She walked into the bar one night, drawing the eyes of the many toward her in adoring fascination. Nobody dared approach her for fear of rejection, as she quietly sipped her drink in a corner of the bar. Every sip was watched with bated breath. I worked up the courage to ask if she was alone and if she wasn’t whether she would like some company. Smiling, she obliged, much to the disdain of the admirers in the room. We began to talk about the small things at first; exchanging jokes and stories, watching the others that walked throughout the bar. She had only just arrived in the UK after garnering much attention in both Japan and America. In the end, she gave me her number and asked me to call her in the morning. This is how my relationship with Catherine began, but was this romance bliss or a rocky road ahead?

Vincent isn’t having a particularly great week. First he is plagued by odd nightmares that seem more real than normal. On top of that, he gets really drunk one night and finds a blonde named Catherine in his bed the next morning. The problem is, he’s already in a relationship with a woman called Katherine, who he suspects wants to get married. He then begins to hear rumours of people dying in their sleep and is further troubled when the news reports mysterious local deaths. As is typical of the team at Atlus – who made the absolutely wonderful Persona series, the plot has a wonderfully macabre twist on a touchy subject of human nature. Your choices directly affect how the plot turns out, depending on your morality level, which means that there are multiple endings for a lot of replay value. While there are odd occasions where the dialogue is immensely awkward, the vast majority of the narrative is handled with the same panache that made Persona 4 such a great example of gaming narrative.

“Your choices directly affect how the plot turns out, depending on your morality level, which means that there are multiple endings for a lot of replay value.”

The only real issue some people might have had with the Persona series is that the RPG genre wasn’t completely great for pacing. Catherine attempts to solve this by replacing the RPG part with a puzzle game instead. While it certainly beats a grind-fest that could last hours and hours before the next plot point, that doesn’t stop Catherine getting more difficult as you progress further. The basic concept is to move blocks to move further up the tower, while avoiding plummeting to a bloody death. New blocks and hazards appear as you progress, culminating in “boss battles” against the metaphoric horrors of Vincent’s mind. Catherine’s difficulty is a little hard to get used to, but thankfully there is a button to rewind moves that turns out to be an absolute godsend. Other power-ups found along the way help you create new blocks out of thin air, defeat foes, or change the properties of blocks to suit your needs. Sometimes reaching the next level is a hard-won victory; but besides the slightly dodgy camera controls and Vincent’s twitchy movement, Catherine provides a mostly fair challenge.

When Vincent isn’t climbing for his life in his nightmares, he is drinking his sorrows away at the local bar named The Stray Sheep. Here you can find and talk to other lost souls who come in and out of the bar and receive and reply to text messages. You can also engage in side activities that consist of playing the 64 level Rapunzel Arcade cabinet (similar to and hints at some metaphoric reasoning behind the nightmare stages) and listen to tracks from Atlus’ back-catalogue through the Jukebox. Each track is unlocked whenever you unlock an achievement/trophy, so there is an extra incentive to do more. While proceeding through the nightmare stages, players can engage some of the lost sheep that resemble their human counterparts that regularly visit The Stray Sheep in an attempt to save them from a perilous fate. Items can also be purchased through in-game currency to assist with levels, but potentially compromising your rank.

At the end of these sequences you are asked difficult and personal questions. Your answers to these questions are posted on a poll for “first time user data”, which allows you to gain an insight into whether you are saintly or scum. This is an interesting concept that certainly broke the fourth wall on multiple occasions. Answering these questions in front of a real partner is slightly awkward though and not recommended! The only problem here is that the structure of Catherine leaves little deviancy for the more curious player. You can’t explore and discover anything beyond the confines of the pub or the nightmares, which considering just how well the world is crafted in context is a little disappointing.

“She is an absolutely stunning creature to look at, listen to and is incredibly talented when it comes to her musical ability.”

For those who wish to spice up their relationship with Catherine, she also has some unlockable tower challenges in the form of the Babel Tower. Strictly optional, but with the randomised stage design you can repeatedly play each stage to beat your best score, hoping for a lucky break. For the particularly kinky who want to turn it into a threesome, you and a friend can take on co-operative challenges where teamwork is key to success, or fight over her in competitive matches where the last sheep standing is the alpha male/female. One would argue that these are merely distractions from the main attraction, but in a way it works fairly well to complement her assets without distracting too much from the majority of the relationship.

Presentation is a mixture of an appealing artistic direction that manages to mix Japanese vibrancy with Western touches. Bar scenes are subdued compared to the bizarre nightmare scenes, but both work to give Catherine an occult edge to her personality. While the voice acting is fantastic, it is the mixture of Jazz music in the bar scenes combined with the mad remixes classical music in the nightmares. All this goes to prove that Shōji Meguro is a musical genius, as tinkering with classical music is a difficult thing to get right. The context of the music with the horror overtones is strangely yet satisfyingly haunting. One thing that does get slightly annoying is that the constant whooping during gameplay when you build up a multiplier, which turns the concept of climbing the tower into a frat party activity.

Since I first caught wind of her, Catherine had me curious beyond all rational thought. I was more than willing to leap headlong into the heaving bosom of content she had to offer. If she has taught me one thing, it is that she is a bit of a simple creature at heart, with our relationship following a fairly linear path. She is an absolutely stunning creature to look at, listen to and is incredibly talented when it comes to her musical ability. The question of taste certainly kept cropping up and the relationship was very hard to maintain with her constant need to hinder my wall climbing hobby though. While she isn’t a completely innocent flower with no faults, Catherine’s charm is a hard thing to resist. Once you work out her kinks, your relationship with her should blossom into happy memories. Just don’t get on her bad side, she’s a killer!