Catherine: Full Body

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer / Visual Novel

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local, Local Wireless, Online)

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Review:

Catherine is an unusual mesh of Puzzle-Platformer and Visual Novel elements, putting players in the role of a man, Vincent, who finds himself waking up after a night of drinking to find that he’s apparently cheated on his girlfriend, Katherine, with a girl he just met that evening, Catherine. In the midst of sorting out that mess, he finds himself suffering from nightmarish dreams that have him as a sheep crawling up a massive tower of blocks to escape a woman’s massive clawed hand that is hunting him down. Originally released on multiple platforms in 2011, the game was re-released later under the “Full Body” title in 2019 on multiple platforms, including expanded content and an additional central character integrated into the plot. This version of the game was brought to the Nintendo Switch in 2020.

Visually, Catherine is a striking game, made by the same team that created the Persona games. It uses an anime-style of art for its detailed character designs, and the story is interspersed with fully-animated cutscenes that look absolutely gorgeous… well, save for the grotesque way the game’s protagonist spends much of the game with highly-exaggerated features. Also, I’ll say that while the game’s character designs are very good, the way the mouths don’t even come close to syncing up with their voices is distracting. Oh, on that note, the voice acting in this game is extremely good, featuring veterans like Troy Baker, and the soundtrack is equally excellent, though of course one would expect no less from the folks who brought us the Persona games.

In terms of gameplay, Catherine is a game split into two halves, and each half has its strengths and weaknesses. I’ll start with the Puzzle-Platformer half. Every night when your character in the game goes to sleep, he finds himself in a nightmare where he must push and pull boxes to climb a tower. This is a fairly simple formula for a Puzzle game, but is works fairly well here, with the unique presentation really helping it to stand out. Unfortunately, the controls here feel a bit stiff and take some getting used to, although I will say the quality-of-life enhancements the Full Body version of the game adds (giving the option to restart from checkpoints at any time or even having the game play the levels for you if you’re stuck) make for a nice addition in this version.

As for the other half of the game, during the day and evenings, you’ll be guiding Vincent’s choices as he socializes with friends, decides how to smooth things over with Katherine, and fends off the advances of Catherine (or perhaps welcomes them). This makes for an interesting story in theory, although in practice it can be frustrating when it’s not clear what the difference between two dialogue options is, especially when you pick the option that you think to be the more reasonable choice of what you’re given and are treated as if you’ve responded in the most rude way possible.

The other little wrinkle thrown into things comes in the form of one of the biggest additions in this “Full Body” version, a third girl, Rin. Honestly, I don’t think Rin quite fits into the story too well, breaking from the game’s clean binary focus on faithfulness and freedom, and introducing plot elements that, depending on your choices, can go unresolved by the game’s end, or possibly lead to some truly bizarre plot twists that make little sense in the context of the rest of the story (bizarre even for a story that sees your character regularly growing horns and talking to sheep-people in his dreams).

Ultimately, Catherine: Full Body is still a solid Puzzle-Platformer and a solid Visual Novel-style game with a great presentation, it just has some rough edges and excessive choices that don’t quite work. Fans of Puzzle games looking for one with an adult-oriented story should definitely give this game a try though, because despite these imperfections it remains a compelling entry in the genre.

tl;dr – Catherine is a Platform-Puzzle game with Visual Novel elements that puts you in the role of a man who wakes up after a night of drinking with a woman other than his girlfriend in his bed, and meanwhile suffers nightmares every evening that have him shifting blocks to climb a tower to escape a monstrous woman. Both halves of this game have some solid elements and a great presentation, but there’s also some frustrating controls and plot elements that seem excessive. This is still a solid Puzzle game worth trying though, especially if you’re enticed by the game’s mature themes.

Grade: B

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