Why is Catherine getting such great reviews.

[krazykidd]

I have not yet played this game but i have watched and read reviews on this game as well as a few gameplay videos.

I am very interested in the story of this game and the unique style of which it is told. BUT the gameplay that i have seen of this game looks quite boring and repetitive.
If perhaps i cannot afford Catherine at this moment might i be better off watching Death Note while playing Minesweeper and then rating it 9 out of 10.

If this was an anime series without the gameplay (obviously) would it get great reviews?
I almost feel as if people feel obligated to like this game in order to be a "real gamer" hence why IGN gave it 9 out of 10.

I prefer a review like the escapist one because it does not give the game a score but explains the game to the viewer.

Please do not take this thread as a hater thread, i am very interested in what you all have to say especially the people who have played this game.

I can understand what you mean, but it's really a game that has to be played more than watched, I would say , rent it , or find a friend ( or a random passer by) and play it for a hour or 2 , and see if you like it . I don't really follow IGN reviews , but in my opinion, its a fun , challenging , fast pace puzzle game that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Story wise it's very well written , interesting to get into , you really want to know what happens next . But even without the story it is a solid game, ( and i don'T usually play puzzle games , unless bomberman 64 counts as puzzle lol ) . If you are afraid of the sexy parts of the game, it fits the story , but its not as bad as you would expect at first glance ,although that depends on your personal tolerance. I pre-ordered the game out of curiousity really , it's new , different , fresh , basically a breath of fresh air for the gaming industry ( again this is in my opinion ) . All i all , i would say to try it out , this game although not the second coming of christ, DESERVES at LEAST to be tried out.

 

[krazykidd]

I like the idea of the gameplay but the storyline looks a little geared towards men to me. It doesn't give me the impression that they intended women to want to play it. Which is why I haven't bothered with it. No point in putting myself in a position to be offended when I can just leave it to who it was intended for. Maybe I have gotten the wrong impression of it though. I don't know.

Sooooo, you are assuming it is a mans game? Because why? There's plenty of food for the soul for both parties, the story is just about a mans struggle, with himself , his heart and his mind. That doesn't limit it to men, women have this struggle too ( argubly more often than men ). What does the erotism in this game offend you? Guess what, IRL when a man and a women have a relationship , there bound to be a physical connection. Dismissing a game because of 1st impression will make you miss out. Although you are allowed to not play a game for whatever reason you what , i find it ashame that you wouldn't at least try it due to prejudice towards the game. Everything in the game is very well written imo and makes the story believable and make you actually care about vincent and his struggle.

 

[AbstractStream]

Why is Catherine getting great reviews? Because, as said before in many other posts, the story is very interesting (I feel like I'm watching an intense drama or something), and the gameplay is challenging.
I feel like I'm finally being challenged at a game to think xD
So far, I'm hooked on it. Only part so far that has made me want to put the controller down is

Spoiler

The Child from HELL!! Ugh! Not because of difficulty, I managed to figure it out...it just took me a while because the baby was so disturbing. The constant "Daaaaaddy!" freaked me out ; I ended up racking like 20+ retries...

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I know about Catherine's background shall we say it's been kind of hard to avoid being an internetite. However, there is no reason to make its tasteless and plaster half naked pictures of her everywhere. You can seduce a man without being a complete hussy. It's sexist becuase it objectifies women and panders to male gamers with sex appeal and two women fighting over them. The fact that there is straight men in this thread who say that it makes them uncomfortable should speak volumes.
Its clearly 'for men only' and that's what makes it sexist. Games like this are basically shoving the fact that developers don't care about the female demographic in our face. If you're male I don't think you can really feel how bad it is.

No, it's not the developers, it's the publishers and the marketing people and all the damn gamers who wouldn't buy the game if it was exactly the same but advertised close to it's real nature. If you can't take such a deep experience where nobody actually objectifies women only because it's advertisements are done in a way that will sell then you need to reevaluate your level of sensitivity regarding such material.



Here are your options, either overly sexual ads and unique good games get made, sold bought enjoyed and get to pass their non-sexist messages or unique good games go the way of Okami, are still amazing, but because of insufficient marketing they end up cult classics that sell like crap and have their studios close down.


Which of the two turn of events do you prefer? If it's the second one, you're being equally shallow as the men who would buy this just because of all the sex promised by the ads. Can't you just take one for the betterment of the medium?



