Author Topic: Catherine (JP X360 & PS3) (Read 6413 times)

Shalashaska · « **on:** February 04, 2011, 08:21:39 PM »

Anyone else intrigued by this game? It's sort of an "adult" puzzle/horror game. There's a demo up on the Japanese Xbox Live but I don't have a gold account to try it out.

Some info

EOJ · « **Reply #1 on:** February 04, 2011, 09:12:39 PM »

Yeah, there's a demo on JP PSN too, and you don't need to pay for it. I really dislike these "gold member only" X360 demos. I have a gold membership on my US X360 account, but not on my JP one.

Haven't bothered with it yet as the game doesn't look too special to me. Still, I'll probably buy it when the price drops.

Dude · « **Reply #2 on:** February 04, 2011, 09:47:17 PM »

its a spin off off persona 3 fwiw.

Shalashaska · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2011, 03:53:08 PM »

I'm not a huge puzzle fan but I do like horror/survival horror games and other things that are just weird. Catherine has the weirdness going on so if the puzzle mechanic is fun or well implemented I'll probably give it a try.

I've never played any of the Persona games.

Shalashaska · « **Reply #4 on:** February 15, 2011, 05:16:09 PM »

I tried the demo (anyone can download it now) and I thought it was ok. The puzzle aspect is actually pretty frantic and you have to think fairly quickly and in advance to avoid being killed. I wish I could understand the story at all but I thought the movies/cutscenes looked nice. I really wish I knew what was up with the sheep thing. Not knowing Japanese would really kill this game though so I don't think I'll import and instead hope Atlus brings it stateside.

EOJ · « **Reply #5 on:** February 20, 2011, 02:57:47 PM »

This game is apparently insanely difficult even on the easiest difficulty setting, and people are complaining so much that Atlus is going to patch the game to make it easier:

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/02/21/catherine_difficulty_patch/

Shalashaska · « **Reply #6 on:** February 20, 2011, 03:35:00 PM »

Wow interesting. I think the demo was locked to easy difficulty and I'll admit that it took me like 6 tries to finish the second puzzle.

njiska · « **Reply #7 on:** February 23, 2011, 04:03:54 PM »

Boo I liked the difficulty. The second puzzle in the demo was great fun. What I'd give for the option of Normal and Original difficulty.

neomoe · « **Reply #8 on:** February 24, 2011, 03:17:20 PM »

Definitely interested in the game, but I havent played the demo yet (not currenly hooked up to live), but is this pretty heavy on the text/dialogue/ Would it be enjoyable (or even playable) to someone who doesnt understand the language?

Shalashaska · « **Reply #9 on:** February 24, 2011, 06:37:09 PM »

I only played the demo but I would have to say no unless you solely want it for the puzzle action. There is a lot of text/dialogue in the cutscenes and also with things like the texts/e-mails (think GTA IV's text messages). I don't understand written or spoken Japanese either so we'll just have to hope that Atlus brings it over here.

neomoe · « **Reply #10 on:** February 24, 2011, 08:44:14 PM »

yeah, that was what I was afraid of from what I've seen on youtube.

Gonna pass for now, probably for the best since I shouldn't be spending $80+ on anymore games for a bit

Shalashaska · « **Reply #11 on:** March 02, 2011, 06:21:51 PM »

For those that are interested, Atlus announced they're bringing Catherine to the USA this summer.

pestilence · « **Reply #12 on:** March 03, 2011, 04:37:39 AM »

such good news. deff picking it up. just hope it'll work on my ntsc-j console.

EOJ · « **Reply #13 on:** March 04, 2011, 02:02:36 PM »

Patch will adjust Easy and Normal difficulty (especially Easy), but leave Hard alone. There will also be an option to switch back to the pre-patch state, if you prefer:

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/03/04/catherine_patch/

neomoe · « **Reply #14 on:** March 07, 2011, 11:10:42 AM »

Quote from: pestilence on March 03, 2011, 04:37:39 AM

such good news. deff picking it up. just hope it'll work on my ntsc-j console.

exactly, assuming this will work on my jpn 360, I'll get it. Would suck if the us version is region locked since i don't have a usa 360

Shalashaska · « **Reply #15 on:** March 07, 2011, 01:59:03 PM »

Yeah hopefully it won't be region locked. Although I could get it for the PS3 if that happens I guess.

MikeNeko · « **Reply #16 on:** March 08, 2011, 02:01:55 AM »

Ho i didnt know there was a catherine thread in here !

I am a fan of that game

i have finished more than 20 times the game, got all 8 endings in normal (never played easy).
It really is not a difficult game. Some bosses are annoying because of semi-randomness of some elements, but the game gives you more than enough lives (i finished the game with about 50 lives left in normal...).

I have almost finished the hard mode, and yes it is HARD, but not as hard as snake rattle n roll or kickle cubicle.

In fact, if you finished equinox on the nes, i think you can do catherine.
It is one of the best puzzle games, but i fear its mature theme will prevent it from staying as one of the all-times-greats.

