Catherine: Full Body is a remaster of 2011’s Catherine, a bizarre and somewhat infuriatingly difficult game that I reviewed back then.
The remaster introduces a new character, Rin, and calls this new storyline a “love square” instead of the original game’s “love triangle” between Vincent, Katherine, and Catherine. It also adds in some different mechanics to the block puzzles. But is all of this enough to warrant a full remaster of the game – other than to introduce it to a new generation of potential fans?
Platforms: PS4
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Atlus
Genre: Japanese Horror + Infidelity Simulator + Adult Themes
Release Date: September 3, 2019
ESRB Rating: Mature
I honestly don’t know. I found the gameplay to be less difficult, but the story is stranger, and frankly far more fragmented, than I remember. The biggest change I noticed was that some block sections in the puzzles had been replaced by large blocks with gems set in them that had to be moved together, like large Tetris pieces that could be moved as one giant block. They added in different strategies – if a section had several double blocks instead of single blocks, there were new ways to maneuver them that required new techniques. Another fun thing added to the game was the ability to see where other players had died before me. It was a little intimidating at times – I’d be about to step up onto a block and immediately wonder what fresh hell was about to assault me. But it was also fun to figure those puzzles out quickly – and feel extra smart in the process! I found myself enjoying and embracing these added features.
Just about everything else gameplay-wise is the same. There were still blocks that have to be moved (each level introduces newer blocks that restrict movement), and there are items you could pick up or purchase to help you along the way. Rin plays a part in the nightmare sequences now – whenever you were in danger of having the falling levels of blocks catch up to your position, she would play her piano, slowing down time and giving you a chance to make it. But other than that, it was the same as before, including the text messaging options, ordering drinks, interacting with other bar patrons, and even playing the arcade game during the bar scenes.
The story, too, was the same, other than the addition of Rin, a character with amnesia who is introduced as a new potential love interest for Vincent, the main character. Her innocence and philosophy on life come as a breath of fresh air in this game full of misogynistic and patriarchal dialogue. Vincent’s friends just want him to uphold the status quo – marry his girlfriend, be a normal person who fulfills his role in society. But Vincent is clearly having issues committing, and is afraid and anxious and stressed out.
Instead of trying to relate to him, his friends judge and belittle him. They mock him for his friendship with Rin, the only character who listens and offers him sympathy. Rin tries to help Vincent through his nightmares and also encourages him to be himself – something his friends and both the women he’s sleeping with never say. That said, the Rin storyline feels shoehorned into the game – it doesn’t intersect with the main story in any way, and it feels like it starts and ends in a vacuum.
I was disappointed and disturbed by some of the writing in the game. During a scene with Rin, the characters are all discussing same-sex marriage. Rin thinks its fine, so long as people love each other, to which Johnny makes a comment about people and animals being together. To compare same-sex marriage to bestiality is frankly disgusting, and that was a line that was added to the game, not something from the original. That – and the transphobia at the end of the game regarding one of the other characters that was from the original – are gross and never should have been part of a game released in 2019.
While the puzzles in Catherine: Full Body are more fun than I remember them being, the story itself is lacking and at times downright offensive. It’s also disjointed, with strange twists and turns that don’t bring cohesion or closure to what the characters are going through. It seems to abuse tropes in order to push the idea that love should be between a man and a woman and that it should end in marriage and procreation – a bizarre agenda to have in a puzzle block game with anime cutscenes. While I enjoyed this game eight years ago, I don’t think there’s a place for it in my heart today.
Even though the gameplay is just as fun – if not moreso – than it was eight years ago, the outdated bigotry in the story and the gross stereotypes make it hard to take the game seriously.
Review Disclosure: A review copy of Catherine: Full Body was provided by Atlus for the purposes of this review.
