Catherine Xbox360, PS3 | Full Body Edition (PS4/NSW)

[Elcura]

is he about to fire his lazer

Can't unsee.

[Tobi]

This week's Dengeki PlayStation has a look back at the Tokyo Game
Show Catherine trailer ( see it here), with commentary from
producer and director Katsura Hashino and character designer
Shigenori Soejima.

Interest in Catherine appears to be high. Hashino said that access to
the Catherine official site is at the same levels as when they
announce a new Persona game. The game places highly in weekly
most wanted rankings, he noted.

Hashino was also surprised to see the large number comments from
foreigners in the YouTube versions of the videos.

Regardless of the initial popularity, and although he has confidence
in the product itself, Hashino is a bit worried about the game being
accepted by players.

Hashino feels that Catherine is an ambitious game, and he believes
that no one but Atlus would have given him the go sign for it. To
help show the appeal of the game initially, the designers packed the
design documents with "intense" visuals.

Included among those intense visuals was one showing Persona 4's
Yukiko. This was just in order to show off the gameplay systems,
which were determined in advance of the characters. Yukiko won't
actually appear in Catherine.

Early in development, Hashino worked alone on the game's scenario.
Eventually, other people were brought in and proper scenario
creation began. The game's visual component underwent a similar
flow.

It looks like the game underwent some major theme changes during
those early development times. The decision to go with a male and
female love theme came after discussions between Hashino and
Soejima. Soejima originally wanted a war theme.

The tow provided some insight into their design choices for the
characters. The Vincent character, Hashino revealed, is modeled
after Vincent Gallo from Buffalo '66. They also decided to carry
the name over.

Regarding the Catherine and Katherine characters (you'll recall the
latter Katherine from this preview), I'm not sure if this is just
Dengeki's paraphrasing, but the interview appears to refer to the
cover girl blonde Catherine as "young Catherine" and the Katherine
who was introduced later as Vincent's true girlfriend as "old
Katerine."

Old Katherine is meant to show adult charms, compared to the
young and healthier Catherine. Soejima said he had to redraw the old
Katherine character many times before coming to the final result.
However, the young Catherine proved particularly difficult herself
during the conversion to 3D as he made adjustments right to the
end and even upped her bust size.

The game depicts a love triangle relationship between Vincent,
Catherine and Katherine. Hashino did research for this part of the
game by asking for similar experiences from the Atlus staff. The
staff members who cooperated may end up getting their names in
the staff roll.

One episode they ended up using in the game came from a girl who
said that she's only seen herself killing others in her dreams rather
than being killed herself. Dialogue similar to this can be seen in the
game's first trailer.

Regarding content, the two said to expect a good amount of anime.
Studio 4C spent about a year working on this area of the game.
There will be more than the 30 minutes or so you'd find in Persona.
The game's various endings will each have animated sequences.

Closing off the interview, the two shared some hints at what we
can expect from future Catherine coverage. Soejima said to expect
a number of additional character announcements. Hashino said that
while what we've seen thus far has been more on the erotic side,
they're going to start sharing the "horror taste" visuals from here
on out.

Eventually, we'll also get a look at the game's final box art. It turns
out the eye catching poster that has been used to promote the
game at retail and at the Tokyo Game Show isn't from the box
after all. Soejima said that he's just started to think about the
package art and will be drawing it from here on out. He's actually
thinking of making a parody of that poster.

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...herine_update/

Catherine
http://www.andriasang.com/blog/2010/...2132425534.jpg

Katherine
http://www.andriasang.com/blog/2010/...2132425535.jpg


http://storage.siliconera.com/wordpr...cath_thumb.jpg

[Gokulo]

Gameplay trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA_Y-...ayer_embedded#!

Anyone want to explain what this might be? XD

[xopher]

It's an action/puzzle game.

I could have told you that from the last trailer.

[arus2001]

I'm trying to figure out what the fuck the plot is.

On one hand, part of me wants to say, "Guy hooks up with succubus in bar, she kills guys in their dreams and shit after fucking them, and said dreams are him attempting to survive the puzzles and other weird shit like the talking sheep men (who, for shits and giggles, could be past victims) where if he dies there, then he dies for real."

Yet, then comes other stuff saying shit like Young/Old Catherine and I feel like the whole idea goes out the window and we're instead stuck with some weird love story that somehow warranted a puzzle game. Oh well. And chargin mah laserz.

[xopher]

I'm trying to figure out what the fuck the plot is.

On one hand, part of me wants to say, "Guy hooks up with succubus in bar, she kills guys in their dreams and shit after fucking them, and said dreams are him attempting to survive the puzzles and other weird shit like the talking sheep men (who, for shits and giggles, could be past victims) where if he dies there, then he dies for real."

Yet, then comes other stuff saying shit like Young/Old Catherine and I feel like the whole idea goes out the window and we're instead stuck with some weird love story that somehow warranted a puzzle game. Oh well. And chargin mah laserz.

Vincent is currently dating older Katherine. He meets younger Catherine randomly and starts having an affair with her. Starts having nightmares. In his nightmares he hears the sheep talking and realizes they are people he knows in real life. When the sheep die in his dreams, they die in real life. There is some connection to Catherine because she has been talking about having dreams of killing people.

In his dreams he's going through the puzzles trying to survive while keeping the sheep alive. In real life he's dealing with Katherine and Catherine and trying to keep his life in order.

So yeah essentially what you were saying, with a bit of clarification on the two girls.

[Tobi]

Demo hits JP store on 27th

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...ne_demo_dated/

[Tobi]

Demo up on JP store for anyone interested. 930 MB download

[Insanecyclone]

Know how long the demo is?

[Tobi]

Can take you from 5-30min+ depending on how good you are, that's not counting CS. My first time playing it took me a bit, around 20-30min I think 'cause I kept getting stuck on few parts or dying, but now I can finish it in 5-10min speeding through with no fuck ups

Edit: Forgot to say there's only 2 stages, but it's still not a bad demo, imo

[Insanecyclone]

Yeah it didn't take me long to finish. I had problems finishing up the stage 2 part because of the hand chasing you up.

[takethistoyourgrave]

There is some connection to Catherine because she has been talking about having dreams of killing people.

I think this isn't quite entirely accurate; Vincent starts seeing these dreams, and asks Catherine if the has ever "Had dreams about dying." She replies "You mean, had dreams where I was the one that died? I've only had dreams where I was the one doing the killing!" and Vincent says "Hah, that's just like you, isn't it." It is more for comedy/Catherine's character than a heavy story point.

However, Catherine's connection so far in the demo is that

Spoiler: show

The crazy fork-wielding thing chasing you on the second state has Catherine's voice. So maybe this actually does link to her previous statement about having dreams where she kills people, but so far this is unknown.

I'm considering doing a fan translation of the game if Atlus doesn't announce a US release by the time the JP release is out; still trying to gauge interest, though.

[Riposte]

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-catherine/17-3730/

Amazing playthrough the japanese demo(which has an amazing trailer at the end lol)

[Riposte]

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201..._vs_catherine/

360 vs PS3


Catherine doesn't take place in Japan does it? Seems to be in America or England.

[Charismatic]

Wow... I didn't know it was going to be a block puzzle game. Pass.

[Correction]

Really? It looks like a lot of fun, and whatever is chasing Vincent in stage 2 seems to randomize the blocks she darkens. Vincent is still one ugly slack jawed wall-eyed mofo though. Voice acting seems top-notch, and everything else screams polish. Atlus don't have to make rpgs nonstop to maintain my interest.

[Elcura]

Really? It looks like a lot of fun, and whatever is chasing Vincent in stage 2 seems to randomize the blocks she darkens. Vincent is still one ugly slack jawed wall-eyed mofo though. Voice acting seems top-notch, and everything else screams polish. Atlus don't have to make rpgs nonstop to maintain my interest.

I agree with this, the story looks interesting (and fucking weird), the characters look fun, and despite how ugly Vincent is his expressions are amazing. The gameplay is different, I personally have never played anything like it (well, that I can remember). It ought to be interesting, with the increase in difficulty. Looks quite tense as well, I like that.

[Arrmani]

I didn't know what all the hype was about, but after watching the trailer this game looks interesting. I've never played a Persona game but was thinking about getting P3 on PSP. Is there any story to them or is it just play whichever one?

And I think its pretty cool they have 2 different covers depending on which system. More games should do that.

[Kaisha]

Only problem I have with the gameplay is that it doesn't feel like something I'd want to pay $60 for, even with the social aspects and story wrapped around it.

[Insanecyclone]

PS3 demo pulled because PSN demos apparently cost a lot

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/07/ca...sn/1#c32967525

If you keep meaning to make a Japanese PSN account in order to download the Catherine demo that came out in late January, you can cancel that intention. Atlus has removed the demo from Japan's PSN.

Notifying fans on Twitter (in Japanese), Atlus said that downloads hit the planned maximum quantity. Apparently, the Catherine demo was planned as a limited release, but Atlus didn't tell anybody that there was a limit or what it was. Perhaps the company only budgeted so much money for the PSN fees required to serve the demo. All we can suggest is that you run to your PS3 right now and download every single Atlus demo. It won't help you experience Catherine, but it will prevent you from losing out on any more demos.

Game is out next week too.