Corpse Party: Blood Drive

Video Game Review

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After its beginnings as an independently developed title for the NEC PC-9800 platform, which was developed using RPG Tsukuuru Dante98 (An early version of what we now know as RPG Maker), Team GrisGris’s Corpse Party title has been able to thrive into a trilogy on the PlayStation line of portable gaming consoles. For English speaking markets, the journey began in 2011 when XSEED Games published the first title – Corpse Party. Although more unnerving than scary, I described this title as “a unique horror game”, and am still of this opinion today.  In 2013 the Corpse Party experience was extended upon with Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. With a brand new gameplay style which rewarded investigation just as much as navigation, and with new chapters built off both a WRONG END and the main TRUE END from its predecessor, it was a nice addition to the franchise which gave other characters a chance to shine while drawing upon its strengths.

More than two years on and XSEED Games have finally released Corpse Party: Blood Drive to market. This is set to serve as the final instalment in this trilogy, and comes with a number of visual and gameplay changes. Unfortunately this title turned out to be the least memorable. This is not because of its storyline, which stays true to the concepts and ideas which made Corpse Party enticing in the first place, but is instead impacted by some frustrating load times and a lack of player guidance at times which I found hampered the experience considerable

Storyline

Corpse Party: Blood Drive takes place after True End ★1 of Corpse Party Chapter 5 and the final episode of Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. Several months after the events of the first game, the survivors are still trying to come to terms with the loss of their friends. Ayumi Shinozaki in particular seeks to recover the ‘Book of Shadows’, which potentially holds the key to resurrecting them. But with the book seemingly lying in wait at what remains of Heavenly Host Element School, she with the assistance of other characters manages to make her way to the place where she almost died trying to escape before. A spate of other events draw other characters to the haunted realm, which is now home to an entity which is quite possibly more malevolent than Sachiko.

While I still find the original Corpse Party storyline to be one that didn’t really necessitate a sequel, the direction taken with this storyline was appropriate and satisfying overall.

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Although there is some favourtism towards Ayumi, who could be considered the main protagonist of this game, many of the characters both new and returning receive at least a decent level of attention throughout the chapters. The viewpoint once again shifts between characters throughout each chapter, highlighting events taking place both inside or outside Heavenly Host Elementary School at chosen points in the plot progression.

Presenting a mixture of content which could at times be considered unnerving, bloody and/or downright surreal, those familiar with the Corpse Party series should feel right at home with Blood Drive’s content. It is dark, there are some graphic scenes either visually depicted or described through text, and the game overall fits right in with the horror genre – even if it isn’t something I would personally consider scary.

The storyline presented does conclude the series appropriately, however delivery isn’t entirely flawless. To some extent the story comes down to simply wandering from Point A to (a not always clear) Point B to unlock new cutscenes and visual novel style dialogue. This is done whilst fending off both the evils that haunt the halls of Heavenly Host Elementary School and loading screens which result in a considerable wait every time you walk through a door.

Design / Music / Voice Acting

Each Corpse Party video game has adopted a different visual style. The original adopted the use of 2D sprites and environments reminiscent of its original RPG Maker release, while Book of Shadows used a first-person investigative viewpoint which allowed players to investigate the space their character stood in. Both of these also came with anime-styled character portraits which were used during conversations, and special CG artwork used on certain occasions. Corpse Party: Blood Drive adopts a similar approach used in the original Corpse Party, albeit with 3D character designs and environments. Although I personally prefer the 2D approaches used in past games, the 3D designs were alright, coupled with a new dynamic lighting system which can leave your characters (and yourself) quite possibly fumbling around in the dark should your flashlight run out of batteries.

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As with past instalments, XSEED Games have opted to retain the original Japanese voice acting while just localising all subtitle dialogue. Especially considering that the Japanese voice track comes with binaural audio, allowing headphone users to receive a simulated surround sound experience, the omission of an English dub was not a major issue with this title. The binaural audio works well, and is one of the reasons to play on the PlayStation Vita rather than the PlayStation TV. I say this because the audio didn’t seem to work as well on my television compared to the PlayStation Vita w/ headphones, although to be fair I am unable to rule this out as just an issue with my gaming setup.

Gameplay

Following the approach taken by the original Corpse Party, Blood Drive mostly sees you taking control of various characters and moving from Point A to Point B, unlocking storyline events as you progress. There are a few returning and new features which seek to hinder this progression however. Character health is considerably more important in this title than the first, as there are broken floorboards and traps aplenty which when stepped on can quickly whittle away at their health. Should a character lose all their health, it is Game Over. There are also enemies which can appear, either on purpose or through a seemingly random event. Defeating these enemies requires the character to successfully run away / hide or use a limited number of talismans strewn throughout the chapters. Running away can be incredibly difficult at times, especially since the characters have limited stamina. Depleting their stamina (for which there is no gauge, with the only indication being a movement animation change) results in the character stopping to catch their breath for several seconds. During this period, an enemy can take half their health or more.

For a game that is more about the experience and storyline than the gameplay, at least from my perspective, these obstacles along with a few other features were reasonable and suited the horror genre well. But there were many occasions when game progression came across as more tedious than anything else – tempting me to just grab a guide off the internet. Although players might be guided to their next destination at times, there were other occasions where there was little to no direction on where to go next. While the school layout is pretty easy to memorise, it was frustrating having to go into every room hoping there might be an event lying in wait.

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The most frustrating issue however were the loading times and occasional frame rate issues. Players will be faced with loading screens when they go into a different room of the school, when accessing some of the game’s menus (including both entering and exiting the inventory menu) and on several other occasions. These aren’t simple one second long loading screens, and in my opinion were drawn out far too long and were present too often. Some other players have reported the game occasionally crashing as well, although speaking from personal experience I managed to escape that happening to me.

Corpse Party: Blood Drive does come with a range of bonus features progressively unlocked during the game. These include simple additions such as the “Gallery of Spirits” (CG Gallery) and “Cursed Phonograph” (Music Gallery), to some more distinct additions including the EVP Machine (Allowing you listen to voice samples from the game and place them in a conversation) and Soul Testimonies (Audio messages from the Japanese cast which have been subtitled into English). There are also a range of EX Chapters, which grant an opportunity to follow the stories of other characters separate from the main story. This is the assortment of extras I expected from this game, and they are all small but nice additions to take advantage of once completing the main story.

Final Words on Corpse Party: Blood Drive

I am torn when it comes to my overall opinion on Corpse Party: Blood Drive. In terms of its core storyline, it serves as a solid conclusion to what has been a very satisfying horror video game trilogy. When coupled with strong music, decent visuals and some (once again) fantastic Japanese voice acting, the visual and audio elements are also pretty good. But unfortunately, the experience is hindered by underwhelming gameplay which requires you to run around the school without direction at times, whilst being faced with longer than expected loading screens. It was enjoyable yet frustrating at the same time, and it might be a good idea tackling this title with a spoiler-free walkthrough on hand.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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