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I downloaded Corpse Party for the Sony PlayStation Portable to prepare myself for Halloween. Anything with gothic violence and cute anime girls wins in my book.
The Corpse Party narrative soon gripped me with more scares than many other horror games ever threw at me.
Corpse Party is an unusual indie throwback to old text-based horror games. It focuses more on the visceral horror setting rather than relying on intense action. The nasty deaths in the game shocked me with agonizing screams and detailed, bloody descriptions. Although the characters could literally talk for hours on end, I enjoyed every second of the experience.
The experience begins with an innocent nighttime party at a high school. A girl named Ayumi Shinozaki spends the evening telling scary stories to her friends. At the end of the soiree, Ayumi decides to give her friends a "Sachiko Ever After" charm.
According to Ayumi, everyone in the group has to repeat a chant a certain number of times, based on the number of people in the group. Then the members break off pieces of a paper doll so that they will remain friends forever. Of course, the chant doesn't work entirely as planned, and the students end up in a haunted elementary school.
This is only a warm-up for all the horrific violence to come. Corpse Party isn't afraid to scare people with some absolutely gruesome deaths. To make matters more frightening, the title has no option to skip the most painful voice and text dialogue in the game. It forces people to sit through every dismemberment as it takes place.
The last chapter of the game opens with a truly nerve-racking death sequence, involving bloody scissors and torturous murder. I've seen all sorts of grisly fictional deaths, but Corpse Party's sequences felt as painful as a meat grinder. The text dialogue literally describes every vivid detail of every incision, while juicy stabbing sounds pound through the PSP speakers.
Corpse Party is dependent on cutscenes and dense dialogue. The conversations extend for long periods like a visual novel. This game, however, feels more like a puzzle adventure. Sometimes the main characters have to hunt for hidden items. At other times, they have to run away from ghosts who want to kill them.
The combination blends seamlessly together for most of the time. I must have really missed playing these types of puzzle adventures because I literally spent hours on each chapter. I just wanted to see every sickening death. The title also packs in plenty of silly collectibles, such as student ID cards from dead corpses. Each card contains enticing information about how the student passed on.
At times, Corpse Party spends too much time building up the suspense. The last chapter's intro literally took more than half an hour to finish. The entire script is packed with plenty of intense thrills, though. Many deaths in the game scared me with only voice acting and text while the screen remained pitch black. Some of the most dramatic scenes focus on the first murder, which shocked the bejeezus out of me.
Corpse Party's true ending will probably disappoint anyone looking forward to a definite conclusion to the everlasting Sachiko curse. The whole situation already looked pretty grim for the nine students and the one teacher involved. The ending is still satisfying enough. And it sets players up perfectly for a sequel, which is coming out later this year.
Personally, this PSP gem is one of my favorite releases. It isn't for everyone, but it rewards patient people with an unforgettable, macabre tale for the ages.
How do other horror titles' methods of scaring differ from Corpse Party? Let me know in the comments.