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.

In August, I spent a few weekends playing through Catherine. Then I moved on to play Phantasy Star IV. Which I’m still playing currently. I guess that’s a classic RPG, but its my childhood game, not something new. I do want to get an entry for both games, even though Catherine isn’t an RPG, it was still a great game. Hopefully, I get those up soon…I haven’t given up on my little challenge, but I’m moving at a snail’s pace updating. :\

I do see why the hardcore fans would be disappointed. I was disappointed too when I found out the game was set in a different world than the main series, but it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the game, since I understood this was a spin-off. Another thing that was missing was the runes. The runes have played important roles in the main Suikoden series, so seeing them gone in this game probably upset some as well. Instead, the game had ‘mark of the stars’, which kind of functioned like runes. It was good enough for me…I’m not sure runes fit too well with the storyline.

Another thing that might have upset long time fans was the battle and weapons. In the main Suikoden, you could have up to 6 party members in battle, but in Tierkreis, you can only have 4. You can still arrange them along the traditional 6 spaces though. Honestly, when I saw my first battle, I was like “it’s just like the old Suikodens, minus the 2 extra people!”. It wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I just think it was a limitation with the DS. There was no space on the interface to accommodate a portrait and health stats for two other characters.

Also missing from Tierkreis was the weapon upgrades from the previous games. You had to purchase your weapons, armor and accessories instead. Again, it wasn’t a big deal for me. The mini games were missing as well. Sure I like mini games, but again, probably because of limitations, they had to be cut. I was really looking forward to see Chinchorinrin when I recruited Semias, the gambler, too.

I nearly forgot, but missing was the strategy battles. I don’t know if these were continued past Suikoden II, but to be honest. I was glad to see them gone. I was okay with the war battles in Suikoden I, but I hated the strategy battles in II. I was never a fan of strategy games to begin with.

If you can overlook what’s missing from the past Suikodens, I think you can enjoy this game. The story was pretty interesting, but the ending. Oh lord. Without saying too much, it was somewhat underwhelming. But that shouldn’t deter you from giving Tierkreis a chance. There’s that saying about the journey being more important than the destination. What? I guess it would apply here.

It’s that time again. Don’t worry, I haven’t given up, despite how daunting my challenge is. Still working on dem rpgs…

The other thing that’s been bugging me as well is the lack of presence by the villain. I’m going around gathering the greater craymels of both worlds and you’d think that the villain would find that threatening? Reid and co. have the potential to wreck your plans. You’d think the villain would send out his henchmen to give you trouble. But no resistance while I gathered the greater craymels.

One guy, whose name I forgot, and assume it was one of Balir’s minions, destroyed Meredy’s town. I forgot the dialogue that was exchanged, but I’m not exactly clear why this guy did it. Also this is the second time you encounter this guy. Where has he been all throughout the rest of Disc 1? Why does he show up now?

So anyway, I continue through the game to the point where I end up at Balir’s castle. I found out why Balir wasn’t present…because he’s dead! He’s been dead for about 10 years. So who’s causing the grand fall? Balir’s consort, Shizel, who also happens to be Meredy’s mother. It didn’t look like Meredy was bothered that Balir, had been mummified at his throne…

Shizel’s reason for causing the grand fall was something along the lines of cleansing the world or starting anew. I forgot the exact details. Anyway, you briefly fight her before Ras comes in to help you. The fight leaves the castle destroyed and Ras dying. What’s more sad is that I didn’t feel anything for Ras as he died. To add insult to injury, the poor guy wasn’t even given some sort of burial. After his final words, the group just left him there. I think Ras’ death could have been more dramatic had his character been developed more. Some point later in the game, you replay a scene that was encountered in the beginning, where you kill this Eggbear in the cave. It’s last thoughts were, “I..I want to live…” and then Reid proceeds to make jerky out of him. I found that scene to be way sadder than Ras’ death. Its funny how that Eggbear was more developed than Ras…Sure you interacted with both for a short time, but the Eggbear invoked more emotion.

I’m not sure how long this game is, but I’m hoping things will improve storywise. Maybe some more about Meredy and Shizel? It’s her mom after all, she’s got to have some thoughts about fighting her own mom. I guess next time’s play through will tell.

Anyways, I been playing my DS a bit. I was originally playing Feel the Magic XX/XY, but I got annoyed at it, so I looked at my list of games, and I had Suikoden Tierkreis. I haven’t heard much talk of this Suikoden, so probably not a classic. I’ll probably keep playing on the days I don’t play Tales or find myself really bored…

I’ve only played maybe 2 hours? Seems interesting, though I’m disappointed it doesn’t take place in the same world as the other Suikoden games. However, it has the similar battle system as the other games, with some new additions and I was glad to hear the traditional Suikoden music when I named the hero.

Also a bit disappointed that I don’t get to fully explore the towns and there is no full overworld map. The way towns work is similar to Etrian Odessey(which is the other DS game I play here and there), where you chose which location in town you want to visit from a menu, while you can explore the area you chose, there is no seamless town. Have to use the menu to navigate.

