A cat spirit appears one day in a typical village from eastern France. Villagers there all seem to struggle with mental health. Depression, loneliness, trauma, burn out, regrets, anxiety, and grief are part of their daily lives, but you can help them feel better and regain some emotional stability. Katzala tackles difficult themes in a soothing and poetic atmosphere where dialogue and explanation give way to contemplation and suggestion.
During the day, listen to conversations to learn about the villagers! Although you are not able to be seen or heard, or even talk, you can still learn a lot about the villagers by wandering around the streets, watching people's routines and interactions, and listening to conversations. You will thus gather a lot of information that will allow you to understand what's going on with each character and how to help them.
Read people's mind! As a cat, you have a sort of sixth sense that makes you visualize people's thoughts. Sometimes they use words, sometimes only images, but you can still understand a lot just by observing.
As a cat spirit, you can visit villagers at night when they are asleep. They have lowered their mental barriers and are more receptive to whatever you want to say. Depending on your progress and on the villager, you will have access to different levels of depth for the subconscious. The easiest thing to do at first is to influence someone's dreams. Indeed, when you're wandering the village during the day, you can collect words, ideas and even smells to release them at night in people's minds. This allows you to convey messages through dreams and it will influence the way villagers act or feel the next day.
At night, unlock some memories of villagers to understand their past and how it can affect their present.
The deepest level of subconscious involves hidden emotions and traumas. They are represented by different mini-games with several levels that evolve with your progression in a character's story. You need to fight negative emotions and inner demons in order to bring peace and emotional balance to the minds.
Throughout the game, you are also led to discover more about your history as a cat spirit and the reasons of your existence.
Katzala offers an emotional experience with several strong points:
Soft and hand-drawn visuals by a talented artist
A point of view rarely explored in narrative games: the player embodies an invisible and inaudible character, which adds a dimension of complexity and depth to the interactions
Difficult themes are addressed in a poetic and soothing atmosphere, offering contemplative reflection
An original geographical and cultural anchor: the story takes place in a picturesque Alsatian village
15 different characters with a history, a past and a deep personality
Each psychological problem is represented by a mini-game, and the exploration of memories, dreams and subconscious minds offers a rich variety of gameplay in service of the story