Stray (PS4)
The much talked about "Cat Game", Stray is an indie game from BlueTwelve Studio. It follows an orange cat who has been separated from its family and stranded in an abandoned city. Together with your robotic buddy "B12", you'll explore the city and meet with its inhabitants while watching out for the dangers ahead. The story wasn't the most engaging one out there, yet it manages to keep you interested in figuring out what happened to the dreadful city and hoping the cat finds a way out. The characters weren't memorable by any means, but were a nice bunch.
Stray is an adventure game where you control the cat as you explore levels, either by jumping on rooftops, hopping on platforms, and pulling levers to unlock new paths. It's kind of a walking sim with a cat since the core gameplay doesn't evolve past that, however, you get a flashlight weapon to fight enemies in later chapters. The main hook are the levels, which were neatly crafted and fun to explore from the purrspective of a cat.
The game is great-looking as the world is brimming with bright neon lights and detailed scenery that ironically makes it feel more lively. The soundtrack nails the often eerie and unsettling atmosphere while having some catchy tracks as well. Overall, Stray was an interesting yet brief game clocking at five hours long. I enjoyed what it offered though there isn't much to see past the initial playthrough to warrant the $30 price. However, it's included as part of the PlayStation Plus Extra subscription, which starts at $15. Cat lovers should definitely give Stray a look.
Cat Quest (PS4)
Another indie cat game from The Gentlebros, Cat Quest is an action RPG with a fantasy setting. It packs the standard genre stuff like levelling up, exploring caves, fighting bosses, but the kicker is that the world is inhabited by cats and they have a tendency of making cat puns! You play as the "Dragonblood", a cat hero who can slay dragons that roam across the land of Felingard. After you're sister is catnapped by the villain Drakoth, it's up to you to defeat his forces and rescue her. The game's not short on fun humor with a few fourth wall breaks as well.
The gameplay is fast and snappy since there's no random encounters, meaning you can choose whether or not to fight enemies. Still, it does pack a challenge if you're not properly levelled up. Cat Quest has you exploring towns and interacting with its NPCs, who'll often give fetch quests that range from getting a few items to slaying a couple of enemies. They're not anything special but the game did a decent job making them unpredictable and tolerable but they start to get samey after a while.
What I didn't like most about Cat Quest was the lack of a sprint or fast travel option since travelling across the map can get tedious at times, especially when the game's asks to backtrack. As for the presentation, the cute artstyle and upbeat soundtrack fitted well with the game's setting, though the latter could've used a bit more variety in tracks. All in all, Cat Quest is yet another great game for cat lovers and even non-fans, given its solid foundations as an RPG.
BlazBlue: Centralfiction (PS4)
Arc System Works has garnered a great reputation at making fantastic 2D fighting games and BlazBlue: Centralfiction is another great game in their catalogue. The final entry in protagonist Ragna the Bloodedge's saga, it's loaded with a story full of twists and emotional moments to read through as its presented in visual novel form. The story's not welcoming for newcomers since it's is heavy on lore, requiring you to read through a bunch of character bios and long story recaps. I often consider it to be the Metal Gear of fighting game stories given how messy the plot gets.
Story aside, Centralfiction is a solid 2D fighter with a huge focus on technical fighting with you needing to master blocking, combo stringing, character-specific gauges, and so on. If that sounds daunting to you, the game offers a "stylish" mode where combos automatically engage as you mash buttons, which should slowly ease you into the mechanics. The game has a slew of game modes like the standard arcade, challenge, VS, time attack as well as an "Abyss" mode where you gradually fight tougher opponents while levelling up your character and give them stat-boosting grimoires. Online mode is close to dead nowadays with few players lurking around, so the aforementioned modes should do the trick.
In terms of visuals, Arc System delivers some great-looking and flashy 2D sprites befitting each character. The stage designs too were equally impressive as my favorite stages were the busy ones such as "Lost Town". As for the audio, Centralfiction didn't get the English localization as previous Blazblue games, so it's the standard Japanese voiceovers, which were good but might deter some fans. The soundtrack was good as expected from the series but I wasn't a fan of the new character themes since I found them forgettable compared to the originals. Still, Blazblue: Centralfiction was a fun and competent fighter that's not short on content-- if you exclude the empty online mode.
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