Catherine: Full Body Switch Review – The Perfect Glass to Go

Catherine is the perfect standalone title that doesn’t require a sequel or reboot. It exists as its own experience, that was only made better with the release of Catherine: Full Body. The developers took everything good about the game and enhanced it with a new character and additional modes that didn’t shadow everything that it already did right.

Now, here we are in 2020 with the release of Catherine: Full Body on Nintendo Switch. While Japanese players were able to experience the game on the game with the Vita release, it wasn’t necessarily the best version. Thankfully, the Switch release is an excellent representation of this adventure, and if you have never played it before, this version might be the one that I’d recommend moving forward.

Catherine: Full Body introduces us to Vincent, a man who is struggling with adulthood and relationships. You see, his current girlfriend, Katherine, is looking to get more series, but he doesn’t really know if he wants the same.

One night, he ends up meeting a strange girl, also named Catherine, which leads him to cheat. If that wasn’t bad enough, a new girl named Rin also appears in his life, which only adds a new layer of complexity to his situation. It’s this lack of confidence within himself that finds him confronting a recurring deadly dream.

Each night, Vincent must work through a nightmare that could potentially kill him. However, its the choices that he makes between levels that affect the outcome of the narrative. These choices also appear during story sections, which have a sort of naughty or nice theme to them. When it comes to the new route of Rin, players can only get locked into her story if they break the meter by a specific part of the game, which isn’t too easy to figure out.

In my review of the PS4 version, I mentioned how much harder Catherine: Full Body makes these choices. It used to be so easy to dislike Katherine’s nagging nature, but here you get to see a new side of her. Rin, on the other hand, is connected to the plot in a few ways the flow nicely with the narrative. Her endings each have a science fiction element to them, but with everything that happens in this game, it ends up being the tip of the iceberg.

Catherine: Full Body is separated into two parts, with the player progressing the narrative through sim-like elements during the day, and tackling deadly puzzles by night. The sim features allow players to interact with their friends and patrons of a bar known as the Stray Sheep. In this version, Rin works at the bar as a piano player, and the player is free to explore and check their phone to kill some time. These interactions do have an effect on the story and also relationships within the dream world, which lead to some realization within the mystery.

During the night, however, Catherine: Full Body turns into a fast-moving puzzle nightmare. Players need to move boxes to ascend a tower as the bottom falls from underneath them. It’s exceptionally challenging at times, but there are multiple difficulties to keep things accessible. Furthermore, there’s an auto feature where players can just watch Vincent get up the tower.

Catherine: Full Body gives returning players a remixed tower design along with a few different modes to play through. There are the Babel and Colosseum modes where players can utilize the DLC character sets and even online features where players can attempt to beat others and earn points through ranked matches.

When it comes to the Switch version of Catherine: Full Body, I can say that it by far a fantastic port. There are a few rough edges here and there graphically, but you’ll have to go out of your way to catch it. This version retains all of the gorgeous character designs and puzzle environments that returning players remember, and it also gives western players the chance to play it on the go.

As a bonus, the Switch version sweetens the pot with additional voice tracks, which has other actors lend their voices to Catherine. The Switch version also contains all of the previous voice tracks and additional DLC.

Catherine: Full Body on Switch offers the same great experience as the previous versions, with the added option to take it on the go. The narrative loses none of its thrill or tone, which is excellent for anyone who has been holding out this long to play. There’s something truly timeless about Catherine, and this Switch port only compliments that statement.