Here it is, the grand-daddy of indie horror games itself. If you enjoy this genre of games, this cult-hit is one of the first to make a real splash when it arrived. As such it is now a game that is available on just about every modern portable platform and the PC. When I found this one on sale, I knew I was picking it up to see what the fuss was about. And in the spooky month of October, it was a no-brainer when random chance called it to one of the 10 games I could play after the last spooky game: Close Your Eyes. But where that one left me disappointed, this game lived up to the hype. Come on inside.
Story: It wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, for the friends of Mayu Suzumoto, it sounded great! This was the young lady’s last day in school before moving to a new city (and transferring to a new school because of it), and her class just wanted to do something to have a last memory of it. So after cleaning up for the last time, the class gathers round to perform a ritual, the result of which is supposed to be to connect everyone involved as friends forever. However, what should have been a harmless “feel good” moment turned out to be the single most horrific single action these students could take.
The moment it was over, their school was hit with massive earthquake that tore the school apart and causing everyone within the classroom to pass out. Upon coming to, these students slow begin to realize just how much trouble they are in. They are no longer together but divided into small groups. They are no longer in their own school, but in a place known as Heavenly Host Elementary School: A school torn down decades ago due to the “cursed legacy” it once had and which once stood in the very place their current school exists. They are not free to leave as all the exits have been sealed to this decaying building. And despite being separated from each other, they are not alone.
The story of this game begins here and continues across five episodic chapters as you follow different parts of the class in their desperate quest to survive their new surroundings. But to say it is a simple survival and escape story simply does not do it credit. As you progress, you will find the story carries with it enough twist and turns to be as captivating as many horror movies. Nor does it pull it’s punches. From the word “start” this game is grisly and dark, and you will be surprised at just where it’s willing to go.
Add to this that each of the five chapters also contains a tree-like structure with multiple endings (anywhere from five to eight) each, your decisions in the game indeed have repercussions as well as depth. If you are a horror fan, this is NOT something to miss!
9/10
Graphics: The original release of Corpse Party was the equivalent of an RPG Maker game in Japan. (I have to make the distinction, as it was not made on DOS/Windows machines, and I do not know personally if the actual RPG maker software was released on the hardware this game originally hails from). As such, there are certain details you can expect. The game is top down and uses traditional chat/menu screens to give the player the interactivity a game needs. In addition, this rerelease is based heavily off the one made years ago for the PSP, including it’s 16-bit era sprite-work. As such, there is going to be very little in the style of this game that is going to surprise anyone.
However, this does clash somewhat with the images during some of the conversations the characters have as they are might higher resolution and quality. They look great (better then most of the game in fact), but leave you wondering why they couldn’t give the rest of this game the same treatment.
And finally, this style and technical work does not convey the content. This is also a mixed bag but in an entirely different way. When it comes to the map and what everyone is doing and runs into, this game holds literally nothing back and you will see the students you control and those they interact with in some very gruesome deaths that despite the limits of the graphics will sometimes hit you like a cold steak to the face.
But at the same time, there is no way around it: this game is also a censored release from what was in the PSP version with many of the more brutal death scenes when you get a “wrong end” not including the imagery to go with it. But even this can work either way depending on you as the player, because the text and audio hold NOTHING back which will leave many players uncomfortable as their imaginations take care of those visuals for them. Personally, I did not like finding out my copy of the game was cut down, but that’s my belief in being as true to the original as possible.
7/10
Sound: Where I unfortunately have to tell you the graphics in this game were indeed censored, I can thankfully tell you the audio was not, and this game shines here like that hatchet in the hands of psycho in a mask storming down the hallway while the audience shrieks in terror. The voices are all Japanese only, but they hold NOTHING back, from anguished cries of pain and despair to keep each other from losing it to sheer and utter madness, it all transfers to your ears brilliantly and keeps you involved in the sinister ghost story you are about to take part in. It is a pity not everything got voice work for how effective it is, but the volume of it only ramps up as the chapters progress, like they actually were made over time and with more of a budget for such things as the series ramped up to it’s conclusion.
