Cat Quest 3 was provided by Kepler Interactive for review. Thank you!
This review used an LCD Steam Deck. OLED details will be coming later.
I have seen the Cat Quest games around for the past few years, but never actually took the time to play one. Well, with Cat Quest 3, I finally got my chance. And I have to say, what a delightful little Adventure/RPG this game is.
Cat Quest 3 is technically an action RPG, but it kind of feels like an action RPG lite. It's very easygoing, with level-ups simply increasing your stats automatically and occasionally unlocking a new equipment slot. There aren't as many items or abilities as you might expect. Instead, the game opts for a system where getting a duplicate item raises the level of the item, making it more powerful.
While this simplicity and a smaller concentration of items might be perceived as negative in some games, I feel like it works to its benefit. It condenses the feeling of an RPG into a small and delightful bundle. The map is smaller than most RPGs you'll play, there are fewer items, and you won't be sitting there trying to figure out if you should put your points into strength or dexterity.
Despite this, the game still feels deep. You have limited equipment slots for gear, magic, and ship upgrades, meaning that even though there are only a few of each, you still need to decide which ones you want to use. Each piece of gear also generally gives a stat boost, so you can "spec" into health, defense, attack strength, or magical ability, so there are some adjustments you can make to suit your playstyle.
As I previously said, the game world isn't overly large. I'm unfamiliar with the previous 2 Cat Quest games to know how big their worlds are, but in Cat Quest 3, you can sail your ship from one end of the archipelago to the other in around a minute.
Cat Quest 3 is a pirate game, unlike the previous 2 games, which had a more typical fantasy RPG setting. You can get in and out of your ship at any time, and your gameplay will be a fairly balanced mix of using your ship to travel and fight other ships and walking around on the many islands in the game.
While most of the fighting is done in paw-to-paw combat, you get a ranged weapon, which can be good as an initial strike as they tend to be high-damage. Occasionally, you will find it's best to use your ship to bombard a strong enemy from range or deal with a pesky ship that's causing you problems.
It's not all about the combat, though; littered across the archipelago are its residents, many of whom are looking for help to complete their quests. The game is called Cat Quest 3, after all! These quests can be simple, such as carrying an item from Point A to Point B, or it could be to defeat a certain enemy or find a hidden treasure somewhere. The quests are nearly always on the shorter side, and even the "fetch" quests in the game aren't too troublesome due to that fact.
Many of the islands in the game are also home to puzzles and caves. The puzzles often involve magical rocks, and you have to work out what they want from you each time. Some require you to hit them in order, some require you to hit them in quick succession, etc.
Caves are Cat Quest 3's version of dungeons. They often contain enemies and/or obstacles for you to work through, and at the end, you will likely encounter some treasure, either in the form of a lot of gold and XP or a piece of equipment you can use. Much like the rest of the game, they are shorter and can usually be completed in 5 minutes or less.
There aren't many negative things I can say about Cat Quest 3. It sets out to be a simplified, cozy, relaxing Action RPG, and it does just that. If I were to pick out an issue I found with the game, it's mostly a bit directionless. Different islands in the archipelago have enemies of different levels, and it can be difficult to determine the next island you should visit. I often found myself visiting 2 or 3 high-level islands and almost dying before finding an island I could handle at my current level. That being said, the game is generally easier if you stick to the correct islands.
The story also feels a little flat. Information is clearly kept from the player from the outset, but this is one area where I feel like the simplified approach didn't help. Things just aren't really explained all that much. The protagonist's being entirely silent also doesn't help matters here, either.
These are fairly small complaints; however, Cat Quest 3 is all about how the game feels and plays, and you can tell that not much emphasis is on the story.
Cat Quest 3 is about as simple as you like when setting it up on the Steam Deck. It defaults to the Steam Deck's native 1280x800 resolution, and the controls work perfectly. The game plays best on a gamepad.
Because of this, I only have one preset.
In your SteamOS settings, set an FPS Limit of 60 FPS / 60Hz and then we'll lower the TDP Limit down to 5W.
There are few graphical settings for Cat Quest 3, just Resolution and Draw Distance. In this case, the Resolution should already be set to 1280x800, but the Draw Distance was set to about half for me. So bump that up to the highest level as well.
Using these settings, the game almost always ran at a locked 60 FPS for me. There are occasional stutters, but nothing egregious. There's not much else to say, really!
The Steam Deck LCD's power draw stays pretty low, hovering around 8-10W generally, but you can see increases to 11W in "intensive" areas, such as when fog appears. So expect the Steam Deck LCD to get a good 4 hours of battery life and the Steam Deck OLED to get around 5 hours.
Temperatures mostly stuck to about 60C, occasionally creeping close to 65C but never exceeding it.
If you really want to save battery life, you can play the game at 30 FPS with a 3W TDP Limit. However, the power draw still stays at about 8W, so you might get an extra 30-40 minutes of battery life, which isn't really worth it to drop from 60 FPS to 30 FPS.
Sadly, Cat Quest 3's lack of options extends to accessibility options. Other than rebindable controls, there are really no accessibility options. All dialogue is subtitled, though. The game also has an "Easy" mode.
Cat Quest 3 is an appropriately fuzzy-feeling experience. Action-RPG-Lite feels like the perfect label for this game. It's accessible, fun, and about as carefree as you can make a game like this. Children and adults should have no trouble enjoying this game, and it could be ideal for a parent and child to play together.
The game isn't too long, likely following the previous two games, with around 10-12 hours of content here. But for the good times you'll have and the reasonable price tag ($19.99 at the time of writing), Cat Quest 3 is definitely a game I can recommend.
It runs great on the Steam Deck, too. It has a perfect control scheme and very low power draw, meaning you can easily get in long play sessions or hook it up to an external display to play at a higher resolution for some local co-op. Cat Quest 3 deserves our "Best on Deck" rating.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Cat Quest 3 plays about as good as you could hope for on the Steam Deck, with great controls and low power draw.
