Let's play a game about cheating

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

So I picked up Catherine a couple of days ago along with Asura's Wrath and have begun playing it.

I think the timing is pretty good because Mass Effect is out and like Mass Effect, Catherine has a red and blue morality bar. The ticker swings back and forth based on how you talk to people, how you respond to text messages, how you answer a question from a disembodied murderer in confessionals set along parts of a nightmarish staircase etc.

Apart from the whole murder nightmare aspect everything so far is pretty mundane. Vincent is a pretty convincing loser-type who doesn't realise how good he's got it who burns away his time at his favourite bar. In a medium fucking loaded with space marines and tier one operators and Jesus archetypes, it's kind of refreshing to play a perfectly ordinary guy who could actually be your drinking buddy. The actual climbing gameplay is a little frustrating and it's a little strange playing a puzzle game with such an in-depth plot, and while it feels a little tacked on it works for me. It can get pretty brutal though lol

The game is mostly about interacting with people, either other sheep in the nightmares or other patrons at the bar or people on the phone. The game asks you questions periodically which changes Vincent's 'alignment', but they're questions like 'what is paradise to you' and 'does life begin or end at marriage', and it can swing back and forth really easily (as opposed to taking hours and hours to get a noticeable change).

Also it looks amazing. I've always been found of how recent Atlus games look (SMT 3, Digital Devil Saga, Persona etc) and Catherine looks a lot like that ... just on modern hardware so it rules.

Also the english voice acting is pretty good even if it lacks the inherent Evangelion joke that the Japanese does. I'd have liked an option to play it in Japanese (like with Asura's Wrath), but it's remarkably well done.

[Zod]

The questions are also tied into which ending you receive, apparently. It's not a bad game, but some of the puzzles can be pretty brutal. One of these days I'll finish it.

[Manus Dei]

I think the timing is pretty good because Mass Effect is out and like Mass Effect, Catherine has a red and blue morality bar. The ticker swings back and forth based on how you talk to people, how you respond to text messages, how you answer a question from a disembodied murderer in confessionals set along parts of a nightmarish staircase etc.

sorry what was that last one

[starku]

I have steered clear because I hate puzzles

Silent hill on easy needed sherry assistance

I hear Catherine will send you back to the start of a puzzle

[Zod]

I have steered clear because I hate puzzles

Silent hill on easy needed sherry assistance

I hear Catherine will send you back to the start of a puzzle

depends on whether or not you restart the game and whether or not you save at checkpoints

if you don't make it to the checkpoint, then it sure will

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

What the

Where did this come from

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

No really I'm serious, how did this thread come back?

Anyway Stark the puzzles in Catherine are pretty simple because they're just based on moving boxes and a series of 'techniques' which characters actually discuss in the game, but yeah it can still be pretty fiendish (and the boss stages are kind of ridiculous). I never really got frustrated, but sometimes a part of a level would just send me for a total loop. Levels are check pointed and aren't suuuuper long.

There's actually a great sense of accomplishment in making it because of how Vincent acts. I got really invested in getting him out of trouble because he gets scared and frustrated, so when he gets to the end of a stage is all 'whooooo I made it!' I'm like 'hell yeah dude good for you'.

[starku]

Sherry was looking at it last night and only he stuff I'd heard about frustration turned her off. I might get it when I return star wars.

[Zod]

Sherry was looking at it last night and only he stuff I'd heard about frustration turned her off. I might get it when I return star wars.

it's worth renting if you're on the fence about it

[starku]

Yeah

I just don't want cherry destroying my tv lol

Gotta set up her Xbox lol

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

I dunno, Sherry seems pretty good at puzzles and the climbing stuff is supremely logical. Like none of the obstacles rely on really, uh, outside the box thinking. All the solutions flow from the set of rules about how boxes interact.

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

Holy shit there is a third page

[Zod]

I could've sworn we had an autodelete.

[xon]

Blame adr for that one.

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

I am so silly sometimes

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

I'm surviving

All I have to do is climb each block as it comes

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

Incidentally I kind of love how obvious the whole block symbolism is, so obvious that you can feel the narrator winking at you when he says 'can you overcome the blocks in your life eh eh see what I did there'

[zhaktronz]

That's cause it has puzzles

[zhaktronz]

You are in a room

What do you do?

[Phantasee]

i don't know zhak

what do i do

[Manus Dei]

how the fuck is this still here

[Zod]

how the fuck is this still here

some sort of dark sorcery

obviously

[Oxymoron]

Because threads with polls are immune to the auto-delete.