Doctor Cat Review: A Good Concept That Needs a Little Extra Something (Switch)

When I saw that Doctor Cat was a puzzle game with narrative incorporated, I was intrigued and decided to give the game a go. While the game didn’t lie when it said it had these things; there are indeed puzzles to solve and cats who discuss their problems with a therapist, I couldn’t help feeling that it somehow missed the mark. While I won’t say that Doctor Cat is a terrible game by any means, having some compelling puzzles to solve, it could have been better. I’ll go into more detail as to why I think this and how it could have been better in this review.

Doctor Cat is available on PC, PlayStation 4 | 5, Xbox One | Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.

Story – What Seems to Be the Problem?

A key selling point of Doctor Cat is that it incorporates narrative gameplay with puzzles. Essentially, you play as a cat therapist in their practice, listening to their cat clients’ stories of woe about their lives. A few examples are a cat feeling lonely and having a fear of failure, another cat who misses their friend who passed away, etc. The titular Doctor Cat will take in these cats’ problems and offer advice – after you have solved a puzzle relating to them and their problems.

I will give credit for Doctor Cat being more than just a straight-up puzzle game. If it didn’t have the whole cat therapist thing going on, it would all just be puzzles. The puzzles you solve in Doctor Cat do have a story behind them, which makes it more interesting and you feel more compelled to solve the puzzle.

However, for whatever reason, there are times when trying to have puzzles and storytelling together don’t quite work. The puzzles almost feel like a distraction from the clients’ stories, despite the pictures being directly related to the client and their issues. They enter the practice spilling out their sorrows, distressed and depressed as you would be going to therapy, particularly for the first time. Then Doctor Cat says they’ll work through the problem together, which then cues the puzzle for you to solve. Solving the puzzle then leads to Doctor Cat offering their solution to the client, and just like that, they’re sent on their way and the next client arrives with a new problem.

The concept of having a cat therapist listening to their client’s story and then you solving the puzzle depicting their woes and then Doctor Cat giving advice isn’t a bad one, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem to execute very well. It’s like the idea sounds good on paper, but when it’s done in the game, it doesn’t quite work, which is actually a shame because it is a good one. Perhaps what could have been better, instead of just Doctor Cat saying what to do to the client, there should have been a follow-up puzzle depicting how the client could go about solving their problems. Even more than that, perhaps the client could have returned to the practice for a follow-up appointment and yet another puzzle reveals what happened to them after they took Doctor Cat’s advice. This way, the whole story aspect would have been more satisfying and conclusive, plus, it would have made the game longer.

Gameplay – Therapy Via Puzzles

I’ve already talked about how Doctor Cat mixes puzzles with storytelling, but let’s go more into the actual gameplay itself.

How Long Is the Game?

The first thing you should know, Doctor Cat is a short game. In my first playthrough, I finished it in less than an hour. Saying that, I did start off playing the game in easy mode. It might have taken me longer to do the puzzles if I’d had them set to medium. Only after completing the game do you unlock hard mode. With the different difficulties, what changes is the number of squares in the puzzle. The hardest mode has a picture composed of 10 x 10 squares. One such puzzle I did took about 20 minutes. Altogether, there are 12 puzzles to solve in Doctor Cat, each one relating to a different client Doctor Cat helps out. 12 doesn’t seem a lot, but with the harder modes, it’ll drag the game time out longer, depending on how good you are at solving the puzzles.

Medium mode comprises of 8 x 8 squares to a picture.

How the Game Works

The basic setup for Doctor Cat is very simple. It takes place in Doctor Cat’s office. When there’s a knock at the door, you let the client in, and Doctor Cat proceeds to ask them what their problem is and why they’re there. The client will then explain what is wrong, how they’re feeling, why they need help. After hearing their complaints, Doctor Cat moves on with helping to resolve their problem. They then leave and another client comes asking for help. In the midst of their appointment, your job is to solve the puzzle linked to the client, which depicts whatever is ailing them. 

Although the game is part puzzle, part therapy, you don’t do any advice giving yourself. That’s left to Doctor Cat. Your job is to work out the puzzle. It would have been quite good if you’d been given the opportunity to have proper conversations with the clients, giving them advice yourself via multiple choice dialogue. It would have been more engaging. However, how the game works is that the therapy provides the story, while the puzzles provide the gameplay.

All of Doctor Cat’s clients have different issues they’re trying to work through.

Solving the Puzzles

Let’s talk about the puzzles themselves. You might think these are jigsaw puzzles, but they’re not. They’re pictures broken up into squares, with the squares all jumbled up. To get the pieces in the right places, you have to swap one piece with another. You keep going until all the pieces are in the right place and form a picture.

Solving the puzzles are quite good fun, but again, I felt some things could be improved. For one, the square you are currently on flashes green, but this is too subtle and not very clear. It’s much harder to spot on smaller and darker squares, particularly if they happen to be green too. Sometimes I had to select the square to see where I was. This can make navigating across the squares harder work than necessary. Other issues are the lack of indication that you have correctly placed a square, so you could end up moving it from its right spot. The squares don’t lock in place once in the correct spot. 

There were more issues when it came to navigating across the puzzle. Playing on the Switch with the joystick to move about did feel a little clunky, and soon became tedious. I do wonder if gameplay would have been made easier with a cursor, or in the case of the Switch, making use of the touch screen.

As you solve a puzzle, the client talks more about their problem.

Graphics & Audio – Sweet and Simple

Doctor Cat is a straightforward game when it comes to story and gameplay. The graphics and audio are no different. The cartoonish graphics complements the game well. The graphics also work quite well with the grid-like picture puzzles to solve, no matter the size and difficulty. Each of the clients Doctor Cat works with is distinctive from each other and feel as if they have their own personalities, rather than a copy of each other.

The music in Doctor Cat isn’t too bad. There’s just one music track that plays throughout the main campaign, but it’s pleasant enough. It would have been better if there were most tracks to listen to, even if it was just an extra two, but at least the music we do get isn’t bad.

Doctor Cat was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch with a key provided by Afil Games.