A Great, Fun experience, which I do hope gets some expansion

[Star Sage]

To start with, this was one of two games I was really looking forward to this month(The other, for anyone curious is Gundam Breaker 4). And while short and snacky, it delivered in spades, with a fun story, good design, and a pace that puts the other two CQ games to shame, even if it wasn't quite as expansive as those were.

The beginning is probably the least direct of the three games so far. The quest to save your sister in game one was a simple plot, with a villain right from the get go. There was some twists to it, especially fun given how it seems like it wouldn't have such, and the actual design was awesome to see in its early stages.

Game two, with its focus on multiplayer, was just as direct, introducing you to the world once again, several centuries in the future from the prior, but still seemingly the same world, as they dropped hints of what had been before, and also eventually began to speak of what was coming, while still telling its own story. Better, it was just as direct, giving you the two main antagonists for the game, and showing why they needed to be taken down.

This game is a lot less direct with it, which helps and hurts at the same time. It helps by removing any immediacy from the current situation. You want to find the Northern Star, but that's a treasure many people have hunted for, so you going after it just adds one more catventurer on the quest, rather than being something only you want/can do.

Mind, it quickly turns out, while others can seek the star, and some have even found at least some places where it might rest, only you CAN do this final hurdle, as only you have the right bloodline, and the mark. A recurring theme in all three games, that you are the person with the special blood to make this work.

Still, because it's less direct, you have a whole world open to you, no gating here, save by enemies that can kick your butt. You can immediately head from the start of the game to the final area from the get go, blocked only by a single door that requires just a bit more work to open, giving you freedom in how to approach everything else.

That said, it's a bit of a problem in that freedom doesn't give the game a lot of ways to build itself up. Similar to other open worlds, the game doesn't know what scene you've seen, save for a few times, and so no plots can advance without being entwined, and the Gentlebros didn't want to force you to do them in chunks, so it means that each one is disconnected.

Still, they did use that freedom to create quest chains. Where the prior two games had some one offs, with most chains adding to the town only, this one spends time telling more personal stories. You aren't helping whole villages or kingdoms most of the time, nor are you putting yourself front and center during a wartime, you are, for all intents and purposes, just getting involved in a single person's life.

And that is somewhat interesting to me. CQ1, because it WAS the first one, focused a lot on the world building, most of the quests tied into the Dragons or Drakoth, depending on how they were handled, with only a few doing something different to shake it up, like Twin Towns creepy quest.

CQ2 meanwhile, EVERY Quest had something to do with either the current war going on, and even when it didn't have that, like the Banished One quest chain, the story still involved the animosity between the two groups, showing how division had really hurt them, making some evil just because they wanted the best weapons they could get for the war they knew was coming.

CQ3's stories doesn't HAVE that overarching connection. But they DO have a theme. Letting go, and moving on with your life. Sometimes its after tragedy, sometimes its simply not holding a grudge, and sometimes it's just picking yourself up after something didn't work, and keeping going. Meanwhile, a few show the folly of those who CAN'T move on or let go, for instance a certain shiny tower.

Or a Duck. There's a quest/bounty with a duck...moving on.

It's neat to see, and this game feels the most designed of the 3 games so far, putting me in mind of Might and Magic, interestingly enough. M&M6 was HUGE, with massive dungeons and large lands to explore, to the point where a literal hole in the wall cave took more than an hour to explore.

M&M7, by contrast, decided to do some smaller things, and focus on the design of the dungeons, creating tinier experiences, but allowing each one to stand on its own a bit better, as they were more unique, and each one tied into a quest or story within the game world.

That is how this one makes me feel. It's Might and Magic 7, for Cat Quest. There's fewer dungeons, but each one tells a story all its own, with only the Furst Cave and Ruined Castles being completely divorced from a story, and the latter of those still manages to put in a neat fight at its end to really pump you up for how it works, with both giving some good rewards and teaching you the dungeon layouts, before requiring you to do more with them.

They also included a challenge mode in the main game this time, in the form of the Infinity Tower Revisit. You have to go there for a part of the game, but afterwards, you can go back in to put your skills to the test, and show just how far you have come, with the sheer amount of things it throws at you, in addition to its time limit, being something that will eventually get you.

Beyond that, the gameplay is much improved, even over CQ2. In CQ1, you had two option, melee and sometimes magic. You HAD to focus on Melee, since magic was charged with it, and thus, you really only had one major option, you could sometimes supplement with the other one.

