Catherine: Classic
Atlus Games
Expectations: Normally I think it's better to go into games without knowing much about them, but that wasn't really a choice for Catherine. Not only is it a pretty infamous game, it's one that wears its themes very loudly. To emphasize this point, when I told my friend I was playing Catherine he looked at me strangely and commented "isn't that a porn game?" To anyone who is curious no, it is not a porn game. It is quite raunchy, but no, not a porn game. My point is that the game has a reputation, so it's hard to go in completely blind. Outside of this reputation, I knew of a few central plot points and gameplay elements that, while not really spoilers since they happen so early in the game, I will not comment on until after this section in case you would like to go into this game a complete virgin. All things said and done I knew a decent amount going into this game, and was definitely excited to play it as I had never played an Atlus game before, and was excited to see what all the fuss was about. Now that I have completed the game, my honest opinion is this. I think Catherine is a great game that is completely let down by not following through on a crucial element integral to the games identity.
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Now let's talk about gameplay. When you aren't out and about making important life decisions, you are mostly playing this pretty unique puzzle game. Now I think the game could've done a much better job at transitioning between puzzle sections and story sections, but I digress as the puzzles themselves are pretty fun and it didn't exactly ruin the experience. More elements of the story being littered into the puzzles in some way would've been cool, but it's not like the absence of these things made the game much worse.
I'm now going to take a little aside to talk about difficulty. The game gives you the option of choosing between easy, normal, and hard before you begin the game. I think the developers know that the puzzles and the story are two very separate attractions of the game as they recommend "easy" for individuals who are mostly playing the game for the story, and "hard" for individuals who are mostly playing the game for the puzzles. The first time I played the game I did so on normal difficulty as I'm not a scrub, and I have to say that it was really challenging. Some stages took upwards of an hour to complete, with me really questioning my sanity at times. It was really rewarding to finally beat these levels, but in all honesty I played the game through on easy and would probably recommend that difficulty to most people. Normal turned a twelve hour game into a twenty hour game, and I consider myself pretty good at video games. If the main draw of this game for you are the puzzle sections, then definitely play it on normal. Otherwise, stick to easy and I think you will still find them quite fun. If you are a masochist you can play the game on hard, but don't say I didn't warn you. Before I start my critique section, I want to say that Catherine is definitely a good game that I think you will enjoy on your first run. There is much more I want to say about the game though and don't want to have to filter myself from spoiling things. On my first play through of the game I came away believing the game was a five out of six, so know that I absolutely adored my first play through of it and you very well may too.
Recommendation: I recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a unique, stylish story driven puzzle game that's a bit creepy, a bit raunchy and that will certainly challenge and engage you. If you do play this game though please, just watch the alternate endings on Youtube. You will not gain much from replaying this game other than having completed it a second time. If you want to know what I mean by that you can read below, but know that I will spoil some things about the game.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Critique
Critique: Now at this point I had just finished my first run of Catherine and I have to admit that I absolutely adored it for all of the reasons stated above. It was a really unique game that had a fun engaging atmosphere and some damn challenging puzzles. I chose the Katherine true ending, and up to the end my biggest complaint with the game at this point was that I felt that through story elements the game had railroaded me into believing one ending was a "good" ending and one ending was a "bad" ending. I personally wanted to choose the Catherine ending, but felt as though I would be killed as the game states quite frequently that people are dying to "the witch" and obviously I would be led to assume that "the witch" was Catherine (and would be correct). The game was quite heavy handed with its story motifs which did definitely bug me, but it's not anything bad enough to ruin the game. Now that I had completed the game, I knew that the Catherine ending was a viable one so I decided to play through the game again going for said Catherine ending. I felt as though watching the ending on Youtube would cheapen the experience as I assumed much of the game would be changed, so I decided to play the game all the way through again. Unfortunately for me, the game is the exact same no matter what you do up until the ending. This is where Catherine absolutely fails, and it fails horrendously.
See Catherine is a game all about choice. This element of choice is what the entire game is built upon, so why the hell do your choices have absolutely no impact on anything in the game aside from the ending. It seems obvious that in a game like this a lot would change when you literally do things to try and pick one girl over the other. Different cut-scenes, different dialogues, different story elements, but to my dismay I was very wrong as the entire game plays out the exact same way. For a game built around replay-ability and multiple endings, this is absolutely unacceptable. I should not see a cutscene of Vincent proposing to Katherine, even though I spend the entire game being an asshole to her and trying to get in Catherine's pants. It's sad too, because all it would have taken is three or four alternate cutscenes to make it feel like my choices were having an impact, but they just aren't there. Replaying the game felt like a chore, as it was nothing but my pride in making sure nothing had changed that kept me going. When everything was all said and done, I realized that I could have watched the twelve minute cut-scene on Youtube, and I would've gotten just as much new content as playing the entire eight hour game through again. Maybe I'm just expecting too much of this game, but I really don't think I am. Freedom of choice was perhaps the most fundamental aspect of the game. Almost every single thing you do is a choice from one of a few options, and alters your meter between "chaotic" and "orderly". Having so much of the game be a choice, and then not changing anything other than the ending is a huge let down. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that it single-handedly turned the game from a 5/6, to a 3/6. Maybe they changed this in the remake, but I did not play the remake. This game was a game that I adored quite a lot, that completely failed to deliver on the most core element it was built upon. If you like the game I totally understand since I think it was great this element aside, but I think this issue is a glaring one I simply cannot ignore.
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And that's my Review/Critique for Catherine! I hope you enjoyed, I will be releasing my picks for April soon so stay tuned! Until then!
- Malachi
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