Catherine

[Thompson]

That's unbelievable. I know at least Jeff at GiantBomb has some bad things to say about it.

Seriously, why not just watch some anime. That appears to be the only thing anyone is interested in here. Why let a bunch of bizzare block pushing puzzles get between you and what you want. It doesn't look like they add anything to the experience but frustration.

Also, the special edition coming with panties and a pillowcase are just creepy as fuck.

Jeff was being pretty harsh on the latest Bombcast, i'll be interested to see his review. It doesn't come with panties, it comes with boxer shorts, the pillowcase is still weird though.

[syntheticgerbil]

Seriously, why not just watch some anime. That appears to be the only thing anyone is interested in here.

:wtz::wtz:

Yeah guys, stop playing games and go watch some fucking anime you perverts! Christ!

[Sno]

That's unbelievable. I know at least Jeff at GiantBomb has some bad things to say about it.

I said "virtually no dissenters", and while you may find it unbelievable, it thus far is not untrue. So i take it Gerstmann didn't like it, then? I haven't listened to the Bombcast this week, so i don't know anything about what those guys are saying, they haven't yet published a formal review.

Seriously, why not just watch some anime. That appears to be the only thing anyone is interested in here.

Right, well this right here is one big problem. The reason I was interested in this game is because i was pretty fascinated to see somebody try to tackle themes of infidelity and marriage in a medium that has virtually never seen anything remotely like this outside of the indie space.

Just go watch anime, though? This is not a linear narrative, it takes advantage of this medium. You make choices that affect both the story and your character's state of mind, and occasionally your character makes further choices autonomously influenced by the state of mind you have fostered. I mean, I couldn't tell you how much the game can really branch without playing through it multiple times, but with four hours in, i am fascinated by how this game is developing.

Why let a bunch of bizzare block pushing puzzles get between you and what you want. It doesn't look like they add anything to the experience but frustration.

That's an easy and understandable argument, but if you took out the puzzle game, then it would have just been a visual novel. It never would have been released in the west, and we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

So then, yeah... The puzzle game in Catherine? I still really like it, it's an actually well designed puzzle game with deep and interesting mechanics. It just also feels like a completely different, separate game. You have here two pretty cool and interesting games that each might have been interesting even on their own, but here they are, inexplicably, as the same product.

Admittedly, i'm in it for the story, and i'm playing through on easy. It was a choice i made after hearing a friend speak about how insanely hard a time he was having on the normal difficulty. Thing is, on easy, i haven't gotten anything below a silver, so perhaps now too easy? Or maybe just right.

Also, the special edition coming with panties and a pillowcase are just creepy as fuck.

Panties? What? No, that CE just has a pair of boxers like the ones worn by the protagonist during the nightmare puzzle sequences. (While having one of the female characters printed on that pillow case is playing off the trend of god yes absolutely creepy anime body pillows.)

[twmac]

Gertsmann was so much as being harsh about it, more he seemed to be implying that it wasn't his type of game and he didn't enjoy playing the game the way he was being forced to so as to get the review out in time.

Maybe I heard it wrong.

At the same time the Eurogamer review didn't seem that ecstatic about the game but still gave it 9/10.

As for watching Anime... I don't really like a lot of it. I do like me a good puzzle game that won't rely on colour matching, seeing as I am colour blind.

[Thompson]

The review is in.

[Tanukitsune]

Hmm, after what Sno said I wonder if Catherine WAS going to be a visual novel, but they realized it needed more action in it for it to be released out of Japan?

[Sno]

So this game had me more or less up until the end, but the story kind of goes right off a cliff. Not in an especially disastrous way, the final parts of the game just seem sort of lazy.

Generally, if your story requires that you trot out a character to spend ten or more minutes on raw exposition to lay out the mythology for your world, you've done something wrong. (Never mind that any pretensions of emotional maturity kind of flown out the window by this point in the story.)

I didn't really like the ending i got either, but there's nine and the one i got wasn't even one of the "true" endings.

