If it wasn't painfully obvious, I'm a pretty big fan of Corpse Party: Blood Covered Repeated Fear and while I was disappointed by Book of Shadows, overall I like the franchise (and actually Hysteric Birthday is pretty damn funny in a weird way). So given that BLOOD DRIVE is the last and final game at least for Tenjin elementary, I wanted to take my time with it (and no it has nothing to do with the pile of untouched games in my Closet of Shame™ #denial).
Alright Ayumi, it's time to fucking end this.
Looking back, it's been a fun ride over the years and Corpse Party was personally my gateway into a whole genre of games that is now one of my favorite pastimes to curl up on a rainy evening. After supper, I like to grab a nice glass of wine, cuddle up in my bed, turn down the lights and fucking shit in my pants. It stinks like hell but I get the full sensory experience that way.
What? You got a FUCKIN' PROBLEM WITH MY HOBBIES?!!!
This game has the usual crew and all the familiar characters you've come to love over the years. Ayumi is her usual chicken self, crying and freaking out while consistently making the worst decisions evar in classic horror flick style. Satoshi is back as generic and boring as ever. In fact, I cracked up at the VA's commentary bonus section when he mentioned that he doesn't think Satoshi is actually the MC. I mean, DUH! And who can forget- NOW LOADING
NOW LOADING
NOW LOADING
NOW LOADING
NOW LOADING
You're going to be staring at this face a LOT
Yes, I know this is the Vita and all and I've complained about it for other games but JESUS, the game has fucking loooooooong load times. Not only does it take forever to do silly things like open the status menu, but it takes FOREVER to boot up the game. Why THE FUCK does it have to process trophies and "initialize" the system every time? The system is already fucking there, I played the game just yesterday! Did you mean "instantiate"? Holy mother of fuck, do something useful like reticulating some splines. Optimize, fuckers!
Maybe 5pb. needs to learn some Japanese cause 初期化 shouldn't run EVERY TIME.
The worst offender was in Chapter 9 because the basement takes forever to load and yes I eventually got good at avoiding the swinging blades but until I got the hang of it, I had to die 5 or 6 times and each time, waiting for the damn thing to load was not fun times. Not to mention the fact that you need to play this chapter at least twice and more likely 3 times for the trophies. I don't know the technical details but it all has to do with the fact that they wanted to take it to the next level with 3D.
Unity engine SUCKS. I know cause I'm a gamer in my mom's basement!
I mean, I'm glad they made the effort and didn't just do another visual novel like the previous two games, though there's so much reading, it still is practically an ADV game. I'm not particularly fixated on the classic 2D indie vibe either but I would have appreciated if it didn't take ages to load. The game crashed on me a couple times too, once right at the end so yeah, technically, this game does not impress.
I don't want to sound racist or anything but maybe back off a bit on the offshoring dev team?
Putting aside the technical aspects, the story is pretty good. If you liked the other games so far, you won't be disappointed by this one. It kind of reminded me of that 3rd Batman movie with Bane. Things just kept escalating to the point where it's obvious that this is meant as the final chapter and there's really nowhere for the story to go any further.
I also liked that new character Magari and her fashion sense. I won't post screenshots of her like all the YT clickbait thumbnails but to give you a hint of what she looks like, she's got a 🌟 shoved in her crotch. Nice.
I lived in a danchi (what we refer to as "projects" in the hood) and well it wasn't that bad.
I don't know if it's because I'm getting desensitized over the years but I definitely think this one is not as scary as the original or even Book of Shadows. It's at about the same level as Hysteric Birthday (but this one is not hysterical) maybe because the whole organic theme really didn't do it for me in terms of scare factor.
I mean it looks gross but scary? Nah.
I did jump every time I ran into a piano wire or some spikes. They added a bunch of new mechanics to the Unity 3D exploring parts and it was whatever. Your health restores every time you save so I didn't feel too much tension over it but then it would have been annoying if it was too hard and required you to restart. All in all, I guess it was friendly enough for the new kids. I wasn't too fond of the fact that the characters have as much stamina as a typical obese American and can barely run a few feet before having to pause for breath especially when climbing those spiral stairs repeatedly.
These things were more annoying than scary
The game did try to get clever with like 2 puzzles at the end which seemed... random. One of them still makes no sense to me and can be solved by guessing.
I don't get it. Oh well, move along.
Score: 2.5 oh those memories, good times, good times out of 5 (23 hours for platinum)
Overall, as I listened to the staff commentary at the end (Seiyu nerd here), I did share a lot of their feelings of nostalgia and bittersweet sadness at it all coming to an end. The VA for Kizami even said it felt like he was graduating. I did reminisce on all the good times like the head that fell off tripping on piano wire and the panties showing as the body swung around by the neck in the toilet stall. Oh, and who can ever forget the death by suffocating via Yui sensei's butt or the swimsuit contest in the freezing rain outside Tenjin elementary?
Gravity defying skirt? See, Unity can't even do basic physics!
Yes, it's sad but all good things must come to an end. This game is pretty good I guess, but it definitely has a lot of issues. Still, it's a Corpse Party game with the signature dummy head 3D sounds and awesome music. The OST was really good except for one very annoying track that had some dubstep (damn kids!). Whomever thought hearing a dubstep drop on loop was a good idea, well, it's not. Idiot.
Good shit as usual
In the end, overall as a series, it was a fun ride and I appreciate Blood Drive for ending it. I will now bid this series adieu and am looking forward to a whole new cast of victims in Corpse Party 2.
God damn it Sony, the light rays need to be covering the whole body to protect the poor children!
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
Anyways, putting the short title aside, let's get right into the heart of things, shall we?
This game is scary alright, but not for the reasons you might think...
