Catherine

[† Emotional Outlet]

For those unfamiliar with the game, here's a link to the main site for the game.

You play as Vincent, a man in his early thirties, throughout the game. You start having these horrific nightmares--apparently nightmares you're sharing with other... sheep? During waking hours, you're faced with the drama of a girlfriend who keeps throwing the idea of marriage around and this young minx who keeps. Throwing. Herself. At. You. To the point where you wake up with her in bed with you, and now you've gone and cheated on your girlfriend.

======

Has anyone else played this game? I found it fairly... interesting, to say the least. I shied away from it initially, because it struck me as being a dating sim type game, which I can safely say it's not.

As I was playing it, I found myself getting annoyed that no matter how mean I was to Catherine, she wouldn't go away. The text messages were also incredibly frustrating for me, because there were so many times I was given options I would never recommend saying to a female. It was interesting to see how things played out with such a flawed main character, to say the least.

In terms of actual gameplay, because I wanted to get through it and just get into the story, I ran through it on easy. The whole block puzzle thing on easy seems to require little to no strategy for at least the first half of the game, haha.

Some of the twists seemed pretty... standard. At least one of them I saw coming a mile away.

The waitress used to be a man. They alluded to this fact CONSTANTLY throughout the game, but it isn't confirmed unless you get the best Katherine ending.

That aside, the multiple endings appealled to me because I like to pretend that what I do matters in a game. There are the obvious ones, of course, for each of the girls, but a couple others that I haven't yet gotten. I aimed for getting the best Katherine ending, which I got and it went as I expected. Although I can't say, after finishing the game, that I feel like Vincent deserves either woman. He's such a dirtbag, haha.

Any thoughts or impressions?

[Toastedlizard]

I've only managed to get three of the endings so far but I liked quite a few things about the game. It's rare that you see a puzzle game get a big release (Portal being one of the few I can think of) and done with such a...mature tone. I have to agree with you on Vincent being a jerk, but I think he kinda represented what society is like these days.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Haha, yes. He was really quite realistic--I've known people who are fairly similar to him, haha. Katherine was no better, of course.

Her pretending to be pregnant was an unnecessary ploy to get Vincent to commit to her, but I guess it's something that women do.

I haven't had a chance to go back and play on a more difficult setting, since I've read that it becomes less random as you go up in difficulty, but I did like the puzzles. The Rapunzel game, however, was apparently beyond me. I think I got as far the fourth or fifth level before I just couldn't get past it.

[yudi-kun]

I loved the game for it's complexity (and i hate complex stuff with a passion here people). But i was also impressed by how many people bashed the game that I came across. Many didn't like that you had to think to play the game. hell it took me an hour and a half to pass ONE stage, but damned if it wasn't fun. i didn't like that Vincent was a douch and drop Catherine like a bad habit but the game point out that we are all human and we all are weak. I liked that theme.

Plus I loved all the alcohol info you get in the game. I schooled so many of my co-workers with the strange knowledge I had gained.

[Max465]

While I agree Vincent isn't the greatest of men, I don't feel Katherine was really that great to him to begin with. I didn't really ever feel sympathetic towards Katherine. I didn't like that Vincent was cheating. I felt he should have outright broke up with Katherine. For me it was awesome girl vs ugh girl. The problem was that I didn't like being a cheating asshole, but I liked Catherine more, so I kinda flip flopped through the game on girls. XD

I have always been a fan of SMT(especially the persona series) so I knew what to expect in terms of style. Catherine is no exception in my love of SMT games.

[Renteka-bond]

I enjoyed Catherine a lot. Having a protagonist who isn't completely perfect was a nice change of pace and the side characters were very nice.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I didn't think Catherine was an awesome girl in the least, haha. I found her annoying and unrealistic--it was like the texts I sent to her meant nothing. She'd just keep sending her garbage messages no matter how many times I told her that adults have to work for a living, haha.

But, of course, she was a succubus. What more can you expect of her and her reactions?

Katherine I can sort of feel for. She's been with this guy for a while, they're not getting any younger, and Vincent seems to be constantly stuck in this ambivalent mindset. It's hard to walk away from a long-standing relationship, but with how indecisive he was about the whole thing, I'd say it ought to have made her decision easier to just walk away instead of play games.

I actually haven't gone back and played for one of the other endings, but I'd like to.

I think the "True Neutral" or something like that ending is probably the best for him. Doesn't get either of the girls and goes on the stupid space thing he always wanted to do. I don't think Vincent was good for either woman, and it seems that forcing either woman on him tends to feel... insincere. Like, he doesn't actually care about either woman to any degree.

[ragnawind]

Haha, yes. He was really quite realistic--I've known people who are fairly similar to him, haha. Katherine was no better, of course.

Her pretending to be pregnant was an unnecessary ploy to get Vincent to commit to her, but I guess it's something that women do.

I haven't had a chance to go back and play on a more difficult setting, since I've read that it becomes less random as you go up in difficulty, but I did like the puzzles. The Rapunzel game, however, was apparently beyond me. I think I got as far the fourth or fifth level before I just couldn't get past it.

If you want to get through Rapunzel, but you can't get through on your own, someone has posted how-to videos on how to get through all the stages. Here is a playlist for 5+:

he others should be pretty easy for everyone to figure out, at least.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Haha, thank you. I'm sure there's thousands of those floating around, as well as another couple hundred of poorly written ones with ASCII diagrams. My spatial abilities are somewhat limited, so I have a hard time imagining the actual effects of my randomly pushing blocks around until I do it. Then I just end up flailing around for a while before getting annoyed and quitting. It took me a lot of time to get through some of the later stages of the main game because apparently I have no concept of cause and effect.

"Oh, crap. Shouldn't have moved that one. Now I'm stuck... Crap. Crap. Wait, I can go this--AUGH SPIKES."

Repeat a thousand times. Thank goodness no one but my cats ever see me play games, haha.

[jiiiiiiii]

Does anyone know when its coming to Europe? i really wanna play this game.

[ragnawind]

Does anyone know when its coming to Europe? i really wanna play this game.

It's already out in Europe.

[gamer78]

I'm on chapter 7 so far so good. I hope they turn this into an anime

[The Cake]

Don't know too much about the game, but telling from the game play videos and reviews it sounds pretty weird.

[ooplah]

I love how it's by the Atlus Persona Team *u* I've tried the demo and it was... stressful LOL The puzzles are so pressuring! I've read that a lot of people have complained on how difficult the game is...?

[ragnawind]

Don't know too much about the game, but telling from the game play videos and reviews it sounds pretty weird.

It is basically a survival horror puzzle game. Most of the gameplay is solving puzzles, while the rest is story.