Catherine

Catherine piqued player interest before anyone even knew it was a puzzle game with its risque and downright bizarre trailers. It promised to tackle themes very rarely examined in video game form, namely relationships, adultery, and commitment -- with a layer of psychological horror beneath it all.

The gameplay is based on climbing a tower of blocks by shoving and pulling them into ladders before the time runs out, requiring the player to have a good grasp on puzzles and quick-thinking. The game changes up every few levels by adding different kinds of trick blocks, such as slippery blocks and bombs, to prevent stagnation. The controls could stand to be more fine-tuned. The camera is useless and won't turn far enough to see Vincent if he's climbing around the back of a wall and it frequently turns to focus on the boss instead of making sure Vincent is still in view. It's easy to overdo the controls and fall off or push one block too far, but the worse culprit is the controls when gripping the edge of blocks.

This game is so difficult that Atlus had to release a patch to make Easy mode easier and introduce a secret Very Easy mode. The regular levels don't get too hard until late in the game, but the boss levels spike the difficulty to almost ridiculous extremes in contrast with the stages previous. In the easier modes, extra lives are so plentiful that it would take some work to outright lose the game, but beating one boss might take more retries than it's worth. The worst part is that it's not even a satisfying difficulty that comes with a sense of accomplishment when the "A-ha!" moment is reached, but a "This is ridiculous and I've been stuck on this part for fifty retries and this isn't fun anymore" type of difficulty.

The plot sounds deep (and very intriguing) on paper, but the execution is a little flat. Vincent and Katherine are introduced too quickly, with no time to grow attached to them as likeable people before their relationship goes sour. There's no sign that they were ever on good terms, that Katherine is ever cheerful, or that Vincent is ever less of a whimpering liar. Catherine is too psychotic to be a ray of light in this cast, leaving all the likeable roles to the minor background characters. The creepy nightmare world and the mysteries surrounding it are enough to keep the player coming back for more, but perhaps a bit more begrudgingly than if the game had likeable protagonists. In the end, not even all questions are given satisfactory answers, leaving a plothole or two in an already flawed story.

The graphics are as unique as the gameplay, with an anime-esque style with a twist. The expressions can be over-the-top, the mouthflaps a bit awkward, and the edges a little blocky (Vincent's face sometimes looks a little too square), but the colors and shading are pleasant enough to look at. The game also includes animated cutscenes for emphasized moments in the story, which are full-out anime-style and include much tighter lip movements that make the voice acting sound rushed to keep up.

For the most part, the voice acting is pretty bearable -- not great, but not bad. There are only a few voices that really stick out as inappropriate: The narrator sounds a little condescending and nothing like his Japanese counterpart, Yuri Lowenthal should never voice young boys, and, most importantly, Laura Bailey was really not the right choice for Catherine. Her Sexy Kitten voice made Catherine all the more an uncomfortable a character, as if she was a twelve-year-old trying to act like an adult, rather than a clumsy and curious young adult.

The music is an assortment of classical music rearranged by Meguro Shouji. Some are rather obvious to pick out (the "Hallelujah Chorus" and "Funeral March" come to mind), but I would not have caught on that every track was out of copyright if I hadn't read it elsewhere, in large part because they sound just like something Meguro would have written for Persona 3. They're very modern arrangements (not to mention catchy), so long as you don't recognize the tune -- at which point it may become difficult to get an orchestral version out of your head.

While it's hard not to praise Catherine for trying out new things, it's really less than a stellar title. I hope there will be a sequel that works out the original's kinks, but this release smells too strongly of experimentation and a rushed story.


Pros: Original gameplay, plot treads new ground for a video game, gorgeous music

Cons: Takes difficulty to 11 at random, finicky controls, annoying main characters, lackluster story


7.9/10