Despite the massive amount of buzz for Persona Team’s upcoming erotic-horror game Catherine, little is actually known about the title aside from it’s dark aesthetic and adult themes. Was it another RPG? Was it an action game? We just didn’t know. That is until this week when Atlus finally released a two stage demo, giving us a real taste of what Catherine is going to be like. Unfortunately as the game is only in Japanese with no English subtitles I can’t go into any real detail on the story elements, but I can’t tell you that without being able to understand Japanese your experience will be extremely neutered. This is definitely not going to be an import friendly title.

Dark and visually haunting, Catherine is one of the few games that truly understands the importance of a good visual presentation. Be it the empty, nightmarish void of the protagonist’s dreams or the smokey confines of the Stray Sheep Bar, every aspect of the environment exudes emotions of fear, isolation and confusion, using only the powers of colour and shadow. Characters existing within the world are also extremely well designed and quite expressive. Without even understanding the language you’re able to tell what’s going just by reading their eyes and watching for subtle gestures. A sigh here, a casual flick of a finger there; it all comes together beautifully. Breaking up the various game segments are a series of short animated sequences drawn by Studio 4°C. Like their in-engine counter parts they place a similar focus on the importance of light and colour, but for obvious reasons they allow for a more detailed level of expression. It’s unclear from the demo why some scenes are animated and others are done in engine.

Given Persona Team’s pedigree and experience in the JRPG realm, you may be surprised to learn that Catherine is a puzzle game that appears to lacks any form of combat. There are enemies present in the demo, but they serve more as a motivator to solve the puzzle faster, rather than a force that you must overcome. Taking control of Vincent, the main protagonist of the game, it will be your job to help him avoid danger and ascend a tower of boxes in order to escape his nightmares. The boxes forming the tower may be stacked multiple layers deep and must be moved by holding the A button, in order to create a climbable set of stairs. As long as a box remains connected by a single edge it will continue to float freely, but if all connections are broken it will fall and disappear into the abyss below. It’s possible for the player to create scenarios where they may become stuck, so the game includes a handy undo feature when playing on the Easy difficulty setting. Simply press the Back button and you’ll reverse through your actions, one at a time, until you are able to progress. There appears to be no in-game penalty for using the undo feature, but repeated use may affect your score at the end of each puzzle stage. During the second stage of the demo it’s possible to pick up an item that allows you to place a new box should you be unable to progress naturally. This is incredibly handy when you’re stuck and an enemy is rapidly approaching, but it looks like the item will be relatively rare, so it’s important to only use it when absolutely necessary. Between the two puzzle stages offered in the demo there is a single visual novel-style scene where Vincent receives a text message from his fiancee Katherine. If you choose to reply to the message Vincent will type out a response that will lower his morality gauge. It’s unclear at this point just what effect this will have on the rest of the game, but it will most likely determine your ending and possibly future character interactions.

Catherine is a beautiful game, but having played the demo it’s apparent that it won’t be for everyone. Language issues aside the puzzle core seems a bit unusual and may put of players who were expecting a more traditional Persona Team release. However, based on the fun it’s possible to have with the demo without even understanding the language, I have little doubt that this will be a worthwhile investment. Here’s hoping a localization is announced soon, or at least an English subbed Asia-region release.

Buy Catherine (Xbox360™) at Play-Asia.com
Buy Catherine (PS3™) at Play-Asia.com