- "Because wouldn't things be better if humans weren't in charge?"
— DJ Nibbles
Cat President is a series of Visual Novels developed and published by Oh, a Rock! Studios, taking place in the USA 20 Minutes into the Future. In this world, via nonspecific means, technology has advanced enough that cats and dogs were made intelligent enough to be able to speak english and live their own lives without need for an "owner", no different from humans. Not only that, but cats and humans can even undergo a specialized surgery known as a "cattutransformatio", in which they actually become the other species. Not long after these cats and dogs intergrated into society, humans were banned from politics due to widespread corruption. Now, the talking cats run the government using their own two-party system: Sharpclaw and Fancy Furball. The player is a human woman who works as a campaign manager for a cat politician of your choosing, with the goal of guiding him to presidency in the upcoming election, and along the way, possibly even...
...finding love?
If you couldn't tell from that absurd description, the Cat President series is similar to Hatoful Boyfriend, in that it's a very lighthearted Affectionate Parody of Dating Sim Visual Novels. The general atmosphere of the storylines range from a little silly to downright cartoony, and feature lots of self-aware humor and cat related puns. As such, the game doesn't get too political with regards to Real Life, making it easy to pick up and understand even for those who know nothing about US politics. Though, that's not to say there's no effort put into the plot and characters. All candidates have unique personalities, rivals, and quirks, which you'll help them overcome on the path to their heart (and their presidency).
The first game in the series is Cat President: A More Purrfect Union. You play as Abigail, a woman who was recently fired from her job as a grocery store clerk, and isn't into politics. Your best friend, Lizzy, invites you to see a political debate in town, featuring six Sharpclaw candidates. You reluctantly accept, and through sheer luck, all six of them end up offering you a job as their campaign manager. Your options here are...
- Frisky: A very flirtatious tabby, who's quite openly only interested in hiring you because you're, in his words, "a cute girl".
- Dr. Nom-Noms: A very smart and very nice tabby that strangely isn't putting much effort into actually winning the election.
- Thunderpaw: A mean orange cat with no filter and obviously fake hair, who has no shame in making up lies about the others to sway votes in his favor.
- Kale: A meek, but level-headed tabby that has trouble standing out, and is the furthest behind the other five candidates in the polls.
- Rover: A "cat" that seems completely average... except for the fact that he's not a cat at all, but instead, a dog in a really bad (but strangely effective) disguise.
- DJ Nibbles: An energetic and impulsive white cat, who's youngest of the six and has the least experience in politics.
On October 13, 2020, the sequel Cat President 2: Purrlitical Revolution was released. It is revealed that the out of the many possible endings of the first game, the canon one was Abigail working for DJ Nibbles, who succeeds at becoming president. Four years later, it's now time for another election, and you play as a new, unrelated character, Nancy. After a misunderstanding with your job counselor, you unintentionally end up sending a Very Fake Résumé to a bunch of potential employers. This unexpectedly works, landing you a job as a campaign manager for any one of six particular Fancy Furball candidates. Your options this time around are...
- Poopsie IX: A very snobby and overly confident white cat who believes he's already guaranteed victory, due to being the party favorite.
- Kaleidoscope: A vain and slightly flamboyant big-time Hollywood actor, who believes he can be a good president just because he played one in a film.
- Fe.Line: A highly advanced and intelligent robot that was designed to resemble a cat and often has trouble understanding things the way organic being do.
- Earl Grey: An elderly grey cat with by far the most experience in politics out of the six, as he's ran for president many times before, never quite making it.
- Mr. Biscuits: A divorced father and everyman who is equal parts dorky and mature, and tries his best to balance being both a dad and a politician.
- Banders: The younger brother of Thunderpaw from the original Cat President, who is practically the opposite of him, as Banders is naive, friendly, and a goofball.
The candidates of the first game still make appearances here, though they're limited to minor roles, or mere cameos.
The first game in the series, as well as it's trailer, can be found here
. The second game and it's trailer can be found here.
The Cat President series has examples of the following tropes:
Throughout the series
- Ambiguously Sentient Object: In DJ Nibbles's pathway, his choice for a Vice President ends up being the unused podium from earlier in the story. Everyone goes on to treat it like it were an actual politician, despite the fact that it's a seemingly inanimate object that doesn't speak. In Purrlitical Revolution, a line from Nancy even reveals that it's apparently not half bad at it's job as Vice President.
- The Charmer: Frisky mostly uses his campaign as chances to meet and spend "quality" time with attractive women. However, he doesn't ever do this through callous or manipulative means, and even seems to treat them quite well, based on how Lola (one of his other campaign managers) talks about him.