The storytelling is great, the long ending with catherine C is so incredible... it has to be seen ! fantastic surprise and quite long (long endings i think last for about 20 minutes from end of level to end of ending so it IS rewarding).
There are about 23 main levels, 64 rapunzel (game in the game) levels, maybe 64 rapunzel ura (i didn t play it so much, i just know there are ura levels but not sure they are 64).
Coop multiplayer, Competitive multiplayer (unlocked after finishing the game) ... great package :p

My biggest rant: only 12 saves... with 8 possible endings depending on your evilness and answers in last chapter that s too few. More, no date/time of saves, just playtime and since when you reload it reloads the playtime you get saves that almost match in time despite being distant from 4-5 hours in reality. That means that if you want to see a specific ending but did not note the save, you might end killing bosses and not seeing the one you wanted.

Ho another one, in game you cannot see how evil you are, unless answering to a question...silly since for one ending you must have the needle RIGHT AT THE MIDDLE. you must plan carefully your run to achieve a needle in the middle.

You can skip the staff roll but don t ! there are great pictures that come when you have a good ending at the end (when the music switches to the Hymne a la joie (Ode to Joy))

MikeNeko · « **Reply #17 on:** March 10, 2011, 10:59:43 AM »

And i finished the hard mode this morning

I am a bit sad it unlocked nothing at all (usually the game is great at rewarding effort, through pictures cathy sends by mobile etc), the staff roll had nothing new compared to the normal difficulty, but hey, at least i did it

second to last boss was frustrating, i couldn't beat the stage yesterday... i always stumbled against a stupid random thing making me slow down my escalation (and didn't have enough time to reach the door).
Last boss level was comparatively easy (not as easy as the normal version but close).
They both have very different levels compared to the normal versions.

So to sum up hard mode: i met 3 very very very challenging levels, game overed once (i mean reaching a 0 retry count and had to reload), bosses are globally more frustrating.
I finished the game with 15 lives left in hard, but mind you the second to last level gives you a life at the beginning so you don't deplete the stock despite the difficulty.

EOJ · « **Reply #18 on:** March 29, 2011, 02:35:32 AM »

Thanks for your impressions of the game, MikeNeko. I tried the demo again the other day, and actually liked it this time. I saw the X360 version on sale at play-asia yesterday, so I added it to my Bullet Soul order, which I will get next week.

How long does one playthrough on easy or normal difficulty take?

MikeNeko · « **Reply #19 on:** March 29, 2011, 05:33:08 AM »

In normal i think it took me about 17 hours (but i had some problems with a couple bossfights, someone less prone to stupid button mistakes could do it in 2 hours less i think).
My quicker following runs were down to about 7 hours (and that s skipping most of the scenes, just pure level play).

Really, don't bother with easy, that s a loss of time. The only thing you should know is that Rapunzel, the game in the game (an arcade cab in the bar), is where you should brush up your skills, because there is no time pressure in this mode. When you are stuck in rapunzel, it is time to move on and advance to the next level. When you are in the nightmare "mainland" there are sheeps that will teach you new ways to manipulate the blocks to create path in certain configurations and that is what you will need for the next level. The designers will not throw at you patterns you cannot solve with the information you gathered from the sheeps. If you have to do too complex things then that means you are not doing the right thing.

I replayed the game so much that my gameplay time is now at 46-47 hours and that s skipping the reloads i did.
I am almost done with Rapunzel URA just a few more to go to know the final truth :p

EOJ · « **Reply #20 on:** April 09, 2011, 03:18:18 PM »

I just got this yesterday and played about an hour. What a great game. Great story sequences and the puzzle parts are pretty fun.

Shalashaska · « **Reply #21 on:** April 09, 2011, 04:25:28 PM »

Good to hear you changed your tune on this EOJ. I'll be interested to hear your verdict once you finish it as I wait for the US release. Hopefully they don't change much or anything in the localization.

EOJ · « **Reply #22 on:** April 17, 2011, 06:14:23 AM »

Just finished it tonight. I played on Easy, and it was pretty damn hard. A few stages made me want to chuck my controller out the window. The story was really good.

I'm definitely never playing this again, as in a few of the stages I just got lucky after many failed attempts and I don't feel like going through all that trial and error again. I'll just look for the other endings on youtube. I played a couple stages of Rapunzel, but it didn't interest me much.

I would love this game to pieces and play through to see all the endings if it was a 2D platformer like Super Mario Bros, instead of the 3D puzzle-platformer it is. Oh well. Maybe next time.

colour_thief · « **Reply #23 on:** June 18, 2012, 05:41:45 PM »

Chiming in to say that this game is still great. The Babel mode (time attack of randomized levels) is meaty like a proper arcade game. It reminds me kind of like playing Mr. Driller, but with climbing. There's a coop version as well, with lots of new fancy moves that only work when 2 players work together. I've really taken a liking to it.

Incidentally, a friend and I are ranked #1 in the coop Babel mode and our records are on Youtube, for those interested in seeing what high level play is like.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7E4EDD2E8FE0E73E

AweOfShe · « **Reply #24 on:** June 21, 2012, 04:01:08 AM »

Wow, you and your friend coordinate well.
My friend and I can't stop killing each other accidentally... It's not even on purpose 98% of the time either.

Good job though! Learned a few tips off your vids too. I'm kind of inspired to go for the Platinum now.