Have yet to finish it at the time of writing due to its Baba is You approach to difficulty, but I think it’s safe to call Catherine one of the most unapologetically auteurial video games I’ve played. It’s absurdly unique— pretty much the only piece of media I can think of to cross block pushing with girlfriend cheating, and in that regard it’s extraordinarily well realized. Tense, mind bending escape sequences are so masterfully woven together and juxtaposed with chill, Yakuza style bar crawls. But just as Vincent’s nightmare towers crumble below him during his climbs, so too are his reprieves brief. When hanging out at the Stray Sheep, time passes as you talk to each character, check your texts, even take a hard earned slug of beer. A mantra of Persona 5 (for which Catherine was a tech demo) is “take your time”, but here alas you are afforded very little— it’s keep moving or die gruesome after all. But where our tragic protagonist has to suck this up with a pit in his stomach, his journey is hardly grueling from the player perspective (though it is REALLY fucking hard at times). Gameplay is tight and snappy, challenging but fair, so much so that it even attracted a small yet dedicated corner of the FGC. Combine that with its brilliant excellently paced writing and you’re in for a treat, just keep in mind one with both a high skill ceiling AND floor.

Why do tech demos always hit so hard?

Imported from my Backloggery:

This is a tough one, because the story was so fun to watch unfold. The texting system, drinking mechanic, the alcohol trivia, the art, all of it is so great. The only issue is that the game itself is not fun to play at all. About 3/4 of the way through the game, (6-3) I gave up and changed the difficulty to easy. This made the game slightly more fun, except that the narrative relied on the game being difficult to work. If they made the puzzles less trial and error based, it would be better.

hardest smt game

change the sound settings to this so you can actually hear what's happening in game without everything being too loud
Master Volume: 10
Sound FX Volume: 7
Music Volume: 9
Dialog Volume: 10
Cinematic Volume: 8
Environment Volume: 8

Mais um dos grandes acertos da Atlus. Catherine é um jogo cativante, com diálogos encantadores, um elenco de personagens memorável e uma jogabilidade que consegue ser desafiadora dentro do bom senso.

Apesar de curta, a história não deixa pontas soltas e não tenta explorar aspectos que poderiam ser desinteressantes, como a origem dos demônios ou a mecânica dos sonhos. Para o jogador, esses são elementos de plano de fundo, e aprecio que a empresa tenha tratado esses elementos dessa maneira.

Um jogo que sabe exatamente qual mensagem transmitir, acho que esta seria a melhor frase para resumir Catherine. Uma experiência divertida, envolvente e que não tenta ser mais profunda do que precisa; certamente, um dos jogos mais elegantes que já tive a oportunidade de zerar.

Wow, I remember having tons of fun with this haven't completed the extra challenges and story beats that come with them, but I will if I ever delve into full body.

A tightly constructed funny moody excellent puzzle game with a familiar Altus charm and with persona esque life-sim (Kinda) moments in between puzzles where you talk and advance side quests with characters all within the confides of a local bar. Themes of love maturity life decisions ECT. All the characters were enjoyable if not that complex, and I found myself caring for their outcomes. Decisions were hard to make too, nice and tough stuff to chew on. Especially knowing it would all impact my ending.

No issues really found no bugs side content was really fun from what little I played. Great stuff, might be my 1st or 2nd favourite Altus game.

Catherine tem uma ótima história, com conceitos interessantes, personagens carismáticos e uma gameplay muito original. Porém falta um pouco em cada aspecto pra ser realmente excepcional.

A gameplay do jogo é inicialmente muito boa e fluida, porém quanto mais você avança e o jogo exige mais da sua coordenação, você nota que faltou polimento nos movimentos e por várias vezes você vai morrer por algum click que não foi como o imaginado. Além da mecânica de rodar em volta dos blocos que é frustrante de desfuncional para movimentar em pilhas grandes de blocos, além da câmera não conseguir te acompanhar nessas partes tornando ainda mais confuso.

