Review: Catherine

After waiting for almost a year since its Japanese release Catherine has finally made it to European shores. Has the wait for our dreamer Vincent been worth it? Or is this game just another sheep in the herd? Find out in this review.

Catherine’s story is a very interesting one and was the primary reason for why I was looking forward to playing the title.  The introduction gives you a rough understanding of what to expect in the game, and early on introduces the “Stray Sheep” (a bar where Vincent’s friends come to get drunk and talk about their woes). During this time the neighborhood in which Vincent lives has been involved in a number bizarre incidents where young men die in their sleep with a look of anguish upon their faces. The story quickly moves on and opens up, further adding to the character development throughout the interactive sequences.

You’ll soon realise after the first dream that there will be many situations like this.

Throughout the game you take control of the main protaganest Vincent, who ends up cheating on his partner Katherine after she proposes the idea of marriage. This causes Vincent’s mind to go a bit haywire, and even though he has been with her for five years he ends up cheating on her, but doesn’t remember anything during the time that he cheats. As you can probably figure out, the other girl he ends up sleeping with is Catherine. After meeting Catherine, Vincent begins to have nightmares every single night, making you wonder if Catherine is causing all these men to die, but because Vincent can’t remember the nightmares he can’t question anyone about what is happening to him. As the game progresses the story starts to revolve around your interactions with other people in the bar. Throughout your dreams and when you are back in reality, your thoughts rely on a meter that changes depending on what you say to other characters. This is also presented in a form of mobile texts which you will both receive and need to deal with whilst at the Stray Sheep. Depending on what you choose to say, it can change the outcome of the ending.

The story is very easy to follow, and very interesting. However, while visiting the Stray Sheep and talking to people the dialouge was always predictable and Vincent’s three main friends aren’t the most interesting characters in the world. I found myself countless times just reading the titles and skipping a lof the useless dialouge. It’s a nice option however that depending on who you talk to depends on how they react with you in the dreams/nightmares as well. There are many male characters that visit the bar that are also in the same dreams that Vincent has. Your ability to help them will also net you some achievements/trophies. Throughout the story I decided to be a good guy and choose as many of the good options as possible to receive the better ending. There are in total 8 different endings, some which you can do on about 2.5/3 playthroughs if you save your game at certain points. This opens up the replay value and has already sent me back into the game to find out the different endings as the main story between Vincent and the two girls Catherine and Katherine is brilliant and well thought out. It’s just a shame the other characters sometimes fall a bit flat in the dialogue. There’s also a lot of adult content in the game with sex scenes where you will see Catherine naked or near enough naked, not to mention the ‘naughty photos’ that she may send you when you are at the  “Stray Sheep”. It’s borderline pornographic, nothing too revealing but also can effect the story depending how you react to the images.

The gameplay in Catherine revolves around a lot of puzzle/platforming elements requiring direct control over Vincent during his strange nightmares. As the story develops, the dreams become much more complicated when he meets the gorgeous girl named Catherine. This all takes place during the main story mode ‘Golden Playhouse’ during the time Vincent decides to leave the bar, of which I felt he frequents a little too much, hardly doing wonders for his liver. The gameplay changes depending on whether Vincent is asleep or awake. Whenever Vincent’s awake you never enter the dreams and most of the gameplay consists of you conversing with the other characters. The balance is well done and doesn’t feel too repetitive, though I admit that there were many times that the dreams will cause huge frustration even when playing on easy and normal. In the ‘Nightmare’ world of your dreams you’ll notice that there are other men, represented as sheep, and in order to survive and proceed you will have to climb countless blocks and create  giant staircases that are slowly collapsing underneath you. The game makes you think quick, but also requires you to look at your surroundings and think. Throughout the game you will come up against all types of different stages and boss encounters.

