Chickaroo Reviews - Catherine (PS3)

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chickaroo1
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Chickaroo Reviews - Catherine (PS3)

Post by chickaroo1 »

You may be having a bad day, but not as bad as Vincent Brooks. This guy’s gotta deal with 2 girls with similar names and crazy nightmares where he could possibly die. But he has a choice - either get married to his long time girlfriend or live a free life with a young bubbly girl. What will he choose?Game: Catherine
Systems: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Dates: 2/17/11 (JP), 7/26/11 (NA), 2/10/12 (EU), 2/23/12 (AUS)
Developers: Atlus
Enter The Golden Playhouse
Story: Today’s tale is that of a story-within-a-story kind of deal. It starts off with a lady named Trish who tells us that the player is watching a show called The Golden Playhouse, which tells stories of love stories gone wrong. And so our story begins…
It starts with Vincent Brooks, a 32-year old man who's been dating his girlfriend, Katherine McBride, for 5 years. One day at a cafe, Katherine drops the bomb and asks if they should get married. Vincent then starts to panic. Later that night, he goes to the Stray Sheep, a bar he regularly goes to with friends. His friends tell him not to freak out about the marriage thing. And then he meets a girl at the bar also named Catherine. She’s younger than him by 10 years (22), bubbly, blonde, and would rather live a free life than being married and “tied down”. Vincent starts to talk to her and she starts to flirt with him. And then they end up sleeping together that night. Vincent freaks out the next morning to find her in her bed. When she wakes up, she tells Vincent that if he cheats on her, she will kill him. Well now Vincent’s in a pickle! It’s up to Vincent to decide on who will she choose, Katherine or Catherine? All while trying not to die in strange dreams he’s been having lately…
Who Will YOU Choose?
Gameplay: There are only a few types of gameplay. For the most part, Catherine is considered a puzzle game. How can it be a puzzle game you may ask? Haha well.
The first kind of gameplay is having Vincent walk around the Stray Sheep. He can sit in booths and talk to people and drink. You can drink as much as you want (and get some fun facts about alcohol too while you’re at it). Drinking also affects the other kind of gameplay, the nightmares.
After a long night at the bar, Vincent will go home and sleep. Here, he will have these strange dreams involving men as sheep. This is kind of where the actual gameplay comes in. Vincent can wander around and talk to other sheep for advice. And then he’ll step into a confession booth and there a guy will ask you a question that can either be considered “lawful” or “chaotic”. This can determine how Vincent will act throughout the game. He can either be a good guy who’s kind and caring or a jerk who’s mean to others.
The game is supposed to be a puzzle game. The puzzle elements is having Vincent climb up a whole bunch of blocks, similar to a fashion of Q*bert. The only direction to go is up. And you gotta be fast because the bottom blocks will fall if you’re not fast enough. Vincent needs to push blocks around to climb them as well. These stages are pretty difficult too.ESPECIALLY as the game goes on. And as well as the boss fights. This game is considered a challenging one, since the U.S. version of the game has an easier difficulty with the easy difficulty being the same as the Japanese normal mode.
Showing Off the Beauty
Graphics: Golly, is this game beautiful! Atlus said they made this game just to see what that could do for the PlayStation 3 and the 360 (like for the upcoming Persona 5). And boy does it show! All the 3D models look so beautiful too look at. The game also like to transition between 2D and 3D cutscenes. And the stages look so beautiful. This is a great looking game.
Quite Classy, Huh?
Music: The music here has a few genres almost. There’s a hint of jazz and as well as classical music. The classical music has a bit of rock in the mix, which makes the stages sound more serious and mysterious. Music from previous Atlus games do appear in the jukebox as you go through the game and stages.
Music is composed by Shoji Meguro, Kenichi Tsuchiya and Atsushi Kitajoh.
But Who is Worth It?
Overall: Catherine is a very unique experience. With it’s unique story and visuals, it’s one of the most beautiful games of the 7th generation of consoles. The gameplay is very difficult but that’s the fun of it. And answering the questions in the confessional are quite interesting too, as after you answer them, you can see other player’s first time results too. All the characters are unique and very different from one another. It’s a great game. But the question is, which (C/K)atherine would you choose?
4 / 5
Happy (semi late) Valentine’s Day everyone!
kadosho
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Post by kadosho »

Aha, perfect choice for a valentines day themed game review. I gotta admit Catherine had me (and still does) get my attention. I have yet to obtain all of the endings. =D
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