Digital Verisimilitude: Let's Play Catherine - Chapter 2

So, as you've probably realized by now, I'm going to be breaking this LP up into chapters divided between Day and Night. Too much happens in either to make me want to make one whole day = one whole post.

So we start off today with Vincent waking up screaming...

He jumps out of bed and acts a little confused, touching his sheets and tossing his pillow in frustration.

We get a few new glimpses of his room at this point to fill in minor missing details.

He thinks space tourism is fucking awesome...and who can blame him?

Then he collapses back into bed and tries to think on why he awoke with such a start.

Unfortunately, he doens't get much time to ruminate on it because his phone rings and, lo and behold, he seems to be running late for work.

Not really throwing any character curveball at us here, are you Vinny old boy?

Then after a long day at work, Vincent meets his long-time girlfriend Katherine at a restaurant called the "Chrono-Rabbit". Chrono from the Greek "khronos" meaning "time"...which is pretty relevant in this game (which we'll get into later) and rabbit? I have no idea. Possibly because of the fact that in these scenes at this diner we have a sense of time acceleration where Vincent is being sped towards a fate he is not yet prepared for (again...we'll be getting into that shortly. Getting a little ahead of myself). Or because of the skittish nature of rabbits and how Vincent does not want to be ensnared by Katherine. I honestly have no idea. it's all conjecture. And, as I mentioned, I'm a few frames ahead of myself.

Vincent sits down for a nice dinner with his girlfriend and immediately starts getting grilled about working overtime...again.

No, because he's a little bitch.

From this brief dialogue, we get the sense that 1) Vincent is a lazy pushover who avoids confrontation at all costs, even if that confrontation means making money that legally he should be making anyway... and 2) Katherine is no-nonsense, all business and doesn't take shit from anyone...serious. It's kind of scary. When Vincent tries to field a question about getting killed in his dreams, she replies this has never ever happened to her. Not even once. In fact:

I'll take "Things You Should Never Say To Your Boyfriend" for 300, Alex.

Bitch. Is. Terrifying.

She also knows you pretty damn well, since she knew Vincent wanted two sugars in his coffee and he can't even bother to remember how long him and his girlfriend have been dating.

Dude...really? Giving us boys a bad rep.

All of Katherine's questions are extremely leading because if she knows how much sugar you like, chances are she's well aware of the fact that your relationship chronology is not up to par. Unless this is the first time she's asked that question in 5 years...which is highly unlikely.

That's where I don't buy the "Vincent is the Villain" drama that feminists tend to espouse. We have the classic "you are what I have, but I can mold you to what I want" scenario many women try and, not surprisingly, fail at.

Her clever circumlocution pretty much grounds to a halt here as Vincent picks up on what's going on.

Dodging bullets like Neo in The Matrix

It's obvious that Vincent is feigning ignorance and is well aware that Katherine wants to move this relationship into the realm of permanence, but she can't bring herself to ask the question outright.

If we, as the player/audience, could pick up on Vincent's nature just by a few quick glances around his room and 6 lines of dialogue, either she's not paying attention....or she's grossly in denial of his emotional capacity for long term commitment.

On that note...

Scared ya a bit, didn't it?

This is probably a pretty accurate depiction of how Vincent felt on the inside when he thought Katherine was about to ask some big questions, but it turns out it's just some dead dude.

Fast forward to the bar that night, we learn from the news that a recently divorced young man was found dead in his apartment.

That...doesn't seem like anything we really care about at this point. Katherine is a much more immediate issue, and Vincent's buddies are thinkin' the same thing we are.

Vincent's argument seems to be one most people in this day and age can relate to, however.

From an American (as well as Japanese) perspective, this makes total sense and isn't just some sophomoric male pandering that feminists are so quick to pull the trigger on every time. From an American perspective, when your divorce rate rises above your marriage rate...matrimony seems to be an illusory attempt at stability at best...and an outdated religious symbol at worst. Which may at least partially explain why the game found such a strong US market.

So fine...I can justify that. What I cannot justify, however, is his buddy Johnny's baffling logic regarding marriage.

Vincent talking to Johnny

Johnny to Vincent

Good for...you?

Wait...what? I mean...I guess Johnny gets points for being honest with his girlfriend while Vincent seems to simply be avoiding his, but it sounds to me like he simply is using an excuse to avoid marriage.

Vincent doesn't like the idea of marriage at all and Johnny takes it far too seriously, but both are running from it in their own ways and don't want to commit to these girls.

Apparently Johnny realizes he's a total dick and changes the subject

Why does that sound so damn familiar....?

Ohhh....

And now it's Vincent's turn to go on a tangent

After which all of his friends politely excuse themselves to go home and laugh about it behind his back.

So now we are all alone at the bar.

Just Vincent and his cell phone.

So let's toy around with that bad boy! Looks like we got a few texts anyway!
Two of them are explaining how to use the phone, but one is from Katherine.

She's really trying to push this point home...

So Katherine is being a little more straightforward through texts, so let's text her back.

One of the coolest features of this game is the cell phone and yet another example of this construct that is both restricting and and liberating. Let's check out how it works:

As you can see, we have the option of choosing certain phrases we do or do not want to say. We can mix and match up to a short paragraph of dialogue to convey what we want. This mechanic is obviously limiting in nature due to the fact that the phrases are preprogrammed, but also give the player a choice: Do you want to be nice? be a jerk? lie? be honest? so there is much liberation in these choices.

Even the device of the cellphone itself, so heavily underutilized in most other games, is an oppressive force - you cannot message people at your whim, but instead must wait for them to try and contact you, and at the same time is a liberating force - you can chose to not reply to texts, or reply to them at your leisure.

Depending on your responses, your "morality" gauge shifts.

It ain't as simple as Renegade or Paragon

This moment isn't a great example of the ambivalence of that meter, so we'll discuss it more in-depth when the gave calls for it.

We then get a text from Trisha (Breakin' all sorts of rules here) telling us (the player) how to view our trophies from our phone.