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Atlus Horror Action Game Catherine Looks Weird, Possibly Sexy
Last week Atlus revealed their first HD project in the pages of Famitsu, an adult-themed horror action game called Catherine. Today, the website for the game launched along with an HD trailer. You can check out the trailer below, but first I'm going to lay out three reasons why I'm excited about this project.
1. The game is being worked on by key members of the Persona team. I'm a huge fan of Persona 3 and 4, and I would love to see that team take some of the ideas and themes played with in that series and utilize them in a more adult setting. As fun as managing high school social links may be, they're limited on how far they can take the character interaction and drama in that series.
2. It's the core Atlus style finally in HD. Sure, it's unlikely that Catherine will be among the best-looking games of the current generation, but the aforementioned Persona games stuck out even at the end of the PS2's life cycle because they had an extremely cool stylized look to the locations, characters, and menus. I've been wanting to see that translated into HD ever since I first put my hands on Persona 4.
3. I'm a pervert. Okay, maybe not, but seriously: Games such as Heavy Rain have just barely started proving that sex and sexuality are topics that can be handled in video games. This first trailer and some of the early screenshots from Famitsu suggest that Catherine could push a little too far into the erotic territory, making it something more targeted toward horny teenage boys than adults with a realistic grasp on sex. But I still have hope that Atlus could pull through and provide an example of a game with sexual themes that are earned and necessary to the story its telling.
So there! That's my case for why I'm interested in the potential behind Catherine. I'll have to wait until we see more -- and until Atlus hopefully announces a North American release -- to find out if it amounts to anything. In the mean time, check out the Japanese website for the game and the first official trailer below. Warning: Though there's no direct nudity or sex, the trailer is probably not work safe or kid-friendly.
Catherine is due out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Japan this winter.
UPDATE: As noted by Perfect.Disaster in the comments: "Catherine got a CERO C rating, which is suitable for gamers ages 15 and up" (pretty similar to the ESRB's Teen rating). So we can assume that the game probably isn't too salacious in its use of sexuality.
[some info via Andriasang]
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