Catherine: Full Body Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Catherine: Full Body

Developer: Atlus Games
Publisher: SEGA
Website: https://www.catherinethegame.com/fullbody/
Genre: Action, Puzzle
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Age Rating: PEGI 18
Release Date: 07/07/2020
Price: £44.99

A code was provided for review purposes.

Introduction

Catherine: Full Body is to an extent both an expanded and a remake to the 2011 game Catherine. Developed by Atlus, Catherine is a tale of one man and his incredibly complicated love life. It’s a bizarre game filled with Demons, Sheep and a love triangle. While Catherine is a fine game and doesn’t necessarily need a reboot or remake, Catherine: Full Body takes everything from the main game and improves on it in every way.

Welcome to Vincent-ville

Catherine: Full Body introduces us to Vincent, an ordinary man who is struggling with his luck and relationship. Vincent’s current partner ‘Katherine’ wants to get more serious, but Vincent isn’t too sure if he wants to or not. One night Vincent has a chance encounter with a girl called Catherine; this leads to Vincent cheating on Katherine with Catherine. To make matters worse, Full Body introduces another character into Vincent’s life; a character called Rin. Its this lack of confidence that Vincent has to overcome when he starts to experience a recurring dream of towers and sheep.

Each night Vincent must confront this nightmare and soon comes to realise that failure in the dream world will result in his death. In-between confronting these nightmares we have various choices to make that overall can effect which narrative branch the story – and Vincent’s life takes. These choices are made during the story sections, and all have a naughty or nice feeling to them. However, with the new narrative that involves Rin, we can only access this if we meet certain conditions by a certain point in the game.

A Game of Two Halves

Catherine: Full Body is a game of two parts. With the player progressing the story and interacting with the cast during the day with their sim-like elements, to tackling the deadly tower puzzles at night. The day time interactions take place at a bar called the Stray Sheep. It’s in this bar that the player can check Vincent’s phone, reply to text messages and interact with Rin. Rin being one of the new elements in Full Body was not in the original Catherine release and as such is introduced as the Stray Sheep’s resident piano player. Depending on what interactions the player and Vincent experience will affect the games story and also the relationships Vincent develops in the dream world.

During the night Catherine: Full Body turns into a fast-paced puzzle game that can turn into a bit of a nightmare. To complete the night-time sections, we have to navigate a sprawling tower by moving and climbing cubes. The objective is to reach the top of this tower before the whole thing crumbles and sends Vincent to his untimely death. While these puzzle sequences can be incredibly difficult, there are multiple difficulty settings which can be chosen to make the game more accessible. Furthermore, there is also an auto feature which can be used, selecting this setting will allow Vincent to auto navigate the tower, without any input from the player.

Full Body Extras

Catherine: Full Body comes with a few new game modes which will give new and returning players some variation to the game’s story. One gameplay option allows the story modes tower puzzles to be remixed, and will give returning players a semi-new experience. There is also the Babel and Colosseum modes where we can utilise the DLC character sets and challenge other players online and earn points in ranked battles.

Conclusion

The Nintendo Switch version of Catherine: Full Body is a fantastic port. There are a few graphical rough edges which are mainly prevalent when playing in docked mode. However, these don’t subtract from the enjoyment of the game in any way. The Full Body version contains all the fantastic quirky character designs and puzzles that returning players will remember. The game doesn’t lose any of its narrative from Catherine, and Full Body builds on this in every way. There is something special about Catherine, and the Nintendo Switch port does nothing but complement an already brilliant game.

Rapid Reviews Rating

You can purchase Catherine: Full Body from the Nintendo eShop.