There’s also a variety of different blocks that will keep you on edge at all times, especially the ice blocks as they can often send you to your slippery death. The overall goal in each stage throughout the main game is to safely reach the top. You’ll gain medals, multipliers and achievements/trophies depending on your skills and use of blocks, with speed being of the essence. The stages are split into numerous areas, culminating in a boss stage in which a bizarre and really creepy creature also attempts to kill Vincent. This is where the game really shows you how twisted it can be, given that the boss creations are very unique and genuinely scary. If you’re lucky during certain stages you can find items including pillows (extra lives), block items that can be placed anywhere in the level, lightning that can destroy sheep which block Vincent’s path and lastly a form of energy drink that allows you to climb two blocks instead of one.  There are also certain attributes which Vincent can gain depending on what he drinks during the day. This is no easy game though as Vincent will die if he falls off the stage, gets caught by a trap or is killed by a boss. Depending how quick you are, or if you need to rewind a certain movement you can do so with the back button, though this is only present in the easy and normal mode.  It took me a while to master certain stages as it takes a while to master the control scheme, seemingly to sometimes exaggerate my movements, causing me to loose many of my pillows.  One you finish each stage you will enter a form of lobby where you will meet other sheep. Talking to certain cheep can open up more story links and techniques to help you in the later stages.

After first the first few stages caused me a lot of grief, I decided to slow down a little and s0on learnt that this more careful approach can really pay off. This is definitely a game that you can’t run through.

Even though at times my mistakes did cause a lot of my deaths, many of them were caused by inconsistent bosses.  Often I found that when clicking the undo button, the boss was even closer than they where before, requiring you to rewind a lot more and then re-do your previous steps, potentially causing an early death. There were also times where the game glitched and caused my character to do random things such walking when I didn’t touch the controller. I checked the controller, even used a new one in some segments to test it and I still had some random issues.

The experience is an interesting one, it’s a different type of platformer and it does work well, there’s just a lot of difficulty issues which were rumored to have been lowered in the European version, but it still seems pretty hard, even on easy. If you’re not particularly familiar with the platforming or puzzle genre, you’d be best off trying the demo before purchasing.  However this said, if you want to play for a unique story with multiple-endings with over twenty hours of gameplay, the flaws wont be much of an issue for you. 

For those looking for Multiplayer, Catherine does actually have a Multiplayer mode which I didn’t know until I completed the game. ‘Babel Mode’ features four large stages playable with up to two players, while ‘Vs Colosseum’ features two players racing to reach the top first. They aren’t the most in-depth multiplayer modes, but they are fun. Catherine didn’t even need these modes, but feels like a reward and a bonus for playing,.

Catherine’s presentation switches between cut-scenes and gameplay, each of them looking appealing and beautiful. The game is full of different enviornment and level designs that have a great lasting visual appeal. The characters are very anime-esque which isn’t bad and suits the game very well. All the cutscenes have been drawn to look like an anime, contrasting with the 3D elements shown when you are in the “Stray Sheep” or talking to other characters during the day. When you are in the nightmares the designs get much more creative, especially during stage 5 when the ice blocks first appear.  I have to admit the graphics aren’t anything like most of the modern games on the market, but are similar to other games based in a Japaense environment like Naruto or Tales of Vesperia.  It’s not graphically stunning but it’s artistically beautiful and really impressed me. It suits the game well and I enjoyed watching and playing the story to see what cutscenes/stages would appear.

Lastly the soundtrack, of which is now a personal favourite of mine. There’s a song to fit every scenario in the game. They also included the option to change songs on a jukebox in the “Stray Sheep”, which you can change and listen to when you unlock more songs by doing certain level’s/stages in the game. The soundtrack is very varied and include a wide range of songs from beautiful piano pieces to rock and roll mixes and relaxing songs, it’s not all doom and gloom. If you’re ever stressed out and want something peaceful to listen to I recommend the track ” Roux” or “Jouji Washington”.

Overall 8/10

Catherine is beautiful, unique and fresh, featuring an effectively told story. The character development between certain characters is great and finding out more details to do with the suspicious deaths make you eager to complete and find out what is going on with poor Vincent. The alternative endings will lead you to replay a number of stages, and the multiplayer modes are a nice addition. As mentioned, there are a few issues with the gameplay, primarily due to the high difficulty, but a patient player will reap the rewards. The overall package, with the artistic design, beautfiul soundtrack and a great all-round experience was worth the wait.  A must have for platformer/ puzzle fans.