More Thoughts From Me #266: Freaked Out About Catherine

When Catherine came out on the Nintendo Switch, I played the Japanese demo and had no idea what was going on but also found the game interesting. Flashforward: I’m playing Catherine on PS Now and I finally, mostly, know whats going on. What a bizarre, addictive game.

Recently PS Now, the Playstation 4’s game streaming service, was on sale for $1 for one month. So of course I got the service again. I wish I could keep it but that is not in the cards.

That said, having the service again lets me play even more games, which of course means I have more games to talk about here!

For instance, I started playing Catherine recently.

If you don’t know what Catherine is, I don’t blame ya. Its not a game for everyone. Its probably not a really well known game. I could be wrong. But I suspect its a niche title.

Catherine is a very adult game. Its pretty naughty and extremely violent. Its not for kids and I wouldn’t recommend playing it around kids. Its M-rated all the way.

Basically Catherine is about a guy named Victor who has a girlfriend named Katherine and he ends up cheating on her with another girl named Catherine. Not confusing. These two girls are very different: Katherine wants to get married and have a family with Victor. Catherine just wants to have fun. Victor just wants to have fun too…

And so you say: oh boy what a soap! Well it is a bit of a soap but then there are the horrible nightmares where Victor, aka the player, is climbing up toward…well…something. The player will have to push, pull, rearrange blocks in order to make a way for Victor to get up and out of his current nightmare.

The puzzle nightmares are tough. Oh wow. I’m playing the game on easy mode and I keep dying (in bloody ways) a lot. I mean A LOT. I felt like throwing my controller a few times. The nightmares are so frustrating. And yet.
These levels are also super addictive. You want to beat them. You want to help Victor escape and find out whats going to happen next.

Victor seems to be in real danger in these nightmares. Others who didn’t escape, well, they died in real life…

What’s causing these nightmares? Will Victor escape? Those are the mysteries of Catherine that keep me playing.

There isn’t much gameplay out of the nightmares. You’ll be watching a lot of cutscenes. There is a part where you’ll be in a bar and you’ll get to interact with people. You can also play a mini-game thats basically a pixelated, sort of cute version of Victor’s nightmares. Its neat. The bar also lets you listen to music and you can get texts (and send texts) on your in-game phone. Main gameplay in Catherine is the nightmares though.

Catherine is a totally different type of game for me. Its bizarre, freaky, super adult, and I have no idea where its going next. I want to find out how the game ends. I don’t know if there is multiple endings. I’m not sure if I’d be able to replay this game though. Going through those nightmare boss levels, whew, one time is bad enough..

Despite how weird and tough this game is I like it. I’d like to finish the game, though I have no idea if I will or if I’ll end up getting distracted and playing something else. Still. Catherine is a very unique game. Whew.

Have you played Catherine? What do you think of it?

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. I would not be surprised if Victor dies.