Catherine: Behind the mask, the abyss

When the team behind the modern Persona games decided to tell the story of the escapades and torments of a young adult haunted by his impulses, the result was Catherine, an atypical and grotesque work combining puzzles and visual novels. A sort of reverse anticipation of the excellent Void Stranger, in which the goal was to sink deeper and deeper into claustrophobic depths, Catherine offers climbing sequences, a succession of ascents that are not based on cleverly designed gameplay like Cairn or Jusant, but entirely focused on reflection, anticipation, and adaptation. However, unlike in the examples cited above, these climbing passages are not the focus of the adventure, which features numerous dialogue scenes and other key moments designed to gather the choices and thoughts of the players. This seemingly absurd combination nevertheless displays a subtle balance, creating a unique and memorable experience that, against all odds, has found its way to the West.It must be said that when the game was first released, the team itself did not expect such enthusiasm from fans, who still seem to be there when Team Persona ventures off the beaten track it has been following for years (see Metaphor: ReFantazio). Considered a parenthesis between two major games, Catherine drew on the talent of its developers to become an experience with precise and entertaining mechanics, but also a work that addressed themes that were then rather rare in the medium. Despite a rather opportunistic marketing campaign at the time (Atlus, like Kojima preparing his first Death Stranding, was rather discreet about the true nature of the game, preferring to focus on a series of cryptic images and highlighting the title character through a series of suggestive poses), the game then enjoyed positive word of mouth, allowing it to break out of the boxes in which it was quickly pigeonholed.

Vincent Brooks is the name of the avatar that the audience will encounter during this nightmare. He is a rather ordinary thirty-something, neither the archetypal hero nor a certified loser, just a guy like so many others. Far from being brimming with qualities, Vincent is above all indecisive, a bit of a coward, who tries to escape his daily responsibilities, such as his job or his relationship. But for the past few days, strange news items have been appearing more and more often in the newspapers: young men are regularly found dead in their beds, their faces disfigured by an expression of indescribable terror. It is in this morbid atmosphere that Vincent tries to get on with his life, accompanied by his loyal group of friends, but also and above all by his partner, Katherine McBride. This responsible and pragmatic woman is the antithesis of Vincent, complementing his shortcomings and filling in the gaps, like the perfect piece of a complex puzzle. Unlike Vincent, who is stuck in the present, Katherine thrives on plans and builds her future with serenity and disconcerting determination. A future she can only imagine with Vincent, even though he is mired in uncertainty. His doubts intensify when he meets the famous Catherine, who lends her name to the game’s title and who comes between Vincent’s wanderings with a bang. And as if that weren’t enough, the encounter between the young man and his living fantasy is accompanied by the appearance of strange, cryptic nightmares that haunt the thirty-something’s every night.

The game is mainly divided into two phases that follow each other and alternate throughout the game. In the first phase, players are invited to guide Vincent as he wanders among the seats of his favorite bar, the Stray Sheep, which serves as the “team’s” headquarters (the name refers to the symbolism of sheep, and the nickname can be taken to directly refer to the bar’s customers, who are lonely and lost). Atlus has always emphasized a gathering place for the characters in its stories, from the dormitory in Persona 3 to the surveyor in Metaphor, reflecting the emotional or symbolic situation of the protagonists. Catherine’s lounge bar is no exception to this rule, offering a cocoon populated by lost souls with complex personalities, and even equipped with an arcade machine featuring gameplay sequences from the nightmares, as if to emphasize the fact that these dreamlike escapades spill over into reality.

During these phases of exploring the bistro, Vincent is free to chat with the various customers, who are tormented by their own existential questions. It is possible to respond differently depending on your preferences, but the advice you give will shape the destiny of these troubled souls, which will unfold as the story progresses. Here, the game fully embraces the conventions of the visual novel, despite the glossy presentation of these sequences: the heart of the action remains in these exchanges and the choices offered.

The main adventure does not depend on exchanges with anonymous customers, but rather on those between Vincent and his closest friends. Communication goes beyond the confines of the bar, thanks to the ability to send and receive text messages to Katherine or Catherine, as if the two women, despite their absence, were weighing on Vincent’s shoulders. Players can choose whether or not to respond, thus continuing to forge their own story. The avatar can then appear passionate or, on the contrary, cold and distant. The reactions of the two women will obviously change depending on the responses selected, sculpting a personalized narrative within a story that is nevertheless linear in its progression.