I still like the puzzle mechanics though, and finishing the game opens up a few bonus modes relevant to having more of that. In fact, i'm now in this place where i like Catherine more as a puzzle game than an adventure game. (Or a visual novel if you still want to call it that.)

I did really enjoy playing through Catherine, I would recommend it.

[twmac]

Picked up my copy, unpacked it, laughed at the extras (the art book is bad, the T-Shirt good) adn then put it to one side to play Shadows of the Damned and The First Templar (made by the guys who made Tropico 3).

Sooo, I haven't played it yet...

That said Atlus US are reporting that it was their biggest release in their 20 year history. Broke their expectations and all that.

Probably means that they sold about 200 000 copies.

Anecdotally, the guy in front of me was also picking up his pre-order copy.

[epiclairs]

Got to the final puzzle of the game and the story seems to have lost my interest. I think I've enjoyed the majority of the game up until the end. I know there are different ending and it could be the fact that

I decided to answer all dialog choices in a negative fashion

, but I doubt the ending can really pull it back for me.

That said, I enjoy puzzles. I enjoy all sorts of puzzles. I knew going into the game that I was playing a puzzle game with a story attached. It seems like there is a group of gamers/reviewers out there who were unaware of this. While a bit repetitive, I found the puzzles quite challenging and fun. If you like puzzles and want to experience puzzles then this game will probably get you puzzle'd. Do yourself a favor though and play on normal. Easy is for babies.

[twmac]

Just wanted to say:

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/04/cake-catherine-sold-200-000-units-in-first-week/

Totally called it.

[Thompson]

Exclusive behind the scenes cake photo!

I got that from a dude who works at Atlus.

[twmac]

So this game had me more or less up until the end, but the story kind of goes right off a cliff. Not in an especially disastrous way, the final parts of the game just seem sort of lazy.

Finished it in three sittings this weekend, haven't been gripped by the desire to finish a game like that in quite some time.

The puzzling is exquisite, the slow depth that reveals itself once you get going is pretty phenomenal, I also like that the game offers lots of different methods and incentives to play the game and its variants (it reminded me of an ascending Mr Driller:tup:)

Loved all of the mechanics, although I must say that the controls reversing themselves when you are on the back of a tower is thoroughly irritating.

The story was okay, and I agree that ending bit is sad and lazy, would have been nice to not have had it all tied up. I got a true ending that I felt was very reflective of my own attitude towards the characters in the game.

I am curious as to how the other endings would pan out, it seems to me that they would have to completely change the characters' motivations and background to wring 9 different endings.

Anyway, despite some minor complaints, I think this might be my GOTY so far. That said, it has been a bit of a slow year for me. At the moment my others are:

Child of Eden

Beyond Good & Evil HD

Mindjack

[Roderick]

Gentlemen, I have fucking finished this game and can finally revisit this thread. I am SHOCKED and APPALLED to see that the opinions here are REASONABLE and MIRROR MY OWN. This is an outrage, sirs.

Catherine is fantastic. When I started playing it, I was really rooting for it, I wanted it to be good, so it was delightful when it transpired that it was. This is definitely a game that I will consider for GOTY, even against the likes of Portal 2. Catherine really touched me in the sense that it spoke to me as a person of a certain age and in a certain life phase that rarely gets covered by games. What other games offer you a slice of Vincent's life? The late-20s, early-30s young man who is kind of vexed by becoming an adult and struggles with questions of meaning and commitment. That is what I'm knee-deep in right now, though less with relationships and more with figuring out where I want to go with my career and future! It felt so compelling and fresh that there is finally a game that covers that. And covers sex in a way that it's not some juvenile masculine wish-fulfilment, some reward for a job well done or power-up. No no no, sex exists in the context of a relationship and it's complicated and messy. Catherine acknowledges that.

