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The Good: Highly original concept Combines two unique genres Incredible story Great voice acting |
The Bad: Punishing difficulty in later levels Anime style might turn off some gamers Puzzle segments feels a bit odd The story ends? |
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If there’s one title this year that truly deserves to be called “Original”, its Atlus’s Catherine for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Catherine isn’t like any other game out there. Its not about saving the world, it doesn’t involve tough soldiers mowing down hordes of enemies. Instead, Catherine is the tale of an ordinary man named Vincent, who ends up in a situation that is beyond his comprehension. Vincent really looks and acts like any one of us would. He goes to work, and after work hangs out at his local bar with his friends and is truly scared to be a responsible guy. He doesn’t aim higher and is quite happy with his life. He also has a girlfriend named Katherine (with a “K”) who is trying to take their relationship to the next level but much to her dismay, Vincent isn’t too keen on that. He likes the way his relationship is going. This is where the other Catherine(with a “C”) enters the picture and things starts to become much worse for Vincent. To say anymore will the ruin the superbly told story, which really is the highlight of Catherine.
The entire game is spread over one week. Yes that is correct, one week. But that doesn’t mean that the game is small in its duration. Far from it actually. Each day and night starts out the same, you start off at Sheep’s End, the main interactive hub, sitting besides your friends. From here, you can interact with the various people sitting inside the bar and can learn a great deal more about just what is the reason for Vincent’s nightmares. Once you are done with talking tot he various characters, you cane take Vincent home and this is where his nightmare/gameplay starts.
Catherine’s bread and butter lies in his nightmare. They are divided into levels, with each level consisting of a tower. These towers are a slight reminiscent of Qbert style rearranging set of blocks. Your only objective is to get to the top of the tower before the floor underneath your feet falls into oblivion. Its sounds easier but as the game progresses, the levels starts to become deviously difficult, make no mistake, Catherine is a challenging game and you will be often repeating the levels in order to figure out the quickest way and shortest way to the top.
Once you have climbed the first tower, you will find yourself in a church like hall, where the other dreams will appear as sheep and here you can talk to them and even learn some new techniques. It is also where you will meet with a mysterious figure who asks you a cryptic question depending on your relationship status with both ladies. These questions are often very ambigious in nature so you are often forced to answer honestly unlike figuring out the right response based on the situation. A nice feature is that once you have answered, it shows you in a chart how the other players answered the same question. Depending on your rating you can finish the game multiple times. Boss fights are a simple but challenging stuff. Again, you have to reach the top of the tower before the boss reaches you, but this time the boss has the ability to change the levels and its up to you to stay at least two steps ahead in order to reach the top.
finishing the game unlocks various other modes, including a co-op mode where two players can battle it out to the top, but some of the requirements to achieve them is ridiculously high. I’m afraid that only a handful of players be able to enjoy these extra modes.
Graphically, Catherine is stunning. The level design is fantastic and the character models look, feel and convey emotions like regular people. The bosses in particular are hideos and creepy in true Atlus style with one particular boss baffling me how it even passed game censor laws in U.S. These are the most original character design I have ever seen in a long time and the animated cut-scenes done by Studio 4°C are terrific to watch. Voice acting is also very good, though I would have preferred if Atlus could have given us the choice to switch between Japanese or English audio, however, the voice actors does a great job and feeling and sounding just right without being over.
Perhaps the only thing that keeps Catherine from being a truly great game is its punishing difficulty. Slowly, Catherine becomes an exercise in trial and error and that joy you felt in watching the story unfold earlier, evaporates and that is really the deal breaker. Also, Catherine might also turn those gamers off who aren’t so much interested in anime in general. But that still shouldn’t stop you to enjoy this game. Apart from its punishing later levels and its alienating appearance, this is as good as games get.
Catherine is a breath of fresh air among the seas of over bloated shooters, blood thirsty sequels and “Adult Themed” RPGs. Catherine reminds us that Japan can still make games that are so far out of the ordinary that they demand our total attention. But most importantly that creativity still exists in our industry. Catherine brings two very different genres into such a cohesive package that it is hard to not love it. For anyone who hasn’t played Catherine, well what are you waiting for?