Characters seem alright so far. The voice acting has not annoyed me yet. Though the hero SEEMSTOBEREALLYEXCITEDALLTHETIMEANDTALKSLIKETHIS. I heard he starts to speak a bit slower later in the game, maybe take some breathes here and there…

Yep, so far everything looks mostly alright. Probably will continue playing when my DS is charged again. lol

I’ve gotten maybe 12 hours in of game play. The characters are alright. I don’t dislike anyone for sure, but I’m not loving them either yet. The voice acting isn’t bad, but it could have used some mastering. The storyline so far seems okay. Nothing great, yet.

So far, Reid and Farrah, have found Meredy, a Celestian that has crashed into their world, and have been trying to help her and also understand what she is saying, since she speaks a different language. They enlist the help of Keele, their childhood friend and begin their quest. Keele’s voice actor reminds me a lot of a hall mate I had back in college…I guess that gives me an inclination to dislike Keele more.

Eventually the group finds a way to communicate with Meredy, and learn that she’s here to stop what is called the “Grand Fall”. Basically, her world, Celestia, is going to collide with the other protagonists’ world, Inferia. They also find out to stop this, they need the aid of the Greater Craymels.

The first Greater Craymel I get is Undine, and then the group has the big idea to go tell the King of Inferia. This is sounding like this other game… “HEY, MINERAL POWDER IS BAD! LET’S GO TALK TO THE COUNT…” That didn’t go so well, did it? Usually, in games, alerting the authorities is a bad idea, because they’ll likely not believe a bunch of kids, or, whatever the bad thing is, could have been intended by them.

So Reid and Co. go to the King, regardless, and get themselves sentenced to death. (See what I mean?) They are saved by the Chancellor of the Royal Observatory, because he read Keele’s thesis on the collision of the two worlds. By the way, that scene annoyed me. Before you get captured and sentenced to death. Your party was at the Observatory, trying to talk to the Chancellor, but you are stopped by a research assistant. Keele begs to see the Chancellor and hands over his thesis. The research assistant then proceeds to throw Keele’s thesis on the floor……and Keele does nothing. I was like, Come on Keele, this is your thesis! Don’t let this guy just toss your work. Fast forward again, after Reid and Co. are saved, Keele still decides to leave the group to work with the Observatory, after the way they treated him. What a spineless guy. lol

After the ordeal at Inferia City, I crossed the sea and now have to search for another Greater Craymel, Slyph. I guess in my next play through, I’ll go through that cave…

From the beginning, Suikoden II, felt different. You’re thrown into the conflict from the start and you know who your antagonist is. Also, the storyline differs from most RPGs, where you’re out to save the world from something. Like its predecessor, Suikoden I it also deals with war, but in this game, the focus is also on the friendship of the main hero, Riou, and his best friend Jowy.

This game also has probably the best villain in an RPG: Luca Blight. You get to interact with Luca early on, when the Unicorn Brigade is slaughtered and is pretty prominent throughout the first half of the game. What made him more believable was that you see the carnage as its unfolding. Among the most memorable scenes with Luca is the destruction of Ryube Village. If you’ve ever played Suikoden 2, you should remember, “DIE PIG!” If you need a refresher, here’s a clip of it.

Even after my first play through a few years back, I still remember this. Luca Blight is truly bad to the bone. I was disappointed he wasn’t the final boss, but he did go out with a bang, so to speak. His last battle was also pretty memorable, is at took three parties and a shower of arrows from your army to take him down. Even in his last moments, no shred of regret for all the destruction he caused.

I’ve mentioned some other great things about the game in the previous post in more detail, such as the castle and its mini games. But yes, I greatly enjoyed this game. Great storyline and great game play. I could even replay it again, if I didn’t have another game to play.

However, we’re simultaneously playing this. While the recruiting of members is happening in Suikoden II, either Tuan or myself is on the PS3, playing the original Suikoden. The pace is not as fast, as we pause either game to focus on main storyline dialogues or scene.

I got to a point in Suikoden II, where I reached Gregminster, and was like, “hey this place is kinda familiar. Who’s Lepant again?” I guess if I had remembered I would be more like “OMG IT’S LEPANT! I REMEMBER THIS FROM PART 1!” And I also missed the hero, Tir McDohl’s house while exploring Gregminster…

So yea…a quick refresher wouldn’t hurt. So far, 3 hours in and just met Viktor and escaped Gregminster.

I’ve been enjoying the game so far. It feels a bit different from other RPGs, since I’m not spending a lot of time dungeon crawling, but I like that. Most of the time I’m out recruiting people for my army in towns. Its a nice change of pace.

I love that this game has a fort, like the previous Suikoden. I would have liked to have more customization, but I still think its great. I love seeing the fort develop as I recruit people. At the point I’m at, I’ve got various shops and mini games. There’s a rock climbing game, whack a mole, chinchiwatever (that gambling game), fishing, and an Iron chef styled mini game. It’s like all those stupid Facebook apps rolled into one. I wish a lot of games would incorporate mini games like these. My favorite one is the cooking one.

It plays like the show, Iron Chef, where its two chefs in a cooking contest and the food is judged by a panel. In Suikoden II, that panel is members of your group. You cook 3 dishes, chosen from your available recipes, so there’s a lot of possible combinations of food. There is apparently a story line with your army chef Hai Yo, as you complete the cooking contests. I haven’t seen the full story unfold, but the challenges have been getting harder.

So all in all, I’ve been enjoying the game, despite taking a lot of breaks from the main storyline to recruit more members to the party.
In fact, today’s session was just devoted to recruiting people.