Gaming fans all over North America are falling head-over-heels in love with Catherine.
Atlus USA just recently announced that the game had the biggest launch of any title in the publisher’s 20 year history, selling over 200,000 copies across both the PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 platforms during its first week on sale. Though those numbers certainly don’t hold a candle to Western blockbusters like Call of Duty, they do tell a very interesting story – one that slaps doom-and-gloom naysayers in the face. Japanese HD gaming isn’t dead, but evolving…with surprising results.
The game’s success is shocking on a number of levels, because any industry marketing professional would have predicted the game would launch with a whimper and be sent to the bargain bin within a week. Here are some of the reasons that Catherine faced a major uphill battle on its way to a North American release:
1.) It’s Japanese.
As much as I hate to admit it, simply being developed in the Land of the Rising Sun is automatically a strike against many titles. In the past, Japanese game creators have been known for innovating and re-energizing the gaming market, but this console generation has been tough for them. Pinned between the HD consoles (which require different methodologies and team synergies that Japanese corporate culture isn’t used to working with) and the success of the PSP and DS, most developers played it safe and most of their lineups for the portable consoles. When they do a HD title, generally it’s a safe bet. Although there is certainly a lot of redundancy in the West as well (see formerly mentioned Call of Duty), Western studios are considered to be more innovative in general by the hardcore gaming community. A game like Catherine is truly a rarity by any standard of game development, Eastern or Western.
2.) It’s part adventure game.
The text-based (or cinematic) adventure game is a genre that has not been popular in the West since the early days of the CD-ROM. Though the genre is still very much alive and well in Japan, it’s not doing so well over here. North America’s action-heavy audiences generally don’t look favorably on a game that is nothing but cut scenes, and the shunning of the genre for localization by many major companies reflects this (Another Code: R on the Wii had a full English translation, and was refused a release in North America). It is perceived that games lacking action will not sell through many copies at retail. Catherine does have plenty of “action”, indeed, but not the kind North American gamers are used to seeing on screen very often.
3.) The puzzle sections aren’t very fun to play, especially at first.
Plenty has been said about Catherine‘s “Nightmare” sequences, but few will argue that slogging through them is annoying at best and frustrating at worst. These sequences are built to extend the length of the game, induce a sense of “panic” in the player, and serve as a trial to unlock the next part of Catherine‘s interesting story. The falling tower design successfully replicates the feeling of an actual nightmare, forcing hero Vincent to climb higher and higher on movable stacks of blocks to avoid being plunged into the abyss. Some of the boss battles (which force Vincent to climb while being chased by gigantic, hideously deformed monsters that change the layout of the blocks dynamically) are so frustrating that I’ve been sorely tempted to throw away the controller in a fit of rage and watch the rest of the game through on YouTube. Once the player gets the hang of the puzzle sequences, they become a little less frustrating, but that doesn’t change the fact that they still aren’t much fun.
4.) It’s a full price title.
For a completely unknown franchise, and one with particularly unorthodox gameplay, it seems ballsy for Atlus to release Catherine for the full retail price of $60. Generally this isn’t a good thing to do because customers are usually risk-averse, but it seems to have worked out just fine for them in this case.
5.) It’s controversial.
Make no mistake about it: Catherine is packed with mature themes. There’s a lot of profanity and sexual themes/imagery in the game as well as a bunch of psychological scares – this is not a combination that sits well with most of the customer base in North America. It’s actually rather surprising to me that the game managed to avoid criticism by mainstream media despite its rather large marketing campaign. As far as purely offensive content, it’s certainly not nearly as blatant as Grasshopper Manufacture’s delightful kusoge, Shadows of the Damned. That game was controversial for controversy’s sake, much to its detriment. In contrast, Catherine‘s mature content suits it perfectly because it makes sense in the context of what’s happening in the game. Well, it makes about as much sense as a game by Team Persona is expected to, anyway. Don’t even get me started on the bizarre collector’s edition…
Despite these (and other) factors, Catherine launched to glowing reviews and brisk sales. However, Atlus is no stranger to launching unusual Japanese games in North America to surprising success, either. Remember a little game last year by the name of Demon’s Souls? That game was fully translated into English but was going to sit in Asian and European markets indefinitely because Sony did not feel the game would sell enough copies to warrant a North American release. Atlus picked the game up, created a wonderful collector’s edition, and launched it to rave reviews. Gamers quickly gobbled up the limited print run, forcing a reprinting, and the worldwide success pushed FROM Software to begin work on a spiritual sequel.
As far as Catherine is concerned, its biggest strength is its unusual, but incredibly intriguing, story. The characters are surprisingly easy to relate to for a Japanese game, and the twisted tale keeps players coming back to see what happens next. Additionally, the localization work on Catherine is very well done, as is par for the course for Atlus. Aside from a few Japanese mannerisms in the animations for some of the characters (hand gestures, and so on) that look a bit out of place, the game doesn’t feel Japanese. It feels like it should be a movie.
If you’re looking for something unlike anything else out there, give Catherine a try. She may surprise you…just don’t cheat on her.
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