Cat’s Blessing Review: Purrfection For Some, Purretty Rough For Me

Review setup

My job is to give an objective, comprehensive review of the online slot Cat’s Blessing, by Evoplay. And that is exactly what I will do on this page. However, I’m not going to pretend that it’s easy.

You know how some people seem always blessed with luck? Yeah, that’s not me. When I play online poker or even Slingo.

Did my luck change when I played Cat’s Blessing? No, no it did not. I played in demo mode, and I played on three different sweeps sites (Pulsz, Hello Millions, and McLuck). On all of them, I took a proverbial bath.

Will that color my review? Certainly, it can’t help but do so. But there is a lot more to an online slot than just winning and losing. So below, I describe the graphics, the sounds, the bonus games, and more. That way, you can determine if Cat’s Blessing is the right fit for you.

First impressions

When I first loaded up Cats Blessing, I found certain parts underwhelming and certain parts very engaging. In of the former, the music was fine to me, but I didn’t find it to be particularly interesting. Similarly, while I liked the background a lot, the symbols themselves were not novel at all.

However, there were two elements that really engaged me and made me excited to play the game. First, I loved that there were three different bonus boosters and that if I were to trigger a bonus, I might get two or even all three working for me at once.  Second, I am always a sucker for the Hold and Win mechanic, and the one within Cat’s Blessing is no exception. As the booster symbols would fly up to their respective cat statue, I kept feeling like I was building toward something big, even if I didn’t hit any winning combos on that particular spin.

As such, I eagerly plunged ahead on Cat’s Blessing.

Visuals and presentation: 4.3/5

In any slot, there are really three elements to this category. For Cat’s Blessing, I found two of those elements well done and one only okay.

One of the visual elements I really appreciated was the background. The reels appear on the side of a pagoda in the middle of nature. Above the reels, you see three cats, technically called maneki-nekos, that look like traditional Asian decorations, complete with the one-armed mechanical wave. (These cats figure into the gameplay as well because they represent the three different types of bonuses.) Bushes adorn the front of the pagoda and majestic mountains jut up behind the building. Everything is shrouded in a touch of fog and muted in the pink-purple hues of sunset. It really is quite beautiful. And when you see little glints of light shooting upward, it only adds to the effect.

Another part of the presentation that I enjoyed is one of those elements that you often only notice if it’s not well done: the navigation. Some online slots have buttons to control the game that are hard to find or that are confusing. Cat’s Blessing does not have this problem. Below the reels, you can find your balance displayed prominently, as well as buttons to set your bet, spin the reels, and set up autospins. On the left-hand side, you find the buy bonus button, as well as buttons that explain the game and that let you explore advanced settings.

So why not a perfect score in this category? Because to me, the last element, the symbols themselves, are somewhat lacking. They are really well-drawn, sharp and realistic. It’s just that they are similar to the symbols you find on any Asian-inspired game, such as fans, lanterns, and fish. The lower-paying symbols are the stereotypical A-10. The only symbol that was new to me was the wild symbol. Unfortunately, however, this didn’t really help because I had a hard time understanding what the symbol was supposed to represent. (I think it’s a magical artifact, but I’m still not sure.)

I guess I just prefer a little more originality in the symbols.

The role of sound: 3.5/5

I found the sound elements in Cat’s Blessing underwhelming. For the most part, this is due to the background music. After all, that is always the most important sound element of any slot. The background music for Cat’s Blessing is fine, but it’s definitely not exciting. It is the same clichéd Asian instrumental music you hear in the background of any Asian slot (or restaurant, for that matter). At first, I found the music, combined with the beautiful visual background, really immersive. But after a few minutes of playing, I just shut the music off since it was really just the same few notes on loop.

Another aspect I found disappointing was that the shift in the background music when you enter the bonus round. I like it when slots match my increased heart rate in those moments with dramatic music. Cat’s Blessing does increase the tempo slightly with an added drum beat, but it is too subtle for my tastes.

That said, there were two sound elements in Cat’s Blessing I enjoyed quite a bit. When you land a bonus coin and it transfers up to the respective cat’s collection, the game makes a gentle sound of clinking coins. Also, if you hit any wining combos, you hear a quiet chime. These sound effects are also subtle, but in this case, I thought they worked really well.  I hate when slots make some gigantic sound effect when I’ve only won some miniscule amount. I found Cat’s Blessing’s sound effects much better suited in this sense.