16 years since the doujin release of the original venerable Corpse Party on PC98 and this is where 5pb is gonna take the series eh? Those brutal deaths, the tense feeling of dread as you explore the decrepit halls of Tenjin Shougakkou, 16 years since the series inception all culminating into... cross-dressing BL...
......alrighty then.............
Remember when I said Book of Shadows really cut down on scary and upped the fan service? HA! Turns out 5pb was just getting started. Yeah, yeah, we all know this is a spinoff title but really, Book of Shadows was also pretty much a spinoff title EXCEPT for the last hidden chapter. And JUST like Book of Shadows, there is an extra chapter in Hysteric Birthday that is actually part of the main story and even introduces a couple new characters. Characters whom I suspect will show up in Blood Drive (still need to play that one). Interestingly, the new characters just pop up out of nowhere from the beginning making me think I must have missed some comic or other spin-off media. Nope, it was just the weird way they ordered things.
Of course, unlike Book of Shadows, this game doesn't even try to be scary or even serious as it's basically a weird horror-themed comedy filled with the awkward fan service you've come to love from 5pb but powered up. Seriously, like Super Saiyan level 3 power levels. I'm not even exaggerating here.
At least the game lets you know what you're getting into in the very first chapter
Really, this game couldn't be farther than what you'd expect from a Corpse Party game. The developers must have realized how broken the exploration menu system was from Book of Shadows. So instead of fixing it or better yet, going back to the top-down 2D style, they removed it completely, making this a 100% vanilla adventure game (what non-Jhipsters call visual novels). At least it's easier to play than Book of Shadows as it still has all the usual features you'd expect from adventure games such as auto mode, etc without the crappy room navigation.
To be honest, I actually enjoyed playing this game for what it was. It was weird sure, but you can't help but laugh out loud at various parts of the game because it's just so RIDICULOUS. Let me just throw in a phrase to give you a rough idea: "Death by butt suffocation". I'll leave the rest to your imagination for any future Jhipsters that may want to play this game. Frankly, I'm shocked that this game DIDN'T get localized. I'm sure if it came out today, Xseed would have gone for it. After all, they only localize games for gameplay and not fan service, right? YA RIGHT.
I guess sex sells... SHOCKER
Anyways, I had fun with this game. The music isn't as good as even Book of Shadows but it still had some gems, especially this throwback track from the original PC98 version.
16 years later and still just as good
By the way, the part of the game where this music plays was hilarious and was definitely the highlight for me as a wannabe retro hipster. I would say if you have a weird sense of humor and willing to try something different, Hysteric Birthday 2U is definitely not the worst adventure game you can pick. I certainly enjoyed it more than Book of Shadows and of course they did the usual sneaky trick of including the only relevant (canon?) chapter as an "extra" that requires playing through the entire game to unlock.
Score: 3 butt wrestling matches out of 5 (26 hours to complete)
People who are looking for the original Corpse Party experience best just check out Corpse Party 2 Dead Patient for PC. Unfortunately, only Chapter 1 has been released forever ago and I'm still waiting on that one. In the mean time, I can only hope 5pb finally gets down to business in Blood Drive. As much as I enjoyed Hysteric Birthday, I think I'm more than ready for a REAL Corpse Party game next time.
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
Having heard that it was far inferior to the original Corpse Party game, I went into Book of Shadows with low expectations. It certainly didn't have the pedigree and history of the original game, polished and enhanced over the years with every new remake/port. However, the intro was very well done and I had my hopes up for at least a good game. Unfortunately, in the end, it turned out to be just as disappointing as everybody said even WITH the lowered expectations.
The intro was really good at least...
I knew going in that they had for some reason completely scrapped the overhead RPG Tsukūru style exploration (Jhipster name for RPG Maker) and turned it into a straight adventure game. But ah well, there are plenty of wonderful adventure games so it shouldn't be a problem if the story was good and therein lied the NEXT major problem.
Book of Shadows is really barely a sequel. It's more like a spinoff combined with a PREVIEW of a sequel that is unlocked only after you see every ending in the entire game. Fortunately, if you import a save file from the original Corpse Party, you only have to see the true ending of all chapters, and really, you have no reason whatsoever to play this game without having played the original.
Besides the last hidden chapter, the entirety of this game are various side stories that add some more detail about certain events and a bit of history on certain characters. For example, you can learn about characters from other schools that you only met briefly in the first game, which is nice. But then you have total fan service chapters like the one about going to "visit" the sick teacher at her home. Basically this whole game feels like some poor victim of Japanese cross-media franchise marketing tactics from 5pb, very far from its original doujin roots. But then you realize that they were just getting started because the next game dials up the fan service EVEN MORE.
I thought this was supposed to be a horror game...?
Now, I'm a fan of fan service but I still want a good, scary experience if I'm playing a horror game. In the first game, you had to run your ass off, trying to avoid ghosts while ghastly traps were popping up everywhere. In this game, it's like, "QUICK! Pick the right spot in this image!" Not exactly suspenseful and worse, not scary AT ALL. It really is a shame because the menu system of moving from room to room is tedious and slow. And there's this weird pointless penalty for investigating things as your screen slowly becomes more and more obscured until presumably you die (this was never really an issue for me).
The one major improvement is FINALLY the ability to skip through the text but that's not gonna matter much if you don't feel like replaying the game in the first place. Books of Shadows is not a TERRIBLE game. It still has those nice, shocking Corpse Party moments but it just pales in comparison to the first. At least the OST is still good and it was pretty easy to get through since it has full audio (even the narration!) and auto mode. (No reading for Jhipsters required)
Score: 2.5 uncomfortable horror fan service out of 5 (24 hours to complete)
I would say 2 if not for BEST GIRL Seiko. Lesbians are always automatic .5 bonus in my scoring.
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
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
