If there is one thing that ATLUS has got us used to really well in recent years, it has been the ports of some of its most popular titles. This is because Atlus has never limited itself to mere homework, increasing the resolution of the game or the frame rate, but has always tried to introduce new and full-bodied content, in such a way as to make the game attractive not only to newbies, but also, and above all, to the veterans of the original work.
Persona 4 Golden, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux are just some of the greatest examples of excellent re-releases that go beyond the simple concept of porting or remastering, as the innovations introduced in these titles have been able to give new life to offer players the definitive experience, surpassing the original version in all aspects.
Not to mention the highly anticipated Persona 5 Royal. In addition to the updates on the technical front, here we are also talking about new gameplay mechanics, new narrative arcs, new environments and much more.
We tell you this because a few weeks ago we went to try Catherine: Full body, the reissue of one of the undoubtedly most interesting titles in the Atlus catalog, or a puzzle game released in 2011 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (and only recently on Steam). The protagonist of the game is Vincent Brooks, a 32-year-old man whose life is turned upside down by Catherine, a young and sensual girl who seduces him and with whom he begins a strange love . Too bad that Vincent is already engaged to Katherine, his current partner for 5 years. As if that weren't enough, Vincent is forced to live a nightmare every night in which his life is continually at risk. In fact, dying in a dream is also dying in the real world.
This narrative incipt is translated into gameplay as two macro phases, the first during the day in which we will live Vincent's daily life, the interactions with the secondary characters and, above all, the choices that will impact on the character of our protagonist and on the direction he will take. the end. The second, however, is characterized by nightmares, in which Vincent will have to try his hand at a climb of platforms stacked on top of each other to reach the top and prevent his demise.
So far, it's the usual Catherine, but what does Full Body introduce to the point of making it indispensable even for those who already know the basic version?
Let's start with history and, above all, withintroduction of a new character, Rin. It is an innocent girl with short pink hair who is saved by Vincent from what she calls a "stalker". Apparently she suffers from amnesia and not knowing how to help her, Vincent takes her to the Stray Sheep, the bar she frequents with her drinking friends, where she will find work as a pianist. Chance has it that she will even end up being his neighbor, creating new and unprecedented situations during the course of the game. As can be guessed from the presence on the cover of the game, Rin will have a central role in Vincent's life, to the point of representing a new key to reading the original story, as long as he makes the right choices.
Rin isn't the only novelty in Catherine's narrative universe, however Atlus has added an impressive amount of cutscenes and dialogue (including 20 new cutscenes and 5 new endings) that enrich the game with new details and backgrounds for many of the characters we have come to know. In particular, the past of the Vincent / Katherine couple will finally be revealed, how they met and the anecdotes they lived during their 5 years together. An aspect that should not be underestimated and that puts the two boyfriends in a new light, giving further weight to the choices you will make in Vincent's shoes.
On the gameplay side, here too the updates introduced in Catherine Full Body are not a trivial matter, starting with the Safety mode, designed for those who want to enjoy only the story and not fuss too much with puzzles. In fact, in the Safety mode there is no Game Over, there are no time limits and it will even be possible to activate an Autoplay mode to pass the levels at the push of a button, leaving it all to the CPU.
For veterans, however, it is present Remix mode, that is, levels completely rewritten and adapted with the innovations introduced in Full Body, such as the use of objects, the new types of blocks and the way in which it is possible to interact with them. This Remix option is also available for secondary modes such as Tower of Babel, Rapunzel and Colosseum, thus reaching a total of 500 levels, practically double compared to the past. Furthermore, each of the sub-modes mentioned here will finally have an online component to meet the incredible eSport and competitive phenomenon that has arisen with the original Catherine.
Catherine Full Body seemed to us in great shape on Playstation 4, despite its 8 years since the first release, the game has not aged even a little, obviously thanks to the technical modernization made by Atlus. The novelties of the game are already perceived from the first minutes of the game, giving several surprises even to the veterans of the original Catherine. Finding titles of this kind and which deal so well with certain adult issues such as marriage, family and betrayal, are not seen every day. We hope that this re-release is a way to reach a wider audience and that it can open the doors for a possible sequel or for other titles of this caliber.
► 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
Catherine: Full Body is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 87%, if you are interested in learning more you can read Catherine's Review: Full Body