Gameplay journey: 4.1/5

This category is one where I am working hard to be objective. In many ways, my gameplay journey on Cat’s Blessing was similar to how Thomas Hobbes described life: nasty, brutish, and short. This was especially true when I played on the sweeps sites, where a few rounds of 30 autospins at .2SC per spin quickly knocked me down 5SC, and I wasn’t comfortable going any lower.  I played a lot longer on the demo mode, where my tailspin was still pronounced (I never made it back above my starting balance) but much slower. Of course, this makes sense, as I was only betting $2 per spin, and Evoplay gave me $5,000 to start.

However, Cat’s Blessing has a lot of elements that keep it engaging for players. You never know when one of the bonus symbols is going to trigger a bonus game, which I loved. And when you do trigger a bonus round, it can look very different each time, depending on which specific bonuses you trigger. You can also buy the bonus any time you like and turn on autospins with all sorts of controls for when to stop them. So I really appreciate that the player has at least some control over how to play.  (Personally, I wish all online slots had a buy bonus option.)

Also, despite all these different aspects to the game, Cat’s Blessing is easy to follow and easy to navigate, another solid point in its favor.

On the other hand, there were a few specific elements that detracted from my enjoyment of the gameplay. One was that the bonus rounds went very fast for me, generally speaking. As I have documented, I didn’t have any huge wins, so that may be part of why they felt fast. However, the game just also dropped the coins pretty quickly. I did not feel the sense of excitement building like I do on other slots.  Also, the autospins when I played at the social casinos were lightning fast, again not building up the drama and burning through my SC quickly. (The autospins in the demo mode were at normal speed, so that was an odd disconnect to me.) Finally, I wish that when I bought the bonus with only one or two boosters that I was able to choose which boost(s) I got. None of the boosts give a better RTP than any other, as far as I can tell. But that small adjustment—as well as the others I noted here—would add a bit more to player enjoyment.

Bonus features through my eyes: 4.6/5

Overall, the bonus features on Cat’s Blessing are varied, which adds a layer of engagement to the game. They are also relatively easy to trigger in the base game, which is also a big plus. (And besides, you can always use the Bonus Buy feature).

As I noted above, my only real complaints are a) the bonus round didn’t build the drama as I hoped it would and b) the bonus round did not prove lucrative for me at all. However, I recognize that both of these may have just been a result of my bad luck, so I am giving the game the benefit of the doubt here.

In the following table, I explain each of the bonus features available in Cat’s Blessing, as well as my thoughts on them:

Balancing risk and reward: 4/5

Again, this is a tough one for me to grade fairly. Because in my extended testing for this review, I did not get the reward you would expect. However, I want to be fair to the game.

In theory, Cat’s Blessing should be a great blend of risk vs reward. The hit rate is 16.80%, and people trigger the bonus game every 73.5 spins, on average (and I triggered it more often than that.) The volatility is medium (according to the online slot developer Evoplay). And the RTP is right around average, at 96%. It just wasn’t for me, at least not on the day I tested. I started with some autospins, and my balance never went back above what I started with. And of the 11 times I bought the bonus, I ended up making more than it cost me to buy it only 3 times, and even those wins were just barely above the cost.

In an attempt to be thorough, I did replay Cat’s Blessing a day after my testing session. I didn’t play for anywhere near as long as my more comprehensive testing, but I did 3 sessions of about 5 minutes each. In these (once with purely autospins, twice with buying the bonus), I either broke even or ended very slightly ahead. It wasn’t enough to get me too excited, but it did show me that it is possible to come out ahead and that with enough playing, the game will likely reap the expected returns.

The good and bad of Cat’s Blessing: 4.6/5

I will it that I didn’t love my time with Cat’s Blessing. But as I have stressed throughout, that’s really about my luck more than anything. The online slot, much like any other, has both pros and cons. Here are both, at least as I see them:

Final thoughts on Cat’s Blessing

Will I go back and play Cat’s Blessing? No, I won’t. But that’s really more of a result of my own PTSD than of any flaw in the game.

If you like Asian-themed games, you will get exactly what you are looking for with this one, including traditional symbols and traditional music. Indeed, I would argue that the background visual even puts this one a step ahead of most other choices.

If you like the Hold and Win mechanic, multi-faceted bonus games, and decent RTP/volatility rates, Cat’s Blessing is probably a good choice for you. Just don’t blame me if your luck turns out like mine.

Final Score: 4.1/5