Review for Catherine: Full Body. Game for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 03/09/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 07/07/2020
Catherine is one of the games of the new millennium with the rare ability to attract from the only cover painted in fuchsia. Those who managed to go beyond the only woman on display then discovered a full-blown videogame seinen, which placed the male psyche at the center of the narrative. Over the years ATLUS has tried to reinvent Catherine and has thus managed to accompany a generation, finally arriving also in the Nintendo Switch catalog, after PlayStation 4, with Catherine: Full Body.
Day 1: love in a pocket
Catherine: Full Body welcomes us in its own way, with the name of the title it refers to a full-bodied red wine, as sensual and provocative as the buttocks that hold the glass at the opening. It has been defined by the authors themselves as a "romantic horror": a story that is rarely seen in the medium and that manages to merge various genres to the point of becoming unique in its kind.
Between remaster and remake, Switch users will soon be able to enjoy this adventure with multiple endings, as many as the characters with whom it is possible to shake hands in the guise of Vincent Brooks, the 32-year-old protagonist with the sound of the tolling of wedding bells ever louder. In fact, his girlfriend Katherine wants to take the next step - it is from this incipit that ATLUS chooses to put two fundamental themes at the center of the experience: infidelity and adulthood.
Vincent has been sleeping badly for a few days: his nights are filled with nightmares, nightmares in which he is half naked with only underwear, a pillow tight in her arms and a pair of funny horns. The nightmare is recurring: to wake up, Vincent must climb a pyramid made up of blocks until he hears the sound of a bell. That's the signal that he is close to his goal, and he must reach it quickly as the ground is unsafe.
In everyday life, Vincent is a computer scientist with a stable five-year with Katherine: long hair, glasses, blue nail polish, always wears black and has a nice temperament. An established woman who lacks something: a stable future with her man. Vincent is clearly not ready to change his life, and begins to dream. Upon awakening, the news broadcasts do nothing but talk about a series of deaths, all boys and Vincent's peers, who die a little peacefully while they sleep.
In fact, it is said that if certain people die in the dream they also perish in the real world - a curse launched by the female universe to the traitors. And Vincent? The hedgehog, after the usual evening spent at his trusted pub, the Stray Sheep, finds himself another woman in bed: Catherine. She has the same name as her partner, except for the "C" of course, everything else differs: Catherine is a very attractive, succinct and carefree young blond-haired girl, with whom Vincent does not remember sharing the sheets.
The original love triangle becomes even more complicated in Catherine: Full Body with the introduction of Rin, a very naive pink-haired girl who accidentally bumps into Vincent. Rin suffers from amnesia, coming to bond with Vincent as an anchor of reality and playing the piano at the Stray Sheep. Rin's character is definitely Catherine's biggest addition: Full Body. Now there are three women on the cover and all, in their own way, compete for the heart of a man between secrets and allegories that the ATLUS title can give. Through Rin, the developers have been able to refresh both the story and the gameplay without upsetting it, giving the rare impression that the new character was originally conceived and not forcibly added at a later time. For lovers of the classic experience, Rin can be ignored, proof of the great freedom of Catherine: Full Body.
History, aged like good wine, is further rekindled with new animated scenes and above all new endings, taking Catherine's replayability to potentially dizzying heights. The main adventure, structured in a simple but pressing and full of surprises, lasts about 10 hours, with the possibility of making other choices and consequently unlocking other endings through some multiple choice answers.
Day 2: Do men dream of electric sheep?
Vincent's day is divided into day, evening and night. The day is the time for 4 ° C Studio animations to shine and advance the story, making Catherine a high voltage anime. The evening passes as usual inside the Stray Sheep, where Vincent reunites with longtime friends to drown his working day with a glass of rum and cola and worry about the future. Inside the Stray Sheep most of the interactions with the characters take place, as well as the ability to reply to emails, choose a song from the jukebox (taken from the original Catherine, the new compositions of Full Body and some tracks of Persona) and in the meantime play the Super Rapunzel cabinet, which is nothing more than a Catherine in scale with a fairytale plot and which is in effect a game within the game.
At night, Vincent has nightmares. He dreams of climbing a tower of blocks to survive and hoping to wake up the next day, meeting others unfortunate like him in the form of sheep - whom we will soon learn about, wondering if we will see them again on the next floor.
Catherine is also recognized for being very challenging even on normal difficulty: The purpose of the gameplay sections is to build a path through blocks of various types before the floor collapses. The tutorial is a baptism of fire and potentially more difficult than the levels to come: aware of the high level of challenge, ATLUS has come to meet non-lovers of puzzle games with a safe mode and an easy mode, which we also find on Switch. These not only have the advantage of slowing down Catherine's crazy rhythms with an autoplay function that practically leads Vincent to the goal by pressing just a button, but also allowing anyone to enjoy the story, one of the cornerstones of the experience.
The other is, in fact, the gameplay, appreciated so much as to inspire new modes. Those who have already played Catherine can relive the experience on Switch with the Remix mode, which changes some blocks by grouping them in unusual shapes and changing the puzzles, albeit slightly. Rin also intervenes in this little upheaval that is Full Body, being able to access the dream plan and slowing down time by playing the piano. Other novelties are the Babel mode and the Colosseum. The first is inspired by the Tower of Babel, whose collapse is the beginning of the various languages and cultures according to Genesis, and consists of quasi-procedural puzzles to be completed under certain conditions for up to two players. Babel is thus the co-op component of Catherine: Full Body, while Colosseum is its versus counterpart where a player is challenged to a speed race.
Day 3: portable destiny
This was Catherine: Full Body. The Nintendo Switch version did not disappoint, keeping the upload and frame rate flag high on both TV and laptop. In our opinion, Catherine is a story to be savored on the big screen and that loses if carried around: it is not ideal at high difficulty because it is not part of the relaxing puzzle games (it is a matter of life or death, after all), but for its nature is very flexible. The title easily adapts to the chosen mode, be it the main one offered by the award-winning company Golden Playhouse or a different evening through the 2-player modes, perhaps exchanging curiosities about alcohol as happens in Catherine, and always has something to offer its customers.
We do not recommend the portable mode also for the natural propensity to use the Joy-Con, which during our test were very sensitive and not suitable for climbing. The Nintendo Pro Controller is the most natural way to enjoy history and gameplay, which can become frustrating and challenging at advanced difficulty. Switch now has little to prove, but the age-old problem of naughty Joy-Con persists: if the left analog stick of the mini controller starts to move by itself, expect to feel like Vincent on the second or third round of rum and cola.
Catherine: Full Body on Nintendo Switch is an opportunity to recover a brave and mature story surrounded by gameplay by many admirers. It tells about love, s and the future in a comically serious way, and with so many game modes that make the classic pale and become a remake. Catherine: Full Body arrived on Switch with charisma and affection intact without losing its polish, except for a small flaw concerning the controls.
► Catherine: Full Body is a Puzzle-type game developed by ATLUS and published by Sega for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 03/09/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 07/07/2020
