Catherine

Catherine is a puzzle game featuring adult and horror themes released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and was created by the same team who also made the critically acclaimed Persona series. It was developed alongside Persona 3 Portable. It is unrelated to the Shin Megami Tensei series, but includes many elements common to the Megami Tensei franchise such as the day and night system and answering questions that affect events in the future.

Plot
Catherine follows the story of Vincent Brooks, a pessimistic salaryman, the titular Catherine and Vincent's girlfriend, Katherine McBride, who wishes for Vincent to be more passionate over their relationship. Vincent, however, is not sure about his feelings. One day, he meets the charming Catherine and ends up spending the night with her and starting from that night, Vincent has nightmares in which he is attacked by monsters, such as giant hands wielding forks to stab him with. As the story progresses, Vincent has to choose between Katherine and Catherine.

The game begins with a framing device: Trisha, the Midnight Venus, hosts a television program called the "Golden Playhouse," which will this evening relate the tale of a man named Vincent Brooks. The events of the show form the gameplay proper, which is sometimes rendered with a water mark in the corner.

In the neighborhood in which Vincent lives, there have recently been a number of bizarre incidents in which people die in their sleep with a look of anguish upon their faces. Strangely enough, all of the victims are young men. The story quickly spreads throughout the media, attracting widespread attention and theories as to the cause of death. A strange rumor begins to spread that if a person dreams of falling, then they must wake up before they hit the ground or they will be unable to wake at all and will die.

Vincent is at a restaurant contemplating marriage to Katherine McBride, his lover of five years, who starts pressuring him to get married. That night at The Stray Sheep, the bar he frequents with his friends Jonny, Orlando and Toby, he meets a beautiful and mysterious woman named Catherine. Although there are many vacant seats, she sits next to Vincent and turns out to be exactly his type. The two end up spending the night together at Vincent's house.

After meeting Catherine, Vincent begins to have nightmares every single night, which he believes may be related to the rumors. In these dreams, he and several other men, who appear to each other as sheep, must escape from various horrors trying to kill them, for if they die in their dreams, they will die in reality. As dreams and reality begin to blend together, Vincent must not only fight to survive, but must choose between Katherine and Catherine. Katherine increases the pressure by revealing that her period is late and that she believes herself pregnant, while Catherine manages to arrange to be in Vincent's bed almost every morning, despite his not remembering having invited her over. A further complication arrives in the form of phone calls from a man named Steve, who defines himself as Catherine's boyfriend and threatens retribution upon Vincent. However, neither of Vincent's girlfriends know a man named Steve, and Steve's description of his girlfriend does not match either of the women Vincent is involved with.

After a week of unrelenting nightmares, Vincent finally decides to break off his tryst with Catherine. The next morning, he awakens without nightmares and without Catherine by his side, but she suddenly appears in his room when Katherine comes to visit. After a heated exchange between the two women, Catherine attempts to stab Katherine with a kitchen knife, but ends up being impaled herself. Vincent shoos Katherine out, trying to protect her, but the two find themselves trapped in another puzzle maze, and Vincent must escort her out, reaffirming that his heart belongs to her. However, when he wakes up from this nightmare, Katherine has no recollection of the events, and confronts Vincent on the infidelity she knows he has been hiding from her. She also admits that her pregnancy was a false alarm, and that Vincent's reactions did not increase her confidence in him. Politely but firmly, she breaks up with him. Finally, Vincent, bemoaning his troubles to Orlando, discovers that all of Catherine's contact information and SMS messages (including several revealing photographs) have inexplicably disappeared from his phone. This leads his friends to admit that none of them have ever met or seen her, and causes him to doubt his sanity.

