Catherine Full Body - A Hell Of A Relationship

 

I have had Catherine in my back catalog for a long, long time. I brought the full body PS4 version of the game back during COVID (This is an extended version of the original game with the biggest difference being a new love interest) and never took it out of the wrapping. On paper this game seems to be an instant home run for me with it being a sexy romance love triangle puzzle game directed by the legendary Katsura Hashino (director of the persona franchise) and developed by Atlus but I always seemed to have other games to play. That was however until a week ago when I finally opened the game up and booted it on my playstation..... and my god was it worth the wait.

In Catherine you play Vincent, a rather normal guy who has a new job as a software developer and is in a serious long term relationship with a women named ..... Katherine (yep thats 1). You and Katherine have been together for a long time and while the relationship was extremely perfect at the start, like all term relationships when you get more and more comfortable things have started to halt and problems have occured. Katherine is desperate to get married and start a family but Vincent is not ready to make that commitment, happy with how things are and not interested in progressing it further. As he seeks advice from his best friends and his favourite bar called the Stray Sheep (which is very well named) he slowly goes to a drunken state and as his friends leave he bumps into a stunning blonde woman called..... Catherine (thats 2). They flirt and as the night goes on Vincent seems to black out which he then goes into a nightmare looking like a human with sheep horns and having to climb to the top before he falls and dies, because its the classic die in the dream then die in real life story. He achieves this and wakes up the next morning in bed with....... Catherine (not Katherine, i hope you are still following...). This is all confusing for Vincent as he has cheated on his long term partner and doesn't know what to do. Then as things cant get any worse, we meet Vincent next door neighbour...... Qatherine (Theres 3! but we mostly call her rin during the game). Rin has lost her memory and is trying to find recover it while playing the piano at the Stray Sheep. Vincent saved her from a stalker and found her the job at the Stray Sheep and a place to stay which has caused Rin to be very interested in him. So begins the insane love triangle with so many twist and turns that you ended up wanting to get through the gameplay as quick as possible just to see what crazy thing happens next. In the end devils, angels and even aliens get involve so yeah if that doesn't make you want to play this game then I don't know what will.

In terms of gameplay Catherine has two different phases. During the day it plays almost a bit like a dating sim where you can talk and answer questions with certain characters which will affect your moral state leaning more towards either freedom (red) or order (blue) on the status bar or even causing the bar to crack. Where you are on the status bar affects which of the multiple endings you will get. 

 

Mostly during the day though it is about progressing the unfolding story with cutscenes and conversations, you are unable to choose where to go and what to do like other Atlus games and are more just following the flow. You also can use you mobile to send and receive texts and photos from each of your partners and play mini games but thats really it. However I did always enjoy being back in the day time because the story was so fun to watch.

In the evening when you fall asleep however you enter a nightmare and that is when the game turns into a puzzle game. You are given a series of stages you have to climb each night and on each stage you will have to move, destroy or modify blocks to be able to climb up them and reach the safe zone. While doing this the floors below you are getting destroyed meaning you have time limit to reach the top otherwise you will fall and die. At first this is simple you just create staircase structures to make your way to the top but soon you end up having blocks such as trap blocks, ice blocks, unmovable blocks and blocks that move multiple at once plus even more. This means you will get stuck as points and have to use the undo mechanic that lets you rewind up to 4 block movements but even that is not enough at points meaning you have to reload a checkpoint. Once you reach the top of the stage though you are sent to a safe area where you can save and talk to other sheep who you will notice look very similar to characters in the real world. You can also buy items to help you in certain stages (the double jump was my life saver multiple times) but this only have 3x uses before expiring. You will then go to a confession box where you are given a yes or no style question that will greatly adjust your moral status meter depending on the answer. What is especially fun with this is you get to see what other players chose leading to some interesting surprises. 

Their is no rpg mechanics in the game so you can't upgrade Vincent but instead you learn how to solve situations through getting better at the game. Its the classic got to get good and it's really the case with Catherine. Especially as every night has a boss phase which is related to how Vincent is feeling, which obviously leads to crazy looking bosses that can do multiple abilities that make your climb harder. I have to admit though I thoroughly enjoyed the climbing gameplay, it was difficult but never to the point where I felt completely stuck (although a few times it came close), each stage felt rewarding when you solved it and they weren't so long that you felt frustrated by it. You task is to climb to the top of this mountain like structure over multiple night and by the time you reach the top you really feel like you've earned it. The only complaint I have with this though is that some stages in the middle seemed a lot harder than stages at the end, one part in particular must of taken me 10+ attempts before I managed to solve it where as the last stages at the top I finished all first time. It just felt a bit weird for the balancing.

Okay time for spoilers....

So I need to talk about this game as it is just completely wild. The whole premise is taking and then times by a thousand in the end and I completely love it. Firstly out of the three love interest only one seems to be really nice throughout the whole game and thats Rin. 

Katherine is sweet but very demanding to the point where you kind of want to tell her to back off and you are your own person, and then whole twist with her being pregnant and then not pregnant was to be blunt...fucking wild. Like how can you just drop that on someone who you know is scared about the future and then just whiplash them back saying oh actually im not, I do question if she just said it to speed up Vincent asking to marry her because it really felt like it. 

Then you have Catherine who you find out is secretly a Succubus who was sent to lure Vincent away because this alien species decides who should get with who depending on the likelihood they will continue to populate the earth. Catherine is an absolute wild card who will do anything to make sure you are devoted to her, even when you tell her you are in a relationship (which she already knew). This includes at one point trying to kill Katherine which is crazy. However while Catherine is definitely scary and seems to enjoy hurting people, she seems to have a sweet side where she actually does care for you. 

Finally you have Rin who is by far the biggest shock plot twist in this game. You see throughout the whole game you see Rin as this adorable girl who is just doing everything possible to make Vincent happy while also finding herself. She sends him cute photos and constantly asks if hes okay without judgement (which is something the other two never do). Then one day you accidently see Rin nude ..... and find out Rin is actually Trans. This was jaw dropping for me, an incredible twist that I never ever saw coming especially in a japanese video game. Transgender is something that is still not often seen in the gaming industry mostly due to I believe how toxic the players can be about it. I agree with the idea that someone's gender shouldn't be thrown into a game just to make a point but I totally disagree with the idea that it shouldn't be in games at all. When Rin came out as Trans it was a big shock and the game handled it wonderfully by bringing up a lot of questions such as is love really defined by gender. I also want to applause how natural this was in the game, it was a big plot twist I will admit but it didn't change at all how Rin was before or after the twist, they were still Rin and being Trans is a part of them. I really loved that. I generally believe it is the best way a game has handled a Trans character.... and thats saying a lot about the video game industry since this is a very sexaul romance game where you are juggling three partners. Then the ultimate twist is Rin is also an angel that are really secretly aliens.....yep.

The game has multiple ending and the one I got was the happy ending with Katherine. This is where both Vincent and Kathering both admit that the relationship has been a bit broken before they broke up but Vincent never did cheat on her and has learnt that she is the most important thing in his life. After quite a heartwarming chat Vincent manages to win her back and the game ends with a really cute cutscene where a few months has passed and Vincent and Katherine are in bed together looking at a wedding magazine and talking about going out for lunch. This was a really nice way to wrap up the game for me but I was curious about the other endings so watched them all on a youtube video.... and now I know I got the most boring ending.

Some of these endings are wild such as Vincent becomes a demon hunter with Catherine and has to confront her devil dad, or Katherine becomes a super model and Vincent follows her around the world trying to win her back. My personal favourite is the Rin true ending though and the one I chose to be canon.

Including Rin is an additional character it feels like her path makes the most sense for Vincent. He doesn't want the pressure of everyday life like Katherine brings or the completely wild freedom that Catherine offers. He wants a bit of both. This is Rin, its the complete freedom of happiness while in a loving relationship. Helping eachother become better while also being totally satisfied with how they are. Yes it ends a bit silly with Rin being an alien and doing piano performances across the galaxy with Vincent as her producer but it is just so pure. Thats why it's my canon ending, because I honestly think Vincent and Rin are the two that are destined to be together.

Wow this post is a long one but we are at the end! I really loved this game, it was one of them special ones that I will always think of. It's short (it took me 15 hours) but full of so much heart and story that you just adore every second of it. A true pleasure and one I will 100% recommend to all my friends.

Play Catherine and fall in love with the nightmares.