Catherine - Making Choices Has Never Been So Hard. Pun Intended.

 

• Published by: Atlus
• Developed by: Atlus Persona Team
• Genre: Puzzle-Platformer, Adventure
• Number of Players: Single Player Story, Multiplayer Challenge
• M for Mature: Blood, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
• Available On: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

To be clear, I had been skeptical about Catherine when it was first announced. Puzzle games are not usually the genre of game I play in my free-time. But after finding out it was the Persona Team? I needed to have this game! The adult themes were really refreshing, since the Persona series can only get away with so much. I think I can handle pushing some boxes for the sake of a great story line. When has the MegaTen series ever let me down there?

Never.
 

It's easier said than done, you know. These puzzles are actually quite a challenge!

The game in a nutshell is that you are this guy named Vincent. You have a girlfriend named Katherine. You love her, you do, but things are getting a little to "real". Katherine wants a future, the whole shebang! Marriage, a home, kids...Vincent is starting to have second thoughts. Around this time, a mysterious girl shows up, named Catherine. With a C. Vincent starts forgetting what he does at night and starts having these strange dreams, where every one is a sheep but him! And when he wakes up? He doesn't remember that at all either.

The most fun you'll have with this game is you can choose to cheat on Katherine for Catherine, or stay faithful and truthful. You have a meter that tells you if you're "orderly" or "chaotic". It's not good and evil. The choices do affect your ending! Yay for multiple ending games! That usually means high replay value, right? Well...wrong. Unless you're a fan of puzzles.

What I found interesting is that even though it's a puzzle game, they were able to integrate bosses. There's no health bar, so it's a one hit equals game over policy, but they bosses get pretty creative, and reflect Vincent's worries about the future.

"DADDY, DON'T LEAVE ME!"

Try not to get your C's and K's mixed up as you send text messages. Yes, you can send text messages and depending on what you say, you can get some sexy, dirty pictures of BOTH C/Katherine's!

Just a taste of what they can send you...

And if you thought that wasn't enough decision making for you, guess what? You can interact with all of the other characters while you're at the bar! However, there is a "hidden" clock. Time passes while you do certain things. The bar's customer's will leave. And if they leave before you can talk to them? It can cost them their life. Yup. On the bright side, you can get shit-faced drunk to help you move faster in the dream world, and learn some interesting trivia about four different types of alcohol: sake, beer, cocktail, and whiskey.

Starting from the left, moving clockwise: Toby, Jonny, Orlando, and Vincent.

Not enough choices you say? Good, because there is more! During your sleep, you complete the puzzles to climb the tower. After every stage, there is a question to answer. This affects your Order/Chaotic Meter. If you play offline, you're going to get more accurate results from a poll conducted before the game was released! If you play online, your pie charts will be affected by people who chose certain answers for certain endings. Your pie charts are also divided up into male answers and female answers.

Questions vary from level to level and don't seem to be in any order. I'm inclined to say it's random, every time.

 The game gets better. If you really love the puzzles and/or want the surprise secret ending? There's a single/multiplayer extra mode called Bable. There is also a multiplayer stage called Colosseum. And if that wasn't enough puzzle solving for you, you are in luck! There's a puzzle solving game in the bar. It's the same block pushing fun!

If you get far enough into Rapunzel, you will be able to see some connections between the game and the real world...

 But are you ready for my biggest bit of happiness? This game put a jukebox in the bar.
"But Kera, what's so special about that?"

It is all music by Shoji Meguro. From Catherine and all other ShinMegaTen games.

Yes, this includes Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4, Digital Devil Saga, and Devil Summoner! Also keep an eye out in the bar for MORE cameos from the other games! Can you find all the Teddie's?

With  a mixture of both in game and anime cut scenes, this game is one you'll be keeping on your shelf for a long time.

The verdict?

