Good news: I GOT A NEW CAR!
Bad news: I HAVE TO PAY OFF THE NEW CAR D:
Time for another one of my most awesome reviews. This time I'll be talking about Catherine, the latest offering from Atlus. If you're not familiar with Atlus, you might've at least heard of a little game called Persona 3 (or 4). The Persona series is Atlus greatest claim to fame, the third and fourth entries in the series being the most popular. Personally, I'm not a big fan of either of the most popular Persona games, and prefer Atlus' longest running series: Shin Megami Tensei as well as their Digital Devil Saga but I digress. Catherine is a departure of sorts for Atlus. Both Persona and the SMT series are RPG series. Catherine is more like an interactive anime with puzzle gameplay. I wouldn't call it completely innovative, there are plenty of games that have done this type of gameplay before (Recent: Heavy Rain, Retro: Dragon's Lair), but Catherine was still wonky enough to catch my eye.
Your Game Is Unique If:
a) It has a sheep. Check
b) That sheep wears a tie. Check
c) That sheep talks. Check
Catherine tells the tale of Vincent Brooks, a 32 year old engineer. Vincent is a sort of everyman for beta males. He likes to buy new tech toys. He likes to go drinking with his buddies. He's got a longtime girlfriend who's pressuring him to take the next step. As he tries to figure out what to do with Katherine, his SO, he begins to have nightmares; Nightmares where he's forced to quickly climb towers of blocks or else the floor will fall out from under him and he'll fall to his death, both in the dream and real life. Stressed out from lack of sleep and Katherine's nagging, he spends another night at his favorite watering hole, the Stray Sheep, where he meets the sexy and enigmatic Catherine. One drunken night stand later, Vincent finds himself in the middle of a love triangle. Combine that with his increasingly deadly nightmares, and it seems Vincent is in for one hell of a semi-midlife crisis.
I feel you, Vince, I feel you
That little intro pretty much explains the gameplay as well. Each night you have a nightmare and must complete a variable amount of puzzle stages before you can watch the next cutscene and talk to your next batch of npcs. This is also Catherine's weakest element, depending on how much you like climbing blocks. The block puzzles are pretty much all there is to gameplay in Catherine. So if you're not a big fan of it, it gets tedious pretty quickly. In fact, if you really hate twitch puzzle gameplay and aren't super interested in the story line, I'd skip Catherine entirely. It's that bad. I managed to hack my way through hard, but the promise of an awesome cutscene is the only thing that kept me going most of the time. Like I said, it's only that trying if you don't like that type of gameplay. There's a demo on the PSN (dunno about Xbox marketplace) so you can get a taste of what'd you be dealing with.
You'll be seeing this screen... a lot
There's a fair amount of Q&A throughout the game as well. The most game changing of these happen in between nightmare stages where you're asked questions that sort of define the kind of person you are. They range from complete blow off questions to pretty difficult decisions like choosing to save your best friend or your lover. After answering each of the big questions, you're shown a pie chart that shows how other people have answered, a pretty interesting way to see how other people playing the game think (Most people that play Catherine are apparently perverts.)
My kind of girl
When you're not in the nightmare or watching cutscenes, you're free to move around and socialize at the Stray Sheep. You can explore various subplots by talking to bar patrons, change the music at the jukebox (you can unlock all sorts of awesome tracks, not just from Catherine but from other Atlus games by completing the various trophies/achievements), play an arcade game called Rapunzel (oh boy more block puzzles.), drink booze, and reply to text messages from Catherine and Katherine (and depending on how you play, look at sexy pictures).
I swear I didn't just get the game for the almost softcore porn. Really. WHY DON'T YOU GUYS BELIEVE ME?!
The story is Catherine's strong point. It's a tale pretty much anyone can relate to and one you might be familiar with, but the way Atlus tells it is a perfect balance of drama, suspense, and comedy, with just a smidge of horror. The cutscenes and (most) of the voice work is masterfully done. Like I said, at the beginning of each night, I found myself eagerly awaiting the change to see the next cutscene. Each of them are genuinely hilarious and well worth the effort to get through the puzzles if the game's plot tailors to your interest. There's 8 different endings to get and 6 of them are definitely worth obtaining. Luckily, once you gold award a stage, you don't have to play it again, so getting additional endings don't require grinding through puzzle stages again and again and again, unless you really suck at the game and can't get the gold award.
Happy ending?
The visuals are solid. The art style is in line with previous Atlus entries, so if you've played any of those, you know what to expect. Most of the bosses (yes, there are boss "fights") are both unique and awesome looking, as well as amusing at times. The game's two love interests are both attractive in their own ways (though I prefer C to K) so people that are really into the "dating" sim aspect should be able to find something they like.
Just one more reason to be terrified of babies.
Overall, I'd give Catherine a shot for the story alone. At the very least, it's another breath of fresh air in today's FPS and shovelware filled world. If you really don't like the gameplay, set it on easy (something I should've done, but I have to get my trophies) and it should be pretty bearable.
