Mewgenics Review – A Meowsterclass in Tactical Roguelites

I still kind of can’t believe that I’m sitting here, writing this Mewgenics review. As a long-time player of Edmund McMillen’s games, Mewgenics always felt like a distant fever dream until it was finally announced that Ed and Tyler Glaiel were really working on it. It’s a good thing it spent so long in the oven, because Mewgenics is an absolute beast of a tactical roguelite. 

I’ve spent the last two weeks sinking much of my free time into Mewgenics, losing cats to dumb decisions, chipping away at its massive amount of unlocks, and yelling things like, “I was a fool, the answer is always inbreeding,” out loud. It’s addicting, zany, yet always fun, and if you’re still on the fence about getting it, let me break things down for you in this Mewgenics game review.

TL;DR – Mewgenics Review Overview

• Genre blend: Roguelie + turn-based strategy + cat management/breeding sim.
• Game loop: Grab 4 cats, send out a squad, clear areas, retire, and use the resources they gather to progress.
• Endlessly replayable: Tons of classes, unlocks, challenges, skills, passives, equipment loadouts, and random events ensure you’ll keep coming back for more.
• Presentation: Ed McMillen’s signature macabre cartoony style and humor, as well as Ridiculon’s stellar instrumentals and vocals with guest artists.
• Best for: Those who enjoy irreverent yet still extremely deep tactical gameplay and creating the perfect adventuring party.

Got Kat? Let’s Fight!

I will start my Mewgenics review by saying that the game has a clear divide between its breeding and combat sections, so let’s start with the latter. In Mewgenics, every run starts with picking 4 “lucky” cats who’ll go adventuring to bring you back food, cash, unlocks, and more. Kinda like Darkest Dungeon, but fluffier.

Before you embark on an adventure, you’ll need to attach collars to your cats, which determines their class. Mewgenics has a ton of classes, ranging from the simple yet reliable Fighter to the support powerhouse that is the Cleric. A good party composition makes your journeys more likely to succeed, so you’ll need to master the ins and outs of each class.

Each cat also has 5 slots for equipment, which can range from mundane but welcome stat boosts (more Con or Spd is always great) to crazier effects. Explosives, repositioning tools, combat drugs, instakill roulettes, debuff items, and more are all on the table, and it’s entirely up to you when and how to use them.

Combat takes place on a turn-based grid. While mechanically simple, a la Final Fantasy Tactics (punch guys, use abilities, kill ‘em all to win), there are a ton of factors that come into play. You’ll need to account for terrain effects, hazards, elements, line of sight, and positioning, which makes Mewgenics a great turn-based strategy game for anyone looking for a challenge.

Any survivors who make it back home get retired. Legacy is a big part of the game, and it’s your decision if you want to use your champions to create a stronger breed of kittens, ship them off to one of Boon County’s frankly insane denizens for meta unlocks, or put them in a trash can. Bear in mind that, except in very special circumstances, veterans can’t go on future runs.

I need to make it clear in this Mewgenics review that with each cat you send to your neighbors, you’ll unlock essential home upgrades. A bigger house and inventory mean better sorting and less conflict, more breeding info means stronger cats, and better furniture ensures your cats remain happy and produce healthy, powerful kittens who’ll be the stars of your next run.

RNGesus, Take The Wheel

The gist of my Mewgenics review is that this title would be nothing without a drop of chaos to shake things up, and this works both for and against you in Mewgenics.

Many games promise that “no two runs are ever the same”, but Mewgenics actually delivers on that promise. Even at the very core of the game (your party), you’ll likely never get the same class skills or passives, forcing you to improvise on the run, compensate with equipment, discover new, crazy synergies between your cats… or just pack it up and go home to keep your spoils.

At the same time, the RNG (Random Number Generator) can be unforgiving. Bad outcomes from random events are very punishing, and some will wipe a strong team during a boss fight. Worst of all are events where your cats develop the wrong kind of disease at the absolute worst time.

Not even the breeding part is free from chaos. Cats decide who they like or hate (just like in real life), diseases can bloom, and birth defects with mental disorders can run through entire family trees. Cats can decide to fight each other, which has a chance to lead to injuries or death for the loser, and a permanent stat boost for the winner. And, yes, I have a dedicated cat fight club room.

