Catherine

Catherine (2019) is a narrative puzzle game about a young man torn between two lovers, struggling with the temptation and consequences of infidelity. During the daytime, you interact with characters in a visual novel that sets up the nighttime traversal challenge. It stands out for its (sometimes dated) tackling of mature subjects and the ambition to address the consequences of our mistakes and the difficulty of identifying the right course of action.

Vincent Brooks is haunted by supernatural nightmares that related to his conflicting feelings for his longtime girlfriend Katherine and new friend Catherine. You help him decide on the best course of action during the daytime. The real novelty, though, is the nighttime puzzles. Here you traverse block-based towers to deal with the disturbing scenarios you encounter.

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As you progress through the game the choices you make determine how the story evolves. The original game offered just two romance options between the two C/Katherine characters. The recent Full Body update adds some more nuance with a third character, Rin, who helps the game escape more blacks and white conundrums.

The result is a deep romance narrative game that has some brilliant brain-bending platform puzzles. It's from the team being the Persona games and has that same sense of high production.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Catherine 11 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 10 months ago.