In a different reality, United States of America abolished human presidents, replacing them with cats! That’s right, those cute and adorable fuzzy animals have been in charge for the last 20 years. To everyone’s surprise, the country is better than ever, but it’s 2016, and once again it’s election time. Can you choose the best cat president from all the possible candidates?!
Developed and published by Oh, a Rock! Studios (creators of the recent The Pizza Delivery Boy Who Saved the World) Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~ is their very first title, and we can safely say that they started with the right foot, or should I say, the right paw?
Players take on the life of a young woman whose life is somehow slowing drifting away… College is another long lost battle, and considering she’s not the smartest cookie, it’s no surprise, however, her dedication and perseverance make up for it. After a walk in a park with a friend, our protagonist is invited to watch a live presidential national debate. She reluctantly accepts, which will change her life forever!
Cats are running for the presidency, and the battle is fierce. Which one will you support? Listen to the selected candidates, their goals, and ideas for the continuous progression of America. Join their fight, or will you sabotage it? Either way, the election is on, and you play as the campaign manager!
As in every Visual Novel, the narrative is by far the most important detail, and just because the whole concept for Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~ is as hilarious as it can, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a value in the writing. Surely it’s a comedy intended game, and its own funny concept delivers the most amusing narrative you can probably find on Steam! The whole interaction between the main character with the events is just surprisingly hilarious, and the placement of circumstances is most of the times unexpected. One thing is guaranteed though, you’ll giggle all the way through this swift adventure, with quite the amount of surprises waiting for you.
There are quite the choices to be made in this journey, with interactive elements and decisions that reflect long and short term events. Interaction with each candidate displays a different set of developments, as each cat has a distinct personality, and their approach to win the election will take players through different routes.
With multiple endings, there’s also an extra romantic tie associated within the narrative, which is quite the surprise, considering the involvement of humans with cats, then again, they are running the White House, so why not go full on with this? Amusing as it may seem, the dialogue, direction is far away from being absurd, and delivers a stable line of concrete meaning within the storyline.
Would be a shame to have such an incredible concept fulfilled with nonsense, thankfully, it’s not the case. Part of what makes everything come together is how the world portrayed in the game seems already used to this, and throughout the campaign, players will face social media such as Catstergram, political polls, and other events that are well established in this new order.
Visually, the game uses real photographic imagery for both, renders and backgrounds. Most renders are cats, that is, for each of the 6 candidates. Every other character you may or may not encounter are also real actors. There aren’t many renders for candidates, even though the developer team used pictures, it’s not particularly easy to portray a cat with different facial expressions, but there’s still plenty of variations to go with. As for backgrounds, you’ll never feel bored, with dedicated scenes per each situation, which only adds to its well driven flow.
Presentation is somehow simple, with an interface that doesn’t try to be pretentious, and at the same time, does not stain the whole concept with weird text font, which we can always appreciate. It’s still simple and effective. Performance is a plus for this one, since it uses photographic images. The quality upscales considerably much better, meaning if you play at 1440p or 4K, the quality will be really good, and yes, I’m looking at all of you who play Visual Novels on the large Screen TV!
A fantastic well portrayed offside reality storyline, with an interesting concept filled with humour and fun characteristic moments. There are no references to the real 2016 election, and It’s entirely a fictional story. It’s also worth being mentioned, that it’s not a parody of any sorts, it’s a real, unique story of its own.
If you like Visual Novels, that have a certain level of interactivity, funny moments, and unexpected narrative directions, but still have some common sense in it, this is by far the best bet. With a pleasant soundtrack, plenty of cute cats, and a sweet romantic outcome included. Far-fetched, yet, in a good way!