As you may or may not know, I am a fan of anime shows. I love everything about it except for the English dub. With that being said, it really surprises me that I have never played a game created by Atlus before. Never ever! That’s right; I’ve never played any of the Persona games. Even though I’ve always wanted to……..But that’s enough sob stories for today we came here to talk about Catherine (don’t worry she’s not here).
Description:
The game starts out with a movie theater type of opening that reminds you of the Persona series (something I would know nothing about) and an introduction speech from a foxy afro lady, Moonlight Venus. After her speech you see the main character, Vincent, listening, or not listening, to his girlfriend Katherine. After this short scene the opening credits roll with some cool rap music. The opening credits make you feel like you’re about to watch a movie or TV show. After the opening credits you see Vincent walk through a door to a weird place. He has sheep horns on his head; he’s carrying a pillow and has on some flashy Shawn Michaels type underwear. You look up and see a large tower made of blocks which you then have to climb. While you’re climbing you hear a voice tell you that you’re in a dream ,and the only way to make it out is by climbing to the top. If you fall however, you die. After Vincent escapes his dream he wakes up and meets with Katherine, just like in the beginning. He becomes nervous when she begins to talk about marriage but his reaction depends on your decisions. Later in the day he heads to a bar called The Stray Sheep where he talks to his friends. After getting trashed at the bar a girl sits at his table and begins to talk to him. But soon as she sits down he goes straight into a nightmare. When he wakes up he finds himself lying next to the girl he met at the bar, and he FREAKS OUT. Not only that but it turns out her name is also Catherine, the same as his girlfriend Katherine. From here on the story becomes very intense.
Game Play:
Most of the actual game play takes place in the nightmare stages when Vincent goes to sleep. You can walk around and talk to different people when you are at the bar. The nightmare stages are all puzzles that you must figure out and they require you to think really hard to figure out how to pass each level. This game pushes your brain to extreme limits! The one and probably only negative thing about this game is that it is way too difficult. I even heard Japanese gamers complained about it, now that’s bad. I played it and actually completed it on Easy Mode, but it felt I was playing on the hardest game mode. It was so hard to the point I almost broke down and cried (I didn’t though). But I recently heard that Atlus has made a patch for a Super Easy Mode………This game is still hard……..One thing I really love about this game is that they let the story unfold naturally unlike some games and movies that rush to either end the story, or start the story. I feel that however long it took the story to reach its climax, is how long it should take for it to end. This is exactly what was done for this game and overall, I really love this game.
ESRB: Mature (17+)
Graphics: 7/10
Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Music: 7/10
Replay Value: Very High