As for those male gamers, they reported feeling uneasy because to the still uninitiated it does very much feel like just a sex game with no depth and that has parts of societal guilt in their brain, nothing really to do with the game, everything to do with people's ingrained ideas about what sex can and can't be.

Again, with this game sex can now be more than fanservice in games, sexy women in covers become more than objectification/masturbation material, it happened, time to accept it.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

If it's the second one, you're being equally shallow as the men who would buy this just because of all the sex promised by the ads. Can't you just take one for the betterment of the medium?

Sorry I don't see your logic there. There is no reason why they couldn't have marketed this game on its puzzle elements or even showing pictures of the protagonist. In fact they might have sold more because people wouldn't have become qeuasy because other people will assume they are perverts for buying the game. They might have sold more to women because they wouldn't have assumed its not for them.

I don't think the sexy woman on the cover is anything more than fanservice and sex appeal if you want to kid yourself then go ahead.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

It's a game that can hold aloft the word "mature" without snickering at boobies or smearing the screen in gore.

That's an achievement in itself.

 

[jackpackage200]

Gameplay reminds me of Demon's Soul's, its harsh and unforgiving. Which is awesome.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

If it's the second one, you're being equally shallow as the men who would buy this just because of all the sex promised by the ads. Can't you just take one for the betterment of the medium?

Sorry I don't see your logic there. There is no reason why they couldn't have marketed this game on its puzzle elements or even showing pictures of the protagonist. In fact they might have sold more because people wouldn't have become qeuasy because other people will assume they are perverts for buying the game. They might have sold more to women because they wouldn't have assumed its not for them.

I don't think the sexy woman on the cover is anything more than fanservice and sex appeal if you want to kid yourself then go ahead.

Both of those groups are miniscule compared to the numbers of sales just because of the current line of ads.



Like I said, the ads themselves are indeed the raunchier aspects of the game, I simply take the whole of the game as a single entity and don't differentiate between the ads, 5% of the art, the cover. Trust me, they all fit quite well in something much more than fanservice.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

If it's the second one, you're being equally shallow as the men who would buy this just because of all the sex promised by the ads. Can't you just take one for the betterment of the medium?

Sorry I don't see your logic there. There is no reason why they couldn't have marketed this game on its puzzle elements or even showing pictures of the protagonist. In fact they might have sold more because people wouldn't have become qeuasy because other people will assume they are perverts for buying the game. They might have sold more to women because they wouldn't have assumed its not for them.

I don't think the sexy woman on the cover is anything more than fanservice and sex appeal if you want to kid yourself then go ahead.

Both of those groups are miniscule compared to the numbers of sales just because of the current line of ads.



Like I said, the ads themselves are indeed the raunchier aspects of the game, I simply take the whole of the game as a single entity and don't differentiate between the ads, 5% of the art, the cover. Trust me, they all fit quite well in something much more than fanservice.

Women are 46% of the game market so no they aren't 'miniscule groups' way to join in the false assumption that only men play video games.

You seem to be telling me that the game is just what the objectifying cover art makes it seem, so I will be giving it a miss thanks.

People seem to be saying its a good game so its sad they excluded women in such a way.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

It's got sex, a good story and puzzles. What more do you want?

 

[witheringsanity]

sometimes a games' story holds up the game so well that the gameplay doesn't even NEED to be good. ever played 999 (9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors)? that is an AMAZING game, and without the story would be utter crap. oddly enough, even though the gameplay wasn't good, the story was SO good that it actually MADE the gameplay good. kinda hard to explain without playing it, but it made you WANT to solve all the puzzles (and correctly) so you could get to the next part of the story. now, i haven't played Catherine yet, but my guess is it's going to be something like that.

 

[OniYouji]

I prefer a review like the escapist one because it does not give the game a score but explains the game to the viewer.

OT: It's a puzzle platformer. That's all that really needs to be said about the gameplay.

Did they just call Catherine a FAMILY game?

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

If it's the second one, you're being equally shallow as the men who would buy this just because of all the sex promised by the ads. Can't you just take one for the betterment of the medium?

Sorry I don't see your logic there. There is no reason why they couldn't have marketed this game on its puzzle elements or even showing pictures of the protagonist. In fact they might have sold more because people wouldn't have become qeuasy because other people will assume they are perverts for buying the game. They might have sold more to women because they wouldn't have assumed its not for them.

I don't think the sexy woman on the cover is anything more than fanservice and sex appeal if you want to kid yourself then go ahead.

Both of those groups are miniscule compared to the numbers of sales just because of the current line of ads.



