I played Catherine for a good 6 hours yesterday and I'm onto the 6th night and I have to say that the story is awesome and so well told. Also the block puzzles are more enjoyable than I thought they would be despite the problems I have with them.

This is because for me at times I felt that I was just doing puzzles so that I can get to the next story part instead of enjoying them. I'm decent at puzzle games but sometimes I don't know what I'm meant to do on the boss stages and keep dying until I figure it out. This is even with playing the game on Easy (which everyone playing this game should do to enjoy it). But like I said the block puzzles are still enjoyable and I enjoy figuring them out and getting to top and thinking "how did I just do that?". There is also enough variety to keep things interesting throughout each of the stages.

But the reason I think the game is great is the story which is awesome and so well told and your actions actually have a big effect on the story. Like for example talking to people in the bar to help them out because if you don't they may end up dead. All the characters are so fleshed out to the point that you get really interested in the stories your friends are telling you as well as the other people in the bar. I don't want to talk too much about the story because that would be spoiling the biggest reason to play this game but rest assured that it's fantastic and you have enough choice in what happens so that you don't feel like a bystander.

Something has to be said for how excellent the games visuals are, the anime style is unlike anything you have seen in any other game and it's so crisp and beautiful. Even better are the anime cutscenes which are done by studio 4oc and although there aren't many of them, the ones that are there look as good if not better than any of their past animation.

Finally part of the package that makes Catherine so great is the stellar job on the production side that Atlus always seems to excel at. The voice acting may be the best dub work I have ever heard in a game. Also the soundtrack which is mostly remixes of classic songs is amazing and you get it free with any version of the game and trust me that you may end up listening to the songs on repeat because of how good they are.

From what I have played so far I would give the game a 8 and not the 9 Colin gave it because I think the everything on the story and production side is so well executed but the puzzle aspect is fine if nothing mind blowing.

Going to try power through and beat it today because I really can't wait to see what happens in the story