If you have been interested in Catherine since the announcement of it’s North American release you should probably preorder the game today. All preorders, whether you pre-purchase the standard or the regular edition will receive a soundtrack CD featuring 11 tracks from the game and an art book for the title. Of course if you really want to go all out you can preorder the “Love is Over” Limited Edition.
Unlike the ‘Limited Edition’ for titles such as HALO or Call of Duty, this is a truly limited bundle. We asked Aram Jabbari just how limited it would be and he stated that the “Love is Over edition has been built to projection based on preorder demand.” therefore you shouldn’t expect to see any extra units lying on store shelves. If you found yourself looking for a fair-priced, sealed copy of the Demons Souls Deluxe Edition after release – you can expect the same with this special bundle.
Catherine is a an odd title to say the least. Prior to last night I really had no idea what to expect, but thanks to Atlus’ PR guru Aram Jabbari and various other members of team I’ve got a good idea of what the game is about and how it’s played. Basically, players take on the role of Vincent, a man who leads a pretty simple life and spends his time drinking or chilling with his girlfriend, Katherine. But when Vincent meets Catherine he wakes up in a whole new world and has to fight his way through nightmarish worlds to find his way back to the life he wants to have. The game’s story is propelled in a variety of ways including conversations that will take place in both the Stray Sheep Bar and through text message conversations on Vincent’s cellphone. At certain intervals you’ll also be presented with very sociological questions about life, relationships, and more. The answer you choose will affect the game from that point forward and can ultimately affect the ending of the story. The game is said to last between 8-14 hours based on how much time you spend mingling in the bar and how much of the story you wish to unravel.
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During your time in the Stray Sheep Bar you’ll have quite a bit to do. Early on in the game you’ll be limited to sitting with your friends, accessing your cellphone, and drinking alcohol. Shortly after the first couple of nightmare levels you’ll be able to leave the table and explore the bar, talk to NPCs and even check out an arcade game known as “Rapunzel” – I’ll mention that again soon. Talking to NPCs in the bar can affect the gameplay when you reach the nightmare levels where other people are presented in the form of sheep. Cellphone conversations through text change based on what you choose to say. You’ll be offered a variety of options when creating a text message and based on the line you choose to say, the next available lines will change. You’ll have to move around the bar or complete levels to continue text conversations as time won’t pass when you’re sitting still. I mentioned that you can drink while in the bar – makes sense, right? Rather than putting Vincent into a lethargic state or drunken stupor, alcohol actually helps to increase your speed in the block puzzles. The can receive up to a 3X drinking bonus and you’ll be 3x faster in the next level you have to complete. Yeah, that’s pretty awesome.
I want to mention the “Rapunzel” arcade unit in the Stray Sheep Bar. It’s what you would expect – a classic arcade box tucked away in the corner, and it features a fully playable version of “Rapunzel”. It’s basically the same as the standard block puzzles you maneuver with Vincent, but there’s no time limit. If you make a mistake it may be game over, so you have to take your time and make the correct moves to ascend the tower. During your way you may find some items that can help you back in the main storyline. You can check it out any time you’re in the bar and there doesn’t appear to be a limit on how many times you can play.
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You earn cash in the game as well and you can use your hard-earned money to buy items to use during the puzzles. Like the Castlevania series, you can only have one item at a time, and picking up a new item will replace whatever you currently hold. The one exception is a “Pillow” which can be used to retry a nightmare. We didn’t get a chance to see many of the items, but we can tell you there’s a bible which will clear the screen of all NPCs, eliminating the possibility of them pushing you off the puzzle or blocking your path to success. There’s also an energy drink that can allow Vincent to jump 2-3 blocks (depending on game difficulty level) in one jump.
The block puzzles can get rather complicated but it’s an interesting gameplay mechanic. People you meet in the bar are represented as sheep in the nightmare world and they’ll be fighting to survive just like you. Slowly the blocks at the bottom of the puzzle will fall into oblivion, and you have to reach as escape door at the top. By pushing, pulling, and shimmying you have to create a path upwards and reach the top before falling to your death. If you make a mistake, you can undo up to 9 turns on the hard difficulty level. Occupying a space of an NPC will push him off a block and they can do the same to you. During the demo I noticed that you may have to move some blocks into a certain path to have an NPC get out of your way so you can progress. Failing a level will force you to use one of your limited retries – of which you’ll have nine on the hard difficulty level. There are boss levels included as well – each boss has a unique ability that can damper your ability to reach the top. For example, the boss shown last night (also the same in the Japanese demo Xbox 360 demo) can change many of the blocks into a darker, heavier block which slows Vincent down when moving them.
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We also had a look at the multiplayer mode included in the game. You’ll be limited to what you can access for MP modes before beating the story, but I’ll tell you what you can expect. Catherine features both competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes and we had a quick look at each one last night. The cooperative mode allows two players to ascend block puzzles together with each player having to help the other by moving blocks and creating stepping stones. If a player falls off the puzzle the game is over. It’s a pretty simple concept but a fun mode and I’m sure we’ll see some difficult puzzles. The competitive mode is quite fast-paced and allows two players to go head-to-head. You can attempt to knock the other player off or block him from progressing, but you do have to move quite fast. It looked frantic and fun while we watched Aram get his butt kicked last night (He did win once though!).
All in all, Catherine looks to be a truly unique and fun experience and I’m excited to try it out myself. If you happen to be in Europe then you probably know you can’t purchase the game locally. However, PS3 owners can import a region-free version right here. Atlus would love to sell the game in Europe, but unfortunately they have no European partner to publish the title. Let’s hope they can set that up soon.