A indecisão constante do personagem também pode irritar, pois por mais que você já tenha decidido totalmente o quê quer e tome escolhas a partir disso, o jogo só vai realmente levar elas em consideração na reta final. o quê tira o peso das escolhas feitas antes de cada desafio.
Algumas coisas também ficam em aberto sobre os personagens, mas esse é um ponto até que entendivel visto que os focos do protagonista estão mais em seus problemas próprios que já sufocam ele até demais.

No geral eu gostei muito do jogo e como sua história se desenrola apesar de ocasionais momentos de stress.
O que me faz querer jogar ainda mais o "remake".

p.s. A Katherine é muito irritante e mesmo nos enganando a Catherine ainda parece uma melhor escolha pra mim.
provavelmente a maior parte dos problemas já foi resolvido na versão FullBody, então só leve em consideração da versão clássica

The animation is great, but if you don't particularly like playing puzzle game with a timer and confusing control, I recommend simply watching the story on youtube. The puzzle game isn't just something that break up the pacing. It takes up 90% of the playtime and it gets pretty frustrating even on Easy.

The story itself isn't great either. It's repetitive and the two main female characters barely gets any characterisation. You choices made throughout the game make practically no difference except for the endings. The MC is always panicking on screen and you won't get to see any real romance until the very end. You won't even get to know what it was in them that attracted the MC nor what did the girls see in the MC. So if you're looking for a dating sim with hot anime waifu and harmless casual mini-games like I did, better look elsewhere.

good game, bad port (would give it a higher rating otherwise)

got it at as a gift from my partner in crime. They like the game a lot, and honestly i wouldn't have played it otherwise. i am so glad i did. the gameplay is really really fun. idk why a lot of people complained about the puzzles (it kinda scared me cuz i'm dumb), but i was surprised to find it the most enjoyable part of the game.

best birthday gift <3

I mostly played this game for my past self. I remember seeing the game when it came out and watching Let's Plays, however, I was too young to actually buy the game. It wasn't until a year or so ago that I found myself actually being able to play it. It is...an interesting game to say the least. It is definitely something I'd expect from a game developer like Atlus. Those devs are a bunch of horny fools. I enjoyed the game. Can't say I was amazing at it, struggled on some nights. However, I got through and got the true good ending! Was proud of myself with that one.

I know they came out with another version of the game. Catherine: Full Body. However, I probably would never play that. It doesn't sit right with me. I can't trust Atlus with anything concerning trans or gay people.

Yeah, yeah...I played this game three times. I guess I must like it, right?

Rin may be best girl but I think this is probably the better version of the game. It's very tightly constructed around the original premise and I think a lot moodier overall? I feel like sometimes the Golden version of Atlus games are too into celebrating themselves retrospectively and lose sight of delivering their original thesis; Rin feels a lot like Marie in Persona 4 Golden in that respect.

The Catherine True ending is the best one I think. And it makes the Rin endings later on in Full Body seem less weird, too.

Fiz uma apresentação deste jogo, para uma cadeira da universidade. A cadeira era "Narrativas Multimédia Interativas". A professora mandou o "pensava que vinha uma coisa péssima, mas depois percebi algo a mais. O Japão é realmente um sítio especial do mundo.". Dica para os universitários: Falem de merdas obscuras e acrescentam camadas a elas. A techer pensou que era uma visual novel? Pensou, mas também percebeu a crítica ao homem herbívoro japonês e como o jogo obriga ao jogador a tomar uma decisão de vida, sendo essa uma solução para o problema e que ele é efetivo, pois usufrui de elementos deste público para apresentar a mensagem.

Went incredibly hard. I've been playing a lot of puzzle games lately, and this is probably the most fun and well-designed one I've played so far. I'd be lying if I said that I was stoked to get on it, because the gameplay just didn't seem fun whatsoever, but surprise surprise it's really REALLY freaking good. Even putting the gameplay aside, this game is just such a vibe dude. All the characters, the bar, everything just oozes so much style, and the nightmare designs were genuinely kinda scary(a few aside). So yeah, love it👌.

Also I'll check out Full Body as soon as I can.