For years, I’ve been very intrigued by Catherine, but never could play it with its… general themes. But now that I can get away with what games I play, Catherine Full Body is a must play for anyone even remotely curious about it, with its great plot, realistic characters, and its flexible difficulty.
For starters, Catherine Full Body is a puzzle platformer romance, where you take the role as Vincent, a 32-year old man who’s dating Katherine, his girlfriend who wants to get married. Vincent, hesitant on marriage, runs into Catherine (notice the spelling differences), who he then sleeps with, and therefore cheats on Katherine. As a result, Vincent is forced into deadly nightmares, where the only way to escape is to climb. That’s the gist of the story, but there is way more to it than meets the eye. With the 13 different endings, every playthrough, other than the major story beats, can offer tons of replayability, and tons of means of conversation for fans. I can see a group of fans playing through the game, and asking each other what confessional questions they got, what ending they got, etc.
To add on to the solid story, the characters are also a great aspect of the game. Each and every one, from Vincent, the three Catherines, the bar boys (Orlando, Jonny, and Toby); everyone just feels right at home with each other, the locations, and the story. I’d even argue that there’s not a single dislikable character amongst the roster. That’s how real they feel, with each one having their own motivations, their own stories, and their own sense of humor. I love it.
With the narrative already selling the game, how’s the gameplay? Well let me say that the gameplay aspect of Catherine Full Body is challenging, yet rewarding. The basic premise is climbing a tower, but with rearranging blocks in order to make a pathway or a staircase. The challenging part is the arrangement of the blocks, different types of blocks that can assist or hinder your progression, and sheep who block your path. It’s a very different way of puzzling the player in a video game, and it definitely works here, both gameplay wise and narrative wise. However, with it being a different means of puzzles, it maybe too hard for the player at first, since they may not know the intricacies of the game. Luckily -and I have to give mad props to Atlus for this- they’ve made the game pretty customizable for all player types. If you want the game to be as hard as it can be, then you can. If you only want to play Catherine Full Body for the story, or find the towers too hard, then you can. I really appreciate the extra mile they went to prevent the core mechanic of the game from gating the players who only want to experience the story.
More praise that should be noted it that the music is very good, and offers the best of vibes. I especially like how they use classical pieces of music for the tower sections, and remix them in a stylized way. It offers a more bombastic and exciting variety of tracks, and not the constant smooth jazz (which is not a bad thing in the slightest). Plus, I played this game on Nintendo Switch, and I gotta say, this game runs very well. Sitting at a solid 1080p 30 FPS, it’s on par with the PS4 version, which is what we like to see from a third-party game.
Other than that, I really enjoyed my time with Catherine Full Body. The story just absorbed me into its mind-boggling, lovable cast of characters, banging soundtrack, and so much more that should be saved for a blind first playthrough. If you’re a fan of good narratives, chill music, or challenging but rewarding puzzles, then this game is for you.