Ainsi, comme dans les Persona, la communication et les liens tissés auprès de ses alliés constituent un point fondamental de l’expérience, mais aussi du propos général de l’œuvre. Le studio insiste sur l’importance des échanges et des liens, fondations de la société, tout en soulignant certains aspects délétères de ces interactions : les personnages ne répondent qu’en fonction de leurs envies et besoins, dissimulant parfois leurs convictions derrière des masques (Persona) dans le seul but d’obtenir des avantages (Metaphor) ou des faveurs (Catherine) de la part d’autrui. De ce fait, les croyances du public tenant la manette ne correspondent pas forcément aux réponses validées en cours de partie, lesquelles ne dépendent donc que de l’objectif à atteindre.

After manipulating his audience in these visual novel phases, Vincent manipulates the world to suit his needs in the second type of sequence in the game: climbing. During these puzzle-game sequences, Vincent must reach the top of surreal buildings composed of cubes with various properties. As he progresses through the different levels, the challenges and obstacles become more complex, sometimes by giving the cubes special properties, sometimes by placing monsters in pursuit of Vincent, and other times by mixing all of these elements together. During these chases, time is running out (the buildings are gradually collapsing), which, of course, reflects various metaphors echoing the protagonist’s situation and his questions. These sequences, like the narrative phases, are accompanied by different choices in the form of dialogues. Indeed, on each floor he traverses, Vincent finds himself in a confessional, grappling with a deep voice asking him various questions about life, love, existence, etc., questions that actually delve into the psyche of the players.

Catherine thus offers a mix of these two types of sequences until the conclusion of its main story. Much like the calendar management in Persona, this structure allows players to quickly find their bearings, which Atlus takes great pleasure in gradually deconstructing. Behind what appears to be a mundane love triangle, other themes emerge in the background, themes that may remain unclear if the audience limits itself to the basic adventure. To grasp the full mythology developed by Atlus, it is necessary to explore every nook and cranny of the game. However, before delving into the true story of Catherine, it is worth taking a moment to consider what this work says about human behavior in society.

Firstly, Catherine depicts individuals with a strong desire to belong, whether to a group of friends, a work team, or a couple, while at the same time displaying an exaggerated sense of individuality. At the beginning of the adventure, this conflict between individualism and the desire for cohesion often comes into conflict. This dichotomy is evident during the ascending nightmares, in which Vincent is surrounded by other anonymous characters, struggling like him to reach the top of the towers. These tormented souls take the form of sheep, animals known for living in flocks and being led by shepherds. At the beginning of the protagonist’s personal epic, the sheep offer various pieces of advice to help the young man in his climb, but at the end of the adventure, these same animals take on a demonic appearance and no longer hesitate to sacrifice their fellow creatures in order to survive. The group then turns into a war of ego and individualism, with mutual aid torn apart in the name of the self. This is how a recurring symbol of the Persona saga, the mask, emerges. The sheep have changed appearance and become bloodthirsty, and their masks have fallen off. This sheep mask concealed the appearance of the wolf that had infiltrated the group. The masquerade of propriety adopted by the sheep in society eventually evaporates, and the true nature of the individual is then revealed. The desire to belong to a group thus gives way to pronounced individualism.

In Carl Gustav Jung’s analytical psychology, the “mask” that an individual wears in society is called the “persona.” This term comes from Latin, where it referred to the mask worn by theater actors to play different roles. For Jung, the persona is a kind of mold (behavioral, moral, aesthetic, etc.) into which the individual must slip in order to live in society. This mask allows them to play a social role. Sometimes an individual’s “ego,” roughly speaking their real personality, fades away in favor of the persona, causing the individual to lose themselves, blurring the lines between who they are, who they want to be, and who they want to show: they then risk no longer knowing who they truly are. In Catherine, this social mask can be sculpted through the responses sent to Vincent’s female contacts (via text message), but also through the answers given in the confessional that concludes each ascent. The Atlus team takes this idea further by comparing players’ choices with those of the rest of the world, through a summary of the responses given by the entire community. Insidiously, the audience then enters into a kind of moral competition, consciously or unconsciously attempting to conform to or break away from the general mold. It may also be that the answers given only serve to change the course of events (by influencing a “good or evil” gauge that alters the story): they therefore only have a playful value and serve as a catalyst for obtaining a result. The answers are no longer chosen for their intrinsic value, what they represent, but rather for their status as a tool for achieving a goal.

