A couple of months ago, we first wrote about a game called "Catherine." This is team Persona's first HD game, and it's now scheduled for Japanese release on February 17. Atlus is targeting 150,000 unit sales.
The premise of Catherine remains as bizarre as when it was first announced. Actually, it's grown even stranger with every update.
In Catherine, you play as Vincent, a salaryman with zero ambition. One day, he meets a girl named Catherine at a coffee shop and ends up having a one-night stand with her. From that day, he starts having strange nightmares. Surrounded by walking lambs, he must climb a lengthy flight of stairs while being chased by strange creatures. If he dies in the dream, he'll die in real life.
Here's where it gets strange. It turns out that Vincent, who himself seems to be assuming lamb-like properties in the dreams, already had a girlfriend when he hooked up with Catherine. Her name is Katherine (with a K!) and he may have gotten her pregnant. It also seems that Vincent's friends, all with the same "loser" setting as Vincent himself, are seeing the same nightmares as Vincent.
We're not really sure what Vincent will play like at present. The action part of the game appears to take place in the stair-filled dream world, with players having to flee from attacking creatures. The latest screens (see our media gallery) show some disturbing creature designs courtesy of art director Shigenori Soejima. For the record, the giant zombie baby calls Vincent "Papa."
Atlus has plenty of time to share gameplay details. The premise alone seems to have won over audiences both in Japan and abroad (the game's director, Katsura Hashino recently expressed surprise with the amount of overseas feedback the game's first trailer got on YouTube). Let's hope Atlus sees the positive reaction and considers an international release for Catherine.
Catherine will be released in North America this Summer. The main part of the game takes place during recurring "nightmares" and is puzzle-based tower climbing with bosses thrown in. The choices you make during the "daytime" adventure gameplay (not sure if this includes masturbating in a toilet stall) will effect your karma, giving the game multiple endings. Looks very interesting in a fucked up kind of way.
03-05-2011, 11:02 AM
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