Foxfire Press

Content Note: Copycat explores emotional topics including abandonment, illness, aging, family trauma, loneliness, and grief.

Before We Get Started

Before jumping into my thoughts, I want to give a huge thank you to Pirate PR and the teams at Spoonful of Wonder, Neverland Entertainment, and Nuuvem Inc for providing me with an Xbox copy of Copycat to experience.

As always, receiving a key does not influence my thoughts or opinions — this review reflects my honest experience with the game.

What Is Copycat?

Copycat is a narrative-driven indie game centered around Dawn, a skeptical shelter cat who believes she belongs in the wild and wants nothing more than freedom.

Things begin to change when Dawn is adopted by Olive, a lonely older woman grieving the disappearance of her beloved companion. Slowly, both Dawn and Olive begin helping one another heal — until everything changes when Olive falls ill and a stray “copycat” takes Dawn’s place in the home.

The game follows Dawn’s emotional journey as she learns what family, trust, abandonment, and home really mean.

Interested in checking out the game for yourself? You can get it on steam, Available Now!

First Impressions

Let me say this upfront:

This game is cozy — but it will absolutely leave you in tears.

I went into Copycat expecting something emotional, but I genuinely was not prepared for how deeply the story would hit.

Experiencing the story through the eyes of a shelter cat creates an emotional perspective that honestly left me questioning the thoughts of my own cat afterward.

Without spoiling too much, it is not until near the end of the game that things begin to make more sense — and once they do, several of Dawn’s fears, behaviors, and struggles hit emotionally in a completely different way.

Watching Dawn slowly learn to trust only to face abandonment again makes the emotional moments hit even harder.

Olive, Illness, and Emotional Weight

One of the strongest emotional aspects of the story comes through Olive.

Olive is a kind older woman who adopts Dawn, and their relationship becomes one of the emotional anchors of the game. However, the story takes a heartbreaking turn as Olive’s health declines.

Without diving too deeply into spoilers, the game explores themes of aging, illness, and difficult family decisions through Olive and her daughter, who genuinely seems to believe she is doing the right thing.

In my personal opinion, parts of the story almost felt like Olive may have been dealing with symptoms similar to dementia on top of her physical illness, which added an even sadder layer to everything unfolding.

When Dawn is eventually replaced by a “copycat,” the emotional impact lands hard.

Not because it feels malicious — but because it highlights how vulnerable and ill Olive truly becomes. And honestly? That hurt.

Life as a Stray Cat

Once Dawn ends up on the streets, the game shifts into a different experience that I honestly enjoyed quite a bit.

You get to explore what life is like as an alley cat — wandering rooftops, navigating fences, avoiding dangers like dogs, and hunting for food to survive.

In a weirdly comforting way, parts of the game reminded me of the Warriors series by Erin Hunter.

Dawn wants nothing more than freedom and life in the wild, but also deeply struggles with wanting connection and to feel wanted.

That internal struggle honestly made her feel incredibly real.

Dawn’s Inner Wild Cat Narration

One feature I absolutely cannot forget to mention is Dawn’s inner wild cat narration throughout the game.

Despite how emotional and heavy parts of the story become, the game constantly sneaks in moments of humor through Dawn’s sarcastic internal commentary. Her inner voice genuinely became one of my favorite parts of the entire experience. It adds this weirdly charming contrast where even during darker or more emotional moments, Dawn’s personality still shines through with funny, dramatic, and sometimes painfully relatable thoughts.

And honestly? Some of the funniest moments came from failing at hunting.

If you mess up while trying to catch prey, Dawn’s commentary had me laughing more than once and helped break up some of the heavier emotional beats in a really natural way. That balance between heartbreak and humor is honestly one of Copycat’s biggest strengths.

Gameplay & What Left Me Wanting More

That said, parts of the game definitely left me wanting more — particularly the wild cat sequences.

Some of these sections felt relatively short and occasionally jumped forward through time when I wanted more room to explore or settle into the experience.

What was there was genuinely fun, which honestly just made me wish there was more of it.

I would absolutely love to see the developers create a spin-off game focused entirely on Dawn living life in the wild, building a family, surviving alongside a cat pack, and fully embracing that side of the story.

Final Thoughts

Copycat is one of those games that quietly sneaks up on you emotionally.

What starts as a cozy narrative game about a cat slowly becomes a story about trust, abandonment, illness, loneliness, grief, and the complicated meaning of home.

The emotional depth genuinely surprised me.

At the same time, the game never forgot how to be fun. Between playful moments, exploration, cat behaviors, emotional storytelling, and Dawn’s sarcastic inner narration, Copycat managed to balance heartbreak with comfort surprisingly well.

Just… maybe keep tissues nearby.

If you enjoy emotional story-driven games, cozy experiences with darker emotional themes, or you simply love cats, Copycat is absolutely worth checking out.

I genuinely cannot wait to see what this developer creates next.

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Foxfire Press Rating

Interested in trying Copycat for yourself?  You can get it on steam, Available on Steam.