Shadow of Vincent

"The Shadow of Vincent" after the small talk with Vincent and Steve.

"Fucking liar."

The Shadow of Vincent is the boss of the seventh stage, Spiral Corridor, and is the sixth boss of the game overall.

Appearance

It takes the form of a giant version of Vincent Brooks clad completely in shadow, wearing a gleaming white mask that covers its entire face in a twisted smile. Only his sickly yellow left eye is visible in the beginning.

Introduction

After a long and hard struggle, Vincent clutches his pillow once more for security as he enters the door.

"Vincent Brooks... How are you feeling?" A grim and deep voice pierces his ears through the darkness below. Startled by the voice, he asks whom he is speaking to.

"Someone you know all too well." With Vincent aware of the Shadow of Vincent's presence, Vincent proceeds to scale the final tower of the Spiral Corridor.

Walkthrough

See: Spiral Corridor 7-5

Abilities

Shadow of Vincent is unique in two ways: it has no direct (random) attacks, and it floats freely around the tower instead of climbing the face of it. All of its actions are scripted encounters that trigger when Vincent reaches a certain height.

The first attack comes early, and is the only one that can directly kill Vincent. Shadow of Vincent braces himself against the tower to the left side, swishes his head left and right, and smashes his face through it, destroying the entire wall and shattering part of his mask. If Vincent is in front of this wall when that happens, he dies instantly.

A short time after that, Shadow of Vincent creates a stripe of unmovable blocks up the center of a narrow wall.

Third, around the second checkpoint, the boss envelops the entire stage in shadow, leaving only the glare of his mask visible. Nothing is visible except when a small beam of light breaks through every so often to light your way.

Last, when Vincent reaches the top third of the stage, there is a possibility the Shadow of Vincent will turn a large area of blocks red, and eliminate them, guaranteeing death. Whether this attack is preventable, a random occurrence, or dependent on difficulty is unsure.

Strategies

• The first attack is the worst, but it's easy to anticipate. Make sure you are nowhere near the blocks when they start shaking.
• The second attack is annoying more than anything else. In order to scale a 3 block tower without being able to move the middle block, you have to make sure to get a stable footing from surrounding blocks first, and then perform Inazuma. Alternatively, you can climb the staircase behind the main tower. 
• The next one is when the Shadow of Vincent blocks his hands with his face and disappears, soon enough his mask is only there floating around the tower, with a mist just 4 blocks above head. It might be a little harder not knowing what block is up ahead.
• The third attack just requires patience. As there are ice blocks later in the level, be sure to watch where you step and never move unless you can see where you're going. Do not trust anything.

Representation

Concept art.

Coming after his accusation to both Catherine and Katherine about cheating and being wrong about both, and still left dealing with the guilt of cheating on his still pregnant girlfriend, this boss overall represents everything that Vincent is feeling but is ultimately ashamed of. His obsession with not being tied down, even at the expense of the most important person in his life, of not taking responsibility for anything in his life, and of cheating. Though he is able to hide his feelings to Katherine behind a mask for a long time, the higher he climbs, the more the mask breaks away.

Shadow of Vincent

Shadow of Vincent eats Steve.

In the end, his choices become clear: either he gives into these feelings and shows Katherine his selfish ugly soul, or he accepts what he wants, no matter how much it scares him, and commits to Katherine. This boss also has a second meaning, but the meaning represents Steve Delhomme rather than Vincent. For Steve, the boss represents the man who's responsible for stealing Catherine away from him. The mask represents the fact that Steve didn't know who Vincent was or what he looked like and loses it once he discovers that the man who "stole" Catherine away from him was actually Vincent all along.

Lines

Opening Lines

Shadow of Vincent: "Vincent Brooks... How are you feeling?"

Vincent: Who's there?

Shadow of Vincent: "Who, you ask...? Someone you know all too well. Hahahaha!"

Vincent: AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Battle Lines

• "There's no point in repenting now!"
• "I know all your secrets."
• "It's too late!"
• "All that matters is yourself, right?"
• "Do you really think she won't find out?"
• "You don't know anything."
• "How long you gonna keep it a secret?"
• "Fucking liar."
• "You can't escape!"
• "Quit resisting!"
• "There's nowhere to run!"
• "I'm always watching you..."
• "Your sin won't just disappear."
• "Traitor!"
• "Coward!"
• "You're scared of being chained down, right?"
• "There's no turning back!"
• (hysterical laughter)

Ending Line

(Eats Steve Delhomme)

The Trivia for Tonight.....

• This is the only time two people are seen or heard sharing the same Boss: in this case, both Steve Delhomme and Vincent have a reason that Shadow of Vincent is their Boss; Steve's reason being his hatred of the man who "stole" Catherine from him, while Vincent's reason is his darkness that's persisting thanks to the two Catherines and his fear of losing his freedom.
  • As a result of this revelation, the Shadow of Vincent is also one of the only bosses to change his appearance with the second being Dumuzid; This case being in accordance to the person whose fears he represents, since his original appearance represented everything that Vincent felt but was guilty over and his maskless appearance was a result of Steve finally realizing who was taking Catherine away from him all this time: Vincent.
• Unlike previous bosses, the light shining from the exit is not shown to have an effect on the Shadow of Vincent. This may be because rather than leaving the door open, Vincent immediately runs through which didn't give the door an opportunity to shine a beam of light onto the Shadow Of Vincent (though if he left the door open to vaporize shadow of Vincent, Steven might have been saved from the dreams.
• He and Catherine are the only bosses in the game to not get vaporized with light from the door at the end of a stage.
• The Shadow of Vincent is most likely a reference to the psychological research of Carl Jung, whose theories are the basis for much of the concepts in the Persona series. Jung's research names the Shadow as the repressed emotions, thoughts, and urges every human hides away. As a result of being ignored or denied, the Shadow manifests as negative personality traits. In the Persona series, Shadows appear as enemies. Shadows of specific characters are known as a Shadow Self and they appear with yellow eyes (red in the Persona 2 duology), like Vincent's Shadow. The mask Vincent's Shadow initially wears also resembles the art on the back of the tarot cards featured in the Persona series.
• In Catherine: The Novel, Steve is killed by lightning, rather than being eaten by Shadow of Vincent.

Videos

Catherine ~ Stage 7-5 (Easy Gold EN Version)

Easy

Catherine ~ Stage 7-5 (Normal Gold EN Version)

Normal

キャサリン Catherine ~ Stage 7-5 (Hard Gold)

Hard

Gallery

Concept art.

Shadow of Vincent's opening cinematic.

The Shadow of Vincent's mask shatters.

The Shadow of Vincent begins an attack.

Steve Delhomme is devoured.

Vincent's Shadow without the mask.

Vincent's Shadow without the mask.

Shadow of Vincent's trophy.