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 and a currently unknown role-playing game which will be revealed sometime during 2011. It is unrelated to the SMT series, but maintains the feel of them.

Release Date

 * Japan: February 02, 2011
 * North America: July 26, 2011

Story
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 weilding forks to stab him with. As the story progresses, Vincent has to choose between Katherine and Catherine.

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 recieve text messages from other NPCs and have the option to answer them. This way, the players can lead the storyline into different ways and recieve 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 recieved 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

 * Babel, the tower of Vincent's nightmares, has a striking resemblance to Tartarus from Persona 3 and its re-releases.
 * The development was first subtly hinted at when Persona 3 Portable was released. After a certain date 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.
 * Teddie from Persona 4 has a cameo appearance as a stuffed animal at the Stray Sheep.
 * Before Catherine's localization was officially revealed on March 01, 2011, an Atlus employee joked that the game was currently for Japan only.
 * There is a Gekkokaun High School Emblem in Stray Sheep as well. It's seen best during certain cutscenes that take place in the bar.