The mysterious meter is a scale used in Catherine/Catherine Classic and Catherine: Full Body which is affected over the duration of the story depending on the dialogue choices (ie. in conversations and the answers to the questions asked at Confessionals) the player makes as Vincent. The meter affects Vincent's own internal thoughts and ideas during key points in the game and the game's Ending.
Catherine/Catherine Classic[]
While the meter is shown throughout the game, what each side of the meter truly represents is not revealed until the very end of the game when Trisha discusses what the player truly desires. The meter is said to measure Freedom (Red) and Order (Blue), rather than what one may initially assume is a simple Good and Evil scale.
Catherine: Full Body[]
The mysterious meter acts the same as the original regarding its mechanics in Catherine: Full Body. However, during confessionals before the final floor of the nightmare stages, the player is asked questions which when answered in a specific way can break the meter. If the meter is broken enough times, the Rin story path becomes available for the player from day 6 at the Stray Sheep onwards.
If the player branches into the Rin story path, the meter mechanic is completely overhauled where answering Confessional questions with specific responses now causes a seed to bloom in various states. If enough questions are answered "correctly", the player can continue the Rin story branch further into Close Encounter.
The Trivia for Tonight...[]
- As a result of the neutral endings of the game being named the 'Freedom' endings by the Achievement/Trophy descriptions, a common solution for players to avoid confusion is to replace the terms "Freedom" and "Order" with "Chaos" and "Law" respectively in reference to another game series made by Atlus with a similar scale, Shin Megami Tensei.