Vincent, seeking evidence that Catherine exists, remembers that the only other person he ever heard her speak to: the bartender of The Stray Sheep, Thomas Mutton, who accidentally reveals himself to be the orchestrator of the entire recurring-nightmare situation - Dumuzid, the consort of Ishtar. "Catherine" is a succubus working with him, who takes the form of each man's fantasy woman, to tempt him into cheating. If the man is tempted, Dumuzid uses the arcade machine Rapunzel to plant a seed in their memories which can transport them to the nightmare world, in which they climb a tower constructed by Ishtar. The purpose of doing so is both to punish them for their sins, and also to remove them from women with whom they have no intent of reproduction, freeing up those females for the "good of the species." Vincent makes a deal with him to return voluntarily to the nightmare landscape and climb the final levels of the tower, in return for which Dumuzid will release all other captive men. Depending on the player's previous choices, Vincent may also request one last meeting with Catherine.

Endings
Depending on the way certain questions and text messages are answered, Catherine has a total of eight endings based on three central narratives. The alignment endings (i.e. Catherine and Katherine) feature a good, bad, and an extended true version while a neutral "Freedom" ending only has two versions. "Bad" endings are obtained if the player's explicit choices do not correspond to the alignment meter position, calculated based on the player's other actions. "Good" endings are obtained if the player's explicit choices do match the meter; the choice of which of these appears is based on which of these choices were made. "True" endings are appended with an epilogue, taking place after Trisha formally closes the program and thanks the viewers for watching. A final, ninth ending is unlocked when the player completes the "Axis Mundi Babel" challenges. If so, Trisha breaks the fourth wall by revealing that she is actually Ishtar, one of the goddesses overseeing the entire nightmare process, and that the true purpose of the nightmares was for her to test the player for fitness to replace Dumuzid, the last man who successfully climbed the tower (and later stripped of his role for infidelity), as her consort.
 * Katherine, Bad: Katherine leaves Vincent due to his cheating with Catherine.
 * Katherine, Good: Dumuzid and Vincent's other friends are able to prove to Katherine that Catherine is not real, and thus Vincent has not cheated. Vincent and Katherine get back together and resume planning their wedding.
 * Katherine, True: Same as the corresponding Good ending, except Katherine and Vincent actually do marry.
 * Catherine, Bad: Vincent proposes marriage to the succubus, Catherine, but she turns him down.
 * Catherine, Good: Vincent proposes marriage to the succubus, Catherine, and she considers it. Her father Nergal appears and objects, but Vincent insists, and Catherine agrees. Catherine transports Vincent into the Underworld where the two live together.
 * Catherine, True: Same as the corresponding Good ending, but Vincent is later able to seduce an entire harem of succubi and overthrow Nergal, becoming the King of the Underworld.
 * Freedom, Good: Vincent turns down both women, saying neither is truly what he desires, and he has his life ahead of him to find what he wants. Dumuzid is shocked at this turn of events and apologizes for pulling Vincent into the nightmare world. Vincent borrows some money from Mutton to place a bet on a wrestling match, but loses.
 * Freedom, True: Same as the corresponding Good ending, but Vincent wins his bet and uses the money to engage in space tourism, his true childhood dream.

Characters
Vincent Brooks - Vincent is a lifelong bachelor trying to escape the pressures of adult life: his job, his love life, the prospect of marriage... His only goal seems to be drifting aimlessly through life.

Katherine McBride - Katherine is Vincent's loyal and steadfast girlfriend who works for a clothing company. She and Vincent were classmates in high school, but they only started dating after they met again at their 10-year reunion. Katherine has been thinking more and more about their relationship, and wants him to fully commit to her, but his indecisiveness is starting to increasingly annoy her as time goes by.

Catherine - This startling seductress steps into Vincent's life from out of nowhere and immediately throws his relationship with Katherine in jeopardy. Her coquettish charm grabs ahold of Vincent's heart, even as her free spirit and potent sexuality grab ahold of... other parts of his mind and body. Without warning, everything in Vincent's life becomes twisted around Catherine.

Orlando Haddick - Orlando is a regular at the Stray Sheep and is a longtime friend of Vincent, Jonny, and Erica. Having been married and divorced, he has a rather cynical view of love and marriage. He lives for himself, going with the flow, and the way he comports himself corresponds with his easygoing nature. He has some sardonic advice for Vincent on the subject of women, possibly as a result of his own experiences with the fairer sex.

