Catherine: Full Body
I really loved this game when it first released back on the PS3. It's one of the most unique games I've ever played in terms of the themes it explores. The long and short of it, it's your classic story of a guy stuck between two girls. The girl of his wildest fantasies (Catherine) and the level headed girl who wants to settle down and start a family with him (Katherine.) But in his dreams, he is thrown into a nightmare game of life and death as he has to climb a never ending series of towers Q-bert style. It takes the social elements of Persona (fitting considering it's made by the same team) and combines them with a really addictive and insanely challenging puzzle game all to tell a twisted tale of love, sex and desire.
I've been playing the Japanese Vita version on train commutes to work. I've beaten it at least three times now and seen at least two of the new endings. Much like Persona 4 Golden is (in my mind) the definitive version of Persona 4, I think this is now the definitive version of Catherine. The new content is definitely worth the time and doesn't ruin the pace or flow of the story. The two new endings that I have seen so far were pretty damn good. I think Rin is a pretty cool new addition and I like her as a character.
If you ever played the original PS3 game then you probably know that the game was fiendishly hard. So hard that even Japanese players had difficulty with it upon release and certain backlash led to Atlus patching in a Very Easy mode after release. Full Body is still quite challenging, but I do feel they have toned it down a little and made it a little more reasonable.
Unlike the PS3 version, in the hardest difficulty, you're now given the ability to undo at least one of your last actions making it a tad easier. Also, some of the stages do feel slightly easier to me, although, maybe that's just because I have familiarity now after playing as much of the PS3 version as I did.
Catherine on the Vita makes a ton of sense. It's a shame that Atlus isn't localizing the Vita version for the West. It's the type of game that fits right at home on a handheld as the puzzle sections are fun to replay in short bursts on commute. Also it's a damn good port with a solid 30 fps frame rate.
Atlus once again show that they know the Vita hardware in and out and it almost makes me sad that we will never see a Persona 5 Portable for the Vita...especially seeing how Catherine shows that they could have maybe pulled off a P5 port on Vita.
But yeah, it's a damn good game that holds up incredibly well. It's one of the most unique games I've ever played and I absolute love it for what it is...will definitely try for the Platinum trophy. (although, it's not gonna be easy)
Burning Rangers (Saturn)
I've been in a bit of a Saturn mood lately. Ever since I got Retroarch up and working and finally got the Saturn emulator up and running, I've been thumbing through Saturn games left and right. Finally got around to playing through Burning Rangers. I've been meaning to play for this years and I wasn't disappointed. It's short and brisk but fun and addictive in that typical Sega fashion.
I think what impressed me most about it was the emphasis on verticality. Hovering from level to level with your jet pack and extinguishing fire turns out to be a really fun concept. In that typical Sega fashion, it's all about learning the layout and mastering your speed of completion with each play through. I was also impressed by how well it played. It felt good to play all around and I never once felt like I was fighting the controls or what not. It's a full fledged 3D platformer on a system that was always touted as not being 3D friendly.
Sonic Team really pushed the Nights engine as far as they could go (to the point where it feels like it's almost breaking the Saturn) with this one and it still holds up rather nicely to date. Some really nice lighting effects sprinkled throughout. It's a real testament to just how good Sega's internal teams were with the Saturn hardware. They consistently got the most out of it and showed that it was capable.
It's a shame there was never a sequel. I see so much potential for a really kick ass sequel that could build on it, but I suppose Burning Rangers will always remain a Saturn relic. But it's a really good Saturn relic at that. A damn good Saturn relic that is worthy of your time.