After spending lots of time with the sordid tale of Catherine and putting down my controller to reflect on the experience, I felt refreshed. For all of the old, tired ideas that plague our industry, it was really nice to play something authentically different. And I mean really different, because Catherine

Catherine, from the minds at Atlus' Persona Team, tells the story of a man in his early 30s named Vincent Brooks. Vincent spends his days toiling in the tech industry and his evenings getting blasted with his friends at a local bar. He also has a girlfriend of several years, a nagging-but-caring woman named Katherine. Yes, that's Katherine with a "K." Katherine has been pushing Vincent as of late to take their relationship to the next level, prodding him to solidify their bond. But Vincent's unsure of what he wants to do.

His decision is initially made easier when another girl unexpectedly enters his life. This girl's name is Catherine -- that's Catherine with a "C" -- and after a drunken night of debauchery, Vincent wakes up in his bed to find this buxom blond bombshell naked next to him. Immediately filled with regret, Vincent's quest is to get out of the sticky situation he's found himself in, even if he's doubtful about his future with Katherine and mildly curious about what a girl like Catherine would possibly want with him. And worse yet, the situation has plagued him with chronic sheep-filled nightmares that threaten to kill him in real life (these nightmares make up the core puzzle gameplay of Catherine, but more on that shortly).

Catherine is separated into over a week's worth of days and nights, and Vincent will have to get through each of them in essentially the same way. After a series of cutscenes introduces you to the day in question, you'll find Vincent with his pals at a bar called the Stray Sheep, ready to down some drinks. The Stray Sheep is the game's hub of activity, where you'll be able to pick various people's brains, and figure out just what's going on in the real world that's contributing to Vincent's nightmares.

Once you're done drinking and conversing for the evening, it's time to bring Vincent home. When he's tucked into bed, his nightmares persist, and Catherine's hardcore puzzle gameplay begins in earnest. Each of the puzzles plays fairly identically to the next in premise, though the difficulty of them increases exponentially the further you manage to get through the game.