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Catherine[c] is a puzzle video game developed by Atlus. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan and North America in 2011, in PAL regions by Deep Silver in 2012, and for Microsoft Windows by Sega in 2019. A re-release with additional content, titled Catherine: Full Body,[d] was released in 2019 for the PlayStation 4 worldwide and for the PlayStation Vita only in Japan, and a Nintendo Switch version released worldwide in 2020.
Giantess Pc Game Dreams 17
The story follows Vincent Brooks, a man who is beset by supernatural nightmares while torn between his feelings for his longtime girlfriend Katherine and the similarly named beauty Catherine. The gameplay is divided between the daytime, where Vincent interacts with the characters in a social simulation, and his dreams where he must navigate three-dimensional towers through combined platforming and puzzle-solving. The game's ending is affected by choices made by Vincent over the course of the story.
Catherine was developed by the same studio behind the Persona series, including producer and director Katsura Hashino, character designer Shigenori Soejima, and music composer Shoji Meguro. The game began production near the end of Persona 4's development in 2008, with the aim being to create something for a more adult audience. The English localization was handled by Atlus USA. Full Body was developed by Studio Zero, a then-newly formed division within Atlus led by Hashino. The team aimed to expand upon the original, bringing back the original cast while adding a new love interest named Rin, short for Qatherine.
Reception was generally positive, with critics praising its mature subject matter and gameplay, despite some criticism directed towards its difficulty. The game was nominated for several awards, and exceeded Atlus' sales expectations by having sold over one million copies worldwide by 2017.
Catherine is a cross-genre video game in which players control Vincent Brooks, a man who is tormented by deadly nightmares after becoming involved with multiple women. The gameplay is divided into two parts; daytime social simulation segments where Vincent interacts with various characters at the Stray Sheep bar, and nightmare segments where he navigates deadly block towers using a combination of platforming and puzzle solving.[4][5] The game is split into three modes; the single-player story campaign dubbed "Golden Playhouse", and "Babel". Multiplayer-exclusive "Colosseum" challenge levels are unlocked after first completing the story.[5][6]
The daytime gameplay has Vincent interacting with his girlfriends and other characters in the Stray Sheep bar.[4] During dialogue and text segments, Vincent can choose several options to respond; these include standard dialogue options and composing text messages.[4][7] During his time in the Stray Sheep, Vincent can Purchase drinks which help his navigation of Nightmare stages, but also impede his movement if he has too many.[8][9] He can also play a minigame titled "Rapunzel" which mimics the gameplay in nightmares, or listen to a jukebox containing tracks from other Atlus games.[10] Leaving the Stray Sheep will trigger the next Nightmare section.[9]
The main gameplay takes place in the Nightmare stages. Vincent must climb towers made of blocks, which Vincent must arrange into a stairway to reach the exit. As he climbs, the tower collapses beneath him, and if he fails to arrange the blocks before the collapse reaches him, Vincent will fall and the game ends; he either restarts from the last checkpoint on the tower if Vincent has a pillow item, or the player must restart the game from their last save.[4][5][11] Blocks can be freely pushed and pulled, balanced on the edge of a similar block, and form stairways.[12] In addition to standard blocks, some blocks have additional functions such as springing Vincent higher, and some blocks are lethal traps.[5] Vincent can earn pillows that allow him to retry levels. There are also several items which can be found or purchased in between stages, such as spare blocks, lightning which removes enemies, and energy drinks that allow Vincent to climb more steps at a time.[13]
Completing a stage awards a score based on the time completed and items collected. These are posted on online leader boards accessed from the game's start menu.[14] In addition to the Golden Playhouse mode, Babel Mode features four large stages playable with up to two players, while Colosseum features two players simultaneously playing a stage in order to reach the top first.[6] The game has multiple endings depending on the choices made by the player during the course of the narrative.[7]
Additional elements were added in Full Body.[15] A new mode features rearranged versions of the game's puzzles, with the original game's arrangement featuring as a separate mode.[16] A new online multiplayer mode is also added, where players can enter both a randomised match or a contest with a player of equal rank.[17] New character Rin can be called to halt the tower's collapse for a short time.[3] Players can access a new difficulty level called "Safety", which removes all threats and time limit, and allows players to skip puzzles and continue with the story.[15]
