The Catherine Demo – Providing Inner Nightmares

Just yesterday I posted about the release of the Catherine demo from Atlus, which had just made it to the scene. I promptly downloaded this demo and found myself right back into a place I had been missing for a while. If you’ve ever played any Atlus titles, then you’ll know what I am talking about. The company has a way of producing games that put you in a sort of fantastic world where you just get this feeling of nostalgia each time you venture to a new title.

Let me say first that Catherine was nothing like I had expected. It has a wonderful storyline that draws you in, and throws gameplay elements in that are reminiscent of Intelligence Cube. The game’s puzzle system focuses on Vincent in some sort of nightmarish world where he is threatened with death by a mysterious dark power. The aim of each puzzle is to make it to the top by using the blocks to create a stair path before this force annihilates you with its fork of doomy death. This is something much different than what I was used to with my previous favorite Atlus games, though it made me interested.

The story is told dramatically throughout character interactions, and at certain points you can even control what Vincent tells people through text messages on his phone. This shows that you can really shape the game. From what I played, I really liked the demo and I am looking forward to the game releasing later this month. If any of you have played it, what was your take? If you haven’t, I urge you to download it and give it a shot.