Great Escape!! You Survived. (feat. Skipping through games for the story?)

Just finished Catherine last night and viewed seven of the eight possible endings. Oh, man where do I start?

First, let me say that I'm not really all that into puzzle video games (I should fix that). My initial interest in Catherine was that it was created by the same guys who made the Persona series, and I just so happen to enjoy pole jocking those guys. That said, I started this up with a decently placed bar of expectations- Catherine jumped well over that bar.

So, this is a game split between two phases:

• The day time, where most of the cinematic parts of the actual story take place and where you have Vincent converse with certain NPCs (which has general effects on how the game ends).
• The night phase, where Vincent's trapped in a nightmare and you get to deal with puzzles of blocks to get him out of it.

Gameplay-wise...this was kind of like watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's entertaining to go through, but you'd have a hard time convincing me to go through it again. To clarify, I bitched out mid-way and turned the game to Very Easy mode, and I still had some issues on some stages. There's no one way to climb the huge tower of blocks, but because you can't always see far enough up ahead (and because you're dealing with a time limit), it can be difficult to plan your path out, and it's even tougher than that if you're trying to go for gold trophies (without cheating -___-). Like, sometimes you want to move a block just so you can move up a level, but you couldn't see that it was holding up a stack of blocks on the back side of the tower. A whole side drops and now you may have potentially destroyed an optimal path for scaling higher.

Oh, and FUCK ice blocks.

But overall, I feel the events surrounding the puzzles made the experience all that enjoyable. I mean, when I think of puzzle games, I think of something like Tetris, where it's just map after map after map of blocks, or what have you, until you get tired. Catherine actually places a legitimate story and theme into the game, and your reward for completing the challenges is being able to enjoy that story. Just as Vincent's incentive for dealing with these bullshit nightmares is to live, the player's incentive for dealing with them as well is likely driven by the desire to complete the story. Don't try to invalidate that on the grounds of that being commonplace in gaming. We all know there are a lot of games where you most certainly aren't playing mainly for story progression.

Speaking of the story, I have to say I enjoyed it, and not necessarily because it's a good story. It's alright, in my opinion. The thrills come from a lot of "Oh, shit! Vince is in some deep shit!" moments and Catherine's (the character) deviant nature. I enjoyed it more for the fact that it has an overall feel to a visual novel, which is a favored genre of mine. Essentially, every choice you make when you're not dealing with blocks leads to NPCs living/dying and eventually which of the eight possible endings you'll get when you finish. Hell, even in certain cutscenes, Vincent's inner-dialogue changes based on how you've been making choices thus far. I feel like a game's story doesn't stale as fast when you have multiple ways to enjoy it.

On a related topic (the featured one in the title), a while ago I was introduced to this pic in my usual You Laugh You Lose thread:

If you're like me, you'd probably think this is a dumb idea. As expressed in the thread, the point of a game is to play the damn thing. There are specialized games, like visual novels and Heavy Rain, where your gameplay elements are kept to a minimum so that you can enjoy the story, but an idea like that in something like an RPG? Tradition aside, that's essentially saying "I want a 3-hour book for $40+." That's cost inefficient for you as well as profit inefficient for the companies making the game, should you decide to just turn the game back in for a full refund when you're done (But hey! Maybe it'll keep rental services like Blockbuster alive! :D).

As I played through Catherine, though, I started coming up with a compromised thought. See, when you beat each stage in Catherine, you get one of three trophies based on your performance- bronze, silver, and gold. If you receive a gold trophy on a stage (on Normal or Hard modes), you can skip that stage on your next playthrough. This is very helpful for viewing all 8 endings, since you need at least three runs to view them all.

So, I started thinking, "What if more games DID allow you to skip game elements as a reward for overcoming its challenges?" Essentially this is achieved in the New Game+'s where you get to keep all of your overpowered shit and blaze through fights like nothing, but what if you could skip even that for the sake of going through the story in a different manner?

For example, take any generic RPG. For forced fights, like bosses, let's say if you win with some complicated set up, the next time you play the game (assuming the story can be changed in certain fashions, based on what you do outside of battle), you can skip that fight. Or with dungeons, if you manage to locate hidden items or make it through within a certain time limit, bam- skip to the exit/boss fight with key items on hand on your New Game+. I think it's a decent compromise for the game's premise (aka PLAYING THE DAMN GAME) and for people who like going through multiple story paths or getting certain achievements, only obtainable through multiple playthroughs, without always having to stop for a big grind/upgrade session each time. I'm sure there are some overlooked concerns and flaws with this concept, but hey, it's an idea.

So, yeah. Catherine. Awesome game. Tough challenges with relatively satisfying rewards. Fun story with some thought-inducing concepts on love and choosing between chaotic and peaceful lifestyles. Shoutouts to my man, Shoji Meguro, for the awesome music.

May you rest in peace, little lamb.