Set in an unnamed North American city, the plot of Catherine is presented as a story within a story on Golden Playhouse, a television program described as "like a Saturday morning theatre, with a bit of a Twilight Zone vibe".[18] The Stray Sheep, a bar where the main cast frequently meets, acts as the stage for the game's major events.[19][20] The game focuses on four main characters:[21]
The supporting cast includes Vincent's regular drinking partners at the Stray Sheep: Orlando Haddick (Hiroaki Hirata/Liam O'Brien[26]), an old friend and divorcee who holds cynical views on marriage; Johnny Ariga (Takehito Koyasu/Travis Willingham)[26] an idealist searching for a soulmate; and Toby Nebbins (Kishō Taniyama/Yuri Lowenthal[26]), Johnny's co-worker who has a crush on Erica Anderson, (Junko Minagawa/Erin Fitzgerald[20][23]) a waitress at the Stray Sheep.[19][27] Thomas Mutton (Norio Wakamoto/Kirk Thornton[26]), nicknamed "Boss", is the owner of the Stray Sheep. The game is narrated by Trisha,[e] (Junko Minagawa/Erin Fitzgerald[23][26]) who is the host of Golden Playhouse dubbed the "Midnight Venus".[19][28]
Vincent realizes he is the only person aware of Catherine's existence, and that all of her messages have vanished from his phone. Vincent confronts Mutton, the proprietor of the Stray Sheep who is the only other person he has witnessed Catherine speaking to. He learns that Mutton is Dumuzid the Shepherd, and that Catherine is a succubus who aided Mutton in his game to kill men who would not commit to marriage and family. Vincent enters the nightmare world one last time, on the condition that he and the other men will be freed if he reaches the top of the tower. Vincent is victorious and defeats Dumuzid, who is revealed to be an associate of Astaroth.[29]
In all of the game's endings, Trisha states in a closing narration that the purpose of Vincent's story, and the player's actions in directing his story, was to determine whether the player desired a life of comfort or a life of excitement. She explains that the tower was a metaphor for the journey to adulthood, and that "there is no right way to climb the tower."[19] In a secret ending unlocked when the player clears the game's challenge stages, Trisha speaks directly to the player and reveals that she is Ishtar, with Astaroth having been one of her avatars. Tired of Dumuzid's infidelity, the events of Catherine were a test to find someone worthy of her love. She offers to make the player into a deity so that they can become her consort.[19]
Catherine was the very first title developed by Atlus for high-definition (HD) video game consoles, specifically the PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Xbox 360 (360).[22][32] Using HD consoles they were able to fully portray the world of Catherine. Despite the shift onto HD consoles making their vision easier to realize, debugging for multiple consoles caused problems that pushed back the planned development schedule.[32] In a 2012 statement, an Atlus staff member said that Catherine was a "difficult" game for the company to make.[34] The game would later be called a "test" for the development of Persona 5.[31]
Catherine was first announced in August 2010, along with its prospective platforms.[35] Upon its announcement, Catherine proved unexpectedly popular, garnering as much public attention and fan expectation as recent releases in the Persona series.[36] Due to the game's content, Atlus found it difficult to gain their wished-for rating from Japan's CERO ratings board.[32] Beginning from October 2010, Atlus and its then-parent Index Media began an "aggressive" advertising campaign to promote the title in Japan.[37] Catherine released on February 17, 2011.[38] A PS3 demo for the game was released in January, but in early February Atlus pulled the demo, stating that it had achieved the maximum number of planned downloads.[39] Following player complaints about the game's difficulty, Atlus created a patch which added a lower difficulty. The patches for both the PS3 and 360 versions released in March.[40][41] The PS3 version was released in mainland Asia on July 26, 2011, distributed by Softsource. The 360 version was not released in the region due to unspecified coding issues.[42]
Catherine protagonist Vincent made a cameo appearance in Persona 3 Portable, the PlayStation Portable remake of Persona 3. The port's female protagonist runs into Vincent, who makes reference to the events of Catherine.[43] Vincent was included in Persona 3 Portable as it was created by the same development team as Catherine, but the version of Vincent in Persona 3 Portable is not the same as that used in Catherine.[44] Despite the possibility, staff have discounted either an anime adaptation or further games in the series, the latter due to its challenging production.[18][34]