In reflection what did you think of Catherine?

After watching the Persona 5 trailer I got a lot of Catherine vibes from the visuals and character presentation. I personally really enjoyed Catherine the visuals and characters were interesting it definitely seemed like a good next gen step from Atlas. However, is this similar style something you feel is right for Persona? And what did you like/not like about Catherine?

I still need to play it....

I liked the not-game part of Catherine. The visual style looks like it suits P5's tone just fine.

Catherine was one of my favorite games last gen so whatever they wanna crib from it is fine with me.

Catherine was fantastic, and had a great story (with one or two things I didn't like) and phenomenal gameplay. Loved it then, love it now.

I liked the style of story of Catherine. Did not care for the gameplay.

You got that vibe, because they are using that engine. They said they would be. But seems everyone forgot. Including me. And after seeing it, I like it.

I liked Catherine to an extent. It wore on me and I was happy to finish it by the end. It was no where as good as a Persona game. The tower climbing puzzle you did all the time was the worst after the first few, just too repetitive. It would have been nice if they added in other things other than that one mechanic. Everything else about the game was great though.

I know its only like a 6 hour game but I found it to be too long because I got bored with the climbing stuff. Just too repetitive and not really enough to make it consistently interesting.

I loved it. I thought the story was laregely great, the characters were original and varied, and the gameplay was solid. I would love to see that world revisited in some way.

I absolutely hated the puzzle parts but everything else was fantastic.

It was great and the difficulty was exaggerated. I didn't get bored of the puzzles.

I thought it was pretty cool. The gag at the end with a certain character kinda rubbed me the wrong way, but the main plot was great.

I'm glad to see a lot of positive posts in this thread about Catherine. At the time it came out, it seemed like reactions were predominately negative, but I really enjoyed this game. If you played the side arcade game in the bar, it helped you learn different ways to do the puzzles that help you more enjoy the main game. The interactions and the effects of those interactions in the bar are really well done in my opinion as well.

In the end, I was using a youtube video guide for the exact moves to finish the puzzles because I just wanted to see the story beats. I regret nothing, really. I'll say what basically everyone in this thread will say: The story was good but the game part wasn't too smart

Really didn't like the block puzzle parts. But other than the handling of one of the characters I loved the story.

I put it as the Game of the Year on my list. In retrospect I would have dropped it by one and gave it to Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I like it for a lot of the reasons I like Silent Hill 2. They're both two of the few games that handle sexual themes with a degree of maturity, and most of it is done through rad monster design. Gameplay was fun for what it was, and I actually enjoyed it enough to replay level to get higher medals, but I don't think it suited the game very well. I think I'd rather them focus on a gameplay style that allowed for more tension or horror, because the lack of that is what makes it stand out less as a classic than Silent Hill 2.

I thought that block puzzle shit was pretty relaxing.

I don't think the block puzzle elements got enough credit. It was well designed and fun, if you weren't forcing yourself through them just for the cutscenes. Ultimately I think the block puzzles were actually better realized than the other parts of the game, which I liked, but they didn't flesh it out as much as I would have liked.

But the only comparison you can make with P5 is the graphics, and those were certainly good.

It seems to settle resonably well the artstyle to P5, by the trailer.

I loved Catherine, and feel that it is one of the best games of the last generation. It tackled mature themes well, was inventive, had a good story, and good gameplay. Loved the puzzle segments, and metaphors around it. The only thing I disliked was that the depth, both in choices that were given, and some turns in the story were just smoke and mirrors, and were there just to alliviate both the development effort, and the budget, while giving the illusion of freedom and depth.

About the trailer I'm just worried about P5 including stealth. How will it handle that? Will it drag down the pacing, and make it frustrating?

They're using the same engine. That's the only comparison. How many times has Jeff said up to this point that Catherine was Atlus testing that engine for Persona 5 on newer consoles?

I liked Catherine a lot.

@theblue: They're actually not even using the same engine. Catherine used a modified Gamebryo engine. This is a propietary engine.

A hugely underrated game IMO. I loved the graphics. The game play of the puzzles I found interesting enough to get the gold trophy for every level on hard. Music fits the setting and themes very well. I would love if Atlus made more unique games like it, but I do greatly look forward to P5.

It was an infuriating puzzle game. The End.

It was always a bad game. It was just Atlus fanboy love honestly. In their minds they needed to buy that game to ensure Atlus kept bringing things over. A shame because it looked cool visually...then you got a dumb puzzle game. I'd have rather it'd just been a visual novel of sorts instead.

I fall into the camp as most people. I thought the story was interesting and the characters charming. Had to really push myself to finish the game though. I had zero fun with the puzzle sections of the game.

