

The romances with any of the characters progress in much the same way as it did in the original, with a helpful good or bad meter depending on your dialogue and text choices. (You bet your ass I had Persona 3's "Burn My Dread" playing on loop.)

The Stray Sheep has a nifty jukebox too, where you can play a number of tracks from Catherine, Persona 5, Persona 4, and more's respective soundtracks. Vincent texts Katherine, Catherine, and Rin during these segments, swapping photos and choosing text messages very carefully. There you talk to its customers and learn about their own issues, catch up with your friends, drink, play the in-game puzzle arcade cabinet Rapunzel, and even talk to Rin, who Erica and the Boss of the bar have taken in as an employee. The story's choice-based progression evolves in the same way as the original: in the decisions you make while hanging out at the Stray Sheep bar. Their relationship feels much more big brother and little sister-esque than romantic. While Rin is endearing as a character in the world of Catherine, as a romantic pursuit, it felt off. Rin's a kind-hearted person who appears way younger than both Katherine and Catherine in style, personality, and emotional maturity. You're never told where or why it went wrong with Katherine you're only shown when it was at its best, and it's up to you to assume what slipped along the way.īut there's another route now too, with the new romantic interest Rin. When Catherine enters the picture, the guilt of allegedly sleeping with her is far more palpable than it was in the original game as a result. New animated cutscenes flesh out Katherine and Vincent's relationship better, showing how they kindled their romance in the first place. The remaster, now twisted in specific ways, still has the campy tone of the original-the intro still bills itself as a romance horror-but it has a less pessimistic spin to it. Life has come a long way since I had that "Catherine eating pizza" key art pinned to a corkboard all through college, and Catherine: Full Body seems to know that too. Yet, the focus was always on Catherine, from the marketing to the twisty narrative itself. Pining for Katherine is the honorable thing to do, while Catherine represents one's darker tendencies. The two women, Catherine and Katherine, represent two sides of Vincent. Sure, you played as Vincent Brooks, a non-committal dude caught between two women-his girlfriend of five years and the younger woman he's cheating on her with-but the blonde, pigtailed Catherine was always the catalyst. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.Ĭatherine was always a game about Catherine. This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247.
