Catherine | Review

By: Ryan Seiler
Originally posted at Project-Blu.com on September 4, 2011 
   
In recent times, game developers have played it safe. Sequels and shooters are the way to go if you want your multimillion dollar game to be a surefire financial success. So, if you’re a game studio that thinks outside the box, releasing a genre-bending new IP into this sea of sameness is a great way to get noticed. A pink box with a pair of perky tits on the cover doesn’t hurt, either.

Atlus, the makers of the Persona series and Demon’s Souls, is well known for their bravery and ability to pump out new ideas on a seemingly continual basis. And unlike other Japanese game studios, they always faithfully localize their games to whoever wants to experience them. When Catherine first came onto the scene in early 2011, the developer, synonymous with the abstract and weird (at least to western eyes), initially hesitated on a North American release. The studio was worried it wouldn’t sell in America due to it being a combination of Qbert, a dating simulator, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The idea that anyone would even try to make a game like this is almost unheard of, but after all is said and done, this is one of the most unique, captivating and enjoyable games yet this year.

Story

Catherine revolves around Vincent Brooks, a man who’s in over his head for many reasons. His longtime girlfriend Katherine seems to be pushing him towards marriage and has become increasingly more demanding and controlling. Vince, a man who still hasn’t grown up, wants things to stay the way they are, safe. His hesitation and downright fear of commitment ends up getting him mixed up with the younger Catherine, who shares his views on life and immaturity.  The young girl ends up spending the night with Vince after he drinks himself into a stupor.

That night Vince is thrown into a nightmare realm where cheating men are faced with a seemingly perpetual staircase of blocks. At the bottom of the tower lie the embodiments of the men’s fears and at the top lies freedom. Vince is guided along by a fellow sheep during the first few stages until he gets the hang of climbing. Oh did I not mention that all the other men look like sheep and that only your playable character looks the same while you’re in the nightmare? This is an Atlus game, after all.

When Vincent wakes up he remembers nothing of the prior night, he's stunned to find his dream-girl lying naked next to him. She tells him how involved they got the night before and that they are now an item. Before leaving she makes it clear that if they are going to go steady Vince must never EVER cheat on her. The nervous wreck (aka) Mr. Brooks immediately regrets what happened and begins a game full of self-loathing.

Vince later confesses to his friends at their nightly hangout, the Stray Sheep. No one goes too easy on him but understand how he got to this point and are supportive of him, but not so much his libido. Later he has to interact with Katherine in an intensely stressful conversation where she confesses that she suspects herself of being pregnant with his child. The added weight of the possibility of fatherhood is almost too much for the whelp to bare and ends up wiping out what little willpower Vince had left. Once more Vince finds himself drinking to the point where his hormones and sex drive get the best of him and he ends up back in bed with Catherine.

The game has a very strict pattern: Vince wakes up after a nightmare to usually find Catherine lying next to him, hates himself for a while, goes to the Stray Sheep to talk to his friends and acquaintances, ends up going home after a few drinks, then falls asleep and enters the nightmare realm; repeat.

I can honestly say I have never encountered such maturity towards relationships and humans as a whole in a video game before. When I say it is about a man cheating on his girlfriend, the first though that probably went through your mind was a ‘lady’s man’ or perhaps the ever so annoying word ‘player.’ Sadly in most media, when a story is about a man cheating it usually portrays him throughout the story as having the time of his life, as if he hadn’t even thought of the woman he was cheating on because he was having too much fun. And only towards the plot’s end does he come to regret his decisions. The girl will most likely slap him and end up crying as she buries her face into his chest forgiving him. Also, this will all happen in the rain for extra credit. In Catherine, Vincent gets caught up in the moment, he lets his guard down and his sex drive gains control of him. He regrets his actions immediately after the night of passion ends. Vince loves Katherine and never loses faith in his feelings towards her. But his fear of the life that a relationship with Katherine demands leads him back to the comfort of his friends company and a shared bed with the only person in the story who wants him just the way he is, Catherine.

Throughout the story Vince interacts with his friends and the patrons at his favorite bar. Most everyone is being directly affected by the nightmares and your interactions with them could be the one thing to boost their self-esteem and/or that helps them out of a bad situation; either could help them survive the nightmares, so talk it up. This most likely won’t be a problem; every character is well thought out and has a distinct personality and dilemma that is worth investigating. Vince’s friends are especially well developed. They all have their own troubled past and many regrets. All their flaws manifest as a helping hand and guidance towards Vince in this his time of need. All except his young friend Toby. At face value he seems to be the only character to go unharmed through the whole story. My only advice is to follow up on what goes on in his sub-plot, it’s very interesting if you see everything that happens with him.

Story 8/10

Gameplay

There are three very strict parts to Catherine. First are the cinematics which are played out in either an anime style animation or a cel-shaded CG animation akin to the gameplay aesthetic. These scenes can last anywhere from a minute to a thirty-five minute cut-scene juggernaut towards the end of the game. This goes without needing to be said, but if you're one to dislike cut-scenes this may not be a game for you.   Second is the social gameplay part in which Vince interacts with his friends and associates at the bar. At the start of these portions Vince will be at a booth with his friends. My advice is to talk to all three of them until they have nothing else to say and then move on the rest of the customers, systematically finish talking to each of them until they have all been talked -out. As the night goes on, people will enter and leave the Stray Sheep so also keep an eye out for any newcomers. Doing all this feels like a soap opera that you control. People talking about cheating, life goals unachieved and even murder all feel like they belong on a bad day time Tv show. Strangely, I was thoroughly entertained and captivated by their stories and conversations. Maybe there is something archaically entrancing about these sorts of things but my bet is that Atlus knows how to develop characters and personalities. Hanging out like this takes up a huge portion of the game – possibly half if you talk to everyone – and as I’ve already alluded to, is one of the game’s best aspects. The only thing I can accurately compare it to is in movies or shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender or Star Wars, (IV, V, and VI.) Most of the memorable scenes are when the characters are just hanging out talking to each other about their lives. It’s one of the few times when we get to peer into their world through their eyes and get to know them on a personal level.

