Cats & Seek: Tokyo Review (PC)

Cats & Seek is back for a fourth season, with the eccentric yet historically photogenic capital of Japan taking the reins in an all-new scrubbable photograph that’s absolutely bursting at the borders with more kittens to locate, colors to extract, and snapshots to collect. It’s Cats & Seek: Tokyo, and it’s bringing yet another suitcase of adorable feline friends to the table with not just the usual traversable litter box, but also a DLC with an additional four levels and another 420 cats to collect. So, quite the upgrade, really.

Given that the Cats & Seek saga has amassed global exposure since its initial debut, it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to see another branch on the tree, so to speak. With the Osaka chapter having an all-round score of “Overwhelmingly Positive” on Steam, this sort of feels like the next best step for the studio. And what better place to claw into than the roaring streets of Tokyo? A fine choice, all things considered. But that question still remains: is it better than Osaka and its predecessors—Dino Park, Giant Cat, and Kyoto?  Let’s scratch our way into it and find out.

When in Tokyo

To cut to the chase, the basic formula hasn’t changed since the series’ inception. What I mean to say here is that, as far as its purpose goes, it is a matter of finding somewhere in the vicinity of a hundred feline friends on one giant photograph and adding them to your collection. Well, there’s a little more to it than that. Aside from the obvious fact that you have to find these cats hidden around Tokyo, you also have the option to add a splash of color to the canvas—vibrant inkblots, if you will, that you can add to various snapshots from the cityscape. Like before, there are also achievements to unlock, photo editing tools to help you capture that perfect moment, and a useful in-game hint system that gives you a helping hand for unearthing one of the 105 kittens that fit snuggly into the world.

It wouldn’t be fair to compare Tokyo to Osaka and the other entries in the Cats & Seek series, because when all’s said and done, they’re all as equally beautiful as their respective counterparts. And that’s something that the developer has been able to master in their time on the block: how to craft a moving piece of art that not only looks like a love letter to the classic Where’s Waldo? series, but also exhumes the most prestigious landmarks of a living, almost breathing world that’s beaming with cultural significance and time-appropriate set pieces. So the core elements are the same as before, but as that famous saying goes, if it ain’t broke — don’t fix it. The same applies here in Cats & Seek: Tokyo, truly.

Fine Lines & Feline Friends

The game itself is still just as simple as it was back in 2023, with the gameplay loop still largely revolving around the same scrub-and-select, point-and-click format that featured in the previous titles in the series. As far as all of that goes, not a great deal has changed. With that said, there is one improvement that needs to be recognized here: the attention to detail. Don’t get me wrong, Osaka had some stunning scenes and a tremendous amount of dynamic settings, but here, it’s almost as if the level of complexity has been amplified to incorporate thrice as many moving pieces. Admittedly, it makes the process of finding the cats a little more complicated, what with the amount of fine lines and intricate details there are to sift through, but thanks to the in-house hint system, at no point is it ever too taxing on the brain, either.

I’d love to see where Cats & Seek takes its traveling treasure trove of cozy puzzler boxes next. At this point in time, it seems as if the sky’s the limit for the series, and that, with its acclaimed formula in tow, it can put its beloved paws in just about any metropolis and still find a way to illuminate that signature charm.

It’s a simple concept, I’ll admit, but if you happen to have an hour or so to spare on a lazy Sunday afternoon, then I’d suggest taking the time to marvel over the sheer beauty of a world that developer Noobzilla so clearly poured a great deal of heart and soul into fleshing out. Also, for the asking price, you haven’t much to lose here. Is it better than Osaka? Eh, that’s a matter of personal preference. Either way, if you like Cats & Seek, then you’ll adore Tokyo.

Verdict

Cats & Seek: Tokyo is as good as its predecessors—better, even, given that it makes an outstanding effort to breathe even more life into its creation with a DLC pack that includes an additional several hundred cats to find. It’s an optional add-on, of course, so there’ll always be that question of whether or not it could’ve been included in the base game. Still, given that this is a game that you can grab for as little as a couple of bucks and still be able to squeeze an hour or two out of, it’s definitely worth the small investment.

It almost feels like a bit of a no-brainer at this point, but for the sake of lathering a little extra weight to the page, I’ll make it painstakingly clear: if photographic art with intricate details and cozy aesthetics à la Cats & Seek is the sort of fodder that compels you, then you are bound to love scrubbing through the line work of this Japanese masterpiece. Granted, it won’t take you a great deal of time to beat, but with so many moving pieces and colorful synergies to fool around with, you might be able to spend an entire afternoon with it and still find fresh ways to unlock new installations. It’s still the same old Cats & Seek, but honestly, it doesn’t need to be anything more than that.