- Establishing Character Moment: Each game has an opening sequence prior to choosing a candidate to work for, in which the player character briefly meets all of them. Each cat gets a chance to interact with you and the others in ways that conveniently portray their debate tactics (if any), and their general outlook on politics. The only exception to this is Rover in A More Purrfect Union.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]:
- The player character in each game can be named, with the default names being Abigail and Nancy for the first and second games respectively.
- A major character in Mr. Biscuits's pathway is his daughter. You can type in a custom name upon meeting her, with the default being Hallie.
- Jerkass: Thunderpaw can't seem to go more than a few seconds without saying something mean or uncalled for. This spreads into his campaign tactics, as he debates by loudly hurling nasty insults at the opponents, and has no issue with getting voters on his side through immoral means, such as lying. It's eventually revealed in his pathway that he developed that behavior as a result of having his heart broken in the past.
- Keet: DJ Nibbles is by far the youngest and most energetic of the candidates in the series, and he's rarely ever sad or in a bad mood.DJ Nibbles: I can't help it if I sometimes get into trouble! I'm naturally curious!
- Meaningful Name:
- The cartoonishly evil antagonist of Rover's pathway has an equally cartoonish henchmen named "H. Enchmen".
- One of the first game's characters, Dr. Nom-Noms, makes a cameo appearance in Purrlitical Revolution. His new job there as a doctor retroactively makes his name very fitting.
- Multiple Endings: Each game's candidates have a good, a normal, and a bad ending, making for a total of eighteen possible endings in A More Purrfect Union. A special bonus story in Purrlitical Revolution has two endings, a good one and a bad one. Bringing that game's total to twenty endings.
- Nice Guy: Dr. Nom-Noms's most signifying trait is how nice he is to others. In a way, this is even the main conflict of his pathway, as he actually wants to lose the election, but can't bear to simply drop out of the race, as he feels he'd be betraying all the supporters he accidentally garnered.Abigail: I mean, he's practically the definition of nice and friendly! Why shouldn't he be the president?
- Non Sequitur: Many times that you're presented with a choice between two dialogue options or decisions, the wrong choice is very often something completely irrelevant to the situation. As a result, choosing them causes the player character come off as either a Cloudcuckoolander for changing the topic of conversation for no reason, or an Unreliable Narrator for describing herself doing certain actions, only to backpedal and say that she didn't really do that. This is even Played for Laughs in Frisky's pathway, in which it's possible for her to join him and a few other girls in a Fanservice Faux Fight, only to call the scene ridiculous and say that it didn't actually happen.Abigail: Wait, what? Who's writing this smut scene? That's not what happened at all! No, I kicked those floozies out of the room immediately!
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite being intelligent and capable of speaking english, cats in this world seem to still follow a non-indicative convention that humans follow for pet names in real life, in which the name is preceeded by a pointless title. This includes two of the candidates: DJ Nibbles and Dr. Nom-Noms. They aren't actually a DJ and Doctor respectively. The latter does indeed become a doctor in the second game, though.
- Shout-Out:
- At one point in Kale's pathway, he considers quitting the campaign, and you're able to make a dialogue choice to encourage him to keep going. One of the choices is "I'm never gonna give you up!"
Kale: Never gonna let me down?
Abigail: Never gonna run away from this campaign!- A recurring character in Earl Grey's pathway is a talk-show-owning cat named Bully, who frequently makes pieces on politicians just to bash them. One particular story about Earl Grey includes the line "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?"
- 20 Minutes into the Future: In this world, there has been nonspecific breakthroughs in medical science that has allowed cats and dogs to be able to speak, and even run the government without humans. Additionally, humans and cats can also become the other species, either temporarily through a pill, or permanently through surgery. Furthermore one of the candidates in Purrlitical Revolution is even a fully sentient robot cat. Despite all this, the setting visually appears to be no more futuristic than the twenty first century United States.
- Voice Grunting: The cats each have their own unique meowing sound when speaking, but the series downplays them, as this only applies to the main six candidates, and it's only heard the first time that they speak in each new scene.
- World of Pun: Sometime after cats took over the US government, the names of many things were changed to involve a cat-related word somehow, including locations, businesses, and even every single US state. For example, the ride-share service Uber became Mewber, and Capitol Hill became Catpitol Hill. Not only that, but any time a cat character says certain words (such as "literally" or "possible"), they'll pronounce it in a way that inserts a cat related word ("litter-ally", "pawsible").
Present in A More Purrfect Union
- Ass in a Lion Skin: Rover isn't a cat, but instead, a dog wearing cat ears. This is apparently enough to convince everyone that he simply is one.
