on the overworld, as well as combat. Villages and NPCs reveal themselves to you as the story unfolds. Everything is told through quests, whether they're main quests relating to the story, or side quests that you can do for experience, loot, and rewards.

The biggest draw of Cat Quest is the fact that everything is done in real-time, so there's no waiting around. As you move around on the overworld, you'll see enemies scurrying about around you. You can engage in combat with them on the overworld, or just avoid them altogether if they're too tough. The overworld also has a pointer that tells you where to go for your quests, and you can zoom out and view the overview map by tapping on the button in the bottom right corner. This is great when you're lost and want to see exactly where you're going. Everything is also available from the get-go, so you could go into a high level dungeon super early on, but this is not recommended.

Controls in Cat Quest are easy enough, but may take a bit of getting used to. To move, just tap where you want to go, and the cat goes there. Optionally, you could long press to continually move, but it can get uncomfortable after a while, or your fingers may be blocking the screen. To attack enemies, just tap on one to select them, and then your cat auto attacks with melee hits. If you long press on your cat with the white circle around him, you can select a magical spell or skill to use. Magic attacks cost mana, and you refill the mana by doing regular attacks - it's an endless cycle.

There's no way to dodge or block enemy attacks, so you just have to get out of the way. Fortunately, the game tells you the enemy's attack area before the attack happens, so you have a bit of leeway with getting out in time. There's going to be a bit of running back and forth during combat in Cat Quest - timing is key.

As enemies fall, they'll drop gold and experience orbs. Collect these by running over them. You'll also find random experience orbs and gold scattered on the overworld or in dungeons, so make sure to take advantage of the freebies.

When you find loot in chests or get rewarded with them, they go straight to your inventory. You can access your item stash at any time by tapping on the backpack button in the bottom left corner. You can tap on an item to select it and view the stats, as well as compare it to what you have on now. If you want to change gear, just tap on the green button to equip it. Your cat's appearance changes depending on what gear he's wearing, which is cool.

Your cat can also learn different magic spells from the mage. As you get to certain parts of the story and meet the level requirements, you can get new spells to add to your arsenal. Your spells can get upgraded to be more potent, as long as you have the gold to do so. There's also a feline merchant, who has treasure chests you can purchase that contain random loot.

Unfortunately, there aren't any health potions in the game, so if you're low on health, you'll have to retreat. However, the game does provide plenty of "cat nap" spots (look for pillows at villages) that you can use, which replenish your health, mana, and defenses for free. These are also where you go to save your game progress.

Cat Quest is a stunning and addictive dungeon crawling RPG adventure. The game's distinctive overworld and real-time battle system works out incredibly well, and there's a lot of loot and magic to discover. The game also has a fantastic sense of humor as well, and there are more cat puns than you can shake a stick at. The graphics and music are amazing, and just add more depth to the journey.

If you are an adventure seeker and love a game that has a lengthy story and plenty of things to do, then Cat Quest fits the bill.

While Cat Quest is great, I think the controls could be better. They work, but personally, I found it tiring to hold my finger down on the screen in weird positions to continuously move and not block most of my screen. I would have liked to see an alternative control scheme in the options, or even MFi controller support. Until that happens, this game just falls short of perfection, at least for me.

I fell in love with Cat Quest when I first got to see a demo, and I still can't get enough now that it's officially out. I bought this title the moment I saw it on the App Store, and have not regretted my purchase. The visuals are superb and the music is fun. The controls work well, though could be better optimized, and the gameplay is addicting.

There's a lot of loot to discover, and it's just fun to take out foes and grind for better magical spells. The quest system works, allowing you to either go on with the main story or be a completionist with side missions. Regardless of how you approach it, Cat Quest is a fun adventure that will keep you coming back for more. Plus, who doesn't love cats and puns?

I highly recommend Cat Quest if you're a fan of dungeon crawling RPG adventures. You can find Cat Quest on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $4.99. There are no in-app purchases.