Review: Neko Odyssey Is a Slow Life Cat Photography Game

Not every game holds your hand and tells you exactly what to do. It might also not make it easy to breeze through the game. Neko Odyssey, Secret Character’s new game about cat photography, is one of those titles. It’s about appreciating cute animals and taking your time while on vacation in a small town, and that means the player needs to be willing to take it easy and slow down as they play.

Neko Odyssey starts off with the furthest thing from cat photography, as it sets things up by explaining a legend about a hero dispatching a demon from Cat Island and sealing them away, only for some spirits to escape and perhaps wind up as cats. Fast forward, and Miki is a young woman come to visit and stay with her aunt on Cat Island. She wants to pet and photograph all the cute kitties. In the process, she’ll also help people with problems, play minigames, make animals happy, and learn more about the island.

When it comes to photographing the cats, many of them are pretty amicable to the idea. I found that for the majority of them, I could walk up, snap a photo, and be all set. In a handful of those cases, I’d also need to pet them. There are some that are a bit more challenging and may require something like food or an extra step to lure out. However, in those instances you sometimes get a hint (such as an obvious can of food image) or find a solution by being patient. Photos automatically upload to a fake social media site after, netting you likes and followers.

The only downside to the cat photos is that there isn’t much variety to most of them. The cats will be in the same sorts of positions all the time generally. Once I started looking back at your feed, I also noticed many of them featured the same colors and designs too. Neko Odyssey isn’t a cat photography game like the Neko Atsume mobile and VR series, where each cat is visibly unique or might show up in really fun poses depending on where they’re photographed. There are a few cats that feel a little more special, especially if you end up in the brief minigames engaging with them, but I found most seemed generic.

I will say that even though there isn’t that unique element where it feels like every cat is a delight and surprise, in general Neko Odyssey is a game that looks great. Secret Character went with a full pixel art approach filled with stylish character and environmental sprites. The backgrounds and locations especially look amazing, though there is unfortunately no map to help you get around the island and figure out where you have or haven’t been.

It sort of feels like that is deliberate, however. While Neko Odyssey is a cat photography game, it also can feel like a slow life simulator at times. You have a town to explore, complete with places and things to see depending on the time of day you hang around and if you take the time to talk to people. You need to focus on your hunger and eat sometimes, if you want to look around everywhere. After I got through a few in-game days, I really felt like I was supposed to take my time and wander, rather than attempt to speedrun finding and photographing all the kittens. I wished I could have done more when moseying around, as I feel like there could have been more side quests. Though, to be fair, it could be that I just missed some.

Also, it’s worth noting that Neko Odyssey didn’t seem to completely support controller play when I played it. For the most part, I got around absolutely fine on the Lenovo Legion Go. However, when talking with people and going through shops, I’d actually need to use the touchscreen to advance conversations or to make purchases. Secret Character is very active on the Steam Discussions board for the game, so it is possible that is already fixed or could be by the time you read this.

Neko Odyssey is a leisurely sort of photography game is about taking your time as you hunt down, appease, and photograph cats. Some people might get a little frustrated by the lack of diversity, sprawling town with no map, and direction. I think it’s absolutely worth the time invested, especially if you want to sit back and relax with cute characters and a charming town for an hour or two.

Neko Odyssey is available for PCs via Steam.