School's finally starting to calm down a little, so i decided to put some time on blogging. A game review for today. Since i completed quite a few in the past few weeks so there is a need for me now to rush these reviews. Corpse party is an horror adventure role-playing game, pretty much successful in creeping the fuck out of me! What you did expect in any legit horror games, this one has it all (suspensed, panic, dialogues, sounds etc.) along with its own unique list of bad endings!! Released on the psp, august 2010.
My rating:
8.2/10
Gamespot rating: 7.5/10
Estimated gameplay: 5 hours +
Goods: Classic highschool horror, free-roaming gamestyle, top tier setup(environment/dialogue/sound etc.), multiple savefiles available, aftergame features.
Bads: Poor graphics, clues and hints arent even helpful for most of the time.
The goods!!
Highschool horror would probably be the most classic horror of all time and corpse party gives that to you. The story is set in Kisaragi Academy, where a class of friends and their homeroom teacher were sharing ghost stories of the school(Heavenly Host elementary school) that was once in place before the construction of Kisaragi Academy. Everything was fine until they did a online ritual, being told that their friendship will lasts forever if they perform it right. These students then found themselves on the site of the old school itself. Being trapped in the school filled with conspiracy and terror, how will they survive this ordeal..........!!
The
gameplay is kind of oldschool pokemon, where you walk around the mysterious-broken school pressing O most of the time. You guys might ask, 'So there are gonna be creatures to be fought?' The answer is NO, no fights in this game. The gameplay might sound boring, indeed it is. But once you get your head into the story, you would probably be busy racking your brains to solve the mysteries and escaping ghost grasps instead of being too bothered with how the game moves and works. This game requires you to walk around alot, so get prepared to plunged yourself deep into the fear of suspense!!
The
setup is just top notch! Set in an elementary school where kids were murdured. Dead flesh bodies were lying around, windows were shattered, holes in the ground, last words of students were written in papers left on the ground. Everywhere was basically black and eerie, you will never know what is there awaiting you in the dark.
-Background musics were good for the suspension feeling, just that at some moments it just doesnt feel quite in place. For example, when you are required to find something(no time was given) and there was this funky-ass music that get me so hyped up. I just felt that it was so inappropriate for a horror game like this.
-Dialogues and sounds were basically the main tools in striking fear. Dialogues were written in a way that it was so direct and cruel, reading it and imagining is pure mindfucked!! Sounds were also meant the same way, sound of the scissors stabbing into the eyeball a couple of times. THE SOUND IS THERE!!!! Get fucked bros~
Multiple savefiles are available. Thank god for this feature!! Got a bad ending and wanting to save it?? You can. Wanting to reminisce those endings?? You can. Except when there are some chapters that have too many endings than savefiles, it is impossible to collect all endings.
Aftergame features. Well there are the 'extras', which you can collect them during playing through the story, getting certain specific endings or by other means. The 'extras' are several scenes that are not featured in the story, some are mini-games while some are just scenes. Replaying the story, making new decisions to unlock more bad endings can be done as well after the 1st playthrough. FOR THE BRAVE~
The bads!!
Poorly-made graphics. Remember that i said early that this game resembles pokemon? The graphics itself looks pretty dam similar to pokemon when it was still functioning in GAMEBOY ADVANCE or SP!! But still, it doesnt really matter as you will focusing more on the story itself rather than how 'beautiful' the game looks.
Clues/hints arent even helpful for most of the time. For those who played this game will probably know this. Most of the time, you will be spamming O on random walls/planks/windows etc. hoping that the thing you want to look for is there(this can be really irritating sometimes). Clues and hints basically gives bullshit directions and some dont even make sense. For example, '5 steps to right, 3 steps down'. IT IS NOT THERE!! And guess what, i am better off randomly pushing O than to rely on these clues.
Thats it for what i have to say for the game. Flaws arent really important as long as the game succeeded in performing its purpose right. Its purpose of scaring the hell out of the player, is pretty dam well done!!! Parts where you did really panic, i probably did shit my pants.
Story's pretty well-told and explained. Inputting fear into the player was well-managed. Bad endings never fails to intrigued me. Flaws can be forgiven or you can just convince yourself that the ghosts are just being playful. Everything would then be quite in place.
Have a nice day!