Catherine

Damm, the folks at Atlus are original as hell when it comes to game developing; a puzzle/adventure game about the fear of relationship compromise?

Genius...although I wouldnt mind hearing anything about a new Persona game.

Everything about this game seems very cool except the actual gameplay itself. It would have to be an amazing block puzzler to warrant a purchase.

I've suffered through many a Silent Hill game on the principle of pure chutzpah is enough to redeem iffy gameplay. Im pretty confident in Atlus. Demo needed yesterday.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Clark 

I've suffered through many a Silent Hill game on the principle of pure chutzpah is enough to redeem iffy gameplay. Im pretty confident in Atlus. Demo needed yesterday.

"SH: Homecoming" ws my breaking point for that series...after that, i couldnt even finish either PSP SH games, Justin.

But Atlas has never let me down so far; hell, im still addicted to "SMT:Strange Journey", and the new persona 2 remake for the psp is on my list for this year.

I hope they dont pull a Devil may Cry 3 here and release the game with its original dificulty settings, which i heard were brutal enough to warrant patching very soon after the japanese release.

Thankfully the 360 has the least embarrassing of covers to this game. I saw a Japanese preview of this game and never thought it would be brought over to us and I'll happily buy this. Like others, I'm willing to forgive a lot of gameplay as long as the storyline keeps me entertained.

Played the Japanese demo. The story seems intriguingly off the wall, with some nicely animated cutscenes and oddball distractions in addition to the main puzzle game element. I hear, though, the actual game is fuckshit difficult to the point where a patch is going to be released to allow players to adjust it a bit more.

Giant Bomb's Quick look is up: http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-ex-catherine/17-4137/

There's a bit of story spoiler in the commentary but they tell you when they start talking about it (what I heard while is a spoiler it seems obviously so though). I'm really intrigued by the graphics of it as well, plus the puzzles themselves seem like a fun time. I'm really looking forward to this game now and what's even better is that there's two versions of the standard cover so if you're getting the PS3, you  don't have to feel dirty about buying it.

Homepage is now up: http://www.catherinethegame.com

The more I see of this game, the more I really want it.

I've got it preordered.  In all honesty the gameplay doesn't look that appealing to me personally, but I'll definitely give it a shot.  Moreso, though, I think it's worth supporting a strange and unique title getting ported over to the US in the hopes that other strange and unique titles will get the same treatment.

I Liked the demo but no way this is worth $60. Should've been $40 like Dot Heroes. I have no doubt it will be bargain bin in 2 months.

I've had this pre-ordered for a while but there's a full preview up for it in at least one place and it's rather gushing which is nice to see. I'm a fan of games that try to be different than some type of shooter so it has that going for it as well. Alex, are you getting a review copy of this? Just curious to see your reactions to the full game.

Downloaded the demo. It's pretty weak, but from everything I've seen of the full game so far, I'd blame the guys who put together the demo. It's the most boring part, coupled with the fact that there's only the easiest difficulty available, and you're unable to really see the effects of your actions yet. The short trailer after you get through it shows all sorts of promise.

The reviews have been gushing love or boiling hate so far. im still down for this.

Reviews starting to trickle in. The difficulty apparently kills any mainstream accessibility, and pretty much everybody says there's a disappointing 3rd act turn to the supernatural, but that it affects the whole less than you'd think. Other than that, there's a whole lot of gushing going on.

Snatching this up tomorrow. A Guy review will be coming ASAP.

I appreciate games that try something new, but is the bulk of Catherine's gameplay wrapped up in the block-pushing tower minigame, or is that just a fraction of the experience? I found the demo kind of dull.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Clark 

Reviews starting to trickle in. The difficulty apparently kills any mainstream accessibility, and pretty much everybody says there's a disappointing 3rd act turn to the supernatural, but that it affects the whole less than you'd think. Other than that, there's a whole lot of gushing going on.

 

Snatching this up tomorrow. A Guy review will be coming ASAP.

A disappointing turn to the supernatural? That doesn't make any sense as the whole freaking game is supernatural in aspect. Nightmares that kill you, screenshots of dessicated bodies after one nights sleep. I know that's just what you've read but I think those people need to rethink how they said that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trevor 

I appreciate games that try something new, but is the bulk of Catherine's gameplay wrapped up in the block-pushing tower minigame, or is that just a fraction of the experience? I found the demo kind of dull.

With the extra stages that unlock later, it's looking about 60/40 in favor of the puzzles. The other half seems to be all story/character-building, and it's supposedly good at it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thecallahan 

 

 

A disappointing turn to the supernatural? That doesn't make any sense as the whole freaking game is supernatural in aspect. Nightmares that kill you, screenshots of dessicated bodies after one nights sleep. I know that's just what you've read but I think those people need to rethink how they said that.

The vibe is get is that up until the final act, the nightmares are just that: fucked up dreams. The last chapters change that, and not in a way that meshes well with the story, even with the Twilight Zone/Outer Limits-style framework for the whole thing.

3 hours in. The ratio of puzzle to story I guessed above is just about right. and having said that, it's either one of the greatest puzzle games of all time, or the weirdest RPG of all time, or, more than likely, both.

The Stray Sheep sequences are actually fairly well done, with almost--ALMOST--believeable dialogue.  It still needs an actor's director's touch to give it some polish, and the game just doesn't get it. So, as a cinematic sort of experience, it kinda stumbles there.

Luckily, it's in service of characters I actually 100% believe. Their motivations, reactions, and past experiences make sense. Even though the bar scenes are just wandering around talking to NPCs at the end of the day, I'm actually interested in hearing them talk. For a game striving for emotional honesty, that's an accomplishment in and of itself, which is both awesome and sad that it's taken this long for this medium to get here. Still can't really say where they're going with this, or where the random decision making moments are building to (the weird Cosmo survey bits before the puzzles are oddly fascinating, though), but the random comparison has crossed my mind that Vincent and his buddies are kinda how Scott Pilgrim and the rest of Sex-Bob-Omb would've ended up had he never met Knives or Ramona.

So, yeah. So far, so good.

Oh yeah. The puzzles. They're bastards. More so by virtue of the fact that I CANT. STOP. PLAYING THEM.

Just passed the 8th Day, which, presumably, is the (HIGHLY FUCKED UP) final stage/boss, though there's more after that stage, but I got there late last night, and there was a save point after.

I'd actually adjust the story/puzzle ratio to be a perfect 50/50, but besides that, I stand by the sentiment in the first sentence in my last post. The puzzles are addictive as hell, and the game keeps these constantly fresh, especially on boss stages. A better writer should take a pass at the script, however, the voice acting's strong, and as pure story, it's a godsend. Possibly the first earnestly mature "adult" video game released in this country that wasn't saddled with staunch, gritty realism. And I haven't even touched on the Babel stages, or the several alternate branches for dialogue/endings.

Worth the $60, easily.

The only drawback I've found for this game so far has been the odd loading times. You'll get a loading screen followed by a five minute talking scene and then yet another loading screen. It's a little annoying but minor in the grand scheme of things.

I'm pretty damn annoyed release of this has been stopped in Australia. Sounds fascinatingly different.

Let me guess: Banned for sex?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Clark 

Let me guess: Banned for sex?

We have no adult rating for games (yet - FINALLY seems to be happening later this year), so no room for fair Catherine I'm afraid.

I only knew bits and pieces of the whole censorship issue over there, and most of it boils down to "Michael Atkinson is a massive flappy cunt." But I thought that was just him killing the lobby for an Adults Only rating. The fact that there's not even a Mature rating is preposterous in this day and age.

My apologies - by "mature" I mean "adult". That said, when the adult R18+ rating does finally arrive all the games that are currently sitting at the "mature" M15+ rating on the shelves will be bumped up to the new adult rating anyway. 

...and no, that doesn't make a lick of sense to me either.

Done.

I completely get where the reviews talking about the final stage were coming from about the "twist" not working. It's the least interesting way they could've wrapped up this story, especially when the perfect ending is about an hour or so back after facing Catherine for the last time.

It's a testament to how fucking great the rest of the game is that it doesn't derail the whole thing.

Review in a few days.

Apparently, the game's sold 200,000 copies in its first week. For a niche developer, and a completely original property, that's fucking spectacular news.

Review: http://guy.com/2011/08/09/video-game-review-catherine/

After all the hugely positive reviews I've read this game has moved up to #2 on my Gamefly queue.

Fuck this game is hard. So unique though!

There were 2 levels that I had to look up walkthroughs for.  I played on normal.  I suck.

I'm playing on easy...I suck more.

There are at least 8 different endings.  From browsing Youtube, it looks like I got THE most boring one.  Hahahahah

Yeah I bet the same will happen with me.

Amusingly, I got the, "Forget both you crazy chicks" ending the first time. The game knows me!

Some of the endings are just sooo Japanese. And for once, I mean that in a good way.

If you want hard, spend some time on the Rapunzel 80s-style arcade game. Damn, that thing is a brain-buster. And great fun.

HA!  I'm stuck on Level 7 of Rapunzel.