Being able to partner up with a friend to go on a grand adventure is the essential set up to an RPG that any player could want. Cat Quest II by The Gentlebros lets you do just that as this time around you are partnered up with a companion of a different breed. This cat and dog pair team up to work together against the evils that are plaguing the lands of which they both roam. It isn’t often you see these two breeds work together, but when they do it is always an enjoyable sight and experience to behold. This game fits right in with that saying as it was a great game from start to end!

Story

Both kingdoms are under attack from an unknown force and it is up to the King’s of both the Catpital and Lupus(?) to put an end to it. Without their intervention, the war itself could reignite between the cat and dog kingdoms which would lead to the cost of lives on both sides. While their memories are absent, they have Kirry to help guide them and help them figure out the questline that will bring peace to all the lands.

Gameplay

This RPG takes the form of a dungeon crawler and a world grinder blended together. As you journey throughout the world, which looks like a semi-detailed map beneath your feet, you will come across countless enemies to defeat and multiple dungeons to explore. These dungeons will sometimes be used in quests and side quests, but not all of them are used for a quest-line purpose and are simply there to be explored and conquered.

You are initially given a sword to fight with melee but are also soon introduced to the use of magic with a wand. As you progress you will get stronger and stronger weapons to use as well. The main thing to notice is that when you use a sword for melee combat your health bar is much larger than when you equip a magic wand since it cuts your health meter down. This is to compensate for the difference in up close and distance combat.

There are two shop types, armor and weapons, that are owned by two essential characters to the story and offer you the chance to upgrade your current items. The thing is that the weapons dealer, Kit Kat, is located in the Catpital and the armor dealer, Hotto Doggo, is located in Lupus. This means you have to travel between the two countries in order to get to the shop you want in order to upgrade your gear.

During your journey, you might come across two unique structures as well. The first to mention looks like a giant stone tablet with the “II” icon on it. When interacted with, these will grant you a new magic spell to use as well as increase your mana meter permanently. The other one is like a shrine, but when you enter it brings you to a location that is kind of like a dungeon, but it just features a bunch of stairs or locations for stairs to go. This is your fast travel dungeon so that you can get around the world quickly, however they aren’t well labeled so it is a bit easy to mix them up unless you really know the map.

It was a good challenge when there would be specific enemies that had to be defeated in specific ways. While some enemies were immune to magic, forcing you to use melee, others were vice versa. And then there were those immune to them all, so you had to trick them to step on the spike traps around you. This added to the fun difficulties of the game that made you think on your feet.

Speaking of spikes, there were a few different traps that you could come across that impeded your progress. Maneuvering through them could be the difference between having enough health before a boss fight or not. It is highly suggested that you either take your time and get really used to moving through those traps because it will be needed more often than you might expect.

Graphics and Sounds

Visually, this game is a cute battler. You fight your way through a bunch of cute-styled enemies while you, yourself are cute little cartoon animal character. It is very appealing to both adults and kids with an air of light-heartedness around it, even when the combat was difficult and the story got dark.

I enjoyed the music that played through this game as it makes you feel like you are really on a fantasy quest. It was like a fanfare of bravery and action blended together with the sound effects of all the different clashing, bashing, and magic splashing sent against all the enemies.

Replayability

There are so many side quests and so many dungeons to explore, there is plenty of reason to go back through the game! The side quests aren’t random either as it eventually leads to a sub-story of its own. While it doesn’t directly impact the main story, it does bring about more of the substance of the characters within the game.

What Could Be Better

I wish the upgrade shops would allow you to do both weapons and armor instead of just one or the other. While I can understand the separation at the beginning to give the player the sense of which character works on what, there is a point where both of them are in the same shop and I still could only upgrade the armor. Kit Kat was right there… why couldn’t I upgrade my weapons as well? There should have been a point in the game where you could upgrade all your gear in any of the shops.

Let us pick which character we want to play as when playing in multiplayer. In single-player, you can just switch between the two, but when playing together the cat character is forced on Player 1 and the dog character is forced on Player 2. Giving the players the option to pick which one of the two they want to be is a small aspect that would have gone a long way to give an even better improvement to the experience.

Cutscenes that have already been played should be skippable with one button. Even if we have to hold the button down to confirm the skip, it is better then standing through all the little animations and pushing the skip button like we’re playing a button-mashing fighter game. Some of the boss fights are difficult and players are going to be re-entering them. Don’t make them sit through the scene all over again.

Conclusion

Cat Quest II was an a-meow-zing game worth all the hours put into it! Thoroughly enjoyed sc-ruff-ing up the countless enemy creatures and big baddies that I came across, not to mention the entertainment value of being able to play through it with my wife. Absolutely well done and makes us look forward to Cat Quest III, which is mentioned during the game’s finale. A great RPG for all ages and players of all skill level.