What? You think this review is a day late?
FUCK OFF! I mentioned that I was writing this with someone else, and he was late getting back to me. But now I?m ready, so let?s get into it.
Catharine is a title developed by Persona Team, the people behind the JRPG series Persona. You know, the people in the industry with genuine talent but who get drowned out in public attention by the braindead hacks at Square Enix who haven?t made a genuinely good JRPG in over a decade. That being said, Catharine isn?t strictly speaking a JRPG. It is a role playing game, don?t get me wrong, but when people think ?JRPG? they tend to think turn-based combat, no gameplay and story blending, retarded character design, and embarrassing voice acting. Catharine has none of those problems and has a surprising amount of depth to the interactive portions, though much of it you might not notice.
Anyway Catharine is the story of Vincent Brooks, the player character. Vincent is a man with absolutely no ambition in life, basically Randal Graves with tact. He has a job that pays the bills and lets him drink with his buddies that doesn?t force him to wear a tie, a girlfriend who lets him work at his own pace, and the bar he frequents serves good pizza. But not all is well in WhateverTheFuckCityHeLivesInVille. Men across the city have begun to die in their sleep, suddenly wasting away with a face of horrific agony. All of them have one thing in common: they are unfaithful, and they suffer from horrible nightmares in which they must ascend a tower of collapsing blocks. If they die in the dream, they die in real life.
Speaking as a Silent Hill fan, I loved the premise. Though it didn?t actually scare me, there were more than enough ?Wait, WHAT?!? fucked up moments to make it appeal. The game is character focused with every NPC having it?s own personality. Vincent is drawn into the nightmares when he hit?s a rough patch with his long time girlfriend Katharine. After a heavy day of drinking at a bar called the Stray Sheep, Vincent gets seduced by the hot blond Catharine, and things all go downhill from there. Neither Katharine nor Catharine know of the other. Vincent can?t simply dump Katharine, but Catharine is far too aggressive to simply drop. There are plenty of mysteries to solve, so I won?t go into further details as it would count as spoilers.
The gameplay of Catharine is divided between anime cinematics, drinking at the Stray Sheep, and the nightmare stages. The anime cinematics are well done, but one area where they excel in comparison to other games is the voice acting. This may be the proof that Rapture is closing in on us, because this is a game with compelling voice acting AND a decent soundtrack. Plus, the character expressions during animations are just fucking hilarious.
While at the Stray Sheep bar you can interact with other NPCs. This is where the deceiving depth is more obvious. Most of the patrons at the Stray Sheep are having the killing nightmare, but don?t remember the details and only vaguely recognize your voice. Talking with them at the Stray Sheep and at the landings in-between stages during nightmare levels leads to Vincent learning more about them and encouraging them. This has the benefit of learning techniques to help you during the puzzle stage, but it also increases the likelihood that NPCs survive the nightmare. If you neglect NPCs, they die.
Additionally you can get Vincent drunk. While drinking Vincent reflects on what is happening during plot related events, and his alcohol level increases. So what, you might ask? When Vincent is drunk and he is in a deeper sleep, he moves faster during the nightmare stage. Plus, you get amusing little bits of trivia relating to what drink you just polished off.
But in the end, that?s all just decoration. The core gameplay is the puzzle stages. During the nightmare, you control Vincent and have to ascend a tower. Let me say this right now, DO NOT START ON HARD. The puzzle stages are deceptively hard. Vincent moves from block to block on a 3D plane with the catch that it?s just hard to tell how many layers of blocks there are. Vincent can only climb up one block at a time, but blocks don?t adhere strictly to the laws of physics. So long as edges are touching, blocks can float in mid-air. This is easy early on when you only have black and white blocks, but when you begin encountering exploding blocks, trap blocks, frozen blocks, and heavy blocks, NPCs become more important as they teach you how best to approach them.
