Atlus' irresistible puzzle game lands on the Nintendo hybrid.
When Catherine arrived on the consoles of the last generation in 2011, it represented a short, but very interesting parenthesis in the midst of the various Jrpgs of the Atlus house since we were faced with a very particular puzzle game rather than a Japanese role-playing game.
It was also surprising to find out how the game had received from us the Italian localization. Today we reexamine how Catherine's definitive edition has withstood the passage of time since its original release, and how it spins everything in its Nintendo Switch version, after seeing the PlayStation 4 version in action last year.
That time the triangle became a square!
The plot of the game will see the 32-year-old protagonist, Vincent Brooks struggling with his girlfriend Katherine Mcbride, find yourself in an uncomfortable and dangerous situation. A real love square!
We will then make the acquaintance of the beautiful and determined girlfriend of the protagonist, of the sensual one Catherine ready to tempt us with her advances, and some angelic and sweet Rhine , of which we do not reveal anything so as not to ruin some twists.
It will therefore be up to us to decide whether to stay by the side of the protagonist's historic girlfriend through ups and downs that will put the couple in crisis, or explore new relational horizons.
Everything will be seasoned with the anime style to which Atlus has accustomed us in recent years with both in-engine and animated cutscenes, the latter of fine workmanship still today and enriched for the occasion with brand new sequences designed to flesh out those already present in the original release.
The impervious climb to success (amorous)
Vincent's events are therefore the background to a very particular and at times unique adventure.
We find ourselves in front of a title that expertly mixes social simulator phases set at night in the iconic Stray Sheep Bar, with real gameplay phases.
At night our task will be to solve atypical vertical puzzles structured like a tower, whose mobile blocks will allow us through their movement to climb up to the summit and complete the various floors of the nightmare.
Once you have passed a certain number of levels per floor (scanned through the various post bar nights), we will then reach the last level of the floor in which various bosses born from the perplexities of the protagonist will oppose the climb.
The levels will gradually present an increasing difficulty that will require a certain skill and reasoning ability on the part of the players. The various floors will in fact be equipped with blocks of different properties that add a good general variety.
The climbs flow pleasantly net of some small flaws in the camera, which however does not affect the overall quality of the gameplay.
Between one level and another it will still be possible to save the game thanks to a sort of hub, in which you can also interact with other NPCs trapped in the nightmare, learn new climbing techniques and buy useful items.
In the confessional you will be asked questions to answer that will be fundamental for the achievement of one of the 13 finals.
An actually full-bodied wine?
The Full Body version of Catherine boasts an additional mode called Remix in which the original levels present a difference, namely the presence of indivisible chains of blocks with which to have to deal.
This mode guarantees good replayability and could also attract those who have previously had the opportunity to play the original release.
In addition to the main story, terminable in about 10 hours, the package is completed by the secondary modes Arena and Tower of Babel that allow you to play both in cooperative and in versus high-difficulty levels.
For these modes, the Nintendo Switch version enjoys the DLC, for a fee on PlayStation 4, and here instead available for free.
We mainly talk about new playable characters other than the protagonist, including Joker directly from Persona 5, with his own musical theme and the voices of the Phantom Thieves to comment on the climb.
The beauty of women (in war)
The technical sector by Catherine: Full Body lends itself very well to the Nintendo console, especially in portable mode where aliasing is almost invisible thanks to the small size of the screen.
Even in the docked version the game is visually pleasing, despite some small steps, especially thanks to the anime style that holds up very well despite the low polygon count compared to titles seen during this generation.
The animated cutscenes still shine for the care and cleanliness, and fear no comparison with those seen in more recent titles, benefiting from an extremely captivating art design.
The sound accompaniment of Shoji Meguro is now a guarantee of quality. In the evenings spent with Vincent at the Stray Sheep Bar it will be possible to listen to different tracks while enjoying a drink (complete with an informative trivia about the same) through the Jukebox.
You can also listen to several other pieces by the composer from other Atlus titles.
Technical data in hand the game does not present uncertainties from the point of view of resolution, running stably in 1080p in docked while in portable mode it drops to 720p.
In both modes the framerate remains pegged at 30fps, demonstrating all the goodness of the conversion and optimization work.
The presence of 13 different endings, the addition of the Remix mode, together with the multiplayer modes Arena and Tower of Babel guarantee good replayability, make this package interesting for owners of a Nintendo Switch.
