When players earn the proper license, they can zip all over town on their motorbikes, as well as use special bike attacks in battle. One can even ride the motorcycle to other towns for special events. Judging by the screens below, they’re bound to fill the game with some zany humor at the very least.

The last time a Persona PS2 game made the transition to a handheld, the results were excellent. This series has a huge following in Japan and a decent-sized group of international fans, so this could be one game that helps the Vita really start making more of a retail splash.

Persona 4: The Golden will be released in Japan this Spring, and one would not be foolish to assume a North American version will follow. We’ll let you know when there’s an official announcement about that.

[Source]

© Knifefight for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us

We’ll begin with the screens:

Here’s a new 15-Second TV commercial (That’s the standard TV spot length in Japan)

Click here to view the embedded video.

This promo video is less recent, but it’s got a little more meat to it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Come back for future coverage of this and other PS Vita games as we inch closer to launch day.

© Knifefight for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us

The original Trine was one of the best downloadable games of 2009. Featuring head-scratching puzzles, entertaining platforming and fun fights, it was clear from the start that developer Frozenbyte had a hit on their hands. Its sequel was released just before the Christmas holiday (for North America, anyway), which is of course the perfect time to slay goblins and dragons. Can the Trine strike twice? We’ll find out in our review.

The game begins sometime after the events of the first Trine, and we join our three heroes as they are adjusting back to their normal lives. No heroes could stay out of action for long, and before we know it, Amadeus the wizard, Zoya, a thief and Pontius the knight are called back for another glorious adventure.

Fans of the original Trine will feel right at home here, since the controls have not changed at all. One big difference lies in the complete absence of the energy bar, which means that you can lift objects as the wizard as long as you want, which has its advantages and drawbacks, especially in multiplayer. The platforming remains the same in Trine 2 as well, which is to say it still requires an exacting jumping method. Miss your jump by a few inches and you won’t make a clearing, and your character will be sent plunging towards the ground or worse. But you will probably learn the game’s jumping mechanics quickly, and adapt to its quirks.

This is one of the best-looking downloadable games money can buy. The environment oozes with fantasy, and Trine 2‘s gigantic enemies such as snails and dragons wouldn’t look out of place in a fairytale book. The frame rate maintains stable throughout the adventure, even when playing with the maximum of three human players, which is arguably one of the the most fun ways to experience Trine 2 (more on that later). There are all sorts of fitting magical effects when firing weapons, when enemies attack, and whenever the environment is being interacted with. If you want to show off great fantasy graphics to a friend, this is the game to do it with. Audio is also fitting here, with a light fantasy touch on the soundtrack and sound effects.

Trine 2 just begs to be played with more than one player. With three main characters who often have to work together to tackle the forest’s puzzles, the game can get formidably challenging when playing alone. Add even one additional person, and the game becomes incredibly easy, to a fault in fact. Most challenges can be overcome using the wizard to conjure up a box, position another player on said box, and move the box with the wizard again to get up a cliff or over a gap. Since there is no more energy bar to stop you from constantly moving objects in this game, it feels a bit like cheating but at least speeds up progress.

Speaking of progress, Trine 2 does not try to impede yours. If you’re at a particularly brain-scratching puzzle and cannot solve it with one or two characters, you can “respec” the experience points you have earned so far to obtain new abilities on the fly. For example, some of the wizard’s higher-level powers include creating floating platforms, but it takes quite a few experience points to get there. Simply take some points from the knight or thief, re-apply them to the wizard, and carry on your merry way. The game doesn’t really explain this, and you have to figure it out on your own. While some people may not like this crutch, I enjoy the trial by experimentation route of discovering new solutions.

Fans of the first Trine should pick this game up without hesitation. It gives you more of the wonderful mix of platforming and puzzles that make you feel clever once you solve them. Trine 2 becomes incredibly easy when working with two or more people, however the game is so fun when playing in multiplayer that you don’t really care about the wizard being able to bypass puzzles completely. The story is an enjoyable light affair, and you could not ask for a better looking game, disc-based or not. It’s not a huge step up from the first game, but rather just more of the same great fun.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + Wonderfully crafted world. The small details draw you in. + Co-op is now online, which works seamlessly. - Puzzles can become laughably easy with unlimited energy. Some aspects of the game are not explained.

