There is a lot of talk about the fall of the Japanese gaming industry. What was once a powerhouse of innovation has now come under scrutiny for churning out the same style games that it has for a decade. While there is some truth to that, there is a large segment of Japanese games that the West never sees. While the West enjoys an endless stream of shooters, the Japanese prefer long involving stories or dating sims. Many popular games are never translated and are doomed to stay within Japan.
This is one reason why I love Atlus USA so much. The American arm of the Japanese publisher specializes in localizing niche Japanese titles for limited runs in the United States. They are probably best known for the Persona series and the 2009 surprise hit Demon’s Souls. This week we are getting another Japanese treat in the form of Catherine. Early reviews have been positive and have made it clear that this is far from the “same old Japanese game.”
Catherine is about a soft spoken man named Vincent. Vincent enjoys relaxing with his friends at the local bar and his biggest concern is that his girlfriend Katherine is pressuring him to get married. This becomes a bigger problem when he meets a fun loving girl named Catherine, enjoys a few too many adult beverages and wakes up with her next to him in bed. In the next few days Vincent must straighten out his love life and decide between Catherine and Katherine.
The twist comes via the nightmares Vincent suffers each night. Each nightmare is a puzzle that involves you pushing, pulling, and climbing on a block tower, trying to get to the top. Sounds easy enough, right? No. No it doesn’t. Because these are nightmares Vincent is having. Not only do these puzzles have tense, disturbing themes, but they can be very difficult. The puzzles are meant to instill you with the stress and panic that Vincent is experiencing as he sorts out his lady problems.
In short, Catherine is a horror-puzzle-action-romantic-adventure game. I know, another one of those! While the idea of a challenging puzzle game will scare away some, it might be worth looking into Catherine simply because there is nothing else like it. Besides, there won’t be any other major releases for a month or two, so why not try something new?
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