CQ2 not only expanded that by giving you some ranged options, which came with a big downside to compensate for their utility, but also then added in some new spells, allowing you to do some crowd control with magic, and not just hit things with your numbers, but hit them in various ways AND make them go where you wanted.

CQ3 adds a quick switch for ranged and melee, making both equal options, but after seeing what spells worked and which didn't, they changed them to make them less instant damage, and gave each a firing pattern instead, giving a different feel for each attack spell, though getting rid of the CC options due to how the game handles that.

Better, the equipment itself is expanded, with accessories to equip, up to 4 by games end, with their own passive effects and sometimes stat benefits, allowing you to create some VERY broken builds when you figure out how each one interacts, countering the second games endgame which, while some armor and helms HAD effects...you'd pretty much be using a certain set or two by the end due to how its stats completely outdid everything else.

And finally, this game has multiple endings, as its open ended nature means you never have to experience everything, but not showing a particular someone the folly of never letting go causes some interesting things to turn out different, though like the prior two, it doesn't really follow through, as the story of the Seeker is over the moment you win the last battle, with no real epilogue.

Mind, that is getting into the negatives, and sadly, there are some. Now, length is not one of those I'm going to get onto them for, as I see some reviewers do. For one thing, it's a 20 dollar game, not 60, and I think it's got a good length to it. For another, it explore the theme of the story in just about every way I could think of myself, so I don't see what else they could add that wouldn't retread the ground.

However, that being said, the ship is...very direct in how it upgrades. Like, you DO have 8 slots you can fill with 10 pieces of stat altering gear and 4 special moves, and you can equip them in any order. But the combat with the ship never really evolves from the word go. Not sure how they could make it do so, to be fair, but it feels a bit too static. Maybe some different cannons to load into, one that tracks hard but hits lighter, something that is like a shotgun, but first wide, and maybe a laser like cannon, but it fires only in the front. Some of the specials do something similar, but they ARE the specials, I mean these as some kind of upgrades you find.

The other thing is some stories just END. Like I said, these games have rarely had epilogues, but CQ2 usually had a scene to wrap up the storylines, either with the person saying goodbye, or just explaining that the issue is solved by your actions. Here its...well due to the nature of it, ones they let go, a lot of people just leave, and either fade away, or you just never see them again, but even those that don't rarely get more than a few lines, even if they stick around.

Big example, the Lightmouse, they're your info person, even says to come to them when you get lost, but...you never need to, as the Guide Stones exist to point you in the direction of the next storyline step, so it never means anything, and then, they get stuck on the penultimate dungeon, never telling you to go to the final one, which seems like that would be their last bit, to wish you good luck or something.

Same thing with the 3 vendors. You help them out, but two go back to generic 'thank you' dialogue, when they could maybe give a rotating series of small platitudes, or even some in references in the blacksmith's case discussing his sister and the world. Meanwhile the magic upgrader gives you a hint to something you MIGHT have looked up already as its a big obvious 'this is a puzzle' with no obvious hints to it.

Not sure what you could do too much with them, but maybe some kind of payoff once you had all three done. Heck, same with the bounties. There's 11 special enemies, some story focused, others just in the world, and killing each one gives you a chest and some good gold gains. But then...nothing. There's no final reward, no big quest to finish, just ends there, when it feels like there should be something unlocked to make the bit an even 12(technically you get twelve bounty chests, but the 12th is tied into the barkeep's story, so it feels like it's a different thing).

Anyway, that's enough of that. I want to end off saying, I see some negative possibility space in this, but the Gentlebros have shown before, they WILL fill that in later. Both the prior two CQ games got big updates post launch, adding in new game modes in the Mew Game and Meowdifiers, and even some QoL improvements that were awesome, and I see no reason not to expect the same here, with them seeing what players say, and maybe getting some feedback data, and then adding in things we want/things they see unaddressed in the base game.

Nothing I've mentioned is a terrible thing, and as I said, I like that this game tackles a theme in so many different ways, as far too many wouldn't bother seeing however far a theme, rather than a narrative, could get them...I still want my boat to have a laser. You teased me by giving the Duck one, so I feel jipped.

To close off, this is a great game, and I hope to be back here in 2-4 years time, or however long it takes, playing CQ4, as we finally find out what the overarching 'villain' is actually after, especially given his talks have constantly shown in this one, and even in the other two, that whatever else Aelius is, he's not exactly Evil.

[kaki_gamet]

You will be back in few months : D

[ciiibs Srrd]

niceee

[Grisu]

This thread should have a "Wall of Text" warning.

[kaki_gamet]

Its Star Sage's habit : )