Leo and Cat

I suppose the most important thing about Leo and Cat is that besides one significant flaw, it really doesn’t feel like a game made in two weeks, by two different developers. Most of it is very competently made, especially by rmk standards, there are no obvious errors to point to, and while the tone of the storyline certainly changes a lot by the end, it nevertheless still feels very organic. Of course, the flaw in question is rather major one, too though it thankfully doesn’t overshadow the rest of the game.

Storyline



The game is about Leo, a person cursed to possess the Eye of God, which both gives him the power to Scan enemies and locate hidden things (which are always marked on the map as pentagrams because of it), and is slowly killing him, with everyone giving him about three years at most. However, he’s already become largely resigned to this fate, and it’s now up to his companion, a sentient talking magic cat named Cat, to push him forward. There’s already a decent dynamic between the two from the start. You soon make your way into the town, where you might discover a way to remove the curse. Getting to know what it is, of course, requires going through a bunch of fetch quests, which are thankfully warmly written and quite amusing.

Pretty much the main draw of the first half of the game is in the town, which is somehow both larger and far better populated then those of many larger, longer-in-development RPGs on here. I would guess there are upwards of 30 NPCs in there, though most are obviously clustered at either the outdoors market, the 2nd Pub or the Noodle Shop. Pretty much all of them have an interesting or entertaining line to say: from the veteran in one house, an old man who asks you about the existence of dragons and finds the way to insult your youth regardless of whether you believe, disbelieve or are not sure about their existence, guards praising their insurance, etc. Of course, a lot of people are probably going to relate the most to a young guy at the Noodle Shop who names the premises of various popular games, typically following them up with “Wouldn’t it be cool?” I think the only one I didn’t recognize was “Imagine a game where you play as all the companions before you play as the hero.”. The rest was Fallout, Pokemon, Persona, Undertale, Knights of Old Republic (I guess that’s what space samurai meant?) and Homestuck ("Imagine a game that destroys the universe and you have to create a new one. Wouldn’t it be cool? Actually, that doesn’t sound so cool. I don’t want the universe to be destroyed.") I also hope that “Imagine a game where you have to travel through time to save the world” referred to No Time To Explain! or something rather than Quantum Break, for instance. And of course:



Nope. I played that game, and it was worse than this one.

Then, of course, there’s the contest’s second-week developer change, which seems to occur at about the point where you finally get through the fetch quest prelude and are pointed towards the witch to the east of the town as the only one capable of providing a cure. This is the time when the narrative gets much darker, much more serious and more character-driven, with Cat and cats in general getting a much larger role. There are also multiple endings, as the image above attests, with two opportunities to get an alternate ending. Their existence certainly makes the decision to push on the main, best ending more meaningful, as they are clearly worse, and there’s not much reason to settle for them on their own merits besides just exploring alternate paths. Well, besides getting tired of the final battle you need to beat to get the best ending, I suppose.

Gameplay



Far too strong for enemies, nowhere near strong enough for the final boss.

The combat by itself is certainly not too bad. At the start, you have Leo’s normal attack, Scan, and defense-ignoring TP move, while Cat might be weaker physically, but attacks twice, has a stunning move of sorts and can cast elemental magic to take advantage of such weaknesses. The enemies all have at least one skill (or can at least inflict status effects with regular attacks, like Hornets), often possess elemental weaknesses/resistances, and are encountered in a very wide range of groupings. However, the combat is not particularly challenging even at the start, and it certainly stops being more then a nuisance once you discover the way your characters are actually enhanced. After all, Leo and Cat commendably avoids the cliché whereas a supposedly wizened and experienced character still starts the game at level 1. Instead, they are both at level 10, which also means that getting further levels is quite difficult. The town also doesn’t have weapon/armour shops, because, as one citizen says, the place is so well guarded they don’t need any. Instead, you gain stats through the noodle shop, where a single bowl, costing just 20G, will permanently raise one of your base stats by 10, depending on the dish type. (You can increase HP/MP by 10 points in that way too, though that’s obviously much less helpful.)

By the time you enter the town, you should already have the funds to get the DEF and MDEF up to ~100 for both characters, which leaves pretty much everyone dealing null damage to them. You can go through the entire remaining game like this, more or less, until you discover that the witch, who has to be defeated for the best ending, will defeat you easily with those stats. A safe range to shoot for by the time you’re about to leave the town for the eastern route to her hut seems to be ~200 for the core stats (ATK, DEF, MDEF, and probably LUK too, for criticals), and a ~100 AGI/MAT, though you might want to increase the core stats by a few more points to be on the safe side. After all, while doing so in the noodle shop might be tedious, if kinda cute, it’s still nowhere near as tedious as a trudge from the hut back towards the town, through a swarm of random encounters that just annoys at that point.

Aesthetics (art, design and sound)



Largely RTP, as expected, though there are more than a few other resources/edits used, from Leo’s eyepatch, to a Werewolf battler I’ve seen a few times earlier, to a whole lot of various cat models. Mapping is pretty well done: from the large town which has a Pub and an Inn housed within the single building (as opposed to a second pub and the noodle shop), to the desolate swamp area at the end, with pools of poisonous purple sludge, which have nothing important…besides a single item located halfway across one, picking up which triggers a miniboss fight. The forest path earlier is also kinda complex, though while its curving is pretty cool when you enter it, remembering a right way to leave it might be quite difficult, which is another reason why you should ensure you won’t have to go back through it.

Conclusion

In all, Leo and Cat is a very nice game which would be even nicer if playing it successfully didn’t require you to utterly break its balancing first. Nevertheless, it’s a cool little thing, and you should try playing it.