Catherine – An Atlus Persona Team Game

Vincent Brooks is about to have the worst week of his life. A semi professional slacker, Vincent has drifted through his first 32 years on this earth, day dreaming through his working day and spending every night in the bar drinking with his friends. But reality come calling for Vincent when his girlfriend of five years Katherine starts talking about settling down. A freaked out Vincent is suddenly having to consider topics such as pregnancy and marriage and so does what he does best, he drowns his sorrows at the local bar, The Stray Sheep, with his three friends and other bar regulars for company. A chance drunken meeting with a girl called Catherine ensues, and when Vincent wakes the next morning with Catherine in his bed, he could have no idea just how crazy his life is about to get.




For the next eight days Vincent’s life is turned upside down by nightmares every evening where he is forced to climb walls made up of moveable blocks where all manner of traps are in his way. Vincent also finds himself competing against other men in his dreams, represented as sheep, as he progresses towards a showdown at the end of each evening’s nightmare with a demon representing his subconscious fears, who is trying to stop his progress. As he does this he is acutely aware that there have been a recent spate of young men being found dead from unexplained causes and the rumour going round is that they all died as a result of dying in their dreams at night. This adds a new dimension to these dreams as Vincent feels he is truly struggling for his own survival.




The game is divided into two very distinct areas. During the daytime you control Vincent as he drinks in The Stray Sheep. Interacting with your friends and fellow bar regulars advances the story and helps you understand what is going on. You can also past the time sending texts, playing video games, drinking and selecting the music for the bar playing through the jukebox. At night time you are plunged into the nightmare world where you must solve the puzzles put in front of you. Each evening is made up of one to five stages of usually increasing difficulty and then you face the final area where you need to avoid the area boss as you advance. There is a timed factor to the puzzle as the lower levels disappear at regular intervals meaning you have to keep progressing upwards at a good rate. The puzzles also offer scoring items and weapon items that can he used to help you progress and score a good rating for the puzzle, which in turn can open up bonus game modes. Between each stage you can interact with other “sheep” in a kind of waiting area which further advances the story and links the evening events back to your daytime bar life.



The first thing you will notice about this game is that it is beautifully presented in an anime style. Everything is bright and colourful and really grabs your attention. Sometimes the cut scenes can seem a bit overlong but if you enjoy the anime style you will be thoroughly engrossed. They can be quite long, anything up to thirty minutes, so if the style doesn’t suit you they can easily be skipped through, probably more of a relief on your second play through.

Story wise this game is very involving and if you take the time to really talk to everyone you will discover some fascinating characters. The game has a morality system where Vincent’s actions and responses to other characters in conversation affects the in game morality gauge. Your finishing morality position dictates which of the eight endings you experience so it really feels like every decision you make has a real impact in the game and offers up a lot of replay value. I will warn you that you really need to be able to suspend your disbelief towards the end of the game as the story makes lots of crazy turns in a very short space of time.

The puzzle element of the game is both incredibly addicting and frustrating as hell. You are overwhelmed with techniques thrown at you as to how best navigate the wall climbs and it’s hard to take it all in. However, the sense of satisfaction at beating the puzzles gives you an incredible sense of achievement. A first play through on easy difficulty would probably be recommended as even on normal the difficulty of some of the puzzles is probably a bit too much for the average gamer. It would be a massive shame if anyone let this difficulty get in the way of discovering the unfolding story, as repeated viewing of the game over screen gets really disheartening sometimes.




Achievement wise this game is going to be a tough one for anyone to get a lot of gamer score out of. There are a loads of easily missable achievements and there are a lot of achievements tied to completing the game on hard mode and progressing in the tough Babel game mode. I managed just over 300g with one play through but for anyone to get much more they would have to give this title a lot of time and dedication.

It is really great to see such a unique title as Catherine published this late into the Xbox 360’s life cycle and hope that it will encourage other unique ideas from developers. However, this game clearly isn’t going to be to the taste of everyone. Its art style and difficulty are going to put a lot of people off but those who stick with it will have experienced something truly unique on this console.

8/10

Good stuff mate! Nice reviewing!

I know i'll get this at some point, I really like the look of it. I just know it's gonna drive me to fury!!

Another good, well considered and honest GSA review!

Nice review! Might pick this up if and when it gets any cheaper.

I like the look of the graphics, I may have a look in the future when I can stop whoring!!

Nice review mate

Good review, this is on my list of games to buy so I'll wait till the ineveitable rice drop which such a quirky title will get, but I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this immensely!

Good work mate.

I will have too side step this game as I truly lack patience.

If it could be frustrating then it will be painful for me.

I even found Dark Souls hellishly frustrating and dull