Review: Catherine

Cover art of the PS3 version
with Catherine 

I really felt like playing a puzzle game again and I found the perfect one!  It is now time for a review on a "not so old" game.  This time I'm covering Catherine which was developed by Atlus Persona Team (yep, most commonly know as the creators of the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series) and published by Atlus and by Deep Silver in the European version.  This game is very difficult for me to categorize in genre.  Its a bit of a puzzle-platformer with "psychological horror adventure" features as stated by many.

Cover art of the 360 version
with Katherine

To be honest, I had never played any of the Persona games nor the Shin Megami Tensei games, I just bought this game out of pure curiosity.  As I was going through all the available titles at my local game store, this cover art stood out to me (I was looking through the PS3 section).  If its not obvious by the cover art, this is a very adult oriented game, but the cover art just stood out to me from all the first person shooters and hack-and-slash games.  And even stranger to me was the fact that the 360 version had a completely different girl on it!  I was so confused as I saw a man in his underwear and other people that turned out to be sheep!  I was just so curious so I bought a copy and went straight to my PS3 and was amazed at what I found.

Visuals                                         

I gotta say, this game looks very nice.  the game has two different art styles in which it constantly changes between.  It has the two dimensional and three dimensional anime style.  Let's start with the 2D first.

A 2D anime styled cutscene

The 2D style usually only shows up during cutscenes and it looks great.  It seems like a very high quality of anime.  Each character is drawn with so much detail and no two characters have any similar features (as I've seen by many animes lately).  Honestly, if Atlus decided to start doing animes instead of games, they could really do well because it is so visually pleasing.  It's like Atlus knew that it looked great because this game is very cutscene heavy, and thanks to how great it looks, it didn't bother me in the slightest.

One of the 3D cutscenes.

Now for the 3D anime style.  It looks pretty good.  They combined this style in both cutscenes and gameplay so it uses the character models instead of some kind of computer generated models.  And this it's a little more difficult to jusge.  In the gameplay, due to the camera angle and distance from the character, it looks very nice...but when the camera gets closer in the cutscenes, these are very lack luster.  I'm not saying they are bad, because they do look great, but it is very easy to notice a lot of "nitpicky" details.  For instance, some movements that the characters do, such as hitting keys on their cell phones, just looks so unorganic, but then again, just nitpicking.  The rest of it looks great and still keeps the nice anime look in its transition to 3D

Music                                            

Oh what can I say about this music, besides "I loved it"!  Its so difficult to describe because there is just so much of it.  The best song in my opinion is the music of the title screen.  OH I LOVED THIS SONG!  It has an upbeat jazzy sound to it.  But this isn't the only style.  While going through the different levels, the music with completely change the feel of the game.  There are some levels where the music simply sounds like a demented circus jingle, then others that combine hard rock with calming symphonies.  Its just so difficult to explain all the different emotions these songs can invoke.

Some of the song's provided by Atlus on the Jukebox in The Stray Sheep.

If you think that's all, you are mistaken.  In one of the game's hubs, which is designed after a bar, there is a jukebox that contains more music for you to unlock.  If you do the correct events, you can unlock a whopping 50 tracks.  And these aren't just Catherine tracks, a lot of these come from the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games.  This can provide a nice little surprise for anyone who follows along these games.  And honestly, these songs are very catchy.  So catchy that I spent almost an entire day just flipping through these songs.  Honestly, many games get music right, but Catherine just blows them out of the water when it comes to amount and variety.  

