Love is over! Catherine arrives!

This is a limited edition!

Finally, the wait is over. Catherine, the much-hyped game from Altus was finally released in Canada yesterday. Yours truly had pre-ordered this game awhile ago and was extremely satisfied by the quality of this limited edition, even though it did cost an extra $20. To be honest, if a game company is willing to put in the extra effort to make a memorable limited edition, I'm perfectly fine with shelling out a few extra bucks (looking at you Aksys -_-).

Anyways let's do a little summary of what my extra $20 bucks got me: First off, this entire limited edition is wrapped in a nice replica mini pizza box from the Stray Sheep, the in-game bar that main character frequents. The box itself is nothing special, but I do want to point out that they used the same, albeit cheap, material that makes real pizza boxes. Even though it likely didn't cost them anything extra, this nice little touch just showed the details Atlus went into with this game.

After opening the box, the first thing that jumped at me was the pillowcase. As you can see from the first picture the pillowcase is actually quite large. I mean, I had no real intention of using it in the first place, but now I wonder if this pillowcase is really for anything but a dakimakura. I don't personally own a dakimakura but if anyone reading this owns one I don't mind parting with it for a price, since this thing wasn't really the reason I wanted the limited edition.

Moving onto other items of the package: the artbook/soundtrack. The artbook is actually pretty small compared to a standard issue artbook, but packs quite a bit of artwork in it as well as some stylish design. Another nice touch was the soundtrack pocket that holds the soundtrack on the last page of the book. I have included some sample pictures below for your viewing pleasure.

Finally, the T-shirt and the boxers. I have decided to actually wear the T-shirt since I kind of like the design, but the boxers will be forever packed away in the pizza box. Firstly the design is true to the actual ones wore in-game by Vincent, nothing special. Secondly I'm not really into cosplay so I would not have a chance to cosplay Vincent and wear his boxers. Thirdly, the materials used for it is too cheap to be wore normally as boxers. It is however a nice collector item so it'll be neatly packed away and maybe I'll get a good laugh out of it years down the road.

Lastly, I have briefly played Catherine (2 hours into the game) after unboxing it. The game itself is quite entertaining with all its interactions, puzzles and animation. The only downfall I would say is that the cutscenes' and in-game volume are different, and there are no way to control it. The cutscenes are much louder than the in-game volume, making gamers like us reach for the remote everything a cutscene starts. It's not a huge problem but it certainly takes away from an otherwise great game thus far.