LogFAQs > #932342806

<b>#18: Catherine
Released in 2/17/2011
Xbox One</b>
(written in 2019)

I didn't think I ever played an Atlus game before. I had to look it up to learn they worked on Friday the 13th and Snowboard Kids. I also only watched part of the Persona 3 anime, so thats as close as I got to anything theyve done in recent years...but after playing Catherine, wow. Please get your games on Steam already, Atlus -- I only got to play this because my brother loaned me his Xbone a few days.

EDGE

First thing's first: that opening menu theme song is probably the best opening menu theme song I can think of. It's bumpin' and smooth in all the right ways. The game immediately had style thanks to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiYQwWg1KrY

EDGE

I'm surprised I liked the gameplay. Ive heard it compared to Q*Bert...and while its imagery immediately comes to mind and I know I played it, I really dont remember how that game actually plays other than this vague feeling that I didnt like it. Whatever that once was didnt really matter for me anymore here though.

EDGE

This is mechanically a game about building stairs out of blocks that make up the walls in your way, and its more satisfying than Pushmo ever was. Theres more too though -- there are sheep-people dying all around you while you run from screaming butthole monsters and escape into confessionals to answer difficult would-you-ratherish questions. You know, traditional mainstream gaming.

EDGE

Story-wise, I got the Good Katherine ending. I dont necessarily like how the game makes me feel helpless in Vinces most important moments of cheating due to cutscenes and all that, but it does a GREAT job with how you have little doses of control along the way. Who do you actually want to talk to at the bar? How would you like to handle your text messages? How drunk do you want to get tonight? The correct answer to that last one is enough to get the narrator to break the fourth wall and give me more beer-facts, now pour me another.

EDGE

This games got a ton of layers and its difficult to parse it all for its deeper meaning, but generally its an exploration of cheaters guilt in relationships and they told the story well through both cutscenes and gameplay. Bravo Atlus.

Catherine: Full Body is set to come out this year and its exciting to see it get more multiplayer-support after that competitive scene bubbled in the background awhile. It's also gonna be interesting to see how well or (more likely) how poorly they handle Rin's story, but, uh, hey, representation matters, right Erica? Just hope it goes well.

NOW IN 2020: I'm still watching a playthrough of Catherine: Full Body on Tarvould's Quest, but it seems largely the same storywise with new piano-playing and some newly-shaped blocks. I can deal with that...we'll see if the story changes much from here.

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O P E R A T I O N O U S T : Nominate SHEIK!
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