The Corpse Party series is one of the early indie game success stories, having originally been developed for the Japanese NEC PC-9800 series of computers by Team GrisGris in 1996. Developed using the tools RPG Tsukuuru Dante 98 (Which we over here refer to as RPG Maker), it presented a horror game based on five students who found themselves trapped in a haunted school – and despite the software tools to develop the game only featured a single RPG battle and was more about the experience. While there were initially no plans to release any further sequels, the game remained popular and formed a fanbase until 2008 when Team GrisGris returned with Corpse Party: Blood Covered on the PC, featuring the same characters and more with improvements across the board.
In 2010, 5pb published Corpse Party: Blood Covered Repeated fear on the Playstation Portable with further upgrades…. and the team at XSEED Games picked up, localized and released the PSP edition in 2011 under the simple title of “Corpse Party”. In my opinion it was a great game that offered something different from the norm, earning an A score in my review (CLICK TO READ THE REVIEW). Corpse Party provided what you could consider a full game experience – but at the same time left many aspects open ended through different endings, characters who appear in extra chapters and characters who simply didn’t receive enough screen-time.
A sequel of sorts, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows was released in Japan during 2011 and has recently been localized and released by XSEED Games last week. This is my review of that title.
Just because this game is a “sequel”, doesn’t mean every end is a good end!
Storyline
A few words of warning:
- If you have not played the original Corpse Party game, don’t even bother with this release unless you like looking at the CG artwork or have read up on the storyline thoroughly. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is heavily storyline oriented and you won’t be able to appreciate it if you are not familiar with the full events of the first – as well as the Extra Chapters and alternate endings.
. - This game is violent, and has recently been classified Mature 17+ by the ESRB for Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes and Strong Language.
The original game followed a group of six high school students, a teacher and one of the students younger sisters who found themselves trapped in Heavenly Host Elementary School, the scene of a gruesome set of murders which was torn down a considerable time ago after performing the Sachiko Ever After ritual. Split up in alternate realities, they had to survive the evil spirits and their own minds in attempting to escape the school – a feat which nobody had yet done. While not all of the main characters survived, provided you followed the correct ending route several of them were able to escape the confines and earn their freedom. This game does not necessarily continue on, but focuses on a couple of alternate (Both canon and non-canon) storylines (Some of which apparently follow an alternate end of Corpse Party) following characters both new and old over eight chapters.
Each of the chapters offer different main characters and different focuses – from covering events previously unseen to expanding upon events to focusing on characters whose storylines were prematurely cut short to even two prequel storylines which offer a look into the past. Even the events in the past offer bad endings and offer some horror element to them. The chapters are progressively unlocked while the eighth and perhaps one of the most interesting requires you to either have a Corpse Party save file or essentially unlock every single ending for all previous chapters.
Naho, One of the secondary characters from the original title
The compilation of eight stories are satisfying to read through, once again delivering the intense and multi-routed storyline you would have come to expect from this series – with each characters fate potentially relying on your each and every decision. Most of the chapters can have anywhere from between two to nine different endings, generally with one being the true end and the other one usually leading to a premature end to a character whose fate was to continue on. As with the first game that is not to say that every true end is essentially a “Good End”.
The delivery of the storyline is effective although there were a couple of moments which felt a little bit awkward realistically. For example, in Chapter 2 which focuses on the “would-be” transfer student Mayu, she comes across Yoshiki Kishinuma who recently lost track of the girl he was with (Ayumi Shinozaki). He then goes into flashback mode where you control him but there is one moment (Albeit obvious) where he can essentially be killed and receive a bad end…. in his own retelling! Aside from a couple of small and relatively minor issues such as this, the story was of a standard I would expect, with a solid translation job by the team at XSEED Games.
