This go-round I was in denim cut-offs with a side shave and nose piercing, early traces of tits-to-be peeking out from my shirt. Edgewood-a drab shopping district that played no small part in gentrifying the area I lived in through high school-had hardly changed. After college and four moves, I was in the same Caroline Street GameStop I’d bought the first one eight years prior. It took a little longer than planned, but I did okay.īy the time I’d actually started HRT, the re-release cycle had come for Catherine. And that maybe-just maybe-that girl could run away for a few years and come back as that ideal version of herself. That the vivacious, sexy girl she fantasized about being wasn’t a delusion, but a possibility. To her, Erica was the first inkling that something existed outside of traditional masculinity. A teenager whose only exposure to gender fluidity were jokes in Family Guy, fetish porn, and drag queens. She was especially groundbreaking to a Southern teenager trying to figure her shit out. Characters like this were non-existent in releases of that scale back then. Yet it is-in context-beyond the pail of what we had in 2011. It’s the original game’s biggest shortcoming, and one that holds it back from being truly excellent representation on its own merits. She gets a complete arc in the game, but players never get a true read on her relationship to gender, what prompted her transition… anything. Thing is, we don’t get much of Erica’s pre-trans life in the original release. How many contemporary transfemmes have an awkward pre-trans photo in that green-and-yellow Zelda shirt? It’s a transformation that feels strangely true to life. After her transition she’s a much different person-outgoing and cheerful versus shy and reserved.

When she resurfaced in her twenties, she’d already transitioned before she got back in contact with the old gang. This is still shrouded in ambiguity and vaguespeak until Toby tells Erica, “I used to know you as Eric.” It’s a moment that gives full context to the men’s discomfort with Erica, and only after that do we get Erica’s full story.Įrica disappeared during high school after a break-up, where she lived at a friend’s house until things blew over. After some awkward flirting that takes place during the main narrative, Erica and Toby eventually have a one night stand, after which Toby seems particularly distressed. We’re not clued into why that is until a late game reveal.

The central male cast-Vincent, Orlando, Johnny, and Toby-acts standoffish towards her, even though they apparently go back years. She waits on the men at their favorite bar, the Stray Sheep, and acts as a moral foil to their generally boorish behavior. For most of the game, Erica just seems like a sweet-natured and flirtatious supporting player. As the decade wore on, Catherine found itself under fire for one particular side character: Erica Anderson. The game’s content itself garnered a fair degree of controversy, too, what with its half-naked anime girls and central theme of infidelity.īut this was only the surface level discussion. Some retailers stocked alternate, less risque covers, which was easy gaming blog headline fodder. The 2011 Atlus cult classic was a game about sex for mature audiences, and 12 years ago, that was still a lot for America. Catherine attracted a fair deal of controversy when it launched, much of which had to do with the game’s overtly sexual nature.

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