© Paulmichael Contreras for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Developed by Kylotonn Games and published by Atlus, The Cursed Crusade places us in the boots of two men seeking to rid themselves of a terrible curse while battling through the fourth crusade in medieval times. Now it’s time to find out if the hack and slash style brings us a fun adventure, or something that will have us cursing over wasted money.

Within minutes of starting up The Cursed Crusade it becomes apparent that the game will amount to nothing more than mediocre, and after much longer it struggles to even achieve that level of credibility. It’s a straight forward hack and slash game which is entirely combat focused, besides the incredibly lengthy cutscenes. It starts to get tiring before the opening scene is even finished, where the first hour or two of the game is comprised mostly of cut scenes that seem to drag on forever in ridiculously detailed and boring history to set up the premise, all narrated by one of the most monotone voices of the year in gaming.

Despite this, I pressed on, and eventually found myself battling a multitude of soldiers with a large variety of weapons to pick up after defeating them. Each weapon or weapon combination grants a unique fighting style, which is by far the game’s greatest highlight. Whether you’re wielding a large two handed sword, an axe and a shield, a mace and a sword, or any multitude of other combinations each weapon setup has it’s own set of combos to pull off, which can be extended by investing more points into a particular fighting style. All combos consist of tapping square or triangle for horizontal or vertical strikes respectively, and it usually makes little difference what combo you use in any situation besides how long you can go without a pause in your attacks. However, weapons deteriorate as they’re used, and players will find themselves changing weapons constantly and utilizing a large variety of fighting styles.

To accompany the variety of fighting styles, basic blocking, parrying, bashing, and dodge maneuvers help round out the combat. Enemies emit a faint blue glow which indicates they can be parried, and an orange glow to indicate a move may be dodged, which is incredibly important to pay attention to in order to make progress. Enemies also begin to block a lot, which is where the bash move is very useful. Once these mechanics have been mastered (which is very simple to do) nearly every battle in the game can be easily won by utilizing them efficiently. Sometimes The Cursed Crusade will attempt to mix things up a little by having archers attack you, where upon characters can fight back with a hokey shooting mechanic by firing a crossbow back, but a weird auto aim system keeps it from feeling right, and sucks the fun out of it.

For all the focus on combat The Cursed Crusade sees a huge number of issues. For starters, besides the occasional boss fight there’s little variety in enemies, with almost all of them being a basic soldier with varying amounts of armor and weaponry. Regardless of what they’re holding or wearing you’ll fight them all in basically the same manner, except you may want to use a mace or great sword against enemies with more armor. Finishing moves are  unlocked and performed automatically as more skill points are invested in each fighting style, but they quickly become extremely repetitive, and tedious since they take a while to pull off.

A curse mode helps mix things up a little bit, which is easily activated with L1, turning your characters into demon like creatures with greater offense and speed. Draining all your powers leads to death, so care must be taken, but the power regenerates so quickly that you can fight through a majority of the game in this mode. It’s a cool idea, but unfortunately the flames and hellish look the world takes on is actually coated in textures worse looking than the rest of the game, and combat improvements are fairly minor, making it unnecessary to use most of the time. A few powers can be acquired for use in this mode, like a healing power that usually won’t activate when you need it, a fire burst power that’s more tedious to use than just fighting, and a fire archer power which is even less powerful and harder to aim. Such poor execution of these powers means you’ll actually avoid using them until absolutely necessary, since they’re actually more of a detriment in battle than they are useful.

Besides the enormous focus on a shallow combat system, The Cursed Crusade is mostly comprised of cutscenes and little else in terms of gameplay. Each level contains hidden items like treasure chests and souls to find and release which can only be seen while in curse mode. Finding all of an item type in any level will yield bonus points to distribute, making them worth finding, but unfortunately it’s more tedious to look for these items than it is fun. Don’t expect to find any puzzles, platforming, or other forms of interaction – they simply don’t exist. The most interactive the environment ever gets is when you find a gate that requires both players to input X in a QTE scene to open a gate or door, or help push an object to a set location.