Gameplay                                            

Catherine gameplay

Alright this is where the game gets weirder.  As previously mentioned, this game is a puzzle game, but not the average puzzle game.  The game is divided into two sections, being the daytime and the nightmares.  The nightmare is where the main gameplay is.  The game is based around pushing and pulling cubes to climb up a tower.  Each time you push/pull cubes, they will connect on the edges, allowing for some structures that normally would fall to stand strong.  Using this, you would learn different techniques to get across different types of of blocks.  These technique can actually be learned from many of the NPCs who you can meet in the checkpoint stages in between levels.  As I previously mentioned, there are also different types of cube.  There is the average cube that has no effect, there is one that is heavier that results in needing more time to push or pull it, one that comes with a spike trap inbedded in it, one made of slippery ice, one that will detonate and destroy blocks around it, a trampoline cube, one that will randomly move around and knock you off if you hang on the front of it, and finally one that can turn into any of the others if you step on it.  This alone can provide dozens of different ways to climb, but Atlus went one step forward to help the player by adding power ups which can be found or purchased from an NPC for coins found throughout the levels.
These power ups can be mystic pillows to provide you with an extra retry, bibles that rain lightning to kill any enemies that are also trying to climb the tower, placeable blocks that allow you to spawn an unmoveable or moveable block in front of you to help you solve puzzles, and even different energy drinks that allow you to jump higher to pass obstacles.

One of Vincent's nightmares.  Yeah, this game is pretty weird.

And after a few levels, you get to play a boss stage to help Vincent pass his "Nightmare".  How do they make boss battles in a puzzle game you say?  Well they provide the same type of puzzle but have the boss climbing behind you to make you climb faster.  If you get too far behind, the boss and easily destroy you.  But some of these bosses can provide quite a scare so prepare for the worst.  So generally there aren't too many different elements to the puzzles allowing the gameplay to revolve more around the structure of some of the puzzles.  Some are as simple as climbing a flat wall while others are as complicated a spiraling tower of blocks.
After every checkpoint stage, the game also gives you a question to test your morality.  This, although short, provides a nice little moment to stop and think about what you would truly do.  What also helps you think about yourself other than the game is that it doesn't affect Vincent in the game, instead afterwards it provides you will a pie chart to show you what other, of either gender or different ages, chose on their first answer.  Its pointless but provides and nice stat if you find them interesting which I do.  Other than that, there there also trophies given after each level to gauge how well you did on each level.  This is measured by your score, which depends on how many steps you climbed in a certain amount of time and whether or not you collected the Enigma coins along the way to the top.  Then the trophies received are either bronze, silver or gold.

Vincent playing Rapunzel

Luckily you can take a break from the puzzles during the daytime sections by visiting the local bar, The Stray Sheep, and helping Vincent relax by having some drinks, talking to his friends, the other customers, or the owner.  By talking to the other customers, you can help or discourage them from dealing with their own problems.  This also ties into a big part of the game, the karma meter.  As you play, you will occasionally see a red and blue meter whenever Vincent makes any big decisions.  This seems useless until the end because this effects which of the eight endings you get.  Yes there are a whopping total of eight different endings.

Rapunzel gameplay.  Look familiar?

As well as talking to everyone, you can also drink plenty of alcohol (which actually helps Vincent travel faster during the nightmare sections, text either Catherine to get sexy pictures or Katherine to discuss your relationship, or play a relaxing arcade game...wait?  This puzzle game looks familiar?  Yup, its the same type of puzzle game inside a puzzle game.  This game (based around the tale of Rapunzel by The Brothers Grimm)  is said to be a method to improve you puzzle solving skills by providing you with 64 block moving levels along with an additional 64 levels for alternate endings to the story.  This, although a tad bit easier than the nightmare stages, can get very difficult in the later levels.

Vincent climbing the Menhir stage in Babel mode.

There is also a more difficult game type known as Babel, which is unlocked if you do well enough in some of the levels.  In Babel, there are four stages known as Altar, Menhir, Obelisk, and Axis Mundi.  Each getting more and more difficult of a simple goal of reaching a certain amount of steps.  The goals being 150, 190, 214, and 282 respectively.  Also, Babel can be attempted with a friend locally (no wireless is provided) which makes some of the goals slightly easier, but no walk in the park.
Along with Babel, there is another multiplayer option known as Colosseum mode, which gets unlocked after beating the story for the first time.  This involves you playing with a friend locally to see who will fall first.  This game is very fun at first, but soon loses its charm due to how the game is structure.  Almost always, the player is has played any bit more than the other will have a bit of an advantage.  Nonetheless, it is a great diversion from the story whenever you have friends over.
Other than that, there really isn't much to the game because instead of variety, Atlus focused mainly on the puzzles and the story.  Speaking of which...

