Catherine

This week's Famitsu clears up even more mysteries on Catherine, the first HD title from the folks who brought us Persona. The magazine has details on modes of play, online support, and multiplayer features. That's right, Catherine is a two player game!

When you load up Catherine, you'll find four options at the main menu screen (which shows sexy Catherine sitting on a swing). They are: Golden Theater, Babel, Colosseum and Configuration.

Golden Theater is the game's main story mode, where you work through the story involving Vincent and Catherine C and Katherine K. Vincent's fate will change based off the player's choices, says Famitsu.

When you select Golden Theater, you can choose from Easy, Normal and Hard difficulties. These affect the difficulty of the game's action part and have no effect on the story or conclusion. Easy mode allows you to use a "Redo" feature," according to the magazine, although there's no explanation for what this is (the term does show up in some screenshots of the action part, though).

The "Golden Theater" term has been appearing as a watermark in most of the screenshots since we got our first look at Catherine months ago. Outside of the story mode's name, Golden Theater is the name of an in-game television program that's hosted by a lady named Midnight Venus. Story mode begins with MV introducing Vincent and the characters.

Famitsu doesn't say this, but based off the watermarks, I'm going to speculate that the entire game is presented as a Golden Theater episode.

When Atlus updates the game's official site with all these mode details, you will be able to spot Midnight Venus by her huge red afro. And I mean huge! You could probably fit six of her heads inside of it.

Babel Mode is focused on the game's action components. The one screen in the magazine shows Vincent climbing a tower, which appears to be so high that you can see the clouds in the distance. This mode has four stages, which you unlock based off your performance in story mode (normal mode and up, it seems). There are single player and two player multiplayer options for this mode. You'll also be able to take part in online rankings where you attempt to get the shortest clear time.

Colosseum is a competitive mode where two players challenge the game's action stages simultaneously. As you climb up a tower, you'll need to think about both speed and methods for hindering your opponent. The person to win two rounds of play first wins the match. You'll unlock this mode once you've cleared Golden Theater mode.

Famitsu also has details this week on the game's online features. Two areas are mentioned. First up, Trophies. A Trophy list leaked out earlier, so this isn't too much of a surprise.

The other area is a bit more interesting. Previously, we detailed the Confession Room, an area you encounter when you reach the top of a stage. Here, you're asked a multiple choice question, and your response determines how you advance. If you're connected online, you can see graphs showing how other players responded. Based of the screens in Famitsu, it seems that you can select to see how different genders responded.

Now less than one month ahead of release, and Catherine is back in the most wanted spot amongst Famitsu's readers. You'll get a chance to see what the fuss is all about later today as Atlus releases a demo to PSN and Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo will offer a digest version of the game's opening -- hopefully complete with a glimpse at Midnight Venus and her massive red fro.

Ladd Russo wrote:

Jukebox plays in game music, and Persona music (along with other SMT games I dont know)

Mufasa wrote:Fuuuuuuuuuuck yeah!!!
Leave it to Atlus:

"We have no plans of US release as of this time."
One hour later.
"So let's make a plan to release it in the US guys!"