
When Catherine sends him revealing pictures, he can’t look at them on his phone until he’s alone in the Stray Sheep’s restroom. It is doubtful that Vincent’s dire circumstances are supposed to be interpreted literally.Įven when the problems fueling Vincent’s devastation are at their most irrational, it’s easy to identify with pieces of his life. How information resonates inside of your mind and the intangibles it turns into thoughts is more important than a linear rundown of plot beats. With an intent to draw an involuntary response from an amplified depiction of reality (not to mention Lindsay and Martha, the riddle-delivering twins at the Stray Sheep), Catherine takes some cues from David Lynch’s method of storytelling. Figuring out the logistics of Catherine’s presence and why Vincent is incapable of denying her will requires a higher than average ability to suspend disbelief. None of this is normal, but it’s all part of Catherine’s routine.Ĭatherine and Catherine both exist in an unsustainable version of reality. At night Vincent is transformed into a sheep-man and engages in a sinister challenge of ascending nightmare blocks until he reaches the top of a large tower, none of which he remembers when he wakes up.

It’s implied Vincent is wasted by the time he leaves the Stray Sheep in the evening. In the evening Vincent meets up with friends and acquaintances at the Stray Sheep and responds to (or evades) text messages from Catherine, Katherine, and Full Body’s newcomer Qatherine.
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By day we see Vincent meet with Katherine and evade an escalating series of major responsibilities and, generally, treat Katherine like garbage. Is cheating on a partner attractive or does it scare the shit out of you?Ĭatherine plays out over the course of nine days. More than most games, Catherine seeks input from personal experience in order to influence its protagonist. Whether Vincent likes or acts on Catherine’s relentless pursuit is shaped by the will of the player. Every subsequent interaction with Catherine is consumed by chaos…and the charm of venturing into the unknown. This act is automatically repellent-how can we manage a protagonist with such a repulsive flaw-but the player, and Vincent, must always push forward. Blonde hair, blue eyes, bouncy curls and exaggerated features, Vincent winds up in bed with Catherine after another normal night with his friends at the Stray Sheep. Vincent’s malaise rings true for anyone who has subconsciously forgotten the thrill of seeking higher ground.Īnd then the titular Catherine comes into Vincent’s life. Your early 30’s are a time when habits more or less solidify and it becomes extremely easy to secure a comfortable, safe lifestyle. Catherine suggests that, at its opening, Vincent’s dull, meandering existence is absolutely fine with Vincent. This mirrors Vincent’s work-life balance, which consists of indiscriminate employment and an obligation to drink with friends every night at the local bar, the Stray Sheep. His relationship with his girlfriend of five years, Katherine, idles along without Vincent’s interest in forward progress. Vincent Brooks is a callow thirty-two year old man. Budgets exist and the world isn’t made of wishes but a brand new Catherine may have satisfied Full Body’s aspirations better than the chopped-and-screwed remix of the original game. The pathways Full Body tries to create-and a refined, we-did-our-best localization suggests it does try-aren’t suited to its creative ambition. The product is a game that conforms to the late-aughts insistence on measuring binary choices in a spectrum that now, in our present society and inside the fiction of Catherine, isn’t compatible with a binary system. It also has the detriment of performing in an evolved more global social consciousness.

Catherine loaded the bases with specialized players and, even though it ultimately struck out, left an impression with the feats it managed to accomplish.Įight years after its first release, Catherine: Full Body benefits from significant additions in its content and cast.

Few games, let alone an off-season title from a mid-major publisher, have tried all three of these things at once. And social simulations with the ambience of demonic anxiety. And puzzle games with a complicated variety of block pushing. I have played visual novels that use supernatural energy as a metaphor for recurrent vices. In 2019, with the release of Catherine: Full Body’s treasure chest of enhancements and additions, I have still never played a game like Catherine. In 2011 I had never played a game like Catherine.