Not that anything else here is a slouch either. There is not a ton of sound effects in this game, but what is here is crisp, sounds exactly as it should and especially with off camera moments, will leave you thinking “oh god, what happened now?” As I type this, there are three very specific moments I know are burned into my memor for the rest of my gaming life… and I have to appreciate a game that can leave me with such an impression. It shows the power it has over it’s medium
And add all this to an amazing musical score that while clearly in midi form honestly leaves you not just remembering but actively WANTING to have this soundtrack on disc and you have one of the best audio tour-de-forces in video games I have ever heard. Even if you don’t play this game… hell, even if you don’t like horror games, you really do need to hear the sound-track here. It is legitimately that good.
9/10
Gameplay: Corpse Party, as mentioned in the graphical part of this review, is effectively made in an RPG engine. And not being an RPG game itself, this means the gameplay is going to be very simple. In fact, the entire game could be played on an original NES controller. While playing, you will either be on the map or in a conversation.
While on a map, you will be able to roam with the 4 basic directions while hitting the confirm/interact button will either interact or give you a description of anything you are next to and facing. This is the majority of the game’s interface as you will use the controls to figure out puzzles, find clues as to what is going on, or even attempt to outmaneuver the horrors that reside in this place. Since this isn’t actually an RPG, the combat system is non-existent for this game. You will never get a chance to fight back, but considering you are playing basically children, that should not surprise you. There is little a kid can do to fight the supernatural, and this game makes a point to let you know that.
You do have a menu you can access at any time, but it is basically useless aside from quitting the game and confirming you have the proper items you need and do not need to go find something (in case you forget if you picked it up). You do not even use this menu to actually use those items, as the situation will either auto-use it or will bring up a question asking you if you would like to. The result is an incredibly stream-lined interface on the borderline of non-existent. But at the same time, this simplicity works to the game’s strength as it leaves the player focused on the atmosphere as brilliantly laid out by the sound work, the absolutely brilliant plot, and the puzzles/where they might change their actions to completely change what ending they are going towards.
And to that end, this game is it’s own kind of challenge. I’m going to be up front. Corpse Party has very few points where “dying” in the traditional sense in gaming occurs. They are here, but those are just potential “bad ends” you can get if you mess up playing and only some of those at best. You are more likely to do something that causes you to witness chains of events you caused to start with your choices in game then to flat out have a monster kill your current character. This is going to disappoint some gamers out there, but it leaves a lot more room to set the event up then a simple death and is executed very well in this case, so I find it a “6 of one, half-dozen of another” situation.
And if you do screw yourself even to the point of needing to start a chapter completely over, you didn’t just waste stupid amounts of time. Any given chapter is a few hours long and holding the cancel button during conversations/cut-scenes will speed them along, so you can get back to where you believe you messed up pretty quickly. I do not know if this was a feature in the original, but it is a nice “quality of life” update for a game like this.
6/10
Bugs: While this game ran great on any hardware I threw at it, I did have exactly two technical issues with it:
- Streaming did not want to center: Most people playing this game will not run into this issue, as most gamers probably do not necessarily stream their games, but I could not get this function to work right with OBS on my media center. The game ran great on my media center (which trust me, is a potato-box with some extra RAM and a fairly big hard drive), I could not get OBS to record the screen centered. It always looked a little skewed to the left of the screen. All my tests ran like butter, but the test recordings afterwards never quite recorded at center. As such, for my purposes, I had to play this on my gaming rig and not on my big-screen TV.
- Missing items: This issue, however, is a lot more serious. There were a few times in the game where I picked up an item, but when I went to go look to see if I had it in my inventory, it appeared to be missing. It never actually was and the game behaved like I had collected it (so I must have), but this is a major fail as if you know you need an item, but don’t see it in your inventory, you can be stuck wondering if you should proceed.
Overall: Corpse Party is one of those rare games that is a competent game, but far more about emersing yourself in the plot and environment. It’s also obvious the developers understand how to tell a ghost story. As such this is a game I have to recommend anyone self-proclaimed horror fan give a shot. However, on the same tone, this is also a very niche game, and everyone else should probably stay away. Even if you are just curious why your friend loves horror games, you might be better starting somewhere else and come back once you “get it” if you do.
Score:
7/10
System Requirements:
- Anything 1.5 Ghz or faster
- 512 MB RAM
- Any 3D accelerator compatible with Direct X 9.0c and with 64MB VRAM
- 4 GB hard drive
- Windows XP/Vista/7/8
System Specs:
- AMD FX 8350 (8 cores) running at 4 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- NVidia GeForce 960 GTX with 4 GB VRAM
- Windows 10
Source: Steam
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