- The Ditz: The player character herself seems to not be too bright, but bizarrely, only in two particular pathways: Rover's and Kale's. For Rover, she has a habit of losing her train of thought and lacks some common sense. In Kale's, she's slightly childish, and even steps a little into Cloudcuckoolander territory, as she has a habit of singing out loud to herself while sad, despite being in a public place. This inconsistent use of the trope between the pathways is lampshaded by Lizzy in the bonus "development trivia" story, which has No Fourth Wall.Lizzy: Abigail was smart in the Thunderpaw pathway, but during the Kale and Rover pathways, she was dumb as dirt! Do you know what it's like to have a best friend who constantly changes IQ levels for no reason?
- No Fourth Wall: There are three bonus mini stories which feature all six of the candidates. These stories are all framed like a debate that Abigail is moderating, but all the characters speak as if they're aware of being in a visual novel, and that their individual pathways have been completed. This is especially prevalent in the third mini story, which is just everyone (Abigail included) telling the player lots of Real Life development trivia about Cat President.
- No Name Given: One particular Thunderpaw supporter in Kale's and Rover's pathways appears multiple times and has lots of dialogue. His name is never revealed, and the text box just refers to him as "Thunderpaw Supporter".
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The only non-cat candidate is Rover, who is a dog. His disguise for passing as a cat is a simple pair of fake cat ears on his head, which aren't even the same color as his fur. This is Played for Laughs, as the disguise works flawlessly, even when he's displaying obvious dog behavior.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Early on in Thunderpaw's pathway, you meet his twin brother, Banders. While the former runs his campaign via lies, manipulation, and insults, the latter is fun-loving, a little naive, and believes that all politicians are corrupt and need to change. They're likely a reference to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
- Suddenly Voiced: In Thunderpaw's pathway, while you and Banders are on a plane, he sings the first verse of his own rendition of Kelis's "Milkshake". This is the only dialogue in the entire series that's voice acted.
Present in Purrlitical Revolution
- A Day in the Limelight: Banders was part of Thunderpaw's pathway in the first game. Here, he becomes a candidate with his own pathway.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Late into Kaleidoscope's pathway, there's a section in which the player's POV shifts into third-person and follows Kaleidoscope himself while away from Nancy. During this time, you're able to make a few story related dialogue choices for him, as though you're playing as him.
- Cutting Off the Branches: The canon winner of the first game's election was determined through Real Life votes from fans, and it ended up being DJ Nibbles. As such, he's the President here, and Abigail is his First Lady.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Many things go wrong on the path to presidency in Fe.Line's pathway, some of which include his life being endangered multiple times, and Nancy being infected with a terminal disease. It's eventually revealed that all of those things were deliberate attacks against both of you, and that the culprit was Killer. His reason for doing it? He lost out on twenty dollars, because you didn't pay him for the photo shoot near the beginning of the story. This is despite the fact that he isn't entitled to that money in the first place, due to him ruining the event before any photos could be taken.Nancy: Wait. You tried to kill multiple people, all for $20?! Are you nuts?!
- Enfant Terrible: The special bonus story introduces a new antagonist, Jill Johnson, a human girl who's seemingly no older than ten and has a habit of flip-flopping between being a normal kid and acting like an underhanded, unpleasant supervillain. During the course of this story, she abuses a loophole in the legal system to run as a Fancy Furball candidate, and goes on to run a campaign even more toxic than Thunderpaw's.
- The Last Dance: Earl Grey is getting on in years and knows that this is probably his last chance to win an election after several unsuccessful attempts.
- Mechanical Animals: Fe.Line is a highly advanced robot designed to resemble a cat. This naturally gives him some advantages against his political opponents, such as being able to calculate complex predictions during a debate and improvising accordingly. Of course, it also has the natural drawback of struggling to grasp complex emotions. There's also the issue of most voters not being too keen on having a President who isn't a "real" cat.
- Old Save Bonus: At one point in Kaleidoscope's pathway, President DJ Nibbles mentions his first lady by name. This is "Abigail" by default, but if you named yourself something else in the first game, and that save file is associated with the same Steam account, that name will be shown instead.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Mr Biscuits has an ex girlfriend named Chipotle, who's so obsessed with him that she believes he's still in love with her, despite him clearly having moved on and having a kitten with someone else. This causes a bit of PR troubles for him when she's eventually invited onto a talk show.
- Very Fake Résumé: The story begins with the player character talking to her counselor, a talking dog named Don, who tells her that he stretched the truth a little bit on your resume and sent it out to a bunch of potential employers. It's not shown exactly how far he stretched it, but some of your alleged feats include being a retired MMA fighter and having walked on the moon. The player character is not happy about this, but it miraculously succeeds at getting her a job, and directly kicks off the main plot of the game.
- Visual Calculus: During Earl Grey's pathway, he mentions that he's tried to run for President six times before. Since each term is four years, and cats usually don't live more than twenty years, this shocks and puzzles Nancy, causing her to start seeing mathematical graphs and equations in the air around her as she attempts to figure out his age. There's even some text amidst the equations, which reads "How old is cat??"