Cats Away

Cats Away starts from a wonderfully silly image, three sisters at the helm of a ship staffed by cats, then asks you to take its sea battles seriously. Steering into a better firing position while assigning your feline crew to weapons, repairs, remote units, and first aid gives the action a welcome tactical edge. The combination is charming because the cat theme is not just decoration. Your crew is tied directly to keeping the ship functional when a fight gets hectic.

The game has a lot on its plate, from ship upgrades and side missions to new ports, recruitable catmates, and an adventure involving pirates, ancient magic, and monsters. That breadth makes it a good fit if you want a lengthy, lighthearted naval strategy game with plenty to build toward. It may feel busy if you only want immediate arcade action, but the gradual growth of your crew and ship is the point.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Cats Away works best when you are making several small decisions at once instead of simply trading shots with another ship. You steer for a favorable angle, issue orders to counter the enemy, and rely on cats assigned to crucial jobs such as operating weapons, repairs, remote units, and first aid. That makes each naval encounter feel like a scramble to keep a tiny floating operation together, and the goofy premise gives those decisions more personality than a standard pirate game would.

Choosing which sister serves as captain changes the commands available in combat, so the three leads are more than interchangeable faces in the story. Ship customization also has real appeal: weapons and equipment can be upgraded, while colors and pirate flags let you put a personal stamp on each craft. With catapults, spear guns, gatling guns, torpedoes, and laser cannons among the arsenal, the game clearly wants you to experiment with what kind of ship you want to command.

Outside combat, the loop moves through ports, side missions, crew growth, new skills, and routes into unexplored waters. Recruiting from 60 cat breeds sounds like a delightful collection hook, especially since crew members serve practical roles aboard ship rather than existing only as trophies. The tradeoff is that Cats Away is a management-heavy adventure. If organizing a crew and steadily improving a vessel sounds satisfying, its systems have room to sink their claws in. If you want a stripped-down action game, the constant upkeep may become friction.

Graphics

The game leans into an anime and manga look, with the three sisters, their cat crewmates, pirate ships, remote watercraft, airships, and submarines carrying the playful fantasy-pirate theme. The strongest image is the basic contrast at the heart of the game: a serious-looking ship-to-ship struggle staffed by cats and armed with everything from old-fashioned catapults to laser cannons.

Story

The opening has enough momentum to pull you in. Kanna, Lilia, and Alicia return to the port where their father’s ship should be waiting, only for him to be absent and the vessel to come under attack. It is a clean call to adventure, and the family mystery gives the voyage a reason to matter beyond collecting loot and winning battles.

From there, Cats Away goes broad in a way that suits its knowingly playful tone. Pirate guilds, a cat-hating syndicate, ancient spells, and giant mutated monsters turn the journey into a busy fantasy adventure rather than a grounded maritime tale. That can be a strength if you enjoy a story willing to chase a wild premise wherever it leads.

The central question of what happened to the sisters’ father provides a useful throughline for a game built around detours, ports, and side missions. The promise of thrills and laughs matches the cat-filled concept, while the conspiracy and magic give the story stakes beyond the joke. You should come for the spirited adventure setup, not for a grim pirate drama.

Overall Experience

Cats Away earns its charm by connecting its feline theme to the actual play. Your catmates are the people, or rather cats, who operate the weapons, maintain the ship, and make survival possible. That is much more engaging than simply placing cat ears on a conventional naval adventure.

Its greatest strength is also its potential hurdle: there is a lot to manage. The captain choice, crew assignments, ship equipment, remote units, side content, and route progression suggest an adventure that rewards patience and curiosity. The payoff should be strongest for anyone who likes tinkering with a build and watching a crew grow more capable over a long campaign.

This is an easy recommendation for strategy-minded players who want their naval combat wrapped in a cheerful, offbeat anime fantasy. You can learn more from the Cats Away publisher page. Cats Away is not aiming for nautical realism. It is aiming to make commanding a cat-powered pirate ship feel both ridiculous and surprisingly involved, and that is a worthwhile destination for the right gamer.