Okay Geek Farm
Impressions - Catherine demo
Alex Tretrop
Relationships are something emotional, powerful and unseen in many modern games. Atlus tackled some of these questions in Persona 4, a game with some shockingly well developed characters and their struggle to develop themselves, with themes of sexuality being tackled with a level of maturity we don’t often see in games. Catherine is the latest game from that team and it seems their set to once again tackle the industry head on with this title, focusing almost entirely on a complicated story of relationships and drama, with our protagonist Vincent and his relationships with his girlfriend Katherine and a younger, more mischevious lady named Catherine.
If the demo was any indication, I’m really quite excited for what Catherine could become. The game introduces us quickly to our protagonist Vincent and his longtime girlfriend Katherine. It’s easy to see that Vincent is an uninspired salaryman who doesn’t want things to go too quickly in his relationship with his special someone. Feeling pressured by her friends, Katherine is quite the opposite and wants to marry and settle down with the child that she may be carrying. While the demo does this in a fairly rapid fashion, one night at the bar, we’re introduced to Catherine, an adventurous, young and beautiful girl who attempts to seduce Vincent.
To say it’s something we don’t see in videogames too often is an understatement and it seems as if the big draw of this title is to bring forward these questions of relationships to see how you resolve and react to them. If it succeeds in this regard, it could definitely leave a lasting impression on the gaming community in a positive way. Thanks to the fantastic characterisation in Persona 4, I’m very confident Atlus can pull it off but we’ll have to wait until the full release to see the fruits of their labours.
Where I do have a problem with however, is the gameplay. This is where the similarities with Persona get thrown out the window. The “game” begins during the night, when you return to your bed and enter the dream world. A little snipet I forgot to mention about the story was that Vincent’s friends are slowly dying and all of them have been unfaithful to their girlfriends. After Vincent’s encounter with Catherine, he discovers that he must climb to the top of a tower each night and this is where the game starts to become frustrating. Imagine if you will a tower made of various blocks in different locations. You can push or pull them in any direction but as long as their edges are connected they will stay attached to the tower.
It’s an interesting idea, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t seem to be something fun that you’ll be able to repeat often. I have no idea what the length of this game is but the idea doesn’t seem as fun or refined as something like the Portal gun or the turn based battles of Persona. Unless it presents lots of new block types or challenges each time you return at night, it seems lke something that would just get in the way of the more interesting character driven narrative.
This is by no means a review on any aspect of the game, just the indications that early areas of the game are showing. The very different vibe Catherine is giving to me indicates that if the gameplay doesnt get in the way too often, this could be one very memorable experience.
