I really did like Catherine. Atlus is a company I regard the same way I think of Suda51. They make great games that are more unique and satisfying than anything on the shelves these days and have made awesome games like Persona and Trauma Center series. The gameplay is solid, the story is actually really great, and its interesting how your every decision influences the dialogue and endings, specifically concerning Catherine and Katherine (Yes, there is a difference). The story stars Vincent, a guy who doesn't seem like a jerk at first, until the game wears him down into a tabula rasa for the player to mess with after the first quarter of the game, who has recurring nightmares while he cheats on his girlfriend, Katherine, with a seductive sexual psycho named, Catherine, surprise surprise. The story is kind of like Scott Pilgrim meets Inception meets Nightmare on Elm Street. You have to play through most of the game in these nightmares in the form of a puzzle game involving climbing blocks and ocassionally GTFO of the situation because of the bosses trying to murder you There was one boss that still scares the living shit out of me and is one of the biggest pieces of Nightmare fuel I've seen in a game in recent memory, since I don't dabble too much into the horror genre. To those who have played Catherine, it's the Immoral Beast.
But it's not all blocks and sunshine. The plot, while interesting, could be solved in 5 minutes by Vincent telling the psycho bitch that he's fucking taken. Also, the endgame the plot did seem kind of displaced since the initial impression of the reasons behind the nightmares was more satisfying than the actual reason which smells like the plot drank some slightly generic tea. The Camera and the controls also occasionally like to make a nightmare within a nightmare like an Inception from time to time, specifically when you need to move behind blocks and giant murderous monsters are trying to stab you to death. There's even one boss where going behind the blocks is absolutely necessary to advance and the controls screwed me up several times then since it inverts the controls depending on your position at those points and can't decide what's left or right. There is one boss battle that requires you to drag an NPC with you which frustrated me to the point of rage since I could've finished it myself in about 5 minutes, but the brain-dead baggage of polygons I have to protect likes to stand still, get in the way, and die at every possible opportunity, especially at one point when the exit is a straight line away. Also, it seems awkward for a game that teases or implies sexual content to be severely lacking in that department, though this is a game that I bought for story and gameplay, not for the box art sees the titular harlot undress herself, though that's coincidentally because I don't have a PS3 and bought the Xbox360 version. Though to be honest, I'm glad it ditches most of the implied sexual content; afterall I bought a game, not wacky pornography.
Despite my complaints, more people should get this game. It's unlike any you've probably played before and if you go for an honest run, like I did, it will tell you if you're morally retarded or not. I did an honest run of the game on my first try and I got the Normal Lovers ending with Katherine. Glad to know I'm not an asshole, like many other people I used to know; though I didn't really need the game to tell me this.
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