Overall Rating: 9/10

Musical Score: 10/10
Voice Acting: 10/10

Graphics: 9.9/10

Game Mechanics: 8.5/10

Story: 10/10

Replay Value: 6/10

Comments

Musical Score: Shoji Meguro. If you do not already worship this man for his music, you need to start. No matter how repetitive it is sometimes, there is always a time for Shoji Meguro's music. On top of that, all of the songs in this game are CLASSICS. Literally classics. Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, Holst... remastered to the mind of Shoji Meguro.

Voice Acting: A-list cast of voice actors including Yuri Lowenthal, Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Liam O' Brien, Kirk Thornton, and more! Leave it to Persona Team.

Game Mechanics: This is attributed to the controls during the puzzle. You know when you hear some one complain that the game is making them lose? Well, in this case, it's true. You use the D-Pad or control stick to press up, left, right, and down...but the puzzle is at an angle. Not only does that make it easy to screw up in a crucial moment, but once you get behind the puzzle area, good luck getting out of it. The controls reverse as soon as you stop moving and will reverse back again when you reach certain spots. It was probably the most frustrating part of the whole game. The only upside to the annoying angle was that you do have the option to undo your last few moves.

Story: Excellent story! We have a genuinely good story going here to the point that it would make a good OVA or anime instead of a game. Your choices affect the life or death of other characters, Vincent's thoughts, and which Catherine, if any, you end up with. If you play this story true to your choices, you're going to have a blast!

 Replay Value: Yes, despite it having multiple endings, a great soundtrack, and super sexy voice acting...for me, the replay value is still not high. Even going back to play the game on easy, it doesn't vary enough. The same things still happen- Vincent's thoughts just change. And the very end changes. Everything else is the same. So it's so much easier to just watch the endings. I would, however, go back and play it out of boredom. So it's not complete crap for replay. And I would still treasure this game and keep it, even if I didn't play it all the time, because it was an incredible experience. I expect more like this from the Persona Team.

Shadow of Destiny - Watch Your Back With This One

• Published by: Konami
  
• Developed by: Konami Computer, Entertainment Tokyo, Runecraft (PC port)
• Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
  
• Number of Players: 1
• T for Teen: Alcohol Reference, Animated Blood, Violence
• Available On: PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox, PSP
  

Welcome to Lebensbaum, Germany.

You play as Eike. And at 2:30 PM, in a little German town, you are murdered. The object of the game is simple: you get to go back in time and do things differently, to save your life. How? With the help of a mysterious man whom you meet upon your death. He seems to have saved your life, Eike's life, and is willing to help you stay alive. He gives you a device called the Digipad that will light up at key moments and teleport you back in time. Be careful not to meet yourself...that could end badly.

He will also offer points of advice when you die.

You travel through three layers of time. Your present era (full color), the early 1900's (black and white) and the 1500's (sepia). You must be curious now as to why you would go all the way back to the 1500's, just to save you life, right? Eike is tied deeply into an exciting and dangerous adventure spanning over the course of hundreds of years. But with a multiple ending game? You'll have to replay and replay until you can piece together all of the endings!

Will the building be a library or an art museum? You get to decide. Over and over and over...

My favorite part about this game are the townspeople. They don't change. They just happen to all look the same through out each era that you can travel to. And, your actions with them affect their future lives! For instance...

There is a man inside the cafe, that if you show him your cellphone, he will freak out. This is because when you travel back to the 1500's, you can choose to pull out your cellphone, and scare him away with your sorcery. 

They game will certainly leave you with this feeling. 

 

The verdict?

Overall Rating: 5.5/10

Musical Score: 3/10

Voice Acting: 2/10

Graphics: 6/10

Game Mechanics: 8/10

Story: 9/10

Replay Value: 4/10

Comments

Musical Score: Okay, honestly I wasn't thrilled with it. It was fitting for the game, but otherwise, I wouldn't waste my time getting the soundtrack. It was enough having to listen to it to get the different endings. Hell, just the one play through was enough, really. But it was something I could stand.

