Catherine released this week in Japan and the word is that the game is harder than holding together an Egyptian dictatorship. According to a post on the game's official blog, the team at Atlus have received numerous reports that action sequences are too difficult to complete, even on the easiest setting. Atlus is currently working on a patch to soften the difficulty, though what those changes are or when they will be coming has yet to be revealed.

Director Katsura Hashino offered an explanation for Catherine's extreme difficulty, saying that it's possible that the design team simply became too good at playing it.

I would say that I don't care how hard it is and I just want the game to see release in the US. But I do care. As someone who only tenuously grasps the mechanics of the nightmares in Catherine (based on the Japanese demo), even I can see how easy it would be to upset game balance in the direction of too difficult.

Catherine Difficulty Patch Being Readied [andriasang]

Has this been happening to you a lot?

Think Catherine's action parts are too hard? The Catherine team has apparently been getting complaints that the game is too difficult even on easy mode. They've gotten so many complaints, in fact, that they'll be addressing the issue with a patch.

Writing at the official blog, director Katsura Hashino says that an upcoming patch will make the game easier to play. Hashino did not provide a date for the free patch.

The reason the game's action parts are so difficult, says Hashino, is that they adjusted the game to make it so that players would feel the thrills of the nightmares and get a feeling of accomplishment. It's also possible that the staff just got too good at the game.

The official site will also address the difficulty through a new "advice" page. This will provide strategies and tips for getting through each stage, limited just to easy mode.

Apparently it's too hard even on easy mode xD

I died quite a few times in the second nightmare of the demo because I didn't know what to do at the end of it to get to the door :P I felt like an idiot when I found out how to clear it... and I did it by mistake xD

I wish I knew what they were saying in the demo... I didn't understand anything xD

I really don't like it that they're going to release a patch to make it easier, it should be left the way it is and the japanese players should deal with it :P this means that if it's ever released here, it will already come patched :S