I recall about a year ago when the first Cat Quest became available for me on the PS-Plus membership and I only downloaded it because it was free. This is not the kind of game that I would have ever sought out or even less paid for in the past. But after playing that one I was delighted when just a bit later the 2nd one was offered as part of the membership and most recently, the 3rd one was offered as well.
All 3 of these games are absolutely excellent for casual players like myself who enjoy a bit of challenge but also appreciate humor and exploration as well as the ability to completely overpower yourself for upcoming areas, if you so see fit.
Sort of quietly released in later 2024, Cat Quest 3 operates in a very similar fashion to the first two in that it is an action RPG in a top down at an angle sort of fashion. The combat is simplistic, often combining an attack with some sort of ranged option as well as a dodge and some magic mixed in with the top buttons that go through cooldowns. The initial battles are so easy that you would have to simply stand there in order to lose and well, for a player like me, this is what I want the beginning of a game to be.
When you destroy enemies in combat they drop some sort of currency and this can be used to upgrade the multitude of armors and weapons that you will find. The upgrade system is very important to progression as your favorite weapons will quickly become not powerful enough to quickly dispatch new enemies you encounter.
In Cat Quest 3 the game is differentiated only by the motif which is one of you now being about as benevolent a pirate as can be imagined. You do plunder other vessels and people, but only if they are bad. Part of what makes the game so much fun is the cartoonish humor and the wording that they use to identify areas, enemies, friends, and major accomplishments by putting the word "cat", "paws", or "meow" into anything that they can.
Chests are distributed all over the islands and in caves and castles and there are a LOT of them, over 160 in fact and each time you encounter one it is just as interesting as the last as they tend to contain meaningful items such as upgrades to current equipment or different equipment that you haven't yet seen. While I wouldn't say that there is a huge difference between the various weapons that you find, you can still play around with them a bit and have some fun with it. Honestly, I think that you could equip whatever and still be able to make it through most of this game with a bit of strategy.
Just an example of the silly humor that they use in this game is the section of "Captain Meowtallika" who carries around a guitar, he and all of his minions love metal, and you can hear them coming before you see them. You need to be somewhat fearful of this lot at the start of the game because they are more powerful than you but this all changes later, as you would expect.
There are a few spots of difficulty in your progression but nothing that is really going to stump you for more than say, half a dozen tries at defeating the boss and most of the time when you are having trouble with something like this it is because you have the wrong gear equipped and the game playfully nudges you towards figuring that out on your own when it is reloading.
There was one boss I recently died to about 5 times in a row and while it should have been evident to me and I felt like a dolt for not being able to figure it out, I needed to have electric defense and better ranged weapons equipped, both of which were already sitting in my inventory. Once I equipped those and they were not something that I would have used a great deal prior to this fight, the battle was much easier.
Even without this information though, I likely would have emerged victorious if I had just tried it a few more times and dodged better. I was approaching this boss just like I did everything else in the game, which is to say, not very seriously.
This is a lie back on your sofa and enjoy the puns and funny dialogue cutesy kind of game that I tend to enjoy from time to time. Super serious games are fun as well and I enjoy those but a laid back experience like this is one that brings very little in the way of frustration into your life and if you are looking for a casual experience that has a lot of the features of games of days gone past, Cat Quest 3 might be exactly what you are looking for.
It would appeal to adults and children for different reasons as well and in that regard it is a lot like a Pixar movie.
Especially if you don't have to pay anything for it, I think that most people will enjoy this "Pawsome Adventure" and be a bit sad when it is over because one of the only widespread criticisms that this game has faced is the fact that it is really short.
Check it out! The game is available on just about every platform in existence.