Catherine: Full Body, Full Disclosure

From the developers of Atlus Studio Zero team, comes a remake of the unique, puzzling love-story found within Catherine. Named Catherine: Full Body is a clever play on words as full body is in regards to that of a full-bodied wine, adding more depth along with the perversive  word-play intended. Expect a lot more of everything that the original was loved for.

What is Catherine? Simply stated it is a puzzle platformer game following the life of Vincent Brooks who harbors terror from frightening, death-filled nightmares while also being torn between his relationships for his long-time girlfriend, Katherine, and the similarly-named beauty, Catherine. Throughout the daytime hours, we follow Vincent interacting with various friends and bar goers trying to get a hold on his feelings and overall romantic situation. At night, he must traverse three-dimensional block towers with only to ways out, successfully climb to the next safe haven and prepare for the next night or fall to his death from the crumbling tower and realize that love is over. All decisions of morality made throughout the game affect the ending and ultimately the path that Vincent takes in his life. An odd adventure meant to touch upon the rigors of maintaining a relationship and finding happiness in ones life.

New Story Elements

What can be added to this complex juggle of relationship between two women that would convince of a new story being experienced? The addition of a third romantic relationship making this love-triangle into a love-square. Within the bar, named the Stray Sheep, Victor may now form a new connection with the pink-haired, pianist named Rin. The addition of a new relationship will cause a split between Katherine and Catherine. This supernatural adventure has become a lot more complicated for our troubled protagonist.

Conversing with the other denizens of the Stray Sheep was a big part in the original title, slowly learning that these lost souls shared the same fate as Victor, being trapped in a supernatural, never-ending nightmare with every rest of their eyes. More connections will be made, and overall a more realistic experience will come into existence.

The ever-beloved beauty Catherine can be modified by changing the voice acting of her character. This changes the personality of how Catherine will act, with the 10 extra being available as DLC. More gimmicky content will be released such as everyone in the game dawning a swimsuit, including the bartender and patrons. Lastly, Persona 5 crossover and cameo appearances will be implemented within the game. These include skins of the Phantom Thieves for Vincent and his friends, the main protagonist of Persona 5 Joker as a playable character that receives supporting dialogue from the rest of the Phantom Thieves.

New Gameplay Elements

The second part of Vincent’s journey, the trek through a nightmare filled with dread, has gained new improvements to the puzzle platforming and additional changes. If wanting to simply experience the story Catherine: Full Body has to offer, a new safety mode has been added that decreases all penalty to the player. Additionally there is now an auto play mode that will essentially do the hard work for the player, allowing the story to be experienced more.

If wanting to experience the struggle that Vincent feels through this dreamworld, the new Arrange mode is sure to challenge the senses and skill of the player. New mechanics and gimmicks are introduced such as being able to link together a wide variety of blocks to further a path. With the addition of newer stages for all the challenging modes. More than 500 stages will be playable throughout the gamemodes, double that of the original.

The last addition is the arrival of an online battle mode. Developed for the purposes of pleasing the competitive scene that arose within Japan, there is now a built-in online ranking system and competitive, head-to-head ranked matches implemented. Mixing up that of the original with the addition of brand new, puzzling content create a unique experience from that of the original.

Catherine: Full Body is set to release on February 14 2019, Valentine’s Day in Japan and later in 2019 for Western audiences.