Catherine Officially Cheating on Japan With U.S.

[mireko]

"Just out of curiosity, have you ever played a game by Atlus?

Like, anything in the Persona series? Or one of the Shin Megami Tensei games?"

(Sorry for informal quote; the Quote function is glitching on me for some reason.)

Not anything of Persona, but of Atlus's other stuff, yes, and I do understand the pedigree of the Persona folks. The overwhelming response to this, though, is indefensible based on what we've seen - a bunch of samey block puzzles in an ill-rendered, grimy dungeon. We've no hint that there's anything beyond that in gameplay - heck, anything beyond that in gameplay *environments* - which would be promoting skepticism for any other title at this stage yet for Catherine is apparent cause to hail it as the Second Coming of gaming.

I get the "slacker loser's fear of commitment/being manipulated by women" metaphor, and like everyone else, I think the old-time theater opening is neat. There's nothing else here, though, that evinces the wit, imagination, or substance of Atlus's good stuff. It's just riding on the "oooh, tits" and "oooh, a game trying to tackle mature subject matter; we must automatically hail it as the pinnacle of human artistic endeavor" reactions.

The gameplay environment is pretty much a tower, with themed stages, yes.

Still, everything I've read or heard about the gameplay has suggested that it's very fun and very challenging, both good signs. You climb a tower while being chased by demons and fight smaller enemies on the tower itself. With enough variation, that sounds pretty good. That, and it was made by the Persona team. I'm more than willing to give them a chance.

The demo is unfortunately down from the PSN (weird restrictions on that thing), but it should still be up on the Japanese XBL. Not sure if you need a gold account, though. With luck, we should see an English-language demo at some point.

So far, the only thing that I feel has gone wrong is that this would've been such a great opportunity to use Kaneko's character designs. I mean, I admire Soejima's work, but if this has such a central horror element then Kaneko seems like a better fit.

Some better gameplay footage here: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201101/05037537.html

[sub]And for what it's worth, Famitsu gave it a 9/9/8/9.[/sub]

 

[Akihiko]

You don't need a gold account for the demo. I downloaded it on my free japanese account a few weeks back.

I can sort of see why people are skeptical over the gameplay. On the contrary, I've heard from people that the puzzles can get a bit monotonous, and honestly it doesn't surprise me that much. Most of the their games get fairly montonous with dungeon crawling when you're getting near the end of the game(I can't be the only one who got sick of Tartarus when you had to climb up 100 floors in the final two months). I know with a lot of them I pushed myself through the monotany because the storys usually more than make up for it. That said I'm hoping Catherine does have enough variety to stop that from happening.

 

[Trevor Burch]

I'm really interested to see how this game turns out. Yay

 

[mireko]

You don't need a gold account for the demo. I downloaded it on my free japanese account a few weeks back.

I can sort of see why people are skeptical over the gameplay. On the contrary, I've heard from people that the puzzles can get a bit monotonous, and honestly it doesn't surprise me that much. Most of the their games get fairly montonous with dungeon crawling when you're getting near the end of the game(I can't be the only one who got sick of Tartarus when you had to climb up 100 floors in the final two months). I know with a lot of them I pushed myself through the monotany because the storys usually more than make up for it. That said I'm hoping Catherine does have enough variety to stop that from happening.

The most obvious difference being that Persona 3 had a structure that supported monotony better. There's nothing particularly intense or exciting about climbing Tartarus, and like you said, that last month is pretty dull.

But if there'd been some degree of variation there (aside from slightly different textures and a slightly different beat) or more importantly, if they'd been able to keep up the pacing, then I think that part would still have been interesting. Which is pretty much what they managed in Persona 4, the dungeons had enough of a specific theme and were just the right length. If they can pull that off again, this could very well be a great game.

 

[Blair Bennett]

On Saturday I received a text from a good friend of mine stating that Atlus had decided not to release Catherine outside of Japan. I was heartbroken. I forwarded the message to my other friend, and she was so distraught that she actually dropped her phone. I can proudly state that this; this tiny update, has literally saved my week.

 

[internetzealot1]

So...is it any good?

 

[SovietSecrets]

Summer is going to be great for games. LA Noire, Duke Nukem, Alice 2, and now this. Cannot fucking wait. Good thing I have started saving for all these games.

 

[mireko]

So...is it any good?

