by: Michael Barnes

Vincent Brooks is a 32-year old IT professional stuck in a transition phase that many young men go through sometime between their mid-20s to early-30s. The freedom of collegiate life and hanging out every night at the local bar lingers, and his friendships tend to be within a group relationship context, with his long-term buddies clinging together like sheep in a flock. Vincent is in a relationship with the mature, responsible Katherine—a young woman with a matronly streak and a ticking biological clock sounding wedding bells. Yet Vincent has certain blocks in his life that he must overcome before he’s ready for that level of commitment, and that’s around the time that the mysterious Catherine, a free-spirited and possibly malevolent force of sexuality, free will, and permissiveness enters his life and his bed.

Despite the mature relationship content and a marketing campaign that sort of sold the game as some kind of soft-core JRPG, Atlus’ Catherine is barely about sex at all despite Vincent’s weird and sometimes unremembered trysts with the blue-eyed girl of his dreams (or is she?). It’s much more about the period in men’s lives when they begin to either pair off into committed relationships and family or remain stuck in a bar like the game’s Stray Sheep, downing Cuba Libres and wondering if things will ever change or if love will ever materialize. Or they become lost in infidelity, faithlessness, and dishonesty, failing to break away from the irresponsible sexual freedom of youth.

Vincent’s story, regardless of the eight possible outcomes that dialogue choices and subtle, interactive branches create, is one that I believe many young men can relate to. Despite its anime styling, JRPG trappings and Persona team pedigree, it’s far more tangible and resonant than the typical video game narratives of pulp genre and macho fantasy. It’s rare to see a game that not only connects with very real-world concerns about becoming an adult man, but also one that examines rather non-judgmentally the kinds of decisions and changes that men of this age find themselves struggling with and through.

Heavy stuff, really, and interstitial quotes attributed to everyone from Blaise Pascal to George Carlin about marriage and relationships drive home the point. But Catherine handles its mature subject matter with witty charm and some genuinely funny writing. A pitch-perfect translation and top-notch voice acting sell the story, even when it veers somewhat off the rails in the later stages. It is ironic though that despite its frankness the game can’t seem to commit to an ideological position on its subject, and at least one of the endings is just about as juvenile a male fantasy as can be imagined.

Ultimately, the player gets the ending they deserve based on how they’ve treated mature Katherine and immature Catherine as well as the way they’ve responded to characters at various points in the game. There is a morality slider, but it never feels as binary or obvious as this mechanic does in other games, and thankfully there’s never a part where the player is shown both girls and asked to choose with the controller. There are also points at which Vincent enters a confessional and a mysterious voice ask the player relationship questions. “Does life end or begin at marriage?” “Do you consider yourself to be a pervert?” Reponses are fed to the Atlus server, and a pie chart shows you what everyone else chose. It’s almost like a Cosmopolitan quiz for guys.

Little details like these quizzes, trivia about booze when Vincent finishes a drink, and the framing of the story as an in-game TV show called “The Golden Playhouse” (hosted by the generously afro’d Midnight Venus) make the game’s very limited environments come to life. For much of its duration, there isn’t much to do, really, other than answer text messages and talk to other bar patrons. With some distance from the game, it doesn’t seem like much—although while playing, there is an immersive quality to it all that keeps it from feeling like too much watching and not enough doing. The interactive portions of the story take place strictly in the Stray Sheep or in Vincent’s nightmares, where the game takes a sharp turn into puzzle territory.