Catherine

Catherine is a puzzle platform game by Atlus, released for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 in 2011, with a remaster for the game called Catherine Full Body released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan on February 14th 2019, and September 3rd 2019 in the west.

Plot
Vincent Brooks, a man who is beset by supernatural nightmares while torn between his feelings for long time girlfriend Katherine and the similarly-named beauty Catherine. The gameplay is divided between daytime hours, where Vincent interacts with the other characters, and his dreams where he must navigate three-dimensional tower puzzles. The game's ending is affected by moral choices made by Vincent over the course of the story.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) First game by Atlus to be released on HD consoles.
 * 2) Challenging yet awesome gameplay.
 * 3) Awesome and likeable characters such as the relatable morally conflicted protagonist, Vincent Brooks.
 * 4) * Speaking of Erica Anderson is a good representation of a transgender person, she is likable, kind and caring person with a sad and realistic backstory. Which is surprising for a game made in a time where depictions of transgender people were not very common.
 * 5) Great story, along with hilarious moments.
 * 6) Awesome and addictive puzzles that can really test your ability to think under pressure.
 * 7) Story mode has 2 types of gameplay, one where you go at the bar with your friends, drink alcohol, play games and talk to other, the other is the main gameplay where you're in a nightmare you're climbing a tower with other sheep.
 * 8) * Drinking alcohol at the Stray Sheep also helps in the nightmare stages by allowing Vincent to move a lot faster than normal. Finishing off a glass of booze also rewards the player with a piece of trivia about either beer, whiskey, rum & cola (or Cuba Libre), or sake.
 * 9) *You actually have incentive to talk to other characters; doing so can affect Vincent's thoughts depending on the answers he gives, as well as how they interact with him. In the nightmares, the same applies to the sheep, some of whom also share some advanced techniques for the tower sections.
 * 10) *Some of the characters you talk to in the Stray Sheep visit often, and will sometimes appear in the nightmare stages. These characters may not be around at the end of the game if you ignore them, providing further incentive for you to talk to them.
 * 11) Great bosses that have a few nefarious tricks up their proverbial sleeves.
 * 12) A huge mini-game called Rapunzel where it's the same gameplay as the nightmare one but with some differences such as limited moves and no time limit, consists of 128+ levels plus a story of its own.
 * 13) The NPC characters will be affected depending on what you do and say to them. Some will even can give you special techniques to help you in the game.
 * 14) Earning gold prizes in levels may unlock levels in Babel mode, a very challenging mode where you climb to see how long can you climb, can be played with another player in co-op as well.
 * 15) A mode called Colosseum, a two player mode where you and another player compete to see who can climb the fastest.
 * 16) Great graphics and animation, complimented by a traditional anime art style.
 * 17) Unlike most Japanese games, the voice actors speak English (In non-Japanese Versions) and they all gave solid performances; it helps that high profile voice actors Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham and Yuri Lowenthal all lend their voices to this game.
 * 18) *In fact, Baker and Bailey had so much fun with their roles, they even ad-libbed some of the dialogue for their respective characters.
 * 19) A Jukebox where you listen to songs from other Atlus games you unlocked from Achievements/Trophies, some songs are new too, making it one of the few games that award you something when you unlock an Achievement/Trophy.
 * 20) There are plenty of horror elements, but the game doesn't rely on shock value to be engaging.
 * 21) The story has 8 endings; at various points, Vincent's morals are tested with either questions form Astaroph, in conversations with his friends, phone calls, or text messages form either Katherine/Catherine. They're subtle, but these choices will affect how Vincent's story will end.
 * 22) Story mode takes at least 12 hours to complete on the first time, but if you're aiming to complete 100%, you'll need to beat Rapunzel, see all 8 endings, beat Babel Mode and Colosseum Mode and unlock all the achievements and trophies; that'd take you over 80 hours at least, so it has lots of replay value.
 * 23) In addition to graphical updates, Full Body has a new "Safety" mode (which removes the hidden time limit), new story beats, a new character named "Rin", and two game modes: Classic is exactly the same as the original version, while Remix features new block types, aesthetics, and arrangements.
 * 24) The PlayStation Vita port of Full Body is the full game in a small, portable console, and has cross-save with the Japanese PS4 version.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The game is extremely difficult, even for Japanese players. Aside from the random nature of some stages, you are under pressure to complete the puzzles before the bottom falls away, and you need to move quickly to keep your step combo going if you want the gold prizes in each stage. On Hard, you won't have the luxury of undoing your mistakes, which only adds to the pressure of getting gold prizes.
 * 2) Erica is deadnamed in the game's credits and the artbook, but the PC version adverts this
 * 3) To get Gold Prizes on Hard mode, you need to move quickly, don't die, grab every Enigma Coin you see, and complete a perfect run on each floor in each stage without restarting from a checkpoint. Again, there's no rewind feature here, so you must make sure you get a good rhythm and pattern going. In addition, the puzzles are longer, have more complicated arrangements, and the bottom falls away faster.
 * 4) For some reason Atlus decided it was a good idea to put the vanilla version of the game on steam and not Full Body (Full Body was released less than a year after the PC port).
 * 5) Full Body suffers with pacing issues for some players due to the introduction of Rin, who's shoehorned into the plot and underdeveloped.
 * 6) The PlayStation Vita port of Full Body never made it outside Japan, and has some serious framerate issues in some scenes, as well as not running at the system's max resolution. It's still playable though, and there is an English patch online that also brings the game to full resolution.

Trivia
I know this is sudden, but here's some trivia about Catherine, now that you've read this page...


 * The Xbox 360 version of the game has a different cover than the PS3 version.
 * The game was originally made to test the engine that would go on to be used in Persona 5 4 years later.
 * The game has been played on a competitive level in e-Sports tournaments as early as 2012.
 * The "Full Body" remaster will feature new gameplay and story elements, new features, additional chapters, and endings, making it more than a simple remaster.
 * Even Japanese players found this game to be too hard, so much so that a "Super Easy" mode was later added in, and was included by default when it launched in Western territories.

And that was the Catherine trivia for tonight.

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