Catherine

Let's talk about a particular Japanese game that's fairly popular here in the states today. I love the concept of the game, and the style of it, but whenever I look at a lot of the story, and many of the beats involved in it, it becomes a far more difficult thing for me to manage in how I go about my own life. As we start navigating ethical non-monogamy more, and the many interpersonal structures it creates, this game holds less and less water.

Catherine is a game about relationships. Navigating society's relationship escalator, expectations, and heteronormative monogamy. Throughout the game we're introduced to the moral issues of cheating, temptation, guilt, and living for one's self. In the newest version of the game, we have another character to balance as well, which creates more focus on transgender issues, and more choice to create a scenario where you can really play with doing what you want during a run. Unfortunately, the game continues to drop the ball on how it treats a lot of aspects of being transgender, but that could be a conversation on its own.

Frequently in the game you have situations handed to you, whether between puzzles in the game, or by characters in your downtime, having you navigate your beliefs on relationships. These questions are supposed to create the balance of moral quandary, but have a heavy focus on your standard monogamous relationships. Even at the end of the game, if you wind up with any of the women in question, you go on to pursue marriage, and are suddenly comfortable with the standard motions of what we have to expected to do in a relationship. In fact, one of the driving forces of the final boss, is the birth rate and attempting to trick men into procreation.

With a growing prevalence in ethical non-monogamy, this game becomes unfortunately more difficult to navigate. Many of the questions simply go away when the idea of having multiple partners comes into the picture. We see the lack of communication that is often present in monogamous situations, jealousy, deceit, and poor skills on the ends of every character, which would make the game an entirely different adventure if there was the honesty and transparency that is necessary to navigate any form of polyamory. The way that this game tries to enforce the concepts of the relationship escalator verges on glorifying manipulation, depending on how the game is played.

Out of the many endings Catherine has, I find that the hardest ones to get are the most realistic. The ones where the player decides to leave all the love interests, and pursue his own interests, working on himself, and growing away from all the poor behaviors present around those other characters. Creating a story where you are fighting for yourself to grow into your own person seems like a much stronger story than yet another adventure in order to win over someone else. Also who doesn't want to take a chance to go to space if they can?

I love the new version of Catherine, don't get me wrong. I think it's a great way for monogamous people to navigate situations present in, and the absurdity of society's standard relationship structure. I would love to see how we could update the game though. See a way how we could navigate this concept in a way that frames those situations for non-monogamy, and the moral and ethic problems within an atypical relationship framework. Something that focuses more on specific personal fears and insecurities, almost like a Silent Hill.

Maybe in another handful of years.