Genre: Horror Adventure
Console: PS3, Xbox360
Vincent, a listless 32-year-old with a marked lack of motivation in both his work and his personal life, has just hooked up with Catherine. A charming 22-year-old with blonde hair and the sort of looks that a lot of men would kill for. It's not a bad catch for someone like Vincent, but he hasn't been able to bask in it that much, thanks to the nightmares he's been having ever since he met her. Every night, it's the same thing: Vincent's climbing up an endless stairway, running into talking sheep and giant hands, and if he stops, he knows he's going to die. In real life. Like a lot of other young men have been doing lately.
So goes the basic plot to Catherine, an action adventure game announced by Atlus over in Japan this week. The first game Atlus has developed in-house for high-definition consoles, the title is being handled by most of the staff behind the company's Persona series -- producer/director Katsura Hashino, character designer Shigenori Soejima, and sound composer Shoji Meguro.
"Before we storm the hi-def consoles with one of our RPGs, we wanted to try making something new," Hashino told Famitsu magazine this week. "These are the results, and it's pretty weird...or, I should say, pretty neat! What's unusual about it is how geared toward adults it is... It may wind up being a love-or-hate kind of game, but to those who find it fascinating, I hope we can provide them with a novel and interesting experience."
Atlus isn't saying much about what exactly Catherine's gameplay is like, although both the cutscenes and the 3D-based action scenes will use a muted anime style. The game itself is due out this winter for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in Japan; Atlus USA hasn't announced an American release yet. Stay tuned for more.
There's a rumor that it takes place in the Persona 3 and 4 continuity. Vincent was supposedly one of the people you could pick up in Tartarus in FemC's playthrough.
Though the game doesn't have the Persona title, nor the familiar SMT logo, it has more than a few connections to the series.
Persona 3 and Persona 3 Portable director/producer Katsura Hashino and series character designer Shigenori Soejima are both attached to the project, as is long-time series composer Shoji Meguro. According to Meguro, he's been instructed to compose for the game with key terms like "classic", "adult-oriented", and "erotic." That explains the depiction of the pizza.
And a shot of Vincent in P3P. As well as some highlights of interacting with him and other notes of interest.
-Talks about rumors that you die in real life if you die in your dreams before "hitting bottom"
- His back story is that his relationship is on the rocks after cheating on his girlfriend, but after hearing that he knocked her up, decides to get back together.
- Is only referred to as "Man drinking alone" in game, but has several character portraits after you talk to him enough times.
- Data mining the UMD revealed his portraits to be labeled "Vincent"
- In the final scene, he promises to tell you more about his story, but that it has nothing to do with your problems, with that line highlighted in Plot Relevant Red.
The sheep in the nightmare world are other people, Vincent even gets horns like them while there.
The game is 80% complete and will release this winter in Japan.
