Catherine Almost Done, A “New Genre And Not An RPG”

You may recall the super-freaky, super sexy Catherine , recently announced by Atlus and clearly designed for an adult crowd.

We don't have a release date and at first, it appeared the game was in the early development stages, but perhaps Atlus is further along than we expected… According to the game's Japanese blog (as translated by Andriasang ), character designer Shigenori Soejima said Catherine is "in its final tuning phases." Soejima actually talks a lot about the character, Catherine, and how the entire project has been a big challenge for him; he claims the game is "in a new genre that's not an RPG." Specifically, he said:

"As I play again the resulting work (it's presently undergoing final tuning!), I feel that it's not just a challenging title for us, but that it's quite the ambitious work."

Soejima spoke more about the artwork for the game and it won't come as a huge shock to hear that it's "actually quite erotic" and "very much different from the pure Persona ." However, he defends this more mature approach:

"It's an element that cannot be done away with if you want to realistically portray adult love. If you omit it because it's a consumer game, it's unnatural. So, we are challenging the limits. … There, my excuse has come to an end. (laughs.)"

The interesting part will lie in the gameplay, because they're focusing so heavily on the interpersonal relationships within. Soejima says the game "will let you sample the sweet and rough areas of male and female relationships through horror taste." For our part, we need to see some gameplay to get a better idea of the game's potential but for even more story info, feel free to learn more about Catherine and…well, Katherine . No, that isn't a typo.

It'll be interesting to see how everything turns out and if it's in the final stages, might we see a release date soon…? Also, how's about confirming it for North America?

Related Game(s): Catherine