It is obviously no coincidence that the individuals in the nightmare world take the form of sheep. Catherine is brimming with metaphors and symbols, some more obvious than others, which, when connected, form a strangely coherent whole. There are two main reasons why the dream prisoners take the form of sheep. Firstly, the team revealed that this appearance feeds into a play on words: “sheep” is very similar to “sleep.” But secondly, beyond this anecdote, the sheep was chosen for its nature as a “blind” animal, in the sense that it needs a shepherd to guide it. Vincent himself is blind: lost in his real life and unable to see himself in the form of a sheep during his nightmares.

Atlus highlights the fact that individuals often feel different, separated from the herd, when in reality, from a broader perspective, this is clearly not the case. What’s more, sheep can also take on a mythological dimension: in Ancient Egypt, Amun, the god of fertility, was depicted with sheep-like features. In the Old Testament, sheep are the first animals mentioned, which reinforces the game’s connection to Christianity, a point that will be discussed below. In fact, these animals are part of the iconography of the birth of Jesus. Another animal featured in the game is the ant. According to characters in the bar, twins Lindsay and Martha, ants are messengers of witches. Given that these young ladies know a lot about the events of the game, their words should obviously be taken seriously. Ants appear several times during the adventure, both at Vincent’s house and at Chrono Rabbit, the café frequented by Katherine. As the game takes place partly in Vincent’s nightmares, it is through the interpretation of dreams that it is possible to decipher the meaning of these animals’ presence.

In dreams, ants represent the pressure felt in social, professional, or romantic life. Vincent is a character who constantly shirks his responsibilities and feels overwhelmed by them, so the insect takes on its full meaning. In certain regions of Africa, as the twins explain, ants are indeed considered messengers. In Africa, they serve the gods, while in the game they herald the arrival of mystical beings, succubi. Also in certain African countries, ant bites are used as a test to measure individuals’ courage and willpower. They can therefore symbolize work and the fight against laziness (a link to the sleep phases in the game). They push Vincent into events that will force him to fulfill his obligations and stop wallowing in stagnation.

After a few hours, it becomes clear that Catherine is a succubus, a demon who has taken the form of a young woman for the purpose of seduction. It is said that succubi punish unfaithful men by enslaving them before abandoning them to a miserable eternity of solitude. The succubus (from the Latin “succuba,” meaning “concubine”) is a universal myth found in many cultures (there is also a male counterpart called an incubus). Each man sees Catherine differently, which explains the perfect physical appearance that Vincent observes in her. She does not necessarily represent negative values, but rather extreme and absolute concepts, such as freedom or passion. For her part, Katherine, the protagonist’s companion, represents stability, but also commitment and responsibility. She demonstrates that nothing is ever owed or guaranteed, and that you have to fight to satisfy your desires in life. Thus, Katherine will only say the words “I love you” to Vincent once, during the Katherine True Ending (one of the endings of the base game). In contrast, the relationship between Catherine and Vincent is immediate, direct, and instantaneous, as evidenced by the photos that the succubus sends to the thirty-something man early on in the adventure. This situation is a slightly exaggerated reflection of the domestic situation in Japan, which is seeing a decline in patriarchal society, the prioritization of immediate pleasure over building a family unit, but also the increasingly frequent breakdown of these same families year after year. Beyond this social critique, the game also delves into the exploration of existing mythologies and theogonies, dissected by a scenario with multiple levels of interpretation.

A character named Trisha accompanies the audience throughout the game. Trisha introduces Vincent, his world, and his story. At the end of the adventure, depending on the ending achieved, she states the moral lesson learned from the players’ actions throughout the game: from their choices. In this sense, Trisha acts as a guide or mentor. Alongside Trisha, the game offers a complex level called Axis Mundi, which is actually the final stage of the Babel game mode, the immense dreamlike edifice that Vincent explores after gaining access to this trial. In religion, or in certain mythologies, Axis Mundi refers to the center of the world, or even the pillar that connects Earth to Heaven. Axis Mundi literally means the axis of the world. Like the succubus, this concept is common to several cultures and originally served to connect various levels of creation. For example, shamans believe in traveling between these levels, which is said to be the basis of their transcendental power. The Axis Mundi is therefore a path to be traversed in order to access another level of reality. At the end of the eponymous section of Catherine, Trisha reveals her true identity: she is the barely disguised avatar of Ishtar (an elegant anagram), the Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex (she is also closely linked to her Sumerian counterpart, Inanna, although this link is in reality much more complex and interesting).