Voice Acting: *non-stop laughter here* The only one that doesn't sound like a stick in the mud or some one being held at gun point was the "Mysterious Character" who gives you the digipad...

Game Mechanics: Very simple, no health bar, just energy units. Energy is always in the same places. Choices affect your ending. The puzzles are a little challenging sometimes, but really the puzzles are just "What do I do this time that didn't kill me last time?" The only way to get a game over is to run into, literally, your self.

Story: The story was very interesting and compelling! If you don't play for the other endings, you'll be left with the wrong impression. Like incest.

 Replay Value: Is terrible. Between the music and the horrid voice acting, I ended up watching the other endings. Maybe I'll go back and replay it, but it's all the same puzzles, just different choices. Nothing really changes playthrough to playthrough.

9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors - I'm On A Boat...I'm On A Boat...

• Published by: Aksys Games
• Developed by: Chunsoft
• Genre: Visual Novel, Choose Your Own Adventure, Puzzle Game
• Number of Players: 1
• M for Mature: Blood, Drug Reference, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
• Available On: Nintendo DS, iOS

   I am normally sort of a coward when it comes to playing escape games. However, this is an un-timed, multiple ending, find a way out game. Your choices make a difference and so does your interaction with the characters! This is probably, single-handedly, one of the BEST handheld games I've ever played.

 The story goes that you are Junpei, a 21 year old college student who is kidnapped from his home. You wake up in a room with two sets of bunk-beds. You fall off the top bunk and take in the room, noticing the number 5 is written in red paint across a door which is locked. On you wrist is a watch with the number 5 on it. Find a way out. But before you have time to think about how to get out? The window breaks open and water starts to flood the small room. You're on a ship.

  

You aren't the only one playing the game though. You're joined by 8 other players to play the Nonary Game.

From Left to Right: (Back Row) Seven, Ace, Snake, 9th Man      (Front Row) Lotus, Santa, June, Junpei, Clover

Together, you all must make it through the Nonary Game and to safety. Using your general knowledge, the knowledge of your companions, and some basic math skills, you must find a door with the label of 9.

And yes, I said math skills. There's actually a lot of math in here! I'm not very good at math, but it's all very simple, revolving around the number 9, and something called Digital Root. The Digital Root is when you add up all of the numbers together, including when you reach double digits.

 

7 + 2 + x = 5? ....I need to go back to math, that just doesn't make sense...

For example: 1 + 6 + 7 = 14 = 1 + 4 = 5
You can now open a door labeled 5!

This game is one best played and less spoken about. There are so many twists and turns to this game, that you HAVE to replay it over and over and choose different paths to gather all of the information to better understand this game. Stay AWAY from the wikipedia pages and spoilers! This is a fantastic puzzle for your mind to analyze the evidence, character choices, and understand...what happened 9 years ago? Who are these 9 people? And who...is Zero?

You have 9 hours to answer all of your questions.

The verdict?

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Musical Score: 8/10

Graphics: 9/10

Game Mechanics: 9/10

Story: 9.5/10

Replay Value: 10/10

Comments

Musical Score:Some of it is a little repetitive, not very catchy, and not something I would want to download the OST for. However, it does have some good songs, and it really sets the mood. This game can get DARK.

Game Mechanics: Use your stylus to look around and pick up things. Combine objects. Use search option to inquire more about an object that you already have. If you're having trouble, the characters will give you as much help as they can with their own personal knowledge.

Story: Oh. My. God. This. Story. The STORY is amazing. It really makes you think. It's like a good mystery and suspense novel. However, it is long. It does tend to drag on in some parts or describe things you just don't care about. Junpei and June seem to flirt a lot. However, after you beat the game once? Anything you've already read, you can old the Right D-Pad Button and it will fast forward until you arrive at a choice or something new. So enjoy the story for the first time through.

Replay Value: Again and again and again. I actually haven't finished all of the endings, but I couldn't help but write the review now! I am currently on my third playthrough, and I plan to get all of the endings and solve the mystery.