Corpse Party: Blood Covered（コープスパーティー ブラッドカバー リピーティッドフィアー）

Corpse Party was a series that was relatively unknown probably until some Youtuber yelled "brah" at it with a super annoying voice but it is a title that holds a special place in my heart as it broke me into a genre I had never really explored before: Horror games.

Corpse Party has a rich history dating back to its original 1996 release on the PC98 as a "doujin" title (what I consider to be REAL indie and not the fake commercial sellout machine they call "indie" nowadays with the bags and bags of kickstarter money). It won one of the top prizes in the second Ascii Entertainment Software Contest and was available as freeware (the site is no longer up unfortunately). Since then, it's been ported, redone, and enhanced on like a bajillion platforms up to the latest version on the 3DS to be released later this year.

The one thing that really makes this game stand out is the fantastic soundtrack. Even the original PC98 soundtrack which is almost 20 years old now still sounds great.

I played the commercial remake for the PSP called "Corpse Party Blood Covered Repeated Fear" (+2 points for subtlety) and I have to say the VitaTV was the best way to experience this game. Having it on the big screen in the dark with wireless headphones was way scarier than playing it on a tiny portable screen. The audio for this game was recorded using a fancy microphone in the shape of a human head and there's some great spatial effects in the voice acting in various parts of the game. Combined with the awesome soundtrack makes playing this game with headphones a MUST.

The cast is even cute in real life! No wonder it sounds so good!

So what makes this game so great? The story is not mind-blowing and the characters are kinda stereotypical with yet another harem type cast. However, there was something about the suspense and tension as you explored the school in a top-down RPG style. Of course it's not an RPG because there is no combat and the most complicated thing you'll be doing is picking up items and using it elsewhere.

"Let's go Naomi!" Umm... here's a better idea Seiko, let's just stay the fuck here.

It might be more accurate to call this game a visual novel rather than an RPG but still, the exploration adds a LOT more suspense to the game. A part of the game that will be sorely missed in the later Corpse Party games on the PSP.

Basically the exploration, the constant tension, and all the horrible things that happen was for some reason just a heck of a lot of fun (not to mention some restless nights and crazy nightmares). In addition, there are a ton of endings to explore based on your actions in the game. In fact, getting the "true"(?) ending may be pretty difficult because of all the things you have to do just right in the last chapter.

My only MAJOR gripe is that they didn't add an option to skip text because that really killed the replayability of the game. This was the major reason that I didn't go back to unlock all the endings, just enough to unlock the extra chapters using a guide. The extra chapters themselves were a bit of a disappointment too as they were extremely short and only the first one had any sort of gameplay. Still I'm not gonna complain about bonus content that wasn't there in previous games in the first place.

Score: 4 soiled pants of 5 (～14 hours played)

What a great experience: awesome music, great voice acting, nice art, and tons of scary, fucked up shit. (Spoiler Alert: Some not so nice things are going to happen in a game called "Corpse Party") If you're not a fan of the horror genre, you may get hooked with this one like I did. I liked it so much I may even get the upcoming 3DS version for the extra story (for a cheap price, at least).

+10 AND -10 points for the most awkward and disturbing panchira fan service(???) in the history of gaming. By the way, Seiko is BEST girl, it's just too bad she's *spoiler* AND *spoiler*.

Just one of many, many AWESOME tracks.

The English version is available digital only on PSN but I highly recommend you get the digital version anyway to play it on the VitaTV. Get ready to poop in your pants and enjoy the gory night.

Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely