Catherine (boss)

Catherine as she appears in the achievement "Making Legends".

Catherine confronts Vincent and Katherine.

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!"

— Catherine to Katherine

Catherine is a boss in the one and only level of The Cathedral.

Appearance

She takes the form of a giant nude demonic version of Catherine with her skin peeling off; most notably on her left arm. Her left arm appears differently between the original Catherine/Catherine Classic and Catherine: Full Body; in the former, it consists of black and white stripes (hinting of her true form in the Catherine True Ending) while in the latter, it is blood red. Her mouth is exaggeratedly large, showing rows of sharp fangs. Her hair is identical to her human form.

Walkthrough

See The Cathedral 8-1

Story

With Vincent and Katherine finding themselves in another Nightmare stage (The Cathedral), the demonic Catherine begins to chase the pair taunting at them that they will never escape. With Katherine in fear, Vincent directs her to follow him climb the stage. At the end, Vincent catches his breath in relief as he guided both himself and Katherine to the exit. Katherine hesitates to follow him but he assures her that he will take better care and begs for her forgiveness. Katherine then falls only for Vincent to cushion for her and express his feelings for her.

Catherine: Full Body

In the Rin route of Catherine: Full Body, Rin successfully escorts Vincent to the Cathedral, and the two make their escape from the demonic Catherine under Vincent's guidance. At the end, the two reach the exit but then hear a voice followed by an attack that nearly kills Vincent. Rin pushed him out of the way while getting kidnapped by the demonic Catherine and tells Vincent to escape while being glad he got to see Vincent one last time.

Boss guide

Catherine only has two attacks. Her first attack is used when Vincent or Katherine/Rin are standing on the glowing red blocks near Catherine; she will repeatedly pound on the tower which results in instant death either way if they do not quickly reach higher ground, otherwise it knocks the character down, stunning them briefly.

The second attack is used when halfway up the tower; red lightning bolts that will shoot down at random blocks around Vincent after a delay (with the targeted blocks highlighted in red as the camera zooms out), instantly killing either character if they are standing on them. If either character is hanging on a block, the lightning can still kill them if a block directly behind them is targeted. White Blocks struck by the lightning bolts also turn into Cracked Blocks. The player should pay close attention when the lightning comes; while the player's first instinct might be to tell Katherine/Rin to stop as soon as they see the attack coming, Katherine/Rin may stop on a block that's about to be hit. This attack is not used in Safety mode of Full Body.

While this boss' attacks are relatively straight forward, the hardest part of the stage to deal with is the fact that the player must also look after Katherine/Rin. Katherine/Rin will not move blocks nor can they move along the block's edges. When the player should tell Katherine/Rin to stop frequently (even if there's danger) while the player arranges the blocks appropriately, otherwise it will cost the player time trying to maneuver around Katherine/Rin. While creating staircases, the player should also avoid blocking Katherine/Rin from climbing the staircase below. If Katherine/Rin is staying still while shaking their head in fear, this indicates that they are unable to proceed further. The player should be careful when moving blocks that may cause other blocks to fall on and kill Katherine/Rin. In the later half of the stage depending on the difficulty, the player should also disarm all of the Trap Blocks in advance so that they don't accidentally kill Katherine/Rin. Towards the end of the stage, Catherine's red lightning attacks occur several times in quick succession. When near the goal, the player should avoid having Vincent move too far ahead of Katherine/Rin as the collapsing tower may catch up to Katherine/Rin offscreen, causing them to fall and die.

Meaning

In the original scenario, the meaning of this boss is quite straightforward, as Vincent deals with the aftermath of his break-up with Catherine, and what he's going to tell Katherine. The entire nightmare, not just the boss, symbolizes what he fears and hopes will happen when both sides of the life he's tried to keep secret collide.

