Catherine Babel Speedruns

What is this?
This is me playing through Babel Mode in Catherine, either coop or solo. Timing starts when I start Altar and ends when I clear Axis Mundi.

What is Catherine?
Catherine is a PS3/360 game made by the Persona Team. Basically, it involves climbing a giant tower of blocks.

Is this a real category?
It's arbitrary, but Story Mode in Catherine is not an interesting run, with the possible exception of Hard Mode All Gold Trophies, which would require some better routing and reaction to RNG for bosses. Hard mode Any% has some merits, but it suffers from a lot of the same issues with collapses that all other categories do, just with added elements of dealing with RNG. However, there is almost no RNG outside of boss fights for a majority of the run, until about an hour+ in, even for Hard Golds, so it would be both boring to run and to watch. Babel is more interesting to run, but it's not really something that makes a ton of sense to take overly seriously, as solo mode is survive until you get good RNG, with some elements of climbing fast, and I don't feel that 1p2c is sufficiently separated from coop to be its own thing fully. (i.e. I feel that I'm competing with pairs for the time, and there's almost no chance of me competing with a true pair without a partner of my own.)

What is WR?
That's... also complicated. For coop, the best full Babel run I've seen is my 30:17, but there was a 38 min run by Colourthief in a marathon. However, he says he has about 31 PB, which is totally feasible, given that the run had a 5:24 minute death. See: http://www.speedrun.com/Catherine, subtracting 5:24 from his IGT gives him about a 28:XX IGT, and about a 31:XX RTA, which is really close to my own PB. My ultimate goal for 1p2c is 29:XX and it's completely possible as I get more and more comfortable with the game.
Nobody's stupid enough to have done solo runs before, and honestly, I feel that you lose a lot of the cooler speed tech in exchange for sheer difficulty. As of the last edit to this pastebin, I've cleared Obelisk only once or twice in at least a hundred+ attempts, and due to the fact I only recently got a Japanese disk of the game, I've never cleared Axis Mundi in Solo. My intent is to finish Axis Mundi for the first time in a full run, although I may skip Obelisk if it's being especially trolly one day.

Why are you doing coop?
Two reasons. First, it's easier. I can clear the first stage nearly 100% of the time in coop and only 75% in solo. That carries across every stage. Second, Axis Mundi, stage 4, is glitched on the North American version. It's nearly uncompletable in solo mode; RNG is required to actually finish because you need a specific block pattern or set to actually climb. On top of that, you never "level up" so you see the same pattern for 200+ blocks. Lastly, pairs has all of the speedtech in the game; solo is almost more "don't die" than go fast for single segment running.

This stage is going forever? How many steps is it?
Stage - Solo/Pairs (all approximate)
Altar - 150/102
Menhir - 190/123
Obelisk - 214/142
Axis Mundi - 282/170

Any reason you're doing the stages in order?
That's... a good question actually. In theory, to get the best time, I should start with Obelisk, then Menhir, Altar and end on Axis Mundi (Axis Mundi has an extra cutscene at the end, so it has to be done last for the most time save.). However, for pairs, a lot of this is intended to be a marathon-style run, in which going in order makes much more sense as there is a natural progression to the levels as they are in order. If I start doing serious deathless attempts at solo, I will likely do them in the order stated above to maximize chances at completing a deathless run (Obelisk is truly an ass).

Why don't you just memorize what to do?
It's random. There are specific sets of blocks the game can drop in patterns for each level. Thus, unlike story mode, this mode requires on your feet thinking, and not lag reduction/following a script, like most levels in story.

Have you ever had a coop partner?
At AGDQ, I got to meet and play with Colourthief. All of my IL PBs as shown by the game are myself and Colourthief as a team except Axis Mundi, which was set solo in my 30:17 run. I'd love to have a more permanent partner though. If you live in the Dallas area and are interested, please feel free to ask and we can talk things out potentially.