Not only that, it builds these themes out in a uniquely gamey way by making the player climb towers, pushing and pulling blocks, haunted and chased by nightmares. Only a game could've exploited these feelings so well, the panic of being chased, the sheer vexation of having to climb. I hate to bring up this discussion again, but this aspect of Catherine shines so brightly as an illustration of the storytelling that gameplay in its pure form can bring, forming an emotional link between the player and the thematics of the game, that it is the most compelling argument for games being 'art' for whatever it's worth. An artform in itself with unique means of communicating grand ideas to people --not a derivative of other artforms or media.

That, then, might be the most surprising aspect of Catherine: the block puzzles aren't just slapped on top of 'an anime' or dating sim or visual novel. They are an integral part of the game and push the theme and symbolism harder than anything else. Without the gameplay this story wouldn't exist.

With greatest regret I too saw Catherine burn up in the final acts. It seemed to me as if the game, at the very last moment, couldn't muster the courage to let the symbolism stand on itself and made the unfortunate decision to explain everything. Via the weakest possible way, even. The explanation is not really bad, it's just wholly unnecessary and obnoxious because in the end it holds Catherine back. It cheapens the symbolic strength of what came before.

Almost the whole game rightly focuses on Vincent and his problems, his anxieties, with nothing to detract from it. He is having a REAL affair and THAT'S GREAT. It's a real problem, a real situation. It doesn't make Vincent a dick. We empathize with his predicament. It's a genuinely interesting situation. But then the game goes OH WAIT it's just demons and succubi and blah blah blah, and the whole tension of the moment is gone and the game becomes Vincent's quest to vanquish some bullshit evil.

It's such a shame! Catherine could have been, I genuinely mean it, art. But it chooses at the final moment to stay in the sludge of video game.

But.

A GOTY-worthy video game.

[twmac]

That encapsulated a lot of what I have been trying to articulate in a review for Catherine, thank you, but I am going to have to crib from your comments Rodi.

Also, depending on the ending you get, Catherine makes a rather wonderful companion piece to the film 'Up in the Air'.

Played some of the Co-Op sessions with a friend, it is ridiculously hard to coordinate stuff. The versus fares a lot better (the mechanics and power ups lend themselves well to dicking others over) but I haven't met anyone amongst my friends who is at my level.

[Roderick]

Crib away, good sir, crib away. I'd like to read whatever you write!

[Roderick]

On the Gamescom in Cologne.

Love this game.

[twmac]

I would love that stenciled to my bedroom wall.

[twmac]

Hey Rodi, my review went up, I think you will be able to see the parts that drew inspiration from your post, it got a big thumbs up from the editor too:

http://www.arcadianrhythms.com/2011/08/catherine-the-review/

[Roderick]

Good job, my fellow Thumb! Thanks for letting me know.

[Roderick]

Kotaku has a surprisingly candid opinion on Catherine: http://kotaku.com/5835886/catherine-poses-questions-about-mature-relationships-most-games-are-afraid-to-ask. I love reading these stories as they speak volumes about how Catherine is resonating with a group of gamers increasingly ill-represented as they mature. Catherine appears to be something that can be really special if it arrives at precisely that time that you're struggling in your late 20s, early 30s.

[Tanukitsune]

I kinda forgot about this game and I just found out that it's one of next month's PSN+ rewards! Huzzah! :3

[Roderick]

Play it! It's great!

[twmac]

Indeed, well worth the time and bandwidth. If it is free you have no excuse.

[Tanukitsune]

Wow, all I can say so far is.... Poor Vincent and... 

Catherine the blond HAS to be the witch, unless the game changes and makes Katherine the witch if you change alignment?

 

I'm pretty much intrigued... I actually try to leave before Catherine comes and I STILL wake up with her? The game talks about legends of a curse that kills the unfaithful, the only question is...

 

Why did I get the nightmare before being unfaithful? I also like how each nightmare represent Vincent's biggest worry of the day... I think the first boss was Katherine, the second Catherine and well, the baby one was pretty obvious, that's how far I am now.