Catherine: Full Body Review

Vincent and his messy love life are available now on the Nintendo Switch with Catherine: Full Body, a remastered and enhanced port of the original game which was released back in 2009. Boasting updated graphics, new storylines and endings, and even more levels to conquer this is the ultimate way to experience the intoxicating wonder of Catherine.

In video games I’ve assumed plenty of roles; from plumbers to space pirates, but Vincent stands out as such a unique character. After five years in a relationship with his girlfriend Katherine, Vincent wakes up after a drunken night out next to a mysterious woman named Catherine, no less. To complicate matters worse the innocent Rin is thrown into Vincent’s life.

Unfortunately for Vincent his problems don’t stop there. Every night he faces recurring nightmares where he must climb towers made up of blocks and with one slip could have him wind up dead in the real world.

By day the game plays like a dating simulator in which all your actions, dialogue choices, and character interactions will determine which of the 13 available endings you will get. Vincent frequents the Stray Sheep Bar where he can meet with other patrons, play a minigame that mirrors his nightmares, and use his cellphone to text and call all the ladies in his life.

At night he experiences strange nightmares full of puzzles where he and other lost sheep must continually climb towers made up of blocks. Each block has its own specific traits adding to the complexity of the puzzles. Combined with a beat the clock mechanic, it forces the player to solve the puzzles in a frenzied rush. Like Vincent’s love life in the real world, the puzzles were a perfect representation of the anxiety he was experiencing from his romantic relationships.

There are plenty of extras to pick up along the way in your race to the top, such as gold and other valuable items that will make your climbing easier. Occasionally there are other sheep on your path trying to reach the top along with you and it’s up to you whether or not to go around them or push them off.

The game also has several difficulty levels to toggle through if you are looking for more of a challenge. You can also press a button to turn on “auto-play” if you are having trouble with the blocks or would just like to enjoy the story without dealing with the puzzles.

Catherine: Full Body boasts beautiful anime inspired visuals with occasional high production value cutscenes that really tie the story together. The game is also fully voice acted and one of the first anime inspired games I’ve played in a while where the dialogue was stellar. Each character delivered their lines in a compelling and realistic way, which helped pull me into the story and really care about what was going on.

I mainly played the game docked simply because like everyone else in the world I’m trapped in my house. The game looked great on my TV and it was nice to play with my Switch Pro Controller. My only gripe was the camera angles when climbing the puzzles could be a little annoying when I was trying to see how to get to the next block. It would have been a welcome addition to have more freedom with the camera.

I played the game in handheld mode for a bit. I noticed that Catherine still looked fine but there was a bit of a dip in the image fidelity, although nothing too serious. There were also no framerate issues when playing docked or in handheld.

While at the Stray Sheep the player can utilize the jukebox which has plenty of music tracks to choose from featuring original music and some select tracks from the Persona series. The tracks were mostly jazz style renditions, which leant to the bar’s atmosphere.

The story is full of twists and turns and it kept me hooked for the ten or so hours I took completing the main story. Since there are 13 endings to encounter there’s tons of replayability here to keep players entertained into the triple digits. There’s also plenty of multiplayer levels, Persona crossover content, and special glasses that let you peak at the undergarments of all the characters.

Catherine: Full Body is an amazing dark romantic thriller that kept me engaged for my entire playthrough. I wanted to see how Vincent’s life would turn out. In a sense I took on his guilt and anxiety which are rare for me to experience in video games. If you’re like me and missed out on the game when it originally released then this is the perfect opportunity to jump on board and get caught up in Vincent’s crazy love quadrangle.

Tony Matthews

Tony has been gaming ever since he could walk. Pokémon Blue Version helped him learn how to read. His greatest accomplishment is not just having played the entire Kingdom Hearts series but also understanding it.