Story                                                   

Vincent trying to calm down Katherine.

Atlus truly did a phenomenal job at this story.  You start off as Vincent Brooks, a 32 year old systems engineer who lives life like a bachelor.  He lives in a small apartment which is always a mess and he visits the local bar, The Stray Sheep, every night to drink with his friends.  After a long night of drinking, he likes to go back to his apartment, and drink even more beer.  Sounds like a winner to most, considering he also has a girlfriend named Katherine, a 32 year old office manager at a clothing company with a pure Type A personality (a type A personality is someone who is known for having temperamental issues and having many goals, being slightly too competitive, impatient, and prefers to have control in most situations...can't say you never learned anything from video games now).  They previously knew each other in high school but only started dating after meeting again at a 10 year reunion where he ironically was giving her dating advice.  Sounds like a nice little story of love between two people until Vincent has other thoughts.  After dating dating for 5 years, Katherine's parent convince her to try and get Vincent to marry her, but Vincent has some commitment issues.  He, like a child, doesn't want anything to change and just wants to continue dating her with fear of what might happen if he does tie the knot.  After a night to discussing Katherine's ambition to his friends at the bar, all his friends go home for the night, leaving Vincent to continue drinking.  That night he meets a 22 year old sexy blonde named Catherine who seems extremely interested in Vincent.  After a long night of enticing him with a vision of a future of freedom with him and a bit too much to drink, Vincent blacks out with no memory of what happened that night, only to wake up with a nude Catherine by his side. 

Vincent's first sight in the morning.

Not remembering anything, he assumes he just cheated on his girlfriends and soon plans of hiding this event from her.  For the next few nights as Vincent tries to decide whether to leave Katherine or just continue cheating with Catherine, he has nightmares every night where he must climb block towers.  With each passing night, he grow more and more tired during the days and makes dumber and dumber decisions.  Soon, during the day, Vincent has more problems to deal with such as hiding the secret about Catherine and her possible other lover, and a possible pregnancy (don't want to spoil this game for anyone).  As well as Vincent, other men are having these dreams, which he meets as he climbs, although they appear as talking sheep to him and he appears as a sheep to them as well.  So each night, Vincent must struggle to survive to make  it to the next day to try and deal with his issues. 

I personally loved this story, and with the eight alternate endings, it is a great way for you to see how you would end up if you fell into Vincent's shoes.

Overview                              

Catherine is such a unique game.  The story isn't circling any above average person, but still manages to tell a great tale of what they endure.  The gameplay is extremely unique, of which I was very impressed on.  My only real problem was its difficulty.  The game comes with 4 difficulties (5 in the Japanese version).  Very easy (which isn't even presented with the other options) and easy are the best choice if you really want to enjoy the story, but the other two difficulties are extremely more difficult than the others.  The difference between then is basicly a score multiplier, number of retries given at the game over screen and whether or not you are given an undo button.  I, which I consider myself generally good at games, has so much difficulty on normal mode.  It was ridiculous and I found it almost impossible to recieve gold trophies for any level on hard mode without resorting to using guides.  As for Rapunzel, it became so difficult, all I could do is use guides at a certain point.  And don't even get me started on Babel.  It is so difficult, after owning the game for 2 years, I have yet to beat the easiest level.  

The game over screen.

And to avoid the chance of a player using a guide, all the Babel stages are randomly chosen from dozens of possible puzzles.  Although ingenious, it is extremely difficult for the average hardcore gamer.  This makes the game only fully enjoyable to a certain extent.  Luckily with the eight endings, you will spend plenty of time trying out different answers to Vincent's problems to unlock ones that you might not get on your first run through.  Another problem is it's lack of wireless play with friends.  I knew some people who wanted to play Colosseum mode with me who are too far to visit, but we couldn't due to the games restrictions.  Other than that, the game presents a great story with some simple yet impressive gameplay.

One of the talking sheep in the
check point level

I rate this game 8.5 sheep out of 10