The final part of Catherine is the puzzler sequences in which Vincent has to manipulate a wall of blocks in order to reach the top. The physics behind all this are rather odd and will take some time getting used to. For instance, a block doesn’t have to have anything underneath of it to stay aloft; it just has to have one edge touching another block’s edge. As with other puzzle games, Catherine is set-up like one big tutorial. The game paces itself along a gradual difficulty curve throughout, introducing new block mechanics and dangers along the way. Starting the game you WILL get caught up occasionally on tricky areas where you cannot possibly figure out what to do. But as the game progresses you will breeze by these situations as if they were child’s play, which is extremely satisfying and rewarding in a puzzle game. I highly recommend that you play Catherine on easy – at least for the first playthrough. Only on easy can you undo your last move, which is invaluable due to the games touchy controls. Well, touchy controls are an understatement. The overwhelming majority of my deaths in game were due to me tapping the joystick accidently or pressing the wrong button. Vince moves at a very fast pace and therefore needs a steady hand and mind to guide through his dangers.

Between puzzle levels Vince will reach landings where he can interact with other sheep and learn some info on the nightmare and even techniques to help climb better. I highly advise talking to the one group that shares these techniques. What they teach you will most likely be the key maneuvers that enable Vince to reach the top of the next level.

At the end of each landing is a confessional. When ready to move on to the next level enter the booth and be ready to answer a frustratingly tough question. Catherine utilizes a karma meter with the basic “do good and good karma will be rewarded” mechanic. Unlike most games where half way through a game you can easily max out your good/bad meter, Catherine wants you to squirm anytime a decision must be made. The choices aren’t always black and white and the game wants you to answer truthfully. This is where this game feels Japanese the most. The morality questions the man in the confessional asks you are all rooted in Japanese culture, so if you answer them based on your western moral values you are most likely going to get bad karma. For example, I was asked, “Is one of the first things you look for in a woman for her to be a good housekeeper?” Now from the time I was a child I was told that women have fought for their right to be counted as equals and that the view of a woman as merely a caretaker of the house and children was a long dead archaic viewpoint only still enforced by Texas politicians. So I answered, “No.” Up came the karma meter and down the arrow went into bad karma town. I soon realized that these questions are imbedded in Japanese culture and you have to answer according to their traditions; one being that the man of the household is the breadwinner. During the social gameplay you will also get good and bad karma but these are far more predictable, blow off Catherine and get good karma, be mean to someone and get bad karma. Be warned that your karma effects the final outcome of the game and you will receive one of eight endings accordingly.

At the end of every night Vince must climb a staircase with the embodiment of that days stresses clambering up it after him. These stages are incredibly tricky and require prior knowledge of that nights levels to complete. The bosses can go from being inspired, like one that is a giant version of him hiding behind a mask, to highly uninspired like a mish-mash of body parts that I can only assume is the nightmare representation of lust.

Gameplay 7/10

Presentation

One good thing about cel-shading, (making CG look like a cartoon i.e. The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker,) is that the aesthetics are in control of the games looks and that a game will never look dated. In gameplay, everything from the blocks to the power-ups has a distinct visual cue that allows for quick movements without having to slow down and look for certain items. Atlus did a great job in making Catherine look and feel like playing an anime. The graphics are crisp and defined and with the help of a distinguished color palette, the gameplay is never confusing to the eye the way most dull-grey western games tend to be.

The music of Catherine was a charming surprise to me. All of the tracks found in the game are covers of well-known orchestral songs from Beethoven, Bach, and even Chopin. The cover songs are all related in their performance and don’t seem out of place when heard back to back. True to most modern Japanese games the soundtrack are performed by actual instruments in the same manner as other Atlus games such as Demon’s Souls which helps give an organic and down-to-Earth feel to the overall experience.

Voice acting is well above average for even a western title let alone a Japanese game that went through the localization process. It is also refreshing to hear characters in a localized game use so many American sayings and slang words aside from the word ‘dude’ which I can only assume, due to it’s gross overuse in Japanese games, is the only word they think we say when we need to use a pronoun.

As for surround sound, it is done very well but in a game whose gameplay is on a 2D wall of blocks there isn’t much need of rear speakers.

Most likely you won’t accomplish all that you wanted to and far less than all the game has to offer on your first go around. Eight different playthroughs are possible with eight different endings. If that doesn’t make you want to play again then maybe exerting the extra effort to save everyone in the game will help convince you to play it all over again. The game does a good job making you feel bad if and when anyone dies. There is also a challenge mode called Babel Tower that isn’t much other than harder versions of previously played maps. The multiplayer can be fun but be sure that your friend is at your playing level or they will no doubt hate you after beating them time and time again.

Presentation 8/10

Overall

Catherine was a welcomed surprise that immersed me in a completely new genre. I haven’t been this invested in video game characters in a long time. Nor have I been so frustrated at a puzzle game yet feel so accomplished when succeeding a round. The controls can be heartless at times but as for gameplay flaws there aren’t many more. Also, for some, the three strict aspects Catherine takes on, (movie, social sim, and puzzle game,) may be too much to handle for a pick-up-and-play gamer, and is best played at a fast pace with as few gaps in between plays. Atlus knew what it was doing when putting this game together and it shows. I can only hope that it continues with similar titles.

Catherine  7.6/10

Game Info
Platform: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 
ESRB: M
PEGI: 18
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Atlus
Release Date: July 26, 2011