Zero Punctuation: Catherine

[Something Amyss]

And the winner of the "out of context" award for this week: "All Women Are Dykes."

 

[Fwee]

Good video, except it was so quiet I had the computer completely cranked to full volume and I still couldn't hear it over chewing a sandwich. I guess I'll have to go hungry next time.

 

[CyricZ]

There is absolutely no excuse for that kind of laziness this console generation.

Well, how many games actually have the story wildly vary due to early/mid-game decisions besides The Stanley Parable? If a writer is going to set up a narrative they want to tell, allowing the player to derail that part of the way through due to, let's face it, their own wanting to dick around kinda shatters that. It's the classic "linearity" vs. "non-linearity" thing. Non-linear gives more freedom and protagonist relation. Linear gives more narrative and cohesiveness.

Besides, choosing Catherine over Katherine doesn't make much sense to me, because as frumpy as Katherine is, she does win in the aspect of not being fucking insane! And as such, can be reasoned with, as I mentioned.

And besides, what's the future with Catherine, anyways? Keep in mind, I've only played the demo and watched the Susan Arendt review, and this one. Even if I did get the game, I'd either stop playing out of the unfulfilled desire to bitchslap Vincent, or just play through doing the sensible thing and stay steady with Katherine, because I don't favour crazies.

Minor spoiler: Catherine's actually not insane. The trailers will focus on the weird things she does in the game, but you can actually sit down and chat with her at some points in the game and she seems, while a bit free and loopy, relatively on the level.

As to the future with Catherine, well, explaining it in detail would give a lot away, but let's say it's probably something you weren't expecting. Regardless, Vincent does seem quite satisfied with his decision.

 

[kebab4you]

Sure someone else already caught this but onii-chan is spelled with two "i"s not 1 :3

Out over that I haven't played the game but from the looks of it, it doesn't look too impresive.

 

[Loonerinoes]

This was one of your better ones.

That segment about 'I've watched anime once' is pretty much spot on to my own sentiments about most of them. "I wouldn't mind, but he missed!" indeed.

And the ending metaphor is just...so wonderfully bad. Good job!

 

[thepsychogamer]

I think Vincent may even surpass Kratos and Duke Nukem in his quest to become the most unlikable protagonist ever.

I liked kratos, hes a badass

Really that the the only reason people like Kratos which is a really shallow reason. But then again Kratos is a really shallow character. Kratos is just a psychotic killer, made irritating by all his anger.

Really they should have at least made him more like Lad Russo (Baccano). He also is a shallow psychotic killer, but unlike Kratos Lad is a very upbeat charismatic guy Who takes a lot of joy in what he douse. It hard to hate Lad when it so much fun to watch him in his psychotic joy.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

Alright, I need a t-shirt that says "All women are dykes" and I need it now. Go go Escapist/SpitReason designer teams!

And I need a t-shirt that says "I'm not misogynist, I only hate the bitchy ones."

 

[Catolf]

There is absolutely no excuse for that kind of laziness this console generation.

Well, how many games actually have the story wildly vary due to early/mid-game decisions besides The Stanley Parable? If a writer is going to set up a narrative they want to tell, allowing the player to derail that part of the way through due to, let's face it, their own wanting to dick around kinda shatters that. It's the classic "linearity" vs. "non-linearity" thing. Non-linear gives more freedom and protagonist relation. Linear gives more narrative and cohesiveness.

Besides, choosing Catherine over Katherine doesn't make much sense to me, because as frumpy as Katherine is, she does win in the aspect of not being fucking insane! And as such, can be reasoned with, as I mentioned.

And besides, what's the future with Catherine, anyways? Keep in mind, I've only played the demo and watched the Susan Arendt review, and this one. Even if I did get the game, I'd either stop playing out of the unfulfilled desire to bitchslap Vincent, or just play through doing the sensible thing and stay steady with Katherine, because I don't favour crazies.

Minor spoiler: Catherine's actually not insane. The trailers will focus on the weird things she does in the game, but you can actually sit down and chat with her at some points in the game and she seems, while a bit free and loopy, relatively on the level.

As to the future with Catherine, well, explaining it in detail would give a lot away, but let's say it's probably something you weren't expecting. Regardless, Vincent does seem quite satisfied with his decision.