During the nightmare, you only see Vincent, everyone else looks like a hominid sheep, and at the same time those sheep think Vincent is a sheep carrying a pillow. It?s not always apparent which bar patron is which sheep until you?ve actually conversed. And while some people may not like the idea of having to communicate with NPCs to reduce difficulty, the personalities are varied and interesting and the voice acting is amusing enough to often make it worth conversing with NPCs.
Why waste time? Why learn techniques? During the last stage of the nightmare, you face boss monsters reflective of what Vincent was encountering that previous day. When he first sleeps with Catharine the level boss is reflective of the Silent Hill 2 Mannequins. When he has an argument with Katharine, the boss monster reflects her. These bosses climb the stage and can instantly kill you if you move too slowly, and they also use special attacks that make things even more difficult. You will die during a boss stage, even on the easiest setting.
If I had to summarize Catharine, I?d say ?Higurashi no Naku Koro NI meets Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.? It actually seems fully aware that it wouldn?t scare veteran gamers and likely would be restricted to an audience with an ID, so it focuses more on the drama and humor. Almost every single character is appealing, the mystery and intrigue keeps you motivated even during the most frustrating puzzle sections, and the puzzle stages themselves are fun and give a feeling of satisfaction almost on par with when you beat Portal for the first time. It is definitely not a mainstream game, even puzzle veterans will feel challenged while Halo gamers and Square Enix gamers will struggle to the seizure point before halfway through. If you can handle the odd puzzle and are a fan of Persona Teams work, you owe it to yourself to get this game. If you?re part of the target audience, you?ll love the game. But it is niche appeal, so it might be worth renting first or checking video reviews to see a better example of how the puzzles work.
Doesn?t See Why Vincent Didn?t Just Smother Catharine
--Pyramid Head (With assistance from DevilWolf47)
So with the one release this year being worth the wait, I now get to go through my backlog of generic bullshit!
?someone kill me.
Reviews to Come:
Soul Eater
Zero no Tsukaima
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Flower, Rain, Sun
Shadows of the DAMNED
FUCK OFF! I mentioned that I was writing this with someone else, and he was late getting back to me. But now I?m ready, so let?s get into it.
Catharine is a title developed by Persona Team, the people behind the JRPG series Persona. You know, the people in the industry with genuine talent but who get drowned out in public attention by the braindead hacks at Square Enix who haven?t made a genuinely good JRPG in over a decade. That being said, Catharine isn?t strictly speaking a JRPG. It is a role playing game, don?t get me wrong, but when people think ?JRPG? they tend to think turn-based combat, no gameplay and story blending, retarded character design, and embarrassing voice acting. Catharine has none of those problems and has a surprising amount of depth to the interactive portions, though much of it you might not notice.
Anyway Catharine is the story of Vincent Brooks, the player character. Vincent is a man with absolutely no ambition in life, basically Randal Graves with tact. He has a job that pays the bills and lets him drink with his buddies that doesn?t force him to wear a tie, a girlfriend who lets him work at his own pace, and the bar he frequents serves good pizza. But not all is well in WhateverTheFuckCityHeLivesInVille. Men across the city have begun to die in their sleep, suddenly wasting away with a face of horrific agony. All of them have one thing in common: they are unfaithful, and they suffer from horrible nightmares in which they must ascend a tower of collapsing blocks. If they die in the dream, they die in real life.
Speaking as a Silent Hill fan, I loved the premise. Though it didn?t actually scare me, there were more than enough ?Wait, WHAT?!? fucked up moments to make it appeal. The game is character focused with every NPC having it?s own personality. Vincent is drawn into the nightmares when he hit?s a rough patch with his long time girlfriend Katharine. After a heavy day of drinking at a bar called the Stray Sheep, Vincent gets seduced by the hot blond Catharine, and things all go downhill from there. Neither Katharine nor Catharine know of the other. Vincent can?t simply dump Katharine, but Catharine is far too aggressive to simply drop. There are plenty of mysteries to solve, so I won?t go into further details as it would count as spoilers.
