Paige FTW: With ‘Full Body,’ Will ‘Catherine’ Redeem Itself?
With the recent announcement that Catherine: Full Body is indeed coming to the West in September, it got me thinking about how the lens of #MeToo really changes this self-consciously sexy title.
To refresh your memory, Catherine (released back in 2011) focused on Vincent, a good-for-nothing guy torn between two sexy women named Catherine and Katherine. One represents a hedonistic life of careless self-indulgence; the other, the stability and contentment of domesticity. Vincent had to pick which he preferred (or, alternatively, reject both of them and pursue his own dreams, which is arguably the “truest” ending).
This remake adds more scenes and a third love interest, Rin, to the equation.
There is, of course, a kind of disappointment in a title that offers women as means to an end. While both women are fully fleshed-out characters in their own rights, ultimately, the original game never pushes them beyond sexy avatars that represent Vincent’s true desires.
What do the women want? Why would either of them bother with a loser like Vincent? The game is never quite interested in giving them their own independent inner lives as it does for Vincent’s various friends and acquaintances. Even in the endings where they reject Vincent, it’s less about them and more about Vincent just objectively sucking.
What I’ve read indicates that Catherine: Full Body remedies many of these flaws and offers the various Catherines greater agency. I look forward to seeing it…