Jonathan Ariga - Jonny is old friends with Vincent, Orlando, and Erica. He too is a regular of the Stray Sheep, and he works at his father's used car dealership, which he hopes to inherit. He maintains an outwardly subdued demeanor, but he has an optimistic view of the value of true love and holds fast to the idea of waiting for his "one true love" before getting married.

Tobias Nebbins - Toby is a coworker of Jonny, and began coming to the Stray Sheep in order to make new friends. He may lack some maturity, but he is a kind-hearted young man looking to settle down with the first woman to capture his heart. He has a thing for older women, and is currently smitten with Erica, the waitress at the bar.

Erica Anderson - Erica is the waitress at the Stray Sheep. A friendly sort, she often joins in the conversations of her customers. She, Vincent, Jonny, and Orlando all grew up together, and she always makes a point of stopping by their table and sharing the latest gossip. She's aware of Toby's crush on her, and she's more than a little amused by his puppy love. Various hints from Vincent and his friends (except Jonny) point towards Erica being a transsexual.

Boss - This older gentleman owns and runs the Stray Sheep bar. No one knows his name, but everyone's happy to simply refer to him as "Boss." Always dapper, always the gentleman, he uses his experience in ways of the heart to give advice to his customers in times of need. He makes it a point to help his customers get to know each other by introducing them and fostering conversations between complete strangers. With a smooth, easygoing style of speaking, he's quite a charmer, and he was apparently very much the ladies' man in his youth.

Trisha - The hostess of the Golden Playhouse. Her iconic afro is only one of her many charms. She presents Vincent's story to us, and takes us to the point where his nightmares first began.

Gameplay
The gameplay in Catherine is split in daily life and Vincent's nightmares which make up the action part of the game. During the days, players visit a bar, meet Vincent's friends and can play minigames. Additionally, players may receive text messages from other NPCs and have the option to answer them. This way, the players can lead the storyline into different ways and receive different endings. During the nightmares, Vincent is trapped in a tower-like building and has to get to the door at the highest point of the stage to escape his nightmare and stay alive. If he falls from the stage, Vincent dies and the game ends. Players have, however, the option to continue from the last checkpoint of the game.

The game has various difficulty settings and is noted to be quite a challenge even at the lowest difficulty. Due to the complaints of various players from Japan shortly after its domestic release, Catherine received a patch which lowers the difficulty by adding ways to make the game easier. Atlus also made a series of videos for the game's official site to give players hints and tricks for the game.

Trivia

 * Before Catherine's localization was officially revealed on March 1, 2011, an Atlus employee joked that the game was currently for Japan only.
 * Catherine features numerous easter eggs that reference Persona titles.
 * The tower of Vincent's nightmares has a striking resemblance to Tartarus from Persona 3 and its re-releases.
 * To the far right of the entrance/exit to the Stray Sheep, a Persona 3 poster can be seen. It is best viewed by exiting the bar and panning the camera to the farthest right.
 * There is a Gekkoukan High School (from Persona 3) emblem in Stray Sheep as well. It's seen best during certain cutscenes that take place in the bar.
 * Teddie from Persona 4 has a cameo appearance as a stuffed animal at the Stray Sheep; Teddie can also be seen on a poster in the bathroom of the bar with his head partially covered by words.
 * During the in-game cutscenes in Vincent's room you will sometimes see his bookshelf that is filled with green books titled Persona.
 * The development of this game was first subtly hinted at when Persona 3 Portable was released. After a certain day had passed, a new NPC named "Man Drinking Alone" showed up at Club Escapade. His appearance was special as he had a character portrait, something very unusual for unnamed NPCs.
 * In episode 5 of Persona 4 The Animation, when Ai Ebihara calls Yu Narukami, the ringtone of his cellphone is the song 'Zigeunerweisen Sarasate', which is the Game Over music track in Catherine.
 * A calendar with the game's artwork can be seen in Yu Narukami's bedroom during the opening of Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold.