Catherine was a game I never really expected myself to play or like. A few months back, I saw the trailer, featuring some dopey bug-eyed man, sheep, and said dopey man being fascinated by cleavage. I was like wtf kind of game is this? I had no idea what could it be about. All I knew was that it was developed by Atlus, the same peeps who made Etrian Odessey, Persona, and that game that I could not play because I’m squeamish, Trauma Center.
I had forgotten all about this game until it arrived on our doorstep (A certain someone had forgotten that he had pre-ordered the deluxe edition). The deluxe edition came in a box that was designed to look like a pizza box from the Stray Sheep. Included was a pair of boxers, a t-shirt, a mini art book, a music CD, and a pillow case with Catherine on it. I still had no idea what in the world was this game about. Deciding to find out, I put the game disc into the PS3.
Catherine, essentially is a puzzle game with some rpg elements. The game focuses on the dopey fellow I mentioned earlier, Vincent. He seems like the ambition-less guy, content with the status quo. He has been dating his girlfriend Katherine, for some time and is happy to keep things the way they are, until Katherine suggests that they get married. You can guess where this is going…Vincent is hesitant. After being introduced to Katherine, the game introduces you to Vincent’s friends and other characters at the Stray Sheep bar. Here, we also meet Catherine, the ‘other’ woman. At this point, Vincent is confused, and the game leaves you, the player, to choose which path Vincent takes.
After meeting Catherine, Vincent begins having nightmares. In these nightmares, is where the puzzle action begins. Vincent must climb a wall of blocks, by pulling and pushing blocks into place to create stairs leading up, before the time runs out. These puzzles are quite hard when you first play the game, but if normal setting is still too hard, you are able to switch to easy at certain points in the game. These nightmare stages account half of the game play, the rest takes place at the Stray Sheep bar.
At the Stray Sheep, Vincent is able to interact with his friends and other patrons. Vincent is able to drink, talk to the patrons, text on his phone, and play the arcade machine at the bar. Interactions with the patrons can affect the Vincent’s morality meter, which in turn, affect Vincent’s thoughts and the ending of game.
The flow of the game is an alternation between the bar scenes and nightmare stages, with cut scenes cleverly laid out between the two. They introduce some sort of twist, and your left wondering what’s going on, until you complete the next nightmare stage.
At times, I would have preferred to be watching the game as a movie, since one could spend hours and hours in a nightmare stage depending on the difficulty. But I guess the cut scenes are your reward.
I usually don’t like puzzle games, but Catherine’s storyline was interesting enough to hook me in with its strange humor and likeable characters. The puzzles were hard at times, but with the games soundtrack of classical music, I enjoyed the stages. Nothing like building stairs to Bach. A strange game indeed, but worth playing. Thank you Atlus for bringing this game to the US.
I wish a lot of games would incorporate mini games like these. My favorite one is the cooking one. 