Today in Japan, copies of Catherine are hitting the shelves and hopefully being quickly snatched off them as well.  Atlus has done an excellent job generating, and surprisingly enough, controlling the game’s hype leading to launch.  Yesterday, on the game’s official blog, the above warning was issued to all gamers.  Here is a quick translation:

This is the sheep.
Everyone, are you familiar with this frightening rumor?
Anyone who reveals any spoilers about Catherine will regrettably die in a dream about falling.
AH!  Scary, scary.
Everyone, so that you never have a dream like this, let’s not reveal any spoilers.
Particularly anything pertaining to the events after the eighth night will be instant death.

Now I can’t claim whether or not this rumor is legitimate but who would want to gamble one way or another?  All I know is Atlus has succeeded quite well in shutting down live streams as well as anything posted on Nico Nico Douga that could potentially spoil the game for others.  Here is one such video.  The message reads “This video has been removed in violation of a copyright statement by Index (Atlus). Target: Catherine.”  I am impressed that Atlus is both taking such a strong stance to protect players, but also backing it up!  Since it could be a while before the game is available in the West, this is especially appreciated!

The publisher isn’t being totally iron-fisted about this joyous event — there is a bit of celebration going on as well.  In Tokyo, a restaurant by the name of Collabo Dining, has been transformed into “Catherine Cafe”.  I apologize for these poor quality images, but they are all that is available and still probably a heck of a lot better than your imagination.

In addition to some stunning interior decor, the restaurant had a unique menu featuring a “stray sheep pizza” (which looks like pepperoni to me) as well as a number of Catherine-themed drinks, both alcoholic and not:

• Vincent: white rum and cola with a slice of lime
• Catherine: raspberry and peach liqueur with grenadine
• Katherine: black sambuca, milk, cream
• Orlando: beer, soda water, melon liqueur, yogurt, and a cucumber for garnish
• Johnny: sake, lemon juice, tonic
• Toby: grapefruit juice and tonic with a maraschino cherry
• Erica: orange juice with mango and maraschino cherry
• Master: gin and vermouth with a black olive
• Midnight Venus: champagne and amaretto with a maraschino cherry garnish
• Stray Sheep: yogurt and milk with strawberry garnish

Here are a few images of the drinks in all their glory:

You can check out other images of the beverages at both Famitsu and 4Gamer.

On an interesting note, the development team specifically requested that the “Orlando” be garnished with a cucumber.  Weird, huh?  As the proportions are not revealed, you may need to do some experimentation to make these drinks correctly.  So if you happen to have a full bar at your disposal, try until you can’t see straight and deliver to me a report on your findings.

Now that Catherine has been released in Japan, you hopefully won’t be hearing about the game from me again until the Western branch of Atlus announces plans to release the game in the States.  I am confident that this will happen soon, so let’s all be patient and hope our dreams are filled with delicious beverages rather than plummeting sheep.