Insanity and Pink Boxers: Catherine

It’s edgy, it’s stylish, and it’s definitely orignal. My take on the action adventure puzzle video game: Catherine.

*This is simply my findings of the game, I have not played the full retail version myself but I can muse.

A Quick Synopsis:

The player controls a man named Vincent, who is under pressure to marry his newly pregnant girlfriend Katherine. While contemplating this crisis at a bar, as most men do, he meets a beautiful girl by the name Catherine. In his drunken lust, he beds her and his life begins to crumble. Tales of people dying in his neighborhood, in their sleep with a horrified look on their faces begin to circulate. Vincent is completely terrified because after his fling, he begins to have nightmares on a daily basis. He must survive the nightmare only to wake up in another hell, one in which he must choose between his girlfriend of five years and the mysterious blond beauty.

This is developed by the Atlus Persona Team. I think that I said enough, time to pack it up.

Really though, that should be a good indication as to what type of game this is. It’s insanity. The plot is intriguing and the gameplay is very unique. It’s a game that I would literally fight someone to play and I am not the most handy brawler.

Let’s get down to the gameplay shall we? As stated before, you play as Vincent and the majority of the action sections are in his dreams. He resembles a sheep or perhaps a ram as he ambles through his nightmare world. It’s technically a puzzle game. The bottom of the level drops as you try to climb upwards towards the exit at the summit. You accomplish this by pulling or pushing blocks of the level in and out of the foreground which you jump on top of to continue your climb. Of course, this is a game made by the Persona team and as such, there is an increasing amount of complexity as you progress. Maybe it’s too complex for a block pushing game as many players seem to be having difficulties playing on the normal setting.

It is not only Vincent that resides in this world, there are other individuals who are like him and are also trying to reach the top. Treasures, manifestations of Vincent’s real world troubles, and an assortment of other baddies try to muss up your way. Much like the Persona series, this nightmare sequence is only one section of the game. The other portions elude to real world interaction, mainly between Catherine and Katherine and perhaps a detective element as you try to solve the strange happenings of the town. It seems to be a very rounded game.

At the moment, the game is only available in Japan but seeing the popularity of the SMT and Persona series, I’m sure that the game will come over to this side eventually. I would like to play this game. I am so incredibly interested and I hope that you are too. I’m quite the fanboy of Atlus now, the quality of their games is quite staggering. The difficulty and strangeness of the gameplay may turn people off but it’s a new take on and old genre which I respect. Not bad for the “dying” Japanese developers especially Atlus is practically no more.

– Jacqivarius