For a long time, I thought that there were no original ideas left for the roguelike genre. My visit to Gamescom almost immediately proved that wrong the moment I saw Cats in the Shell for the first time. It takes the beloved genre and adds in elements from auto-battlers and RPGs, all based around the idea of building your own mech and battling the mechs of other characters. I was able to play a little bit of the demo during the event, and I am already very invested in how the game evolves when it releases.
At the beginning of a run in Cats in the Shell, you can pick one of several characters, all of whom are cats. Each cat has a specific perk that can pair well with whatever you want your playstyle to be. For instance, one of the characters makes it so that the mech’s special equipment-based attacks charge up quicker. That specific cat ended up being the one that I chose for the purposes of this demo. Once you have picked your main character, your run officially begins with the most important part of the gameplay loop: building your mech.
In between battling other mechs, there will be a short period where you will be able to get new mechs, as well as more weapons and upgrades for it. Not only can you purchase the aforementioned items from the in-game storefront, but there will also be random rewards you can acquire for no additional cost. In one case, I was offered the chance to get a high-tiered item, or I could simply skip it and earn some money to use in the store. I often ended up skipping these random acquisitions because I was more focused on upgrading my current mech rather than trying to get another one in my current run.
That said, that was only for this run; other runs may coerce me into making a different decision due to their unique combat scenarios. Speaking of combat, that makes up the other half of the Cats in the Shell loop. Once you have purchased all the upgrades you think you need, your mech will go against another. Instead of taking part in the action yourself, though, you will simply watch as your AI-controlled mech uses the upgrades you purchased in an auto-battle. The battles are fun to watch, and they reminded me a lot of the old BattleBots show that had smaller robots fighting each other in a mini-arena. However, there were a few times when I got a little bored simply watching the action rather than participating in it myself. Still, the battles are pretty short, so you will be spending far more time personally piloting your mechs.
I am quite curious to see if the full game will have some form of story mode that gives players incentives to progress through each battle, because right now it feels a little aimless. In spite of the few moments where I felt like I was mindlessly watching two robots fight, the half of the game that emphasized min-maxing my mech’s capabilities was more than enough to keep me compelled throughout the duration of the demo. I had a fun time with the brief amount that I was able to play of Cats in the Shell, and I am very interested to see how the game lives up to its potential in the full release.
Cats in the Shell will release for PC via Steam Early Access in Q4 2026.