Vincent fears Catherine's long-term reaction, and that breaking up with her hasn't meant an end to it. He fears she will come back into his life just as he figured out what he wants with Katherine, and confuse his direction again. Like in the cutscene before this boss, he fears that Catherine will cause physical harm against Katherine as revenge. And in the end, part of his hope shows through, when he saves Katherine from giving into her loss of trust, and from losing her own life. In this, he's given himself a brief moment of true happiness, where everything has been taken care of. The boss also symbolizes Vincent's concerns of Catherine's feelings, as he lied to her about not having a partner, and his guilt from letting Catherine down.

Similarly in the Rin story scenario prior to this stage, the nightmare Vincent experiences signifies Catherine and Katherine discovering that Vincent is involved with three dates, and both Katherine and Catherine wanted to kill Vincent as revenge for being cheated on.

During the climb, Catherine constantly insults Katherine/Rin by referring to them as "dead weight". At the same time, she tries to convince Vincent to forget about Katherine/Rin and get back with Vincent.

Lines

Opening

• "Where are you going? (...) Hahaha... You won't escape! Hahahaha..." (Katherine)
• "I won't let you get awaaay! (...) I'll kill you both! Hahahahahaha..." (Rin)

Battle

• "You were just playing with me?"
• "After all you did to me?!"
• "Are you trying to escape by yourselves?"
• "Let's have fun again!"
• "You can do what you want with me."
• "Where are you going?"
• "(laughter) You won't escape."
• "Why don't you just be true to yourself?"
• "You want to be free, right?"
• "There's no point in running."
• "Hmmm!?"
• "Ugh, damnit!"
• "I'll free you from your chains..."
• "(laughter) You like it like this, right?"
• (laughter)
• "Wait right there!"
• "Vincent!"
• "Vincent, wait!"
• "I'll kill you! I'll kill you, I'll kill you!"
• "You're just embarrassed."
• "Look, I've almost caught up..."
• "(gasp) I caught up."
• "You're just his dead weight!" (with Katherine only)
• "You can only get his attention by getting pregnant?" (with Katherine only)
• "Is she really dear to you?" (with Katherine only)
• "What kind of trick did you do to make him fall for you?!" (with Rin only)
• "Are you sure you really care about that 'thing'?" (with Rin only)
• "You're just dead weight! Admit it!" (with Rin only)

Ending

"You're miiine..." (with Rin only)

Trivia

• This is the first time that Vincent is in a nightmare in his own form: his own clothes, no pillow, and no horns. In Full Body, if Vincent takes the Rin Route, Vincent is in his shirt and boxers, and has no stab wound on his side.
• During the opening cutscene of the stage, Catherine's Japansese voice was used instead of the English voice in the Western releases of Catherine and Catherine Classic. In Full Body, this was fixed so that the English voice is heard instead of the Japanese voice.
• While it may be frustrating, it makes sense that Katherine or Rin is slower to climb the blocks, given she or he has just been thrust into this new realm that Vincent has experienced for a week. One only has to think back to Vincent's first night to realize what she must be feeling while everything else is going on. In addition, Rin was also wounded in the cutscene prior to the stage.
• If Vincent washes his face in the bathroom of the Stray Sheep on Day 7, the quick flash shows a hand holding a knife instead of Catherine. This is most likely because at the beginning of Vincent's nightmare, Catherine grabs a knife from the kitchen sink and tries to stab Katherine with it, only to be stabbed herself. This quick flash is also present if the player branches the story into the Rin route in Full Body where at the start of the nightmare, Vincent witnesses Catherine stabbing (a decoy) Rin with said knife.
• If the concept art is anything to go from, Catherine may have been planned to be an "evolved" form of the Immoral Beast. Why this was changed is unknown.

Videos

Catherine ~ Stage 8-1 (Easy Gold EN Version)

Easy

Catherine ~ Stage 8-1 (Normal Gold EN Version)

Normal

キャサリン Catherine ~ Stage 8-1 (Hard Gold)

Hard

Gallery

Concept art.

Concept art.

Catherine in her opening cinematic.

Catherine in her opening cinematic.

Catherine's long range attack.

Catherine's close range attack.