A puzzle game with a morality s💟ystem cen🍒tered around staying faithful to your partner; there’s really nothing else like Catherine. One of Atlus’ most emotionally mature and thou✅ghtful games, Catherine is a testament to the potential of storytelling in the gaming medium. It tells a grippingly erot🐬ic love story that a๊lso manages to serve as a reflection of our relationship with love.
It was remade last year as Catherine: Full Body, a PlayStation 4 game that shakes up the original story considerably. In some ways for the better, and in some ways for the 🐎worse. Both versions of Catherine are worth playing, but they aren’t exactly interc😼h🔴angeable, with the original game offering something Full Body doesn’t.
10 Catherine: Better Pacing
As Full Body adds a third love interest into the mix, Rin, i🎃t perhaps goes without saying that the pacinꦅg ends up taking something of a hit. Where the original game carefully balances time spent with Catherine and Katherine equally, Rin ends up driving an awkward wedge between between the two love interests.
Worse yet, Rin is so in🅠trusive that ♈one can’t help but feel like Full Body is pushing her over th🦂e other girls– which it is. Full Body i🧔s paced with Rin’s story in mind, whereas the original game’s pa🦹cing lends itself perfectly to whatever storyline players end up stumbling down. It’s a shame Full Body compromises that.
9 Full Body: Better Gameplay
The core gameplay loop is ♏solid across both the original Catherine and Full Body, but it would just be silly to ignore how much better the latter is. Gameplay is exactly as it was in the original release, but it’s more refined. Vincent's cಞontrols far smoother, and there are even new mechanics in play to keep gameplay fresh.
There’s even an arranged mod🐬e for the main campaign that shakes levels up. It’s o༒ne of the best aspects about Full Body, and it’s fantastic that Atlus saw the remake as an opportunity to bolster the core gameplay🙈 even further. If only allꦇ gameplay remakes could be this good.
8 Catherine: Better Story
This kind of goes hand in h𝓰and with the better pacing, but the original Catherine ends up having a much better story as a result of only focusing on Vincent’s relationship with Catherine and Ka💟therine. Every scene matters, and it’s impossible not to hang onto every word. The mystery unfolds and unravels in such a methodical manner, but always in a way that feels like real narrative progress is being made.
Rin distracts from that and generally takes away from the overall quality of the story. Their arc i🐷s interesting in its own right, but it’s jammed right into a story where it clearly never belonged in.
7 Full Body: Better Questions
One of the best parts of playing Catherine is answer🌳ing the morality questions that take place inbetween stages. Morality’s probably not the right term, though. They’re more like a psychological evaluation. Each one sways the player towards one of 9 endings in the original game, and they’re typically very thought provoking, if not 💛entertaining.
Full Body adds a host of new questions. It’s really just a net positive overall. Some are tied to Rin’s arc, but that really only makes playing Rin’s story more engaging. Whꦉ♌ile the story suffers, Full Body offers a campaign that’s more than worth pla꧟ying.
6 Catherine: Better Endings
More content is typically a good thing (and we’ll get to that) but less really is more when it comes toꩲ Catherine’s endings. Full Body’s new endings, while interest🔴ing and entertaining, feel tonally out of place with the actual story. Not only are most of the new endings na▨rratively unearned, they’re just unsatisfying.
Catherine’s original endings all get the job done, from demonizing Vincent’s behavior, to celebrating his decision to roman✅tically liberate himself. They’re mature, thoughtful endings that are appropriate within the context of t💯he story because they were all naturally written together. Not years apart for a remake.
5 Full Body: Better Presentation
Catherine was always a good looking game, but Full Body really embraces the aesthetics on another level. It’s one of the best looking games on the PlayStatio🐽n 4. The graphics are so smooth, and the art style is groovy. With that excellent color palette and an incredible score (even better in Full Body somehow🐭) it’s so easy to get immersed in this interpretation𓃲 of Catherine.
The Stray Sheep comes alive so much more fully. Full Body really knocks the sub-plots out of the park in this regard. The NPCs are just so much more dynamic, with their stories presented in a🐎 more meಞaningful manner.
4 Catherine: Better Depiction Of Vincent
It’s so much worse🌜 that Vincent is cheating on his girlfriend with two wom🐎en in Full Body. In the original Catherine, Catﷺherine was a representation of Vincent’s romantic insecurities. The🦋 story made it clear that this did not excuse his adultery, but it was an important element that kept him sympathetic and relatable.
No matter how you slice it, Vincent emotionally cheats on Katherine with Rin and pretty much gets away with it in 95% of the endings. Rin brings out an interesting si🌼de of Vincent, but it doesn’t make him more endearing. It just makes it look like he has a seria♛l problem with cheating, something that wasn’t the case in the original game.
3 Full Body: More Content
When it comes down to it, Catherine is a game, and a very fun one at that. Full Body has a worse story, but it excels j𝔍ust about🍃 everywhere else. The original Catherine is a much better 🍸experienc𒐪e in regards to overall quality, but Full Body balances a lot of quantity with some🦋 very high quality gameplay and𝓰 level design.
This is a remake bursting with🃏 content. There’s so much to unlock, so much to play through, and so much to see. Full Body earns its value fast. Not that the original Catherine doesn’t, but Full Body is just such a larger game.
2 Catherine: It’s The Original
It’🐠🧔s a good reason, if not the best reason. This is Catherine as it wasಌ originally conceived– the original artistic vi🍨sion. Catherine, not Full Body, is ꦿthe most mature game in Atlus’ library. It’s also one of the most original games in Atlus’ libraries. It’s one of the most creative games in general. The original Catherine is worth pla൩ying if only to realize how ahead of its time it wasꦚ.
And still i♋s, honestly. There’s never been another game like𝄹 Catherine. It doesn’t have all theಌ content or production value of Full Body, but it’s charming, incredibly fun, and different enough to warrant a playthrough.ꩲ Or ꦺNine.
1 Full Body: Better Multiplayer
Catherine has a multiplayer mode and a pretty damn good one, but the original game just didn’t have the legs for an active online scene. There was a community𒈔 fo🐠r a while, but nothing substantial. Full Body offers a second chance at life for competitive Catherine multip♛layer, and it’s just a much better multiplayer experience overall.
More content, more depth, and more fun. Full Body’s multiplayer mode is on the same level as Rare’s old multiplayer💙 modes in the Nintendo 64 days. Just good wholesome fun for the whole family. Seriously, though, dive into Full Body’s online if you haven’t. You won’t regret it.