Like I said, the ads themselves are indeed the raunchier aspects of the game, I simply take the whole of the game as a single entity and don't differentiate between the ads, 5% of the art, the cover. Trust me, they all fit quite well in something much more than fanservice.

Women are 46% of the game market so no they aren't 'miniscule groups' way to join in the false assumption that only men play video games.

You seem to be telling me that the game is just what the objectifying cover art makes it seem, so I will be giving it a miss thanks.

People seem to be saying its a good game so its sad they excluded women in such a way.

But I wasn't speaking about all women, only the women that would actually not buy a game for the reasons you listed, which by my calculation is a very very small number since I deem women as equals to men and with the same ability to look past the exterior of something to discover it's inner worth despite an initial hitch or two with the subject matter.

You seem to be so prone to judge a book by it's cover that I think you should give it a miss and go on living in a world where sex is only literally depicted in videogames, it's a befitting albeit somewhat ironic punishment!


Nobody is excluded, you just don't seem to want to be invited in the way it invites you. You don't seem interested in the power of the female charm simply because of the level of that charm's realism. You don't seem to want to find out how do such images or acts actually affect the male psyche, simply because of their nature, their physical image and the baggage you're carrying with you that you're really not willing to part with for a few hours in order to expand your horizons.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I prefer a review like the escapist one because it does not give the game a score but explains the game to the viewer.

OT: It's a puzzle platformer. That's all that really needs to be said about the gameplay.

Did they just call Catherine a FAMILY game?

Nope. Susan said that the Escapist has automatic labeling for genres. Puzzle happened to be with family. Yeah, this isn't a family friendly game.

 

[DirgeNovak]

I'm getting it as soon as the paycheck comes in. I think it's the first Japanese game that's genuinely interested me this generation.

I have one quick question for those who played the full game, though: did they fix the volume issues from the demo? The pre-animated cutscenes were SOOO much louder than the in-engine ones I'm almost afraid to play the demo at night for fear of waking the neighbors during cutscenes...

Did they just call Catherine a FAMILY game?

Nope. Susan said that the Escapist has automatic labeling for genres. Puzzle happened to be with family. Yeah, this isn't a family friendly game.

Well isn't that the perfect opportunity to fix the labels, Escapist?!

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I'd think it's getting good reviews because of how much of a breath of fresh air it is among the huge crowd of FPSes and other common types of games today (even then it's been getting some average reviews but whatever). No other game exactly like this has ever really been made. The only turn-off I can really see is the puzzle gameplay which might eventually become dull to some, but from what I've seen of the game new elements are introduced over all of the stages. Future purchase for me.

 

[dalek sec]

Could someone please explain to me what's the big deal about the story? Please just don't say it's mature or it's a good story. I've seen that all over place but it doesn't get me excited about the game at all. I'm not trying to sound like a hater, I'm just frustrated that I can't get a straight answer about this game.

Also, could someone please explain how the monsters are scary to them? I'm not making fun of anyone or saying that nothing scares me (trust me, the funhouse in my brain gives me enough scares to last a life time) just wondering how are they scary to the people who've played it.

Again, I'm not trying to sound like a punk or insult people, I really do want to hear what people have to say about this game.

 

[Javarock]

Well, To bad. I Like puzzle games but from the animeish deal it has beacome a no-buy. Whatever.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

snip

According to you it's inner worth is that it actually has half naked women in it rather than just on the cover. Like I said in the first place it's obviously not for women and geared towards men. Even the bonus stuff is mens clothes. So I think I will give it a miss. I think I can live without playing a glorified japanese dating sim.

You're the one making assumptions about me without even knowing me so maybe you should look to yourself about being judgemental.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I'm getting it as soon as the paycheck comes in. I think it's the first Japanese game that's genuinely interested me this generation.

I have one quick question for those who played the full game, though: did they fix the volume issues from the demo? The pre-animated cutscenes were SOOO much louder than the in-engine ones I'm almost afraid to play the demo at night for fear of waking the neighbors during cutscenes...

Did they just call Catherine a FAMILY game?

Nope. Susan said that the Escapist has automatic labeling for genres. Puzzle happened to be with family. Yeah, this isn't a family friendly game.

Well isn't that the perfect opportunity to fix the labels, Escapist?!

They are still louder than the other scenes. I think I know why. The animated cutscenes in Persona 4 (The dev team's last game) were criticized for being too low. They were very hard to hear. I think this is them overcompensating for that. I can just see a designer now: "That loud enough for ya?"