The gameplay of Catharine is divided between anime cinematics, drinking at the Stray Sheep, and the nightmare stages. The anime cinematics are well done, but one area where they excel in comparison to other games is the voice acting. This may be the proof that Rapture is closing in on us, because this is a game with compelling voice acting AND a decent soundtrack. Plus, the character expressions during animations are just fucking hilarious.
While at the Stray Sheep bar you can interact with other NPCs. This is where the deceiving depth is more obvious. Most of the patrons at the Stray Sheep are having the killing nightmare, but don?t remember the details and only vaguely recognize your voice. Talking with them at the Stray Sheep and at the landings in-between stages during nightmare levels leads to Vincent learning more about them and encouraging them. This has the benefit of learning techniques to help you during the puzzle stage, but it also increases the likelihood that NPCs survive the nightmare. If you neglect NPCs, they die.
Additionally you can get Vincent drunk. While drinking Vincent reflects on what is happening during plot related events, and his alcohol level increases. So what, you might ask? When Vincent is drunk and he is in a deeper sleep, he moves faster during the nightmare stage. Plus, you get amusing little bits of trivia relating to what drink you just polished off.
But in the end, that?s all just decoration. The core gameplay is the puzzle stages. During the nightmare, you control Vincent and have to ascend a tower. Let me say this right now, DO NOT START ON HARD. The puzzle stages are deceptively hard. Vincent moves from block to block on a 3D plane with the catch that it?s just hard to tell how many layers of blocks there are. Vincent can only climb up one block at a time, but blocks don?t adhere strictly to the laws of physics. So long as edges are touching, blocks can float in mid-air. This is easy early on when you only have black and white blocks, but when you begin encountering exploding blocks, trap blocks, frozen blocks, and heavy blocks, NPCs become more important as they teach you how best to approach them.
During the nightmare, you only see Vincent, everyone else looks like a hominid sheep, and at the same time those sheep think Vincent is a sheep carrying a pillow. It?s not always apparent which bar patron is which sheep until you?ve actually conversed. And while some people may not like the idea of having to communicate with NPCs to reduce difficulty, the personalities are varied and interesting and the voice acting is amusing enough to often make it worth conversing with NPCs.
Why waste time? Why learn techniques? During the last stage of the nightmare, you face boss monsters reflective of what Vincent was encountering that previous day. When he first sleeps with Catharine the level boss is reflective of the Silent Hill 2 Mannequins. When he has an argument with Katharine, the boss monster reflects her. These bosses climb the stage and can instantly kill you if you move too slowly, and they also use special attacks that make things even more difficult. You will die during a boss stage, even on the easiest setting.
If I had to summarize Catharine, I?d say ?Higurashi no Naku Koro NI meets Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.? It actually seems fully aware that it wouldn?t scare veteran gamers and likely would be restricted to an audience with an ID, so it focuses more on the drama and humor. Almost every single character is appealing, the mystery and intrigue keeps you motivated even during the most frustrating puzzle sections, and the puzzle stages themselves are fun and give a feeling of satisfaction almost on par with when you beat Portal for the first time. It is definitely not a mainstream game, even puzzle veterans will feel challenged while Halo gamers and Square Enix gamers will struggle to the seizure point before halfway through. If you can handle the odd puzzle and are a fan of Persona Teams work, you owe it to yourself to get this game. If you?re part of the target audience, you?ll love the game. But it is niche appeal, so it might be worth renting first or checking video reviews to see a better example of how the puzzles work.
Doesn?t See Why Vincent Didn?t Just Smother Catharine
--Pyramid Head (With assistance from DevilWolf47)
So with the one release this year being worth the wait, I now get to go through my backlog of generic bullshit!
?someone kill me.
Reviews to Come:
Soul Eater
Zero no Tsukaima
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Flower, Rain, Sun
Shadows of the DAMNED