All of this randomness means that Mewgenics constantly challenges you to think up new ways to break the game. Some level of consistency is possible via careful breeding and party composition, but for the most part, it’s about not just weathering, but using the curveballs the game throws at you to your advantage, which makes Mewgenics endlessly replayable.

Finding the best games like Mewgenics usually involves searching for this exact type of unpredictable, high-stakes variety that keeps the experience fresh.

Cute, Cursed, and Catchy

A fun roguelite game about breeding fighting cats sounds cute, and it definitely is. That is, until you realize just who Edmund McMillen is – a mad genius whose cutesy, cartoony art style is juxtaposed with the sinister, the macabre, and the awesomely grotesque, a la The Binding of Isaac.

Nothing is safe from Ed’s touch. As your cats mutate, gain injuries, and become infested by parasites, they’ll start looking less like traditional cats and more like things that just barely pass as “cats”, with two heads, scorpion tails, human arms and legs, wings, tumors, and worse. The stat boosts and combat efficiency are to die for, though.

Cats are the real stars of Mewgenics, but the NPCs are pretty great, too. Characters like the effeminate Tink and the insane Dr. Beanies are very distinct, while the gargantuan bosses you’ll face down the line (no spoilers) toe the line between terrifying and awesome. Just as with other great indie games, Mewgenics never compromises and is totally unapologetic about its identity.

My Mewgenics review is not really about music, but I do need to highlight that just like in The Binding of Isaac, Mewgenics teamed up with Ridiculon for the soundtrack, and oh boy, did they deliver. With a huge range of musical genres on display, it’s no exaggeration to say that this cat game probably has one of the best video game soundtracks we’ve heard in a while – they made a song about literal poop catchy.

But the musical goodness doesn’t stop there. As with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, you’ll quickly discover that each song does indeed have vocals that only play during boss fights. From the soothing crooning of So High to the brash, brazen, innuendo-laden Guillotina, the vocals make already fantastic music something truly exceptional.

A Few Nitpicks

An important subject to cover in my Mewgenics review is that, although I love Mewgenics, I do have a few gripes with it.

First of these is that while upgrades are naturally tied to progression, a lot of info regarding breeding is locked away in the early game. It also doesn’t help that even with full Tink unlocks, quality of life features like sorting cats by base stats, mutations, and gender don’t exist. This would be helpful if you’ve got 30+ cats at home.

Another annoyance is the limited inventory and house space, which you’ll feel a lot in the early game. Even in the late game, you’ll still need to assess each item carefully and make smart house layouts, though I will say that there is a certain pleasure in arranging your house to maximize both Comfort and Stimulation.

As I mentioned in the earlier part of my Mewgenics review, the RNG is brutal, and the risk-reward scales of events seem to always tip hugely in the negative. Succeed, and you get a few coins. Fail, and boom, permanent -2 Con. Though some say that is just part of the game.

There are some minor control and UI issues. I play on mouse + keyboard, and there’s a notable delay when I double-tap to say “cast it on yourself”.

Tactical view could also use some love, such as showing the HP and status bars of all combatants. Still, the devs are actively pushing patches, and with the community already pumping out mods, it’s safe to say most of these rough edges won’t stick around for long.

My Overall Verdict – Mewgenics is Edmund and Tyler’s Magnum Opus

To end my Mewgenics review, I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that, just like The Binding of Isaac, Mewgenics is both one of the best Edmund McMillen games and also likely to set a new gold standard for what we can expect from the genre moving forward.

While its individual components are nothing new, Mewgenics blends the best parts of tactical RPGs and grid-based combat and perfectly feeds into our desire to optimize our cats down to the last detail. Throw in Edmund McMillen’s signature art, the sublime soundtrack, and the game’s distinct presentation, and we get a superb game that really is the cat’s meow.

Great for: Players looking for strategic turn and grid-based gameplay juxtaposed with crafting the perfect adventuring party-slash-family tree.

Less ideal for: Gamers looking for roguelites with action-based gameplay or swift turnaround times.