Exactly, Catherine is not insane, a dom yes but insane no. She has the best ending in a video game..ever..

But yeah, great review, i laughed my ass off.

 

[CyricZ]

The main problem I had with this game was that they didn't establish Katherine as a character at all until you were fully decided on the chick with the big tits and that the "right" choice was dependent only on "morality" but it's a game so that's not very driving when I personally had no feelings for the girl who got no screen time at all

A point, but consider that C wasn't really all that characterized either. I mean, all we really learned about her up until the end was that she was a carefree pair of boobs.

I think the point is that the game is not supposed to be about choosing which girl you want. It's about choosing what you want out of life (stability or freedom), and then siding with the girl that represents that.

That's not necessarily a *good* thing because they certainly could have done the same thing with some more character-establishing moments, but I think that may have, in this case, taken away from the mystery of why Vincent's got all this supernatural stuff going on around him.

 

[Aptspire]

Good, now we don't have to hear "REVIEW IT!" every week. I get the sense Yahtzee watches enough anime to get the idea, but still hate the tropes. Vincent was ineffectual. I bet you this could have been solved in five seconds with a flat "I had feelings for someone else." The game skirted this issue in a supremely ****** up way, extending the drama. I'll give Atlus this though: they know their audience. Stupid, insecure teenage or middle aged men who like seeing implied nudity...and butt monsters.

It'd also be a pretty uninteresting game if you had a strong, secure male protagonist who ended the game within five minutes of it starting in the same way that Lost would have been an uninteresting TV show if a cruise liner had passed by and picked them all up in the first episode.

This
also, it may be a bit mysoginistic, but it's still a hundred times less so than DNF

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Good, now we don't have to hear "REVIEW IT!" every week. I get the sense Yahtzee watches enough anime to get the idea, but still hate the tropes. Vincent was ineffectual. I bet you this could have been solved in five seconds with a flat "I had feelings for someone else." The game skirted this issue in a supremely ****** up way, extending the drama. I'll give Atlus this though: they know their audience. Stupid, insecure teenage or middle aged men who like seeing implied nudity...and butt monsters.

It'd also be a pretty uninteresting game if you had a strong, secure male protagonist who ended the game within five minutes of it starting in the same way that Lost would have been an uninteresting TV show if a cruise liner had passed by and picked them all up in the first episode.

Not to sound blatantly contrary, but some of us also find it uninteresting to watch a whiny, insecure guy string two women along because he doesn't have the spine to man the hell up and be direct with his intentions and actions.

Complicated doesn't always mean interesting. It's possible to make a flawed character without making him an unlikable twat.

 

[Jake the Snake]

I agree with Yahtzee. Anime is way too melodramatic and has way too much angst for its own good.

 

[Genixma]

"...your own substantial experience with relationships *AWESOME STIFLED LAUGHTER*"

Oh Yahtzee, you wonderful insult-machine.

Is that what it was? I could of sworn that was a sneezed judging on his voice changing suddenly as if trying to hold it in.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Ok I was already not sold on this game, now I'm even less sold on it.

 

[Siris]

Well, I loved the game, but I accept that someone might not like it. Well off you for importing the game, though

You know who actually do seem to act like sheep though? A lot of ZP fans

 

[KingofallCosmos]

I actually really, really wanted to play this until I heard that nothing you do has any impact on the story progression until the very end. So it's basically like Atlus' Persona games where you can start a relationship with one of the characters, but they still treat you as platonic during cut-scenes, which was annoying but acceptable. EXCEPT THAT WAS A LAST-GEN GAME! There is absolutely no excuse for that kind of laziness this console generation.

Though your choices do not (directly) have impact on the ending, the basic questions the game raises give the game more depth than the sum of the story. In my experience especially the first play through had a real impact. The meter in the game isn't all that interesting, more of a way to distinguish the three end paths.

 

[0986875533423]

That's a simile, Yahtzee, not a metaphor.

"All women are dykes": Oh how I want to quote this, and how offensive and unfunny it would become if taken out of context.

 

[Genixma]

You know who actually do seem to act like sheep though? A lot of ZP fans

And now I suddenly have an image of being in a block puzzle dream while being chased by a giant jar of Branston Pickle.