Introducing,
Dae's Patented "Amazing Grading System That Actually Means Something":
1
- OMG THIS GAME IS SO BAD KILL ME
2 - Forgettable, rentable, get it only if it fits your particular tastes
3 - All around solid, worth buying
4 - Behold, blessed perfection
Bottomline score for Catherine:
Bad news: I HAVE TO PAY OFF THE NEW CAR D:
Time for another one of my most awesome reviews. This time I'll be talking about Catherine, the latest offering from Atlus. If you're not familiar with Atlus, you might've at least heard of a little game called Persona 3 (or 4). The Persona series is Atlus greatest claim to fame, the third and fourth entries in the series being the most popular. Personally, I'm not a big fan of either of the most popular Persona games, and prefer Atlus' longest running series: Shin Megami Tensei as well as their Digital Devil Saga but I digress. Catherine is a departure of sorts for Atlus. Both Persona and the SMT series are RPG series. Catherine is more like an interactive anime with puzzle gameplay. I wouldn't call it completely innovative, there are plenty of games that have done this type of gameplay before (Recent: Heavy Rain, Retro: Dragon's Lair), but Catherine was still wonky enough to catch my eye.
Your Game Is Unique If:
a) It has a sheep. Check
b) That sheep wears a tie. Check
c) That sheep talks. Check
Catherine tells the tale of Vincent Brooks, a 32 year old engineer. Vincent is a sort of everyman for beta males. He likes to buy new tech toys. He likes to go drinking with his buddies. He's got a longtime girlfriend who's pressuring him to take the next step. As he tries to figure out what to do with Katherine, his SO, he begins to have nightmares; Nightmares where he's forced to quickly climb towers of blocks or else the floor will fall out from under him and he'll fall to his death, both in the dream and real life. Stressed out from lack of sleep and Katherine's nagging, he spends another night at his favorite watering hole, the Stray Sheep, where he meets the sexy and enigmatic Catherine. One drunken night stand later, Vincent finds himself in the middle of a love triangle. Combine that with his increasingly deadly nightmares, and it seems Vincent is in for one hell of a semi-midlife crisis.
I feel you, Vince, I feel you
That little intro pretty much explains the gameplay as well. Each night you have a nightmare and must complete a variable amount of puzzle stages before you can watch the next cutscene and talk to your next batch of npcs. This is also Catherine's weakest element, depending on how much you like climbing blocks. The block puzzles are pretty much all there is to gameplay in Catherine. So if you're not a big fan of it, it gets tedious pretty quickly. In fact, if you really hate twitch puzzle gameplay and aren't super interested in the story line, I'd skip Catherine entirely. It's that bad. I managed to hack my way through hard, but the promise of an awesome cutscene is the only thing that kept me going most of the time. Like I said, it's only that trying if you don't like that type of gameplay. There's a demo on the PSN (dunno about Xbox marketplace) so you can get a taste of what'd you be dealing with.
You'll be seeing this screen... a lot
There's a fair amount of Q&A throughout the game as well. The most game changing of these happen in between nightmare stages where you're asked questions that sort of define the kind of person you are. They range from complete blow off questions to pretty difficult decisions like choosing to save your best friend or your lover. After answering each of the big questions, you're shown a pie chart that shows how other people have answered, a pretty interesting way to see how other people playing the game think (Most people that play Catherine are apparently perverts.)
My kind of girl
When you're not in the nightmare or watching cutscenes, you're free to move around and socialize at the Stray Sheep. You can explore various subplots by talking to bar patrons, change the music at the jukebox (you can unlock all sorts of awesome tracks, not just from Catherine but from other Atlus games by completing the various trophies/achievements), play an arcade game called Rapunzel (oh boy more block puzzles.), drink booze, and reply to text messages from Catherine and Katherine (and depending on how you play, look at sexy pictures).
I swear I didn't just get the game for the almost softcore porn. Really. WHY DON'T YOU GUYS BELIEVE ME?!
The story is Catherine's strong point. It's a tale pretty much anyone can relate to and one you might be familiar with, but the way Atlus tells it is a perfect balance of drama, suspense, and comedy, with just a smidge of horror. The cutscenes and (most) of the voice work is masterfully done. Like I said, at the beginning of each night, I found myself eagerly awaiting the change to see the next cutscene. Each of them are genuinely hilarious and well worth the effort to get through the puzzles if the game's plot tailors to your interest. There's 8 different endings to get and 6 of them are definitely worth obtaining. Luckily, once you gold award a stage, you don't have to play it again, so getting additional endings don't require grinding through puzzle stages again and again and again, unless you really suck at the game and can't get the gold award.
Happy ending?
The visuals are solid. The art style is in line with previous Atlus entries, so if you've played any of those, you know what to expect. Most of the bosses (yes, there are boss "fights") are both unique and awesome looking, as well as amusing at times. The game's two love interests are both attractive in their own ways (though I prefer C to K) so people that are really into the "dating" sim aspect should be able to find something they like.
Just one more reason to be terrified of babies.
Overall, I'd give Catherine a shot for the story alone. At the very least, it's another breath of fresh air in today's FPS and shovelware filled world. If you really don't like the gameplay, set it on easy (something I should've done, but I have to get my trophies) and it should be pretty bearable.
Introducing,
Dae's Patented "Amazing Grading System That Actually Means Something":
1
- OMG THIS GAME IS SO BAD KILL ME2
- Forgettable, rentable, get it only if it fits your particular tastes3
- All around solid, worth buying4
- Behold, blessed perfectionBottomline score for Catherine:
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
drusylla:
I never said I was taking all of your monies. Not my fault you can't budget for a hair stylist 
drusylla:
Overpriced?? My fees are more than reasonable! You just have to pay to get me out there