Cat Quest III | Review (2025)

Cats and piracy go as well as brownies on a cinnamon roll. A lot better than you’d think! Developer The Gentlebros and publisher Kepler Interactive bring this award-winning combination in their action-adventure title ‘Cat Quest III’. Players will take on the role of a little kitty who is brought up by a floating blue ghost pirate after said kitty’s parents perish at the hands of the Pi-rat King. I think I wrote that right, something tells me I’m going to get these pirate and animal puns very wrong in this review.

But before I digress, I think I’ll try writing like a pirate for this review. It’s only fitting for a game as purrfectly enjoyable as both a single player action game and a fun cooperative title for all ages.

Ye best start believin’ in pirate reviews, my fine fellow reader—yer in one!

And Then Aye Started Blastin’

Cat Quest III is a 2.5D adventure game, taking place in the islands of an unknown regions. Plenty ‘o piracy though, as you can imagine—yer playable kitty-cat is not only proficient in swipes and axes but blundershots and magix. Yer goal as a scallywag is to take on the best of the best, collect golden dubloons, upgrade and find new gear, and most importantly be the best pirate ye can be. All the pirates and citizens ye give a helpin’ paw to are part of yer number one quest: finding the Northern Star. And though ye will be pillagin’ and plunderin’ (to the extent of an E10 rating, I don’t think anyone actually dies), ye will also be learnin’ lessons on friendship, communication, unity among the livin’, and family. Arrr, tis all very cute ‘n wholesome.

Okay, I’m dropping the pirate dialect, it’s too hard for me to keep up with.

In Cat Quest III, players fight enemies on the game’s gorgeous little overworld map, either on foot or on their ship. You’ll quickly start finding new gear that improves your health and strength along providing bonuses to particular stats or weapon types. Guns and magic wands can be found, too, along with a slew of little items that provide additional perks. As you beat enemies, you level up, allowing you to slot in more of these perks and thereby making you very powerful. Even better, gear and magic can be levelled up independently of your kitty’s level, either by buying said upgrades or simply finding a duplicate of that item.

These will be necessary if you want to take on some of the game’s more difficult enemies, especially post-game. Mind, Cat Quest III isn’t difficult, but run into the wrong crowd at the wrong time and you’ll find yourself getting clobbered. When that happens, you’ll spawn at the last “Rest Beakon” you napped at. Or somewhere a little closer depending on quest circumstances. Movement and combat are smooth ‘n snappy, as you glide and dodge while dealing your own range of devastating attacks.

About the only downside I can think of is that, once you’ve unlocked the right gear (particularly Arcane and Electric magic), a lot of fights become trivialised even at higher levels. Ship battles, too, turn out like this but you don’t spend much time doing those anyway—adding to this, ship controls are solid and give you room to shoot, manoeuvre, and run with your tail between your legs.

The overworld of Cat Quest III is beautiful and has some great little tunes that arrr as pirate as they can be. The game’s map is just the right size and each part of the map has something unique to it. Be it darker and gloomy waters, a rising sun glistening about, or everybody’s preferred clear bright skies with tasty light blue water—I didn’t even get to the questing part! Cat Quest doesn’t have too many quests. Heck, there’s no quest log, either—once you’ve started a quest, it simply stays on the map. Some quests have you clear out small outposts and feature unique dialogue. Sometimes you might run into these weird Katamari-styled looking weirdos that give you additional magic bars, too. It’s worth its weight in gold to explore the islands.

But some quests have more unique traits, dealing with the supernatural, a love story gone wrong, or flat-out changing the entire perspective of the game. The dungeons you run in this game are also small in scale, easily beaten in a couple of minutes. I appreciate this because they’re easy to clear and offer a brief challenge without overextending their stay. Dungeons will have unique challenges that test your current build or offer fun fights.

Speaking of questing, Cat Quest III lets you start anything and fight anything as long as you can get to it. A true open-world adventure, provided you don’t get one shot by high level mobs. The game is more than happy to give you a life of freedom after its brief intro cutscene and I appreciate that. Your whole adventure will run a good five to ten hours, but there is a New Game Plus mode that will carry everything you’ve collected, levels included, into a more dangerous overworld with higher level enemies and bosses to fight. A pirate’s life without freedom is no pirate life, after all.

Cat Quest III is a remarkably simple but fun adventure game for all ages. I enjoyed its numerous pirate, cat, dog, and rat puns all the while taking on foes of all sizes. There’s a good amount of weapon and armour types and the challenges can keep those of all ages busy, be it alone or with a family slash friend. A pirate adventure that is truly fur everyone. ∎