The Cursed Crusade was built for cooperative play, which is generally a nice feature, but it also means that in solo play the second character is always controlled by AI. Usually it works fine, with the AI blindly following you, executing QTE scenes when necessary, and it’ll even manage to kill a few enemies during combat. He never seems to die either, which can make solo play incredibly easy until a particular scenario where the characters get separated, and luckily when he is around there’s only ever a few hiccups where the AI loses track of where to go and randomly disappears mysteriously. Co-op play can be executed locally with split screen or online, but due to a complete lack of other online players I’ve been unable to test out network connections and their functionality (tested again by sitting in an open lobby while writing this, for well over an hour). So, if you plan on using this feature, make sure to trick a friend into renting or buying this too.

Graphically The Cursed Crusade is disappointing, to say the least. Most of the textures are bland, especially while in the curse mode which turns the environment to a hellish looking world on fire. Character models feature a decent level of detail, but frequently pop through their own clothing (clearly visible even in the main menu), or can be seen holding weapons that poke through each other at strange angles, which greatly detracts from the overall look. Faces also lack emotional depth, and lip syncing is almost always off cue. To top it off the music and voice acting isn’t much better, and often sounds weird with strange volume leveling, where one character sounds like he’s actually in the room they’re standing in, while the other character sounds like he’s speaking into a bad megaphone.

Ultimately, The Cursed Crusade suffers from something far worse than the characters within – the curse of boredom. By the end, I no longer cared about whether or not Denz finds his father, or if he and Estaban managed to break the curse, and only cared that I could turn the game off. For a game comprised almost entirely of combat it fails to follow through with any real level of depth, and devolves into repetitive button mashing with color cued responses. The story starts off with a cool premise, but fails to follow through by getting lost in tedious long winded dialogue, while shallow characters adhere to predictable stereotypes. Nearly every aspect is mediocre at best, and with so many other great hack and slash brawlers on the market, I see little reason to recommend a purchase of The Cursed Crusade unless you find it at the bottom of a bargain bin, and even then I would be wary.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score - Gameplay consists almost entirely of shallow combat - Cutscenes drag on, plot bores to tears - Graphical inconsistencies, bland textures, poor sound and lip syncing

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© BigWoopMagazine for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

If ever there was a series that deserves to sell well, it would be the Persona series. Persona 3 and 4 for the PlayStation 2 were two of the best RPGs to release at the time and the rest have been no slouch. Atlus’ parent company, Index, has announced in an investor meeting, that the series has sold over 1.65 million copies in Japan alone.

The series is 6 games deep at the moment and is getting bigger, with the additions of Persona 4: The Golden for the PlayStation Vita and Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayanoka Arena for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Arcade come 2012. There is even the animation of Persona 4, which you can watch in the US now on services like Hulu. The greatest news to all of this, is that if you look at the graph presented below, you will see that with every release in the series, sales in Japan have gone up, showing how popular the games are becoming.

It would be nice to see what these sales look like if you included both North America and Europe, as the game seem to sell good no matter where they are released. Hopefully these continued sales mean a Persona 5 on the PlayStation 3 in the near future. If you happen to be able to read Japanese or you like looking at pictures and strange text, check out the full PDF.

© Cameron Teague for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us

With the sequel Dark Souls just around the corner, one wouldn’t have been surprised if Atlus had announced that online support for Demon’s Souls was cancelled. However the publisher went a complete opposite direction, announcing that the company has extended Demon’s Souls’ online servers into 2012.

Demon’s Souls took the gaming world by storm two years ago when it released, bringing a new meaning to the word “hard”. Manager of PR and Sales at Atlus, Aram Jabbari, had the following to say:

While it comes at significant cost to us and although it has been over two years since the game revolutionized the notion of multiplayer and online functionality in an RPG. Our commitment to the game and the fans that turned it into an incredible success remains as strong as ever. While the reality is that one day the servers will ultimately close due to operation and maintenance costs, that day is not today, nor will it be this year. We’re excited to continue to support one of the most significant, influential games in recent memory into its third year, and we’re planning to hold more tendency events for our loyal, beloved fans. If you’ve been waiting to try Demon’s Souls or held off with concern that it was too late to join in, the truth is that there’s never been a better time to see what all the talk and awards are all about.

Dark Souls was released in Japan on September 22nd, and will be released for PlayStation 3 and 360 on October 4th in North America and on October 7th in Europe.