The only reviews we have so far are in Japanese.

You might just have to wait and see.

 

[Logic 0]

I'm praying they don't back out at the last minute.

 

[Aklyon]

I knew Catherine couldn't resist the rugged charm of our enlarged market base.

That is the best innuendo disguised as business-speak I've ever heard.

Not that I've heard much of that, of course.

 

[Alphakirby]

Hell. Yes. But I want both covers...

then do what im going to do and buy both versions

-.- Or you can print out the other box art...But yeah,I'm excited to see how the story goes,the JP demo didn't help much,just confused me more

 

[Alphakirby]

So...is it any good?

It depends,it's gameplay is split in two parts,in the day it's a visual novel type thing where you watch the things that happen to Vincent,make choices,and decide what kind of text messages to send (Not Kidding),then there's the Nightmare parts which is puzzle based in which blocks are rapidly falling from below you (With the occasional boss run-for-your-life) so you need to push and pull blocks to make ways to climb the tower to the top. Or you die horribly,at least if you don't have a spare pillow. I played the demo and enjoyed it myself,but it depends on your tastes

 

[Alphakirby]

Now if only we can get that Ubisoft Wii game over here.

sorry but fox news wont allow that.

But they allow Catherine?

ThEy WiLl NeVeR kNoW...

 

[Darkauthor81]

Now if only we can get that Ubisoft Wii game over here.

sorry but fox news wont allow that.

If Fox News speaks for the majority of the American people, I'll shoot myself. It speaks for the ignorant, the religious, and the fearful. Besides, what little I saw of the game had NO sex in it.

*stupidpuritanicalignorantchristianrightwingburblebloops*

Fox news doesn't speak for the religious. I'm a christian, as is my whole family. I'm a liberal, as is my whole family and most of my church.

Stupidity and fear know no belief system. They use religion to argue with anyone who disagrees with them because they normally have no facts to back themselves up. Studies have shown that there are just as many conservative Christians as there are liberal ones.

I'm so sick of being lumped in with those technophobic, xenophobic, morons whom I hate with every fiber of my being.

 

[Alphakirby]

I think a nerd-gasam is in order;

*snip*

That is a strangely appropriate image...

[sup]It's clickable![/sup]

Thank you Atlus! Of course, I would never cheat on my beloved PC to play this game...

I really wish you could enjoy this refreshing,original game with the rest of us,for most of us it isn't just for the T&A. [sup]You're gonna miss out...[/sup]

 

[FallenTraveler]

Not going to lie, to me that looks GOD AWFULL.

I don't think ive ever seen a game i want LESS than this.

your opinion means slightly less to me since you misspelled awful :/ But I still respect it I'm also kind of wary, if anything I want to try it

OT: I really hope this does deal with sexual and mature material in a tasteful way. I am really looking forward to this and I think the persona team can, and hopefully did do a good job...

I love japan SO much

 

[Jumplion]

I think a nerd-gasam is in order;

*snip*

That is a strangely appropriate image...

[sup]It's clickable![/sup]

Thank you Atlus! Of course, I would never cheat on my beloved PC to play this game...

I really wish you could enjoy this refreshing,original game with the rest of us,for most of us it isn't just for the T&A. [sup]You're gonna miss out...[/sup]

Don't worry.

*looks around*

[sup]I already have a PS3[/sup]

....wait, my PC can read this.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIII-

 

[Tdc2182]

I might start caring when Atlus makes an attempt to show me what this game is about.

Christ, I'm still not positive its a game.

 

[Alphakirby]

Not going to lie, to me that looks GOD AWFULL.

I don't think ive ever seen a game i want LESS than this.

your opinion means slightly less to me since you misspelled awful :/ But I still respect it I'm also kind of wary, if anything I want to try it

OT: I really hope this does deal with sexual and mature material in a tasteful way. I am really looking forward to this and I think the persona team can, and hopefully did do a good job...

I love japan SO much

Well I played the JP demo,and as far as I can tell the closest the demo got to sexual situations was when Vincent was O Facing at Catherine being in his bed after the second and last nightmare in the demo. Also Vincent has the award for expressions that can disturb me (Just look at his face on the Catherine website) or make me chuckle a little (The previously mentioned O Face).

 

[ckam]

Yes, yes, yes! I'm so excited! I'm pretty sure that's from a song.

Here's my second reaction: