Warning: Spoilers ahead (?)
For many of you gamers out there, be it casual or pro gaming, you may have stumbled upon Catherine already. Some may have even played it in 2011 and 2019. But for me, the experience of playing Catherine: Full Body is new and invigorating.
Before I begin mindlessly rambling how this game has made me play for 10 hours straight, allow me to give a background of my gaming journey. I have only started playing on my PS4 Pro last November 2018. The first game I played is Persona 5 but I played Destiny 2 along with it, too. Destiny 2 made me feel sick because of it being a first-person shooting game so that didn’t pan out well. Persona 5, developed by Atlus, is one of the most worthwhile 150 hours of my life. I’ve loved it since Persona Q and Persona 4 Golden.
Catherine: Full Body, on the other hand, was also developed by Atlus which was a huge “whoa!” for me. I have only seen the trailer and bits and pieces of it in the PS Store. One day, I told A, “Hey, I wanted to play Catherine, it looks so cool.” For any of you guys who know the gameplay, you must have imagined his surprise.
He asked me what makes me want to play it and I answered it looks like a chill game. I thought it’s just one of those simulation games where you choose and it leads to the different story plots. Nothing complicated, right? A bought the game for us but I can’t explain fully in words how shocked I am when I was welcomed by the first stage of box puzzles.
Now, you see, I’m not entirely wrong with my sims theory but I missed the fact that it’s a puzzler platform game.
To give a plot, Catherine: Full Body centers around the character of Vincent Brooks (the protagonist). He has a love square (not triangle) with three Catherines. Katherine is his long time girlfriend, Catherine is a blond hottie he met at the bar, and Qatherine is a girl with amnesia that he helped.
Every night for nine days, he has a nightmare. These nightmares include having to climb up the tower. You (the player) as Vincent needs to figure out how to pull blocks and connect them in order to reach the top. Sounds pretty easy? Well, you can’t take too long as the blocks below you continuously crumble. Apart from that, there are some levels wherein monsters will pursue you if you don’t climb fast enough.
So it’s a combination of logic puzzle, time constraint, and pressure, alongside the horror of a monster killing you. If that is not mind-boggling enough, then maybe you are a monster. (Kidding!)
The game will teach you along the way of techniques of how to get around with the puzzles. Albeit, when I started playing it last year, I still had a humungous amount of hardship towards each level. A ended up playing those stages I am stuck with but I finished the game on the last three boss fights. The ending I got though was a bad one where Vincent ended up being single.
Did I also mention that there’re 13 possible endings? Yup, I only managed to see 1 out of 13 endings. This led me to start a new game and rummage my way up to a new possible ending. I must say, once you continuously play it, you will get the hang of it.
Your choices at every stage will contribute to the ending you will get. The narrator calls it “knowing your values”.
Apart from working your happily ever after with whoever Catherine, your journey is also to help other guys experiencing nightmares like you. You’re not the only one suffering in this game, as it turns out, the game punishes guys that are conflicted with their love life, too. There are side quests to help them — and you have to! Otherwise, it’s all in your conscience whatever will happen to them.
My second ending I got Vincent to end up with the blonde, Catherine. It was a good game and I would love to capture it next time (because Atlus likes to block scenes) and share it with you guys. If you love mind-boggling puzzles under time pressure, try Catherine. Its charm is really captivating. 🙂
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