When it comes to visual novels, we’ve seen a huge proliferation of the genre on Steam these past few years. One surprisingly popular trend within this world is the creation of dating sim-esque games where players get to romance a number of non-human characters. It all started with Hatoful Boyfriend and has since continued with alpacas, tanks, printers and more. Of course it was only a matter of time until someone made a visual novel about romancing cats. The time has finally come and Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~ is now available on Steam for curious gamers to pick up. There’s more to this title than most likely expect of it, but that does not make this a modern classic of the genre either.

Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~ lampoons the American presidential nomination process by presenting us with six different kitty candidates. Each is endearing in their own way, but most certainly weird as well. Everything begins when your best friend Lizzy takes you to a political debate. Despite being utterly disinterested in politics, you decide to attend and even ask the candidates a question about what they intend to do for unemployed young adults such as yourself. For some reason, this sparks the interest of all candidates on stage and they immediately ask for the protagonist to become their new campaign manager. The cat you team up with is the one whose route you’ll go down, so choose carefully! Or just make a save to return to this option again later in order to run through other cat paths. No matter who you choose, it’s going to be tough getting any of these wacky cats the nomination.

Those who have been keeping track of the presidential candidates this cycle will probably find a lot of similarities between them and the kitty characters on display here. This intentional move makes sense for characterization's sake, but does not completely restrict the cast to caricature. There are still times even the worst cat becomes at least a little likable. Each supposedly handsome cat also has their own trio of endings. From good to normal to bad, you’ll see different takes on what happens at the end of the game depending on your actions throughout the story. Your score is tabulated by a handful of dialogue choices. Each offers two dialogue options and it’s generally pretty obvious which is the “right” choice versus the “wrong” one. In some instances, choices do not modify the actual dialogue said, but may impact the endgame.

Anyone expecting a serious political storyline will be sorely disappointed, but it’s super doubtful anyone expects that from Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~. The main focus is absolutely on providing a brief, humorous experience for players. The writing is cute and silly, with enough variation between characters to keep from mixing them all up. Still, there’s something left to be desired when compared to the likely inspiration of Hatoful Boyfriend. That game, despite its hilarious concept, actually had some pretty meaningful storytelling buried underneath for those willing to find it. As a piece of satire, it works well enough, although some bits may seem a bit too out there.

For example, there’s the whole nature of these cat and woman relationships. Absolutely no one seems to care of their existence, and the dialogue even suggests some rather passionate cross-species kissing sessions occur. But how is that possible? Why am I now forced to try and imagine this?! Fortunately, the storyline also states explicitly that there is a surgery available to transform a cat into a human or vice versa and this surgery is always planned once the protagonist falls for the cat of her dreams. Finally, as for the question as to why cats are running for president anyway, the game offers a simple solution. Humans were deemed so ineffective at doing their job as president that sentient cats were given the chance to represent the nation instead. Plus, they're much cuter.

There are some cons to this cat-filled political adventure. The biggest is also the most obvious right out of the gate. Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~ just looks a tad cheap. This is due to the mashup of royalty free graphics used for each character and backdrop. There is no real uniformity to these art assets. Some of the humans look like they could easily be your neighbor while others look like total supermodels or creeps. Luckily, because the cats are all cute, you don’t really notice much of an issue with them. The only downside to these images is that they don’t offer any animation or variations to display different emotions like most visual novel sprites.

A few annoyances lurk within the game options - or lack thereof. Unlike most visual novels which offer at least a few tweaks to text settings, there is absolutely nothing you can do here. There’s no means to alter the speed of text appearing on screen. You won’t even find an auto mode button or skip previously read text option. These are all tools expected for a typical visual novel. Sure, Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~ may not take that long to play through, but it’s always nice to have choices. Each path takes around half an hour to an hour and, provided you get the good ending, all other endings for that cat get unlocked immediately. Overall, that means there’s around five to seven hours of gameplay depending on how fast you read.

Closing Comments:

Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~ is not a game to take seriously. It’s something you jump in with because the concept of cats running for president makes you giggle. With six different paths and a total of eighteen different endings, there is a decent amount of replayability available as well. You’ll just need to get used to the somewhat lackluster artistry on display. Visual novel fans might also get somewhat frustrated without the niceties of features such as auto mode, but it isn’t a game-breaking issue at least. Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~ gives us all a chance to step back from potential fears of the actual impending election and have a laugh at the whole process.