I liked the game but the actual puzzle part got long winded. I like puzzle games and I am good at them but in Catherine towards the end I just wanted them to be over. Everything outside the puzzles was great, I actually wish there was more of that stuff.

Catherine was one of those games that came out at a really bad time in my life. I remember really liking what I played of that game and was going to go back and pick it up again but never did. Thanks for the reminder I will probably try and give it another shot from the beginning since it's been awhile since I last played it.

its a really great game.

I really enjoyed watching my friend play it at the time, but the way they handled Erica being trans was fucking abysmal. It's a Japanese thing and a Japanese viewpoint and I get that, but eeesSSSHHH.

That said, I think the gameplay looked fine and suited the whole symbolism thing the game was rife with, and the story was interesting and intense. I'd recommend it, yeah.

They are not using the Gamebryo engine for Persona 5; I don't understand where people are getting this from.

Catherine was an amazing game, and that includes its gameplay. It's really cool to see that the Persona 5 team's usual meeting place shares vibes with the Stray Sheep, which was an amazing location for how small and often visited it is throughout the game.

The style was fantastic, the story was risky and engaging, the characters were cool. I got real tired of the gameplay very quickly, and I did not like the end of that story. So much to like about it though. Definitely glad it got made.

I really enjoyed the game overall and i think it is great but after beating the game i couldn't pass the idea on how limited the game is. Even the arcade game is centered around the puzzle where it would have been much better if it was something different to give the player something else to do beside climbing.

liked the art style, enjoyed a couple of the characters. wasn't huge on the gameplay, was just q-bert with better grafix. space ending was goat

Loved it.

You're right, the limited scope of the game was maybe the biggest issue. I wanted to get out of the bar, explore the world, hit the town with these characters. What the game did do was get me excited for Persona 5, where I could presumably do all that stuff.

I never thought it was very good as a puzzle game, and I feel like it did a poor job giving you agency over the story. Other than that though I really loved it.

Great music, great story, visually splendid, well designed puzzles(that probably become too difficult and confusing,) and overall one of the most unique games ever made.

The game's got problems with control though....

I'm one of those wacky people that loved the puzzling, playing through it multiple times on the hardest difficulty. A big gripe I had is it's only difficult the first time, since the puzzles stay mostly the same and can be beaten consistently with the same "paths". But the bonus modes like the endless mode added a lot of replay-ability so I can forgive the story levels.

As for the story itself, I have mixed feelings, mostly with the odd pacing at times. Overall though I'd say I liked it.

I am ashamed of the same :(

I'm afraid I haven't played it. During the demo I tried, I was intrigued by the story and other elements related to it, but despised the timed block puzzles. I'll probably watch someone else play it some day.

I liked the story but not the gameplay. Even on easy I failed enough times to just quit about 2/3 through the game. I don't like puzzle games much and especially not when you have a limited time like in this game. Would have been better as a visual novel or with some basic RPG mechanics instead.

I liked about everything in it except for the gameplay. Glad that I played it, but the prospect of playing it again for different endings is hindered by me not wanting to do the puzzle sections ever again.

One of my favorite games of last generation. Beat it multiple times trying to get different endings.

The ending sucked ass and the block gameplay grew from "OK" to "Tedious" to "Frustrating" over the course of 45 minutes.

But the graphics were nice and most of the non-gameplay stuff was pretty good. Apart from that end. Man...

It was OK but way too long with such a simplistic and repetitive game play element

I wanted to like it more than I did. The "adventure" game part of it was way more interesting than the climbing puzzles. The puzzle sequences were cool in the beginning, but they got way too fucking stressful quick. Ryan's theory was that they made them so stressful and noisy because they wanted to make you feel insane. You know what? Mission accomplished. When I heard how dumb the ending was I gave up trying to force myself through it.

Vincent was an amazing character, perhaps my favorite of any videogame. He was actually flawed and relatable, unlike any other characters I've ever played as. I also really liked the intimate setting of the bar, since it felt like a real place not just a 'video game arena'. The gameplay was so-and-so and Cathrines ditsy nature (and eventuel 'turn') ruined a lot of the overall plot, which meant I never actually finished the game, but I still really dug my time with it.

The ending ruined any "maturity" that the story seemed to have near the beginning. I like crazy stuff but I was really enjoying how it was basically about a regular guy until the game just lets you know that the bartender was Satan and you need to beat him and then you can be the ultimate good guy and get the girl or become a literal demon prince of the underworld and get the other girl.

I liked the puzzles, got gold on every stage on normal without too much trouble. And then there's that dogshit escort mission. And to save any of the other people in the bar I just felt like I needed a FAQ.

It's alright if you like puzzle games and it's just too bad the story takes a turn for the worse.

I liked most of the things about it except for the block-climbing parts.

I really like Catherine, except for the Boss levels....fuck that shit.