Catherine: Full Body leak reveals a new character’s secret

Although Atlus won’t release its pseudo-remake of Catherine until next week in Japan, leaked footage from the game has already given away one of the game’s biggest new surprises. Marketing for Catherine: Full Body heavily suggested that new character Rin’s identity is an important plot point, but not in the way that some critics initially interpreted.

[Ed. note: We’re getting into major spoilers for Catherine: Full Body below, so be forewarned.]

Vincent, the monogamy-averse antihero of Catherine: Full Body, finds himself involved in a love quadrangle. In addition to his love interests Catherine and Katherine from the original game, the remake introduces Rin, another woman that Vincent falls for.

One of Full Body’s first trailers presents Rin as something of a virginal ingenue, a mysterious amnesiac who gets romantically entangled with her neighbor, Vincent. The trailer then throws a wrench into Rin’s story: Vincent sees Rin’s naked body and looks shocked. (The viewer is blocked from seeing her body in full.)

Numerous critics read this as Atlus teasing that Rin is a trans woman. The scene and Vincent’s negative reaction to Rin’s body are played for laughs, and reflect Unsettling Gender Reveal tropes in other media. The trope is part of a large, tired transphobic canon.

Catherine doesn’t have a great track record with portrayals of trans characters. The original game features a woman named Erica, whose romantic partner is shamed for sleeping with her when it’s revealed that she is trans. The end credits to that game also use Erica’s deadname, the name she was given at birth. This subplot lent added weight to the argument that Catherine: Full Body was leaning harder in this direction.

Other fans saw it differently. They suggested that Rin may be an celestial being, possibly an angel; at the time, Atlus wouldn’t comment.

But a leaked cutscene from Catherine: Full Body uploaded to Reddit gives away Rin’s identity, telling us that the character is altogether not human. Instead, she’s a member of an alien race of pink-and-white, one-eyed, doll-like creatures. Rin (still in her human form) and Vincent are seen surrounded by a chattery flock of them. The clip ends with an embrace between the pair.

What this portends for Rin’s full storyline is still unclear, nor does it invalidate the reactions to the first trailer. (The upload also lacks a translation or sound, which may leave out other key details.) In the end, Rin isn’t a human being at all, so for those who saw that coming, you can scratch that off your bingo card.

Catherine: Full Body launches on Feb. 14 in Japan, with a Western release to come later this year.