Catherine (video game)

Catherine
Uncensored PS3 cover art featuring Catherine
Developer(s)Atlus[a]
Publisher(s)
Full Body
  • WW: Sega
Director(s)
Producer(s)Katsura Hashino
Programmer(s)Yujiro Kosaka
Artist(s)
Writer(s)
  • Yuichiro Tanaka
  • Atsushi Kusama (Full Body)
Composer(s)Shoji Meguro
EngineGamebryo[b]
Platform(s)
Release
February 17, 2011
  • Classic
  • PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
    • JP: February 17, 2011
    • NA: July 26, 2011
    • EU: February 10, 2012
    • AU: February 23, 2012
    Windows
    • WW: January 10, 2019
  • Full Body
  • PlayStation 4
    • JP: February 14, 2019
    • WW: September 3, 2019
    PlayStation Vita
    • JP: February 14, 2019
    Nintendo Switch
    • JP: July 2, 2020
    • WW: July 7, 2020
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Catherine[c] is a puzzle video game developed by Atlus. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan and North America in 2011, in PAL regions by Deep Silver in 2012, and for Windows by Sega in 2019. A re-release with additional content, titled Catherine: Full Body,[d] was released in 2019 for the PlayStation 4 worldwide and for the PlayStation Vita only in Japan, and a Nintendo Switch version released worldwide in 2020.

The story follows Vincent Brooks, a man who is beset by supernatural nightmares while torn between his feelings for his longtime girlfriend Katherine and the similarly named beauty Catherine. The gameplay is divided between the daytime, where Vincent interacts with the characters in a social simulation, and his dreams where he must navigate three-dimensional towers through combined platforming and puzzle-solving. The game's ending is affected by choices made by Vincent over the course of the story.

Catherine was developed by the same studio behind the Persona series, including producer and director Katsura Hashino, character designer Shigenori Soejima, and music composer Shoji Meguro. The game began production near the end of Persona 4's development in 2008, with the aim being to create something for a more adult audience. The English localization was handled by Atlus USA. Full Body was developed by Studio Zero, a then-newly formed division within Atlus led by Hashino. The team aimed to expand upon the original, bringing back the original cast while adding a new love interest named Rin, short for Qatherine.

Reception was generally positive, with critics praising its mature subject matter and gameplay, despite some criticism directed towards its difficulty. The game was nominated for several awards, and exceeded Atlus' sales expectations by having sold over one million copies worldwide by 2017.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference CatherineDev was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference FullDengInterview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference IGNFullPreview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).