© Cameron Teague for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Last week we brought you the news that Atlus was developing an enhanced port of Persona 4, dubbed The Golden, for the PlayStation Vita. Today, Atlus has released the first screenshots of this newly announced game and you can view them after the break.

In the screenshots we get a glimpse of the new event scenes, anime scenes, and a brand new character for the port, Marie. This new character is a mysterious girl who appears before the main character and from the screenshots she looks like an interesting character.

In this enhanced port, gamers will enjoy 1.5 times the voice overs of the original PS2 game, new personas, outfits, and some secret features that were highly requested by fans. The game will also feature 3G/WiFi support, which is probably used for a new SOS system, where when a player dies in a dungeon, he can summon help from other players, though this feature has not been detailed yet.

Persona 4: The Golden is set to release on the PlayStation Vita, but no timetable has been given.

© Cameron Teague for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us

Atlus has been rather quiet on the Persona front as of late but that has all changed, as last night Japanese magazine Famitsu has announced two new Persona games. Yes that’s right, Persona 4: The Golden will be releasing for the PS Vita and Persona 4: The Ultimate Mayonaka Arena will be releasing on the PS3 and 360.

Thanks to Andriasang, we have details of the two games along with Persona 5 news.

Persona 4: The Golden is an enhanced port of the PlayStation 2 game and will have:

• 3G, Wi-Fi support.
• A new character named Marie, voiced by Kana Hanazawa. She’s a “mysterious girl” who appears before the main characters.
• If you’re about to die in a dungeon, you can send an SOS to other players. Famitsu did not entirely detail this feature.
• New event scenes.
• New anime movie scenes.
• 1.5 times the voice-overs of the PS2 version.
• New Personas.
• New character outfits.
• An element highly requested by fans.

The game was originally planned to release on the PSP, but would have had content cuts similar to Persona 3 Portable, so now with the Vita those cuts will not have to happen.

Persona 4: The Ultimate Mauonaka Arena is a fighting game in development jointly by Arc System Works and Atlus. Arc System Works is responsible for the popular BlazBlue fighting games. Each character will have their own original stories and the game will include cast from both Persona 3 and 4.  The game is set to take place two months after the events of Persona 4.  A few of the game modes were revealed and are listed below thanks:

• Arcade Mode: battle against CPU and follow the story.
• Story Mode: a deeper version of Arcade Mode’s story, exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.
• Score Attack Mode: battle against CPU for the highest score.
• VS. Mode: player versus CPU or player versus player.
• Online Battle: battle against players online ‘throughout the world.’

Finally the big news concerning Persona 5. The team has been brought back in, including director Katsura Hashino, character designer Shigenori Soejima, and main composer Shouji Meguro. The themes for the game have been finalized and the studio will not outsource their engine like Catherine, but instead use a new internal engine. While this is all very exciting, Hashino did warn that it could be a lengthy wait until Persona 5 is released.

What do you guys/girls think of the new games announced and how long do you think we will have to wait for Persona 5?

© Cameron Teague for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Catherine has been the talk of the town lately, mostly due to its extremely bizarre style and sex-centric themes. These qualities may seem like they’d prevent the product from moving off shelves, but the numbers prove otherwise. Its publishers at Atlus promptly announced that Catherine has been their best launch title ever, which is pretty hefty when you consider they’ve been around since 1991. Now the sales numbers are in, and they’ve come along with some cake.

Atlus has announced the total sales tally for Catherine today in a special way. Their tweet states the following:

This #Catherine cake is rated M for mmmmmm! #thiscakewillhaveashortlifespan

Just what cake are they referring to? See the sweets below:

Catherine is well on its way to ultimately breaking the one-million sales figure in the US that many developers only dream of. In February, Catherine sold over 140,000 copies in its first week in Japan, and will be published by Deep Silver in Europe later this year. It’s hard to pin-point exactly what caused the game to sell so well, but I’m sure the sexy box-art attracted a few buyers. If you’ve purchased Catherine, let us know what prompted you to buy the game in the comments below. Oh, and check out our Catherine Trophy Guide if you could use a hand.

© jleack for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Catherine is well-known for its strange style and sexy art, but most of all, its infamous for its extremely challenging puzzles. The game’s trophy repertoire is full of difficult requirements that can challenge even the best trophy hunters out there, but we’re here to lend a hand. There are a total of 48 trophies to earn, consisting of 40 bronze, 6 silver, 1 gold, and 1 platinum.

***PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS GUIDE DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS.***

Cheers To You! (Platinum) – Earn all other Trophies!

Collect every other trophy in the game.

3-Star Man (Bronze) – Unlock Menhir by earning 3 Gold Prizes on Normal or Hard.

Achieve Gold Prizes on three of the puzzle stages in Story mode, and you must be playing on Normal or Hard difficulty. To achieve a Gold Prize, you need to quickly climb and keep the multiplier going as long as you can while avoiding death completely. Once this is achieved, you can play the Menhir stage in Babel mode by selecting it from the main menu.

5-Star Man (Bronze) – Unlock the Obelisk by earning 5 Gold Prizes on Normal or Hard.

Achieve Gold Prizes on five of the puzzle stages in Story mode, and you must be playing on Normal or Hard difficulty. To achieve a Gold Prize, you need to quickly climb and keep the multiplier going as long as you can while avoiding death completely. Once this is achieved, you can play the Obelisk stage in Babel mode by selecting it from the main menu.

A Life Without Regrets… (Bronze) – View the true Freedom ending.

Complete the game with the morality bar as close to the middle (neutral) as possible. You can achieve this by rotating between positive and negative answers when given the opportunity during dialog sequences. You’ll also need to answer the questions asked in the final chapter with the following:

Stage 9-2: No
Stage 9-3: No
Stage 9-4: “Yes”

A New Look (Bronze) – Help Todd out of his trouble.

Todd is one of the people that visits the bar regularly. You’ll need to speak to him every night before he leaves, and also speak to him at the landings in-between stages, answering dialog choices with a helpful answer in the process. Avoid speaking to your friends and the twins next to them to make sure you don’t pass any needed time. Todd is usually the second person to leave the bar, so you’ll want to speak to him before Justin or Morgan.

See here for which dialog options to choose when speaking to Todd.

Altar Conquered! (Bronze) – Complete Stage 1 of Babel.

Babel mode is very similar to the stages in Story mode, but are completely randomized, so a guide is nearly impossible. You can select Babel mode from the main menu once you’ve unlocked it by achieving a Gold Prize in Story mode on Normal or Hard.

Altar is full of regular and cracked blocks, and is 152 steps high. Despite being the first level, it can be very challenging, especially since there are no rewinds.

See the video below to gather some tips:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Babel’s Calling (Bronze) – Unlock the Altar by earning 1 Gold Prize on Normal or Hard.

Achieve a Gold Prize on one of the puzzle stages in Story mode, and you must be playing on Normal or Hard difficulty. To achieve a Gold Prize, you need to quickly climb and keep the multiplier going as long as you can while avoiding death completely. Once this is achieved, you can play Babel by selecting it from the main menu.

Beer Baron (Bronze) – Listen to all the beer factoids.

Beer factoids are given after finishing a full glass of beer in the bar area. You can only listen to one beer factoid per night, so in order to unlock this trophy you’ll need to finish a beer every night you visit the bar, except for the first since you can’t order anything on that night.

Bomberlamb (Bronze) – Hit 15 blocks with a single explosion. (Golden Playhouse)

This is achieved by using a bomb block to damage 15 blocks in total. A bomb block has a large red surface on top of it, and shows a fuse burning around it once stepped upon. The easiest way to unlock this trophy is to position and stack as many blocks as possible around a bomb block before stepping on it.

Cocktail Connoisseur (Bronze) – Listen to all the cocktail trivia.

Cocktail factoids are given after finishing a full cocktail in the bar area. You can only listen to one cocktail factoid per night, so in order to unlock this trophy you’ll need to finish a cocktail every night you visit the bar, except for the first since you can’t order anything on that night.

Crossing the Courtyard (Bronze) – Conquer Stage 5.

Complete the fifth stage in Story mode. You will earn this trophy after defeating the stage’s boss, Doom’s Bride.

Have an Ice Day (Bronze) – Slide an Ice Block 5 or more blocks. (Golden Playhouse)

Ice blocks make their first appearance on stage 5-1. Simply push an ice block that has enough space to slide 5 or more squares in order to unlock this trophy. Remember, blocks stick to edges, so you won’t lose the ice block unless you purposefully push it off the edge.

