Cat Quest III Review (Velaset)
7/10
Played Cat Quest from the first one. Cat Quest 2 being my (still) favorite. Cat Quest 3 improved on a lot of aspects but downgraded on just as many. I still believe this game is fantastic and is totally worth the money, so if you liked the previous games, you will probably like this one too.
The aesthetics of the game have improved both in art style and tower dungeons / caves layouts. Some are 2.5D while others are side scrollers and are also themed. The main quest line boss fights are unique visually and a lot of fun. The downsides is that the dungeons are extremely short, most tower dungeons having 5-8 rooms and maybe 4-6ish enemies occupying them and then the boss room. Both the diversity and quantity of enemies / dungeons / caves are severely lacking in the dungeons and overall world map, making the game feel empty compared to the other games. And while Cat Quest 2 seemed a bit bloated with these things and a reduction isn't technically a bad thing when being replace with quality over quantity, there still just wasn't enough in this one.
The melee has been improved, in my opinion. (I hated most melee in the first two games but absolutely loved in this one.) The range combat in general was lackluster with the exception of one gun. The wands for the most part were the same with a different element. Nothing like the crazy wands from the second game and the guns are pretty much the same. Range combat was boring and didn't feel like it was a necessary addition to the combat rotation. Which brings me to the magic. Magic was also lackluster. Most spells were the same fire out balls of this element and boring. Ice spike was the only spell I used other than healing. There wasn't any reason to use the other magic spells or range weapons due to how nonessential they were. I really wish they were fleshed out more and made more interesting but they just felt flat.
Ships were fun. I had a blast with it. unfortunately, again, just like with the ranged weapons and magic, it seemed like a half fleshed out mechanic. the main event for ships consist of 3 boss ships, 1 bounty ship, and the 1 bar mission. After that there's not much for you to do with your ship.
So overall, it was still a great experience. I really do recommend the game to those who've played the previous two. So while i think they have upped the quality in the dungeons, boss fights, melee, and general aesthetics of the game, i also feel that range combat, magic spells, and the ships were taken in a good direction, but they ran out of time or budget to fully see them through and became a shadow of what they could have been. So while there is a sense of lacking while and after the game and it feels almost incomplete in a way, i still got satisfaction from the game.
I finished this game 100% in 14hrs. it probably would have been a lot less but I like to explore right off the bat which led me to boss fights that were 30 lvls over my own. had I followed the story as it was more intended I probably would have finished around 8-9 hours.
So again, I recommend the game, but know that it is short and maybe a bit empty. And as a "Pirate" themed game, I really wanted more out of the ship and gun play. Maybe they'll update it with more content in the future. I'd even pay for DLCs if they expand those things I feel are lacking. Can't wait for the next one!