Welcome to the new means of viewing Heavenly Host Elementary School – Through the characters eyes
Gameplay
In the original PSP / PC installments of “Blood Covered”, Team GrisGris retained the same style of gameplay mechanics you would expect to find in a game developed using the RPG Maker software – 2D character sprites, dark haunting tilesets and paying slight homage to the original game with a HP bar in the menu. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows ditches all of that system and while delivering some form of gameplay, drags it more into the realm of visual novels. You view the game world through the eyes of the character you have control with, and you interact with the world via a movable cursor and occasionally are required the interact with the world through levers, picking up items or searching corpses. You move areas through a navigable map which when moving over a long distance gives you an impression you are walking around the haunted corridors.
Given the setting is primarily Heavenly Host Elementary School, I doubt they could have used the same gameplay style and environments without some players at least getting bored of the same corridors. It was a reasonable idea to use this “detective” system when you consider the genre of game and what they were trying to deliver… but its implementation felt clunky overall. As you are not always given guidance of where to go, there are times where you are left to wander around the school aimlessly, and this can end up being a slow and tedious process especially considering outside of event scenes there aren’t many challenges in your way and you must watch as each area on the map appears and disappears on your screen. In addition, while the system is implemented well enough, I feel they were capable enough of doing more with it to provide a more interesting experience gameplay wise.
Generally the only times you have actual control over the characters are when they are within the halls of Heavenly Host. Most other times you are left in a more visual novel environment with little interactivity and free-roaming, where your decisions alone in the dialogue determine if you reach the actual ending or fall short in one of the wrong ends. The storyline can be progressed rapidly by using the R button or START, or automated by pressing SELECT. Pressing the square button will open up a message log and the O button will make the text disappear leaving you to admire character portraits, the backdrop or CG artwork – essentially it is your standard well implemented visual novel dialogue system that is used across all chapters.
While the games new systems are clunky at times and may not appeal to all fans of the original games, and whilst simple decisions early on in a chapter can lead you down the path of no return… in terms of its delivery of the all important storyline it did its job well. I look forward to seeing what they will include in future releases in this line of Corpse Party games.
Graphics
Especially as this game transitions into the realms of being more of a visual novel, graphics are also an integral component in the Corpse Party: Book of Shadows experience. As with the first game the more violent moments are blacked out for effect (and let the text do the talking) rather than portray them visually, but there are many moments in the game both horror-oriented and not that receive their own CG artwork – including bath scenes between characters Naomi Nakashima and Seiko Shinohara as well as a look at the culture fest which took place just before the events of the game. They are well designed and do their job well of depicting the scene and mood intended.
In terms of the other visuals, the character portraits are acceptable and do their job well whilst the locale designs are also acceptable although a bit more variety for the generic halls of Heavenly Host would have helped set them apart.
Music
According to the “Cursed Phonograph”, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows contains a total of 71 musical tracks, some which have been retained from the first game while several others are new to this title. The music track list is pretty diverse and often offers just the right track for the setting. When coupled with the sound effects which are equally well used, the sound plays just as much a contributing role as other aspects, and is half the reason why playing this game with headphones is best. In addition, the games opening theme “Hana no Saku Basho” by Imai Asami when coupled with the animation complements the game well.
As I mentioned in my first review, Corpse Party has a voice cast consisting of talented and skilled voice actors and actresses whom once again put a solid effort into this title. But more importantly in retaining the original Japanese voice acting, XSEED were also able to provide the same binaural 3D audio effects as 5pb’s release. What does this mean? It means that players with headphones can greater immerse themselves into the action through the delivery of the speech, screams and other sound effects as if it is occurring around them. While I will admit I didn’t play all of this game with the headphones, from what I did play with them on it worked really well.
To Finish the Review….
While some chapters are better than others in this release, I was glad to see that rather run ahead with a new title or even a proper sequel the developers took the time to build upon the areas which they hadn’t covered and gave additional characters the chance to shine. While it may not have as big an impact or offer as much as the first game, if you enjoyed the storyline of the first then this might be a worthwhile installment to check out.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: A-
Design: B
Music/Voice Acting: A
Gameplay: B
Replayability: B
Personal Opinion: B
Overall Score: B
