Nekotcha (Virtual Pet)

This is a virtual pet of a cat. Sometimes I find a cheap virtual pet secondhand and take a chance. I do like some odd ones.

There are several shells of this virtual pet, but mine comes in a nice white shell, vertical oval-shaped, with two round ears. On the sides are paw prints and a cat and dog picture (there is a dog version, Inutcha, as well). At the top is a 12 with a star. It has 4 buttons, of a softer rubber which are yellow, with text above the buttons (time, select, choice and menu) to inform what they do.

The back is plain white, with 2 screws to open the back panel up, as well as a reset button and 2 further screws to open the entire thing up. It has no branding on it.

When opened you can see it fits 1 CR2032 battery.

The screen is not back lit, so light needs to catch the screen if you want to see something. I had to angle it slightly to get good pictures, so excuse my hands in the photo’s.

Gameplay

This one is quite tricky to play as it requires trial and error in order to figure out what they like. Their preferences change with each transformation. The older they get, the more options become available. Their preference isn’t random however, so you need to replay the game over and over and make notes, in order to win this one. The replayability isn’t to get different forms or see how old they can get, it’s to get to know it better and replaying it is part of the game.

Once you find an option it likes though, you can spam that option till its hearts are full. However, it’ll notify you when it needs something specific, forcing you to make a choice. If you get it wrong, it’ll die. It’s best to carefully experiment when it has high health, and quickly make it happy again if you picked a wrong choice, to figure out what it likes and dislikes.

I’ve made notes of what they like and dislike at each stage which are listed below. If you want to figure it out yourself, don’t open the spoilers.
Also, I bought this secondhand and have no instructions, so this is all based on my own experience with it.

When you start it up you’re required to set the time.
Then you have to set a start and end time. I assumed this is when it goes to bed and wakes up, as it’s default to 8pm and 6am. I changed these to my bed and wake times, but Nekotcha did not stick to these times, at least not exactly. It also transformed in the evening and morning, so perhaps it was more related to that, although again, not at the exact times I had specified.

There are 8 options; displayed on the top and bottom of the screen. The Menu Button cycles through them. The Select Button selects it. The Choice Button lets you cycle through the options within.
I assume the Time Button shows the clock again, but mine didn’t seem to be working, or not doing anything anyway. It wasn’t needed to play the game though.

The first option is Food, displayed by a Fish Bone icon.
This gives you two options, Fish portrayed by a Fish icon and Hot Meal portrayed by an icon of a plate of steaming food.
This option is available from Stage 1 / the start.

The second option is Toilet, displayed by a turd icon.
This gives you two options, Poo portrayed by a turd with flies icon and Peepee portrayed by a Pp.
This option is available from Stage 1 / the start.

The third option is Medicine, displayed by a syringe icon.
This gives you three options, Injection portrayed by syringe icon, Pill portrayed by a pill with a + icon and Capsule portrayed by a 2 coloured capsule pill icon.
This option is available from Stage 1 / the start.

The fourth option is Walk, displayed by a path with 2 trees icon.
This gives you three options, 2min, 3min and 4min written out in text.
This option is available from Stage 3.

The fifth option is Play, displayed by a ball of yarn icon.
This gives you three options, Ball portrayed by boll with 2 dots icon, Yarn portrayed by a boll with a string icon and Toy Mouse portrayed by a mouse icon.
This option is available from Stage 4.

The sixth option is Vet, displayed by a nurse icon.
This gives you three options, Ambulance portrayed by car with a + icon, Stethoscope portrayed by a circle with 2 lines icon and Hospital portrayed by a house with a + icon.
This option is available from Stage 1 / the start.

The seventh option is Status, displayed by a thermostat and hospital icon.
This shows you their health in hearts, with half heart increments. Despite having room for 6 hearts, I never got it more than 5 hearts. It’s read from right to left, as it’s Japanese.
This option is available from Stage 1 / the start.

The fourth option is Sleep, displayed by zzz icon.
This gives you three options, 2hr, 3hr and 4hr written out in text.
This option is available from Stage 1 / the start.

The confusing part of this virtual pet is, is there are no real animations and the times do not actually occur. Sending it on a walk for Xmin, will not make it actually go on a walk for that time. The same applies to sleep; it will not sleep for Xhrs. You don’t clean up after it, you tell it to go poop basically.

Making a choice will simply produce a happy or sad face, informing you whether they liked or disliked your choice. If liked, their health goes up, if disliked it goes down. If the health is <2 hearts, the next disliked choice could kill it. When it beeps and needs attention, that option’s icon will be flashing, and you have to choose between those options. Pick the wrong one, and it dies. Ignore it, and its health goes down. Ignore it too many times, and it dies.

When it goes to sleep at night, there is no different screen. You simply won’t get any options available to you.

When it’s time to transform, if it has 4+ hearts, it will grow. If it has <2 hearts, it will die. When you reach the final stage, it will produce a kitten, so you can start over again.

That all said, it doesn’t need that much attention. It beeps maybe once every 2 hours. If it’s health is up (which is quite easy to do by spamming a liked option) it doesn’t require much work. The frustrating part is making the wrong choice and having to start over.

It has 8 stages; 1 baby stage, 4 child stages and 3 adult stages. In the end it will give birth to a new baby, or dies. It can transform in the morning and evening.

Stage 1 – Baby

It’s first stage it’s a simple hexagon face with a blank expression. Its eyes move up and down.

Stage 2 – Child

Similar to its previous stage, but now it has gained 2 triangular ears. Its eyes move up and down.

Stage 3 – Child

Similar to its previous stage, but now it has a bigger face, gained 2 whiskers and it smiles. Its eyes move up and down.

Stage 4 – Child

Similar to its previous stage, but it gained another 2 whiskers. Its eyes move up and down.

Stage 5 – Child

Now its face is round, with 2 round ears and it gained another 2 whiskers, making for 6 total. It still smiles and its eyes move up and down. It looks more like the like and dislike face now.

Stage 6 – Adult

We now see a full body cat. It sits upright, with a round face and round ears, large whiskers and a zigzag, thin tail. Its front paws hang on its front. Its eyes move up and down.

Stage 7 – Adult

They now stand on all four legs, and we see a side view. It still has a round face and round ears, large whiskers and a thin tail. Its eyes move up and down.

Stage 8 – Adult

The final stage shows a 3/4 view. The face is closer to the camera, adding a little horizontal mouth to the round face. They still stand on all 4, and has round ears and whiskers, with a curly thin tail now. Only 2 legs are visible due to the angle.

The next time it’s ready to transform and all is well, it’ll be a baby again. This is essentially its kitten, ready for you to play over.

Death

When it’s dead, a grave will be displayed as a little cross on a hill. You can start over now.

Every time it grows and / or dies, some Japanese text scrolls by. I can’t read it, so I don’t know what it says. If anyone knows I’d love to know.

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Accessibility

• Visual
  This pet has barely any animations. The icons on the top and bottom can be too small and hard to see. There isn’t much text, as most of it is icons. The screen is not back lit, so good lighting is needed to see the screen. Using the Menu button, or waiting for a bit, will always place you back with no options selected, should you play blindly and need to know where you are.
• Fine-Motor
  The pet doesn’t require any fast paced input or precision action, although it prefers you making a choice in a select amount of time when it beeps. There are 4 buttons it uses, although only 3 are needed to play, and they are distinctly placed and easy to feel. I also found them larger than most virtual pets.
• Auditory
  Going through the small options using the Menu button produces a beep. However, when using the Choice or Select button to make a decision, no sound is played. There is also no auditory feedback whether it liked or disliked an option. There is also no sound when it dies. It doesn’t notify you when it went to sleep, it simply won’t give you any options, however, the Menu button still produces beeps. When it needs you, it makes alarming beeping noises. It usually grows (or dies) after a required decision. Should you play blindly, you would need to know what stage it is at and what options it likes at that stage.
• Cognitive
  Each stage has its own likes and dislikes and you’ll need to remember them. There’s a lot of choices. I had to write it down as I couldn’t keep up.
  The cat can die (and probably will, a lot).

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Power up

I like playing all kinds of different virtual pets, and not just end up with skins of the same game. Each has their own unique methods. So often I look on secondhand places for an odd virtual pet and if cheap buy it, or send my boyfriend the links for gift ideas. That’s how I ended up with this one, as he bought it for me for my birthday.

At first I had no clue how to play it. There were no eating animations, I told him to poop? and when trying to put him to sleep nothing happened. Some options weren’t even available. And suddenly, he would die! After managing to ID him as Nekotcha I found some more information about him. Apparently it was known to be one of the worst virtual pets! This made me more determined to figure him out and get to the end.

After finding some very basic instructions I figured out it was all about making the right choices. And those preferences change with each stage. But they are always the same, not random. So it became a game of trial and error. Each time a new stage was reached, you had to carefully figure it out again. And each time it died, you learned not to do that again. This was the first pet I had to make notes for! And I had to start over 4 times, very frustrating when you’ve finally reached adulthood! Each time it grows and / or dies, Japanese text scrolls by and you have to wait for it to pass to see if its dead or not. I could never tell if seeing this text was a good or bad thing till it was over, so it was always a lot of anticipation for me.

But once I figured out its replayability was part of the game, I could enjoy it more. It was just different from other pets, and therefor probably misunderstood. The game of trial and error became a game of life and death. The older it got, the less risks I took. I kept giving it liked options, and avoided the rest, unless I had to and hoped for the best.

Because it often transformed right before bed time, and then again in the morning, I didn’t even have a chance with some stages to test anything. If I run it again I will update this, but it might be a while before I do that.

It only has 8 stages, and transforms twice a day, so if you know what to do, you could finish this in 4 days. It took me about twice that to finish it. I guess its short life span is a virtue in this case. If I was 24 days in I would be a lot more upset if it suddenly died because I made the wrong choice!

I have to say, its images require some imagination. I find Stage 1 looking like a lemon, and from Stage 5 onwards it looks more like a mouse than a cat. Some icons were also hard to figure out what they meant, and I’m not even sure I got all correct, but this made the most sense to me. Considering that’s all it has it could have been done a bit better / clearer.

Overall, I don’t think it’s a terrible pet, once you know how to play it. It does feel like something a programmer cobbled together, with its minimum animations and basic like/dislike choices. The challenge of getting to the end was the fun I guess, as the pet itself is too basic to be fun.

But I might just also be biased. I just love small things and pixel games. They are easy to get into, have simple mechanics and not a lot of button presses, and I am fascinated by early video games. Even though this one might be a bit too simple.

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Recommendation

If you like virtual pets or small simple pixel games, you’ll probably like this. Especially if you like cats. It’s not the best virtual pet out there; it’s very basic and unlike the others, more of a choice / trial and error program, so keep that in mind.
If you like deep complex video games, or the standard virtual pet you properly take care of, you probably want to avoid this one.
On the plus side, it’s usually cheap!

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Do you have a Nekotcha (or Inutcha)? Are you thinking of running this one (again)? Is there any information you’re missing? Let me know in the comments below!