Game review: Corpse Party: Book of Shadows

Title: Corpse Party: Book of Shadows

Year: 2011

Platform: PSP

What is it about: Roaming around a haunted school aimlessly, waiting for your turn to die.

Genre: Horror

My review: Welcome to the sequel to Corpse Party: Blood Covered (also known as Corpse Party: Repeated Fear), which is a game I condemned to no end in my review. If you haven't check that out, please follow this link here.

The storyline in this game is pretty much the same, except they had made a few twist to it. It actually started off at one of the wrong ending of the original game, whereby the time is reversed and the characters are to perform the Sachiko Ever After charm and end up in the accursed Heavenly Host Elementary School once again. The fear repeats itself. So in other words, all the dead characters in the previous game are resurrected only to die again in a different, more sadistic way.

This game makes me appreciate the previous one. Yes, it is that bad. Although more gory than the first installment, this game lacks the essence of horror. Also, they completely changed the gameplay into that of a visual novel. Meaning, now you can't even run from ghosts or solve puzzles. The paths you take in this game depends solely on the decisions you make after given several choices. Boring.

Worse still, I really can't keep track on time in this game as it keeps jumping between the past and present. At times, you go all the way back before the Heavenly Host incident, where you'll get a load of what's going on in some of the characters' normal life. again, boring. This game seriously lacks the fear factor even though they made a new approach by making the sound in the game three-dimensional. I have to admit, the 3D sound effect is very cool.

There are two things I really dislike about this game. First of all, more people will die here, even though they didn't die in the first game. Some of them die in the same way they should have in the wrong ending of the first game. Sucks huh? Sometimes these characters die because of the stupid decisions they make that is obviously going to kill them, and you are to watch their impending death helplessly while facepalming all the way.

Second and worst, this game is a cliffhanger like I've never seen before. This game just ends abruptly in the middle of an event which doesn't suggest anything except that there will be a sequel. Well, it damn well be one. Otherwise, I'll be mad. Not just me, even the seiyuu of this game's characters will be mad too. Don't believe me? Check this out. That is the Soulful Testimony by Asami Imai who voiced Ayumi Shinozaki.

In conclusion, this is one game which is beyond disappointing. And here I thought the previous Corpse Party game was the worst. I have no idea how they could possibly come out with a game this bad. Anyway, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed and wait for another sequel.

Rating (out of 10): 0

Game review: Corpse Party: Blood Covered Repeated Fear

Title: Corpse Party: Blood Covered Repeated Fear

Year: 2011

Platform: PSP

What is it about: 100% pure sadism

Genre: Survival horror

My review: Corpse? Yes. Party? Not so much. You must be a very sadistic person to want to play this game. More specifically, sadistic towards little innocent school children. Even the cutest of girls are not spared from this cruelty. I really wonder which sicko could possible come out with a game like these.

The story begins with a group of elementary school students performing a charm found online that ensures their friendship lasts forever. This charm is apparently a curse that will transport them to an accursed elementary school that existed before the current school. It's a simple charm really, just tearing a white piece of paper. How in the world would that be such a deadly curse?

So then the group ends up in this accursed school, and they are scattered in different dimensions. Already they are seeing spirits and gory body parts all around the school. And that is the least of their problems. One by one those characters will be killed off. There are also many endings to this game. All of them bad endings where you will get to enjoy witnessing a process of one character getting killed in the most sadistic way possible. Some of these scenes are avoidable, and the stupid part is in order to unlock extra chapters, you have no choice but to deliberately enter into some of these wrong endings. If you are lucky enough to clear this game all the way to the 'good' ending, at least five characters would be dead. And to make it to the good ending is not easy. There is absolutely no way I can make it there without the help of a walkthrough. And if you failed to meet a requirement for the 'good' ending, you will sometimes have to restart the entire chapter which lasts for approximately 2 hours. This happens to me several times.

Now let's take a look at the gameplay. There is nothing much to play in this game except running away from ghosts and solving puzzles. Occasionally, you have to run away from insane human who wants you dead as much as the vengeful spirit does. That's about it. All you do in the entire game is run. Every character will have a fixed 30 HP throughout the game, but they are pretty much useless because every time you get caught by a ghost, you will most likely die instantly.

So what keeps me playing until the very end? First of all, it's the suspense. This game makes me curious as to what will happen next, especially to a character, with hope that they will somehow get out of trouble alive. Then they simply crush my hope by killing off most of the characters one by one. Secondly, the soundtrack. This game has some pretty cool soundtracks that are not like what you would have expect. Lastly, it's the characters of the game that keeps me going the most. The characters in the game is just too cute, and this includes the ghosts! In these ways, this game is really addictive.

Rating (out of 10): 2