Catherine made its way onto the game scene earlier this year into a highly skeptical market. You see, gamers in general have very specific preferences for games, and there’s usually very little margin for error when attempting something new, let alone something that seems distinctly foreign. It’s a dangerous decision, one that’s usually altogether avoided by the game industry at large. Every once in a while we’ll get a Portal or a Limbo, but typically game companies (like any other form of media) would rather place their money on a safe bet. Developer Atlus has recently (well, say PS2 era) decided not to be operated under this paradigm, choosing instead to focus on risky but rewarding franchises such as Disgaea, Persona, Demon Souls, and Tsugunai. These games are typically defined by their genre-bending antics and willingness to abandon the restrictive themes usually associated with similar titles in the genre. In short, if you’re a game director with a ballsy idea: go to Atlus, they’ll hook you up with minimum questions asked.
Such is what happened with Catherine, a game that’s rather difficult to define, let alone explain and attempt to review. The game is self described as a “romantic horror”, which I guess is kind of accurate. I would probably describe it as an interactive thriller, but even that seems too vague and doesn’t really do it justice. Maybe it’s just best to try and explain what the game does.
Catherine presents you the beginning of a love-story gone awry, wherein the main character Vincent begins to have strange nightmares following a conversation with his long-time girlfriend eluding to marriage. You are left to guide Vincent through to the end of this sordid tale, based solely on choices you make for him based on your own feelings about what’s happening to him in the story. These choices will ultimately affect whether or not–in certain situations–you lean more towards a chaotic or stable style of living. Essentially the game wants to psychoanalyze you as the main character and find out what you would do in certain situations, and crafts the game around your choices until you’re eventually given one of eight possible endings that will theoretically match your personality type perfectly (in short, the ending you get should be the perfect ending for you). This isn’t to say that this is just a yes-or-no choice game. While the decisions you make in the game (and they are many, and they get rather complex) affect the story directly, it’s by no means the majority of the game play.
The gameplay is actually split up into 3 major areas that follow the pattern over the course of 15-20hrs or so, or “one week” as the main character. You have your story segments first, followed by your time at the bar (more on that shortly), and the nightmare puzzles. It’s fair to label this game as a puzzle game, as well, as about 1/3 of the game revolves around solving complex puzzles which involve climbing a tower of shifting blocks. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this is the hardest aspect of the gameplay, and even on the easy difficulty setting, getting through these puzzles can be pretty challenging.
The bar aspect of the gameplay that I was mentioning before, though, is somehow amazing. It shouldn’t be, at all. Against all odds, though, the director has managed to take the experience of hanging out at a bar with a few of your friends mainly just talking and drinking (and occasionally checking texts on your phone) and turned it into a genuinely fun bit of gameplay. Where it jumps from fun gameplay to damn clever is when your choices that you make at the bar (how you spend your time, who you talk to, even how much you drink) will affect not only the story but the gameplay in the puzzles as well. The director has crafted 3 unique gameplay elements into one cohesive, adaptable product, flawlessly.
The story itself is presented in noir fashion, combining compelling bits of horror and thriller into a fascinating tale, equipped with twists and surprises throughout. Somewhere around half-way I started to get a little freaked out with how closely the main characters reactions were matching my own, and it only drew me into the story more.
Another ingenious aspect of the game is the copious use of metaphors (both subtle and overt) throughout the entire experience. Rule of thumb with this game is that if it’s in this game, it’s probably also a metaphor for something else. It’s hard to, you know, go into that without ruining some of the best aspects of this game, so unfortunately I can’t, really, sorry.
Instead I want to touch briefly on what a fantastic job the localization team did with the dialogue. All the dialogue and events in the game–the vast majority of which should seem pretty Japanese–are localized with such care that by the end of it the only inherently Japanese bit that stands out is that you can order sake at the bar. That and you have sushi for lunch on occasion. The voice acting is great and the dialogue is natural, all of which does its job to further immerse you in the main character’s position.
Since this is technically a review, I’ll mention briefly that the graphics, sound, and soundtrack are all also up to par. The soundtrack is done by an old standby for Atlus, Shoji Meguro, who also did work on the Persona series, and it’s appropriately dark. Really though, the graphics and technical aspects of the game are pretty much the last thing on my mind here, though, as the game shines on its own regardless of how pretty it looks.
What this game does sticks with you, and for good reason: over the course of the game it has personalized the experience for you, adapting itself to what you tell it you think. On top of the personalization of the story, you mix in fun and challenging gameplay, interesting/realistic characters, and what may be the greatest representation of my dream bar ever put in media. Really, this game has it all.
If this sounds just intriguing enough to try (and you don’t get turned off by puzzles or long story sequences, or, you know, drinking), then you should absolutely play this game. It’s one of the best I’ve played in a long time.
Final Grade: A (I know!)
The Glass City 