Ishtar is an ambivalent goddess, embodying both order and chaos. At her peak, she ruled over life and death, representing a power bordering on the absolute. Also in Sumerian myths, her husband is Dumuzi, a character who also appears in Catherine. It appears that Trisha/Ishtar, in addition to guiding players during the meta-narrative phases, also guides Vincent during the game, since she is also the source of the confessional voice, Astaroth, one of her avatars. Treasurer of Hell, Astaroth is known to be one of the most powerful demons. According to the Lemegeton, a treatise on ritual magic written by an unknown source, Astaroth is a Duke with terrifying powers. He takes the form of an Angel who has become repulsive, riding a Dragon. In his left hand, he constantly holds a viper and gives off a foul odor. Ishtar/Astaroth tells Vincent that all the nightmarish events that took place during the adventure (and which had been explained during the main quest) were in fact part of a mechanism designed for a single purpose: to find her new husband. When she reveals this, she is not addressing Vincent directly, but rather those who are controlling the game. The biggest sheep in this story was her audience. Once the game’s final challenge is completed, Ishtar breaks the fourth wall and accepts the player as her husband.

In mythology, as in the game, Ishtar is married to Dumuzid (Dumuzi being the god of fertility). Just as the goddess has several incarnations in Catherine, Dumuzid also has two identities: Thomas Mutton and Boss. The latter is the manager of the Stray Sheep, and hides his eyes behind a pair of glasses that he wears like a mask. When he removes them, everyone can see his non-human nature. The glasses forge his own persona, he who was once just a human named Thomas Mutton (a surname that is once again very evocative). He was the first man to reach the top of the nightmarish towers and now plays the role of Shepherd, guiding the new sheep according to his wife’s wishes. He created the trials that Vincent and his unfortunate fellow sheep must overcome, as well as Rapunzel, a mini-game available at the Stray Sheep. Rapunzel is a German fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm collection, translated into French as Raiponce. She is a young girl locked at the top of a tower with long hair, which she uses to pull others up to her. In the game, Rapunzel is an arcade machine that Vincent can try out to train for his upcoming nighttime trials. This mini-game has its own story and recounts Ishtar’s journey through Hell across 64 levels. It should be noted that despite the broken bond between the goddess and her husband, he still wears his wedding ring.

To accompany this mythological universe with a modern twist, the developers chose to place their trust in their favorite composer, Shoji Meguro. Already at work on various episodes of the Shin Megami Tensei saga, Meguro has once again created an atypical and highly relevant soundtrack. Two main groups of compositions contrast with each other in Catherine, mirroring the two styles of gameplay that punctuate the adventure. The scenes that take place in the bar are logically adorned with lounge and jazzy tones, serving as true oases of relaxation throughout Vincent’s nightmarish journey. In contrast, pieces from the classical music repertoire accompany the vertical escape sequences. Electronic touches add a unique atmosphere to these memorable compositions, not to mention the inexorable predominance of the piano, the composer’s favorite instrument. The melodies generally create an unhealthy, or at least heavy, atmosphere, which is obviously reflected in the nightmares. Overall, the music adapts to the dichotomy of the game, which separates the types of gameplay (visual novel, puzzle), narration (exacerbated linearity, decisive choices) or subject matter (Vincent versus the player). Catherine, with its trappings straight out of anime culture, wrapped up in clichés and other codes, does not shy away from subverting expectations by cheerfully breaking with the nature of video games through a mise en abîme which, like Vincent, will only reward the best among us. Those who prefer to stop at the surface of this atypical but ultimately crystal-clear experience will thus miss the real point of the game. Blinded by the media’s worn-out codes (level progression, high scores, dialogue choices, etc.), they will be unable to see through the abyss of the game, which turns its own tools against them. They will not realize that, just like Vincent indulging in the joys of an arcade machine (a VIDEO GAME), they find themselves in exactly the same position, not in the eyes of (C)(K)atherine, but in those of Ishtar. A true meta-story that casts its audience in the lead role of an illusory play, Catherine stands out as a unique and dense experience, invoking and subverting the codes of J-RPGs and early 21st-century Japanese culture in order to deconstruct their impact and meaning. By including a number of societal, cultural, theological, and identity themes, but also by engaging in an analysis and destruction of narratology, Catherine skillfully demonstrates that with dedication and perseverance, an individual can become the god of the worlds they inhabit.