When Catherine was first announced I was lukewarm on the concept. Let me rephrase. I had zero hope that any kind of cohesive gaming experience would come from it. Typically I avoid visual novels, and the way it was advertised made me think this was one with mini-games thrown in. It had heavy references to the dating simulation genre (one I’ve never enjoyed). Catherine was also in development by the Persona team. While I do enjoy those games I consider the franchise as a whole entirely overrated. I was planning to pass on Catherine. When it released to rave reviews I was shocked. My interest was piqued enough to watch gameplay videos and the puzzle sequences looked like a lot of fun. Finally I buckled. I was as surprised as anyone that it turned into one of my favorite video games of it’s respective generation. Let’s take a look.
Catherine is sort of a visual novel and dating simulation with puzzle sequences at it’s gameplay core. You play as a thirty something year old male in modern day Japan named Vincent Brooks. He’s an easy character to relate to. Vincent is a slacker with a good heart, but fears long term commitment. He’d rather spend his days relaxing and nights with his friends drinking at their favorite watering hole the Stray Sheep. Things change for him when his long time girlfriend Katherine begins hinting around at marriage. He’s more than a little hesitant, and the situation further complicates when he meets a blonde bombshell (hilariously named Catherine) late night at the bar. His world completely turns upside down when he blacks out and awakens with this new gal in the morning in his apartment. Vincent has never been a cheater so this is quite out of character for him.
The situation further complicates when Katherine reveals that she believes herself to be pregnant. The rest of the story follows him as he tries to keep his affair secret, but still continues blacking out and awakening with Catherine each morning in his apartment. He has also been suffering terrifying nightmares that take place in a shadow world. Here he has sheep horns, and climbs a toppling tower along with several humanoid sheep. Could this somehow be related to the string of events with young men around the city dying in their sleep? You know it. While Vincent never remembers the contents of his dreams he knows he’s having nightmares, and just can’t seem to shake Catherine out of his life.
I was surprised at just how immersive the story is. Vincent’s inner dialogue really adds to the tension and brings you into his world. You really feel like you are Vincent, and this is only enhanced by the dialogue choices you can make. There’s even a morality bar that moves in both directions based on what you choose Vincent to say or do. It doesn’t change the plot in any major way but this does determine which ending you get. I absolutely love all of the little touches in regards to the story here. Every evening ends with Vincent at the Stray Sheep with his friends. You can choose to drink beverages (the more drunk he gets the more spry he is during the puzzles). There’s even bits of trivia the narrator dishes out based on what spirits you choose Vincent to partake in.
Now let’s talk about the puzzles. These sequences are, after all, the most traditional video game element in Catherine. Here the terrain consists entirely of blocks. These are as tall as Vincent himself, and equally wide. The traditional blocks can be pushed by Vincent and you’ll need to do so in order to climb upwards. Lower sections gradually fall into oblivion so you need to keep moving. To do so you’ll have to make your own path with the aforementioned mechanic. Vincent can climb but only one block at a time. Basically you have to sort of make steps using them, but it’s more complicated than it sounds. These blocks can suspend in midair as long as they’re touching a block below them even if by just the edge. This is where most of the strategy comes in to play.
There’s also more than one way to complete most stages. Vincent cannot jump and can only climb. He can however dangle off the side and move from block to block with this method. In the early stages you’ll find that building steps will get you through most scenarios, but later on you’ll actually need to push supports to bring other areas down to give you a way forward. This requires a great deal of care because if a block falls on Vincent he dies. In addition there are other hazards along the way. Vincent will encounter special blocks that explode, and even those that shoot spikes upwards. These will kill him instantly and they aren’t exactly uncommon. He’ll even encounter other sheep climbing the wall which will block his path forward and even attack you.
Then we get to the boss encounters. The final area of each level features a boss climbing after Vincent that uses attacks to either kill him, or change the nature of other blocks making the way forward significantly more difficult. Typically these danger zones are highlighted in red and force you to climb faster than you normally would. Personally these were my favorite moments in the game. Generally even on the higher difficulty levels you can move at a somewhat leisurely pace while trying to make a way forward. Not here. There’s just no time for it.
To add more non-linearity to gameplay Vincent can also find (and even purchase with coins) items to help aid him conquer each stage. These include things like a pillow which grants him an additional life, but extends to some more interesting choices. One item in particular lets Vincent change the nature of specific blocks to make them easier to move, another lets him actually create a block. So on and so forth. The best of these is an item that lets Vincent climb two blocks vertically at a time for a limited number of seconds. This was the most useful of the bunch because it lasts beyond one use, and allows for some really interesting speedruns through the more difficult stages. Vincent can only carry with him one item at a time so I found that trading up is a necessity, and it’s always a relief to find something useful.
I absolutely love the difficulty curve in this title. The first few stages are really easy even on the more challenging settings. These are just there to teach you the basics. As you progress you really have to think outside of the box. I really liked the areas where you have to send blocks above you tumbling down to make a way forward because you have to really plan ahead or else even the goal itself will fall into the abyss. Catherine doesn’t throw you into the mix completely unprepared though. In the intermission areas you can interact with other sheep and sometimes they’ll share tactics and techniques with you. These are displayed in a really helpful video format which makes them easy to remember and see exactly how they can be useful.
For an Xbox 360 game Catherine holds up remarkably well. It uses a pleasant cel shaded style which makes it look like you’re watching an anime show instead of playing an actual game. It’s bright and colorful at times against a dreary background which really makes things pop out. Catherine was released a few generations ago so it shows it’s age a bit now. The character models are noticeably low on polygons, and the environments lack a lot of detail we’ve become accustomed to in the 4K generation. I played it on my Xbox Series X so it was upscaled, and the results were pretty good. The soundtrack is also really good. It features a lot of techno-pop remixes of classical pieces, but they all sound great. The Japanese hip hop theme is even really catchy.