Hit the Road, Vincent (Bronze) – View the bad Cheater ending.

Complete the game with the morality bar to the right (law). You can achieve this by answering with good, positive answers when given the opportunity during dialog sequences. You’ll also need to answer the questions asked in the final chapter with the following:

Stage 9-2: No
Stage 9-3: Yes
Stage 9-4: “No”

Just Like Old Times (Bronze) – View the normal Lover ending.

Complete the game with the morality bar to the right (law). You can achieve this by answering with good, positive answers when given the opportunity during dialog sequences. You’ll also need to answer the questions asked in the final chapter with the following:

Stage 9-2: Yes
Stage 9-3: No
Stage 9-4: “Not really”

Let My Sheep Go (Bronze) – Conquer Stage 3.

Complete the third stage in Story mode. You will earn this trophy after defeating the stage’s boss, Immoral Beast.

Lord of the Night (Bronze) – View the true Cheater ending.

Complete the game with the morality bar as far to the left (chaos) as possible. You can achieve this by answering with negative answers when given the opportunity during dialog sequences. You’ll also need to answer the questions asked in the final chapter with the following:

Stage 9-2: No
Stage 9-3: Yes
Stage 9-4: “Yes”

Love is Patient, Love is Kind (Bronze) – Resolve Daniel’s dilemma.

Daniel is one of the people that visits the bar regularly. You’ll need to speak to him every night before he leaves, and also speak to him at the landings in-between stages, answering dialog choices with a helpful answer in the process. Avoid speaking to your friends and the twins next to them to make sure you don’t pass any needed time. Daniel is usually the first person to leave the bar, so you’ll want to speak to him at the beginning of each night’s bar visit.

See here for which dialog options to choose when speaking to Daniel.

Making Legends (Bronze) – Conquer Stage 8.

Complete the eighth stage in Story mode, which only has one section. You will earn this trophy after defeating the stage’s boss, Catherine.

Menhir Conquered! (Bronze) – Complete Stage 2 of Babel.

Babel mode is very similar to the stages in Story mode, but are completely randomized, so a guide is nearly impossible. You can select Menhir in Babel mode from the main menu once you’ve unlocked it by achieving three Gold Prizes in Story mode on Normal or Hard.

You are given a total of 190 steps to go from beginning to finish on Menhirl, so you’ll need to memorize the quickest path to grasp victory.

See the video below to gather some tips:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mother Inferior (Bronze) – Help Archie work through his quandary.

Archie is one of the people that visits the bar regularly. You’ll need to speak to him every night before he leaves, and also speak to him at the landings in-between stages, answering dialog choices with a helpful answer in the process.. Avoid speaking to your friends and the twins next to them to make sure you don’t pass any needed time. Archie is usually the second person to leave the bar, so you’ll want to speak to him before Justin or Morgan.

See here for which dialog options to choose when speaking to Archie.

Nighty Night (Bronze) – View the bad Lover ending.

Complete the game with the morality bar to the left (chaos). You can achieve this by answering with negative answers when given the opportunity during dialog sequences. You’ll also need to answer the questions asked in the final chapter with the following:

Stage 9-2: Yes
Stage 9-3: Yes
Stage 9-4: “Peaceful days”

No One Expects the… (Bronze) – Conquer Stage 4.

Complete the fourth stage in Story mode. You will earn this trophy after defeating the stage’s boss, The Child.

Next Page »

© jleack for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us

The complex hybrid of block puzzles and anime storytelling that is Catherine released last week to much success, yielding the biggest launch for Atlus in the publisher’s history. While the game is incredibly quirky and chock-full of Japanese personality, that has not hindered gamers from all over the globe from picking it up.

In a statement provided to IGN by VP of Sales and Marketing Tim Pivnicny, the incredible success of Catherine has been a wonderful surprise for the publisher:

Catherine has exceeded our highest expectations. It released last week to tremendous critical acclaim and fan response, bolstered by the release of a demo a couple weeks prior, and continues to generate discussion among fans for its mature themes, engrossing subject matter, and frantic, challenging gameplay. It is fitting, then, that Catherine can boast the largest launch in the 20-year history of Atlus, and continues to see strong sales at retail.

Congratulations to Atlus on the success. It’s always exciting to see games that push the boundaries of what videogames can be get recognized for their efforts.

[Source]

© Alex for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Catherine has finally made its way from Japan to North America after a few months of localization. Atlus has made it a mission to make sure this puzzle game is unlike anything you’ve ever seen or played before, and we can confidently say that it strays from the norm in every way imaginable. But more importantly, is Catherine a game that’s just another one-night stand, or is it good enough to take home to Mama?

Atlus has formed a new style of game with Catherine by weaving several different game styles together. First and foremost, it’s a puzzle game at heart with a strong emphasis on story. The story focuses around the experience of Vincent, the protagonist of the game, and his hellish experiences over the course of a week. After dating a girl named Katherine for many years, another extremely charming girl comes into his life unexpectedly. As you might suspect, the new girl’s name is Catherine, and she seduces him without concern. The bulk of the narrative revolves around Vincent’s internal struggle to cope with the regret of cheating on his girlfriend, as well as dealing with Catherine as she brings an unwanted presence into his life.

Vincent is a difficult character to relate to, and his restrained personality can lead to aggravation during many of the game’s conversations. On the other hand, Atlus has captured the intensity of emotion in many of the sequences. Whether it be Vincent’s facial animations, the music, or the the dialog, Catherine offers a compelling adventure into the heart of a character who is forced outside his element. The story is a highlight of the game, and its dynamic nature with many different endings makes it feel like you can carve a path of your own.

Much of the gameplay experience occurs during Vincent’s nightmares at night where he is placed on the bottom of a large tower of blocks that he must ascend to survive. Blocks can be pushed, pulled, and hung from, and there are also several special blocks that appear to complicate things further as you venture deeper into the chapters. During each stage, blocks on the bottom of the tower begin falling, effectively putting a time limit on how quickly you need to scale the tower. During boss sequences, which there are plenty of, this is further amplified by the blocks falling out even quicker, which at times can be anxiety inducing. Speaking of which, the bosses are horrifying, and the game’s overly challenging nature makes a few of them mentally draining.

The game does reward you with additional currency and even trophies for climbing quicker, and even though the puzzles become increasingly more challenging, they never become more gratifying. This lack of satisfying gameplay mixed with the repetitive puzzle sequences and poorly balanced difficulty make the playable parts feel like somewhat of a chore. The difficulty can pose a serious problem during some of the game’s less forgiving sections, where advanced techniques are required. You might find yourself walking away from the game to do something else as you regain your bearings and try again, hopefully pulling it off the next time around. The unfortunate side effect of these qualities is that you might constantly look forward to completing the gameplay sections to be rewarded with cutscenes. While the puzzles have their moments, especially when you pull off quick moves to get over some of the game’s many hurdles, it never feels particularly fulfilling.

Thankfully, the puzzle sequences are interjected with several welcomed features. Most commonly, between levels Vincent is placed in a safe area which includes some strangers to talk to, a save point, and even a shop where you can use currency earned during levels to purchase usable items. More importantly, when you decide to leave this area to begin the next stage, a question is asked. The questions pertain to relationships, and one of two answers can be selected. These selections directly impact the narrative of the game, as well as the ending. They’re a nice addition, but much of the multiple ending design is limited to choosing from only two options and comes across as satisfactory but a missed opportunity.

Perhaps the most memorable moments in the game occur after you clear a stage. In every case, a long cutscene follows, develops the story, and then Vincent decides to head back to the nearby bar where the game began. The bar functions as somewhat of a social simulator, and is reminiscent of the Persona series. You can mingle with friends and strangers, drink, and most importantly interact with the two ladies in Vincent’s life via text message conversations. Text replies can be configured based on several preset options, and as with the dynamic dialogue and questions throughout the game, they change the direction of the narrative. The bar area fits well into the game’s context, and can be one of the most engaging parts of the experience, but it only plays a small part in the entire experience. It would have been great to see the sim aspect expanded upon, with more areas and more options.

Catherine has a very clear and polished presentation, from the menus to the visual design. It has some nice anime flair with decent animations, and a recognizable appearance. Some of the visuals are downright disturbing, and the game can be very strange at times, but this plays more for it than against it. Also, it’s important to note that the game is intended for mature audiences, and while it’s less suggestive than the box art might have you believe, it’s still not something you’ll want to play at a family gathering.

Music throughout the game is fitting, and a few tracks are quite catchy. Voice overs for the entire cast are well executed and enhance the personalities of the dozen or so characters. Unfortunately, the audio levels aren’t balanced well, and as a result the cutscenes are nearly twice as loud as the in-game audio, so keep that remote nearby. Songs from an array of Atlus titles are unlocked during playthough, and can be selected at the jukebox during the bar sequences, which is a nice touch.

The full experience can take anywhere from 12-15 hours to complete, but most importantly, there are eight endings. Because of the annoying puzzles, you might not feel compelled to play through again to enjoy the other endings, but thankfully Atlus has allowed the option to skip any levels that you achieve a gold trophy on. The minigame included, Rapunzel, can be even more enjoyable than the base gameplay, and with 64 rewarding levels, it’s easily one of the best side-game additions in recent memory. You can also play any of the levels competitively in local multiplayer once you beat the game, and while it is very enjoyable to play against a friend, it’s a shame you have to beat the game to unlock it.

Catherine is a great narrative with a unique blend of puzzle and simulation. It’s a shame that the simulation sections didn’t play a larger role in the experience, as they feel like the reward for completing the repetitive and frustrating puzzle sequences that make up the bulk of gameplay. There’s nothing quite like Catherine, and although the story is forced to stand on its own two legs, it’s able to do a good job of dragging you through the forgettable puzzles. There are several incentives to play more than once, such as multiple endings, and Rapunzel is an outstanding addition. If nothing else, Catherine is a trip through an intriguing tale full of strange surprises and characters that’s only hindered by its forgettable gameplay.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + A gripping and dynamic narrative. + Great presentation, voice acting, and music. - Frustrating, unsatisfying gameplay and audio balance issues.

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Catherine Trophy Guide >>

© jleack for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us

It is the last week of July which, for many of us, is signaling the last week of prime time summer vacation and time to return to the daily nine-to-five grind. In this case, if we are already at home, it is easy enough to create vacation time by simply popping in new and old video games. This week, the Atlus Persona Team brings PlayStation 3 owners an all-new adult-oriented puzzle adventure title that is sure to bring a rise out of anyone who plays it. 

Check out this week’s full release list below:

PS3 -

• Catherine (07/26)
  • “Love is Over” Deluxe Edition

PSP -

• No new releases

PS2 -

• No new releases

For those of you still on the fence but at the same time intrigued with the latest from the Japanese publisher Atlus, a demo is available on the PlayStation Store. Are you purchasing or are at least interested in Catherine for the PS3? Tell us your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below and as always stay connect to PlayStation LifeStyle for the latest and greatest coverage in the world of PlayStation.

© Kishen Patel for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

As you might be aware, Catherine is coming out in North America in less than two weeks, and it’s unarguably one of the largest titles this Summer. A demo was just released during the last PlayStation Store update, and it showed off its unique story deliver and strange elements. You’re probably excited to pick it up on the 26th, but we have some information you might want to know before you head to your local retailer.

Heads up – Catherine will set your PlayStation 3′s hard drive back 2.5 gigabytes with its mandatory install. This is becoming pretty standard these days, so you probably aren’t surprised, but the bright side is that installs make a big difference on load times.

Catherine has been said to last over a dozen hours, and with its unique blend of erotic adventure and puzzle sequences developed by the same team who brought the Persona series to PlayStation, so the install should be well-worth it.

© jleack for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Atlus has finally nailed down a date, price, and box art for their upcoming co-op adventure, The Cursed Crusade. Now wait, why are we talking price, aren’t all games listed at $60? Glad you asked because Atlus has decided to release The Cursed Crusade on October 11th for the low price of $39.99.

Atlus describes this lower price point as a “lower, more attractive” area for “gamers faced with a packed holiday release schedule.” Try as hard as you might, but it’s really hard to argue with that kind of logic and it should help push more copies of the game, though it doesn’t need a lot of help from what we played at E3.

With the release information, Atlus has also revealed the box art, screenshots and a trailer dubbed “Templar’s Curse” so it enjoy that all below and look forward to our review closer to the release date.